Restoring (hopefully) my new Smart and Brown SAB

Looks great! :encourage:

I also liked the green color, but it was just that the lathe needed a complete paint job to look uniform.

Thanks, I think so :)

The green was a little to dull for my liking and I just couldn’t see it being right for this lathe. I might paint my Mill the green colour though. Not sure why, but I think it’ll suit the mill


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I think the color is great. I'd take off the base bolts one by one and wire wheel them though. Dave

Thanks Dave. I was thinking of maybe painting them black? It needs something to break up the grey that’s for sure. I’ll wire wheel them first and see how it goes. I’ve seen people paint the inside of the apron wheel and tail stock wheel black when doing a grey lathe, and I like the look of it that. I may do that at a later time as well.


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Maybe someday I’ll get to go to a lathe show like the car shows I used to attend when I owned my Triumph TR4.

We had a saying then when folks started talking about colors or what was period correct.

“It’s your car, do whatever you like”

My vote is for whatever paint helps you make accurate parts quickly. I do like the grey but if you liked the green better that would be fine too. I repaint tools which have been severely neglected, and do clean up those which I’m not going to tear down all the way, but mostly I focus on functionality.

Your Smart & Brown is looking very smart indeed, can’t wait to see the first chips:)


Cheers,

John
 
Maybe someday I’ll get to go to a lathe show like the car shows I used to attend when I owned my Triumph TR4.

We had a saying then when folks started talking about colors or what was period correct.

“It’s your car, do whatever you like”

My vote is for whatever paint helps you make accurate parts quickly. I do like the grey but if you liked the green better that would be fine too. I repaint tools which have been severely neglected, and do clean up those which I’m not going to tear down all the way, but mostly I focus on functionality.

Your Smart & Brown is looking very smart indeed, can’t wait to see the first chips:)


Cheers,

John

I think the paint would need to be magic for me to be able to make accurate parts (I’ll get there some day)

I’m hoping this lathe will last me several years, so wanted it to be right when I see it as I walk in to the workshop. I’m certainly not a perfectionist when it comes to aesthetics on things like this, but it needs to be presentable otherwise it would bother me.


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Progress has been made! Sorry, not too many mid project photos, but here is how it stands now:

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I’m pretty happy with how it is now. In terms of cleaning up and painting, it’s done.

The things that are left to do:

- Make a new cam/lever for the pulley assembly.
- make a carriage lock
- reassemble and figure out how to use the burnurd QCTP
- Fit my AXA tool post
- make the closing piece that goes over the spindle (what’s the name for this?) that’s missing for using the collets.
- Electronic lead screw

I’ve taken a bit of a break to get my new Mill up and running and want to finish that off so I’ve got two usable machines. Once that’s done, I’ll get to the list above.


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Right, I finally got around to having a play with the lathe tonight and started looking at tool posts.

When I had a Warco lathe I bought an OXA 250-000 tool post and it turned out to be too small for the lathe, so I bought a larger 250-100. The 250-100 went when I sold the Warco, but I still have tbe 250-000. I’d forgotten how small it was!

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Even at the highest point, the tool is below centre of the work. This won’t work!

Fortunately the Smart and Brown came with two tool posts. Firstly, a tool post that seems to hold 20mm tooling (which feels big for this lathe?):

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This is nice, but obviously requires shims and isn’t quick change.

The other tool post is one I’ve not seen before (and based on some Googling is pretty rare), a Burnerd Tool Post Type 2:

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I tried this out tonight and really like it. I’ve got a bunch of holders for it, it fits well and is nice to use.

I also got a load of HSS tooling with the lathe:

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I’ve only ever used insert tooling before and have never used or ground HSS. Given the amount of HSS I have now and the Burnerd tool holders needing HSS, I better get learning about grinding HSS!! I’ve watched a bunch of YouTube videos on it, but it still scares me!

I’d still like a more modern (not fussed which one) QCTP as I’ve a load of HSS tooling here to use that would fit. I’ll be on the look out for a cheap QCTP but am very happy with the Burnerd for now.


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I also bought a cheap Tachometer from Amazon and tested out the speeds on the lathe matched what they were advertised to be. I wouldn’t have bothered doing this (I’ve no reason to believe the RPM stated on the data plate is wrong), but I needed the tach for my new Mill which has no data plate to state the speeds and as I appear to be the only person who owns one of these mills, I’ve no way to Google to find out :)


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Thinking about this tool post, I could just make a riser block for it to get the tools at centre height. What real world difference would I see by getting a larger QCTP that took larger tooling? This holds 8mm tooling. Given I’m a beginner hobbyist and won’t be taking large cuts (if I wanted to, I’d put the other 20mm tool post on), is this tool post enough for my needs?

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I tried aligning my tail stock today, and before I got too far noticed something was out:

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The height is different.

I initially thought it might be the chuck or jaws or something being out, but rotating the chuck doesn’t change the height of the centre (I.e the height is still mismatched). I’m now wondering if I’ve missed something in reassembling the tail stock or if there’s a height adjustment I’ve missed somewhere?


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I tried aligning my tail stock today, and before I got too far noticed something was out:

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The height is different.

I initially thought it might be the chuck or jaws or something being out, but rotating the chuck doesn’t change the height of the centre (I.e the height is still mismatched). I’m now wondering if I’ve missed something in reassembling the tail stock or if there’s a height adjustment I’ve missed somewhere?


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Typically the tailstock is slightly higher than the headstock to allow for some wear. There are no height adjustments in most lathes. Only way to adjust the height downward is to machine the tailstock which is doable but tricky to get right. My mini-lathe is similarly high. My 10x22 is closer to the correct height.

In most cases, the best you can do is to adjust the horizontal offset to zero and live with it. But us being tinkerers we should be able to machine it to get it right. The risk is adding more error than before. We want to reduce height only but not to add yaw or pitch over the full travel of the quill. It's not that easy since you want the tailstock assembly to be true, but you can't assume that the individual pieces are true at all. My mini-lathe tailstock base is not parallel to the ways but the assembly seems ok, save for height. I may try to fix it, since I can get replacement parts if mess it up too much. Not sure about your lathe.
 
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