Small Potatoes -- Craftsman 109 up & running

[webbch]

This is really more of a mini-project, although I've been slowly working on it since last December. My only reference of using machine tools were Bridgeport & Excello (602) mills and Monarch 10EE and Hardinge HLVH lathes in the college shop I used to help supervise. I view it as being extremely spoiled and now I have to start at the bottom and work my way up.

I know everyone knocks the Craftsman 109 lathe as being small and nearly useless. However, it is my first and currently only machine tool that I own. It was free, so I spent the time and a little money to clean it up and get it running. Hopefully it'll grow and reproduce some much bigger brothers and sisters.

I finally got to use it after working on it on and off in my spare time. The journey was as, if not more important to me than the end result. Fired it up last night and tried to drill a hole, but it broke my drill bit. Found out the tailstock was 0.015" off-center (vertical) from the spindle. Fixed that and no other major problems (used my "crappy" co-ax indicator I've complained of in the past and it worked great here). The final picture was after I turned down an aluminum bar and drilled a hole in it. It doesn't do great work, but it's better than nothing. Still need to mount some dial indicators on the axes to keep track of my travels. I'm planning to mount one only on the Y-axis. I think "eyeballing it" on the X-axis will generally be close enough for this lathe's (and perhaps my own) capabilities.

Before:



After:


Chad

[G.A. Ewen]

Nice job on the restoration. If it works anything like the one that I had you will find that it does a better job when turning work between centers. It was pointless to try chuck work with the one that I had. Hopefully yours will be better.

[ibewgypsie]

Manuals for this lathe are online. It was a common lathe.

Mine turned too fast. I build a dual stepped pulley to reduce it and was much happier. I mounted a buffer on the arbor that ran the stepped pulleys. Built a lathe table from a piece of 4" channel iron.
Seems to be a 00 morse taper tailstock (darned memory). Most have a turned machine finish plate on the headstock. Babbit bearing headstock, threaded spindle.

I'll look to see if I can find the manual if you can't find one online.

This machine will work out better than any unimat. Worth every nickel of purchase price up to $500. You can repour the head if it has been neglected and not oiled.

I don't see why more people are not using them. I tried to buy my old one back. it was sitting out in the weather last I saw it, under the eave of a building. I had $200 in mine.

[webbch]

ibewgypsie,

I have the manual for the lathe already -- found it online also, but thanks for offering to get it for me. It helped a lot when putting the lathe back together ;-) I ordered the X-axis crank handle from Bill Hardin at http://www.homeshopsupply.com/ . That site was a great resource for parts and tips.

I now realize why the previous owner had the lathe sitting up on two blocks on either end; so he could reach under the lathe when something dropped down in the bed! I lost one of my chuck jaws down there for about a week. On the upside, the garage got a good cleaning :-)

I've been thinking of making a cover for the motor so that chips don't get into it. Maybe that'll be another project. I used two springs on the motor to keep tension on the drive belt. So far they seem to work fairly well, though I may go with stiffer ones sometime in the future.

Chad