Progress On My Carriage

[Chuck K]

As usual I'm getting carried away on this lathe. After cleaning all the parts on the carriage I started fitting them back together to check for wear. The half nuts just needed adjusting and they were good to go. The lever that engages the cross feed had some slop in it. Probably not a big deal as it wouldn't affect the operation of the machine....but I like to tight controls. I clamped the bracket on the mill table, located the hole with a 1/2 drill blank (sloppy but close enough) and bored it out to 5/8. Pressed a bushing in and reamed it. Nice tight fit. I replaced the bushings in the feed gears. That left the carriage handwheel shaft. The bore in the apron housing was wallowed out to 0.701. The shaft is 11/16. I mounted the shaft in the lathe and turned it down to 0.626 and the polished it down to 0.625. Tomorrow I'll bore the hole in the housing to 0.750, press a bushing in it and the apron is ready for paint.

 

[Richard King]

Looks Great You get a A++.....Please keep it up and send ore pictures. Thanks )

 

[Chuck K]

I finished the repair on the carriage today. I bored the hole in the apron to 0.749 for a tight fit on the bushings. Rather than putting one long bushing in and drilling a hole for the oiler, I pressed one from each side and left about 0.100 gap between them below the oiler. Reamed the bushing for a nice tight fit. I finished prepping all the parts that needed paint and brushed a light first coat on them. I don't know if you can really tell what color it is in the pic, but I think it came pretty close to the original paint. For some reason unknown to me one of the previous owners decided to mill the sides and end of the compound slide, as well as drill two holes in the top. He must have used a really dull end mill. Next up is the tailstock. I've taken it apart and scraped 3 coats of paint off it. It has some minor issues that will be easy to fix. Here's some pics of the carriage parts:

 

[Buickgsman]

Wow Chuck, that looks fantastic! I do like the color. I'm debating on what color to paint mine. I was thinking of a grey but maybe adding some green to it.. but then again that green is sweet! Question- It looks like your handwheels are rounded on the outer wheel area. Mine are squared off. Whats your serial # or do you know the date of manufacture?

 

[Tamper84]

I like that color!! Do you mind saying what color/ manufactuer you are using? I can't tell from my phone, but how are the results with brushing on the paint?

thanks,
Chris

 

[Chuck K]

Wow Chuck, that looks fantastic! I do like the color. I'm debating on what color to paint mine. I was thinking of a grey but maybe adding some green to it.. but then again that green is sweet! Question- It looks like your handwheels are rounded on the outer wheel area. Mine are squared off. Whats your serial # or do you know the date of manufacture?[/QUOTE

I don't remember the serial# right of hand, but I know it starts with 401. I think it was made somewhere around 62. I was going to use rustoleum smoke gray but I'm tired of painting machines gray. I found some original paint on the inside of a pedestal cover and had it matched. I had them lean more to the gray side than green. I think its going to look nice.

 

[Chuck K]

Chris, I had the paint matched at the local Ace hardware. It's just their Rust Stopper house brand....basically rustoleum. As far as brushing, I'm sure it'll look fine on the cast pieces. The problem I have is the bigger stuff like the pedestals. I've taken the time on other machines to mask them and shoot them with high dollar paint. Theirs a point of diminishing returns. Yes they look nice when you spray them, but if you take your time brushing it, it looks pretty good too. I just painted a leblond with rustoleum. It was the first time I brushed a machine and I was really impressed with the way it flowed out. You really couldn't tell it was brushed unless you looked real close. This is the first time I've tried the ace brand. I think I'm going to thin it out a little when I brush the second coat on. Here's a pic of the Leblond:

 

[Chuck K]

Wow Chuck, that looks fantastic! I do like the color. I'm debating on what color to paint mine. I was thinking of a grey but maybe adding some green to it.. but then again that green is sweet! Question- It looks like your handwheels are rounded on the outer wheel area. Mine are squared off. Whats your serial # or do you know the date of manufacture?

Bob, The serial # is 401732

 

[Chuck K]

Worked on the pedestals and chip pan tonight. Degreased, scraped, sanded, washed, and blown dry. Ready for paint. I'm going to try thinning the paint before I brush these pieces. The cross slide and apron looks brushed if you look real close. At this point I wouldn't give the ace paint real high marks for brushing. It might spray well...I don't know. I've used Benny-Moore urethane alkyd in the past and it flowed out great when you sprayed it, but it didn't brush as well as rustoleum.

 

[Buickgsman]

Wow Chuck, you don't mess around. Jump right in eh! Did you use chemical stripper on those parts or mostly sanding and scraping? Looking good!

Bob