Another update on the lathe.
I drilled out the bull gear safety cover in order to install a plastic bushing. This will allow me to tighten the screw that holds this cover in place, while providing a nice surface for the cover to swing on. And a cool side effect- because of the plastic, the tighter I make the screw the more the plastic will "bulge" allowing the tension on the cover to be adjusted. Kind of a cool mod, I think:
It seems paint prep is a never ending task on this project...
But I got a lot more of the parts painted:
I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet or not, but I replaced the bull gear guard as well. I have no idea if the guard that was on it was original or not. I can't find any pictures of early 40's South Bends with a cover like this. At any rate, I think it's super ugly! I just love the flowing curves of the vintage equipment, and so a more round cover was sourced. If anyone has any info on the original cover- specifically if it's actually original or not, I'd be very curious!
Next I turned my attention to the spindle since my new ceramic stones arrived last night. (Thanks for the tip, chevydyl!) Now, full disclosure, I've never done this before. I have no idea if I did it "right" or not, but I'm happy with the results. And let's be honest here- whatever I did to this was better than leaving it with the nasty gulled surface that was there. So... take it a little easy on me. I'm new to this!!!!
I stoned the high spots on the spindle with a "fine" square ceramic stone:
After that, I wasn't really all too happy with the surface finish left by the stone, so I mounted the spindle between centers on my wood lathe and polished the bearing surfaces with polishing compound. I am very happy with the surface finish now. No "major" abrasives were used, just the polishing compound. I could be wrong, but I think it would take a LONG time to remove even a tenth with just polishing compound and a paper towel:
The spindle cleaned up beautifully.
The cast bearing surface in the head was another story. I don't think it's even accurate to call the damage there "gulling" as it's more like deep scoring. It wasn't easy to stone this since it's an internal surface. I did use a fine, round ceramic stone which makes sense, but it was still hard to really get at it. Overall, it was a lot of work, but I do believe I got the scoring down to surface height. I slid a steel rule across the surface and it didn't catch anywhere. However, I can't polish this up like I did the spindle- I certainly have no way to spin the head like I could spin the spindle. I don't know if this surface finish is "good enough" or if it needs to be polished, or even if it's more along the lines of "don't even think about touching that surface, you idiot!" But again, remember, the scoring along that one band was pretty severe, and it would have only gotten worse without some kind of intervention. I took care of that with the stone. But now what? I'm thinking that maybe one of those headlight polishing kits with the foam "puff" ball might work connected to a cordless drill with some polishing compound. Is that a stupid idea? Or a smart one??
This one is 3" in diameter which would be about perfect:
Here's the head after stoning:
I wanted to put the spindle in the lathe head tonight, but I realized I don't have the proper grease nor the grease zerk for the cone pulley. I just ordered the zerk and it will get here on the 28th. I did have a question about the grease though. Please check this thread if you've actually read this far...
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/super-lube-for-lathe-cone-pulley.44898/