Something followed me home!

[JoeLee]

I've saved worse.





Doc.

Doc, that's a nice restoration job. Did you have the bed ground or did you polish it up by hand?

JL............

[Tim Clarke]

Also for hauling it home so the tailstock is still there when you get there. I've run into a couple of people who lost the tailstocks by not locking them down while in transit.

Count me in on this one! My buddy bought a nice Hardinge HLVH clone. Neither one of us remembered to clamp the tailstock down. Luckily we decided to stop a few miles down the road and check the tiedowns. He was driving, the lathe was on a 2 axle trailer, and we pulled into a grocery store parking lot. Seeing a flash in the passenger mirror I said stop, and walked back to where the tailstock was laying on the driveway. It was scarred up, and the handwheel was broken, but at least we still had it!

[davidwdyer]

That's nice find. It looks cherry under the hood. How did you move it??

JL................

I was quite skeptical about the dirty lathe, but when I lifted the top my opinion changed.

The best lathes here are Nardini. Probably made in Italy. I never heard of this brand.

I junk dealer delivered it with something like this.

[davidwdyer]

I promised an update so here it is. The through hole on the spindle is a little over two inches. On the chuck side it seems to be 2 1/16th.

On the other side the "tube" is tapered and so it's a little hard to measure. The bed is one meter 76 cm or about five feet eight inches long.

We got it moved into the shop today. We picked it up with the backhoe and carried it a couple hundred yards. Fitting it into the door took the most time

but no one got hurt and it survived in one piece.

I did some more checking for wear and found the cross slide to be surprisingly tight. In contrast to this, the compound is quite worn. I think I'll have to make a new nut.

The nut that clamps onto the lead screw for threading is quite loose. That will have to be looked at. I think this was used by students who seem to have abused it some.

The bed is worn in a surprising way. It's doesn't just have wear near the chuck, but seems to extend for almost two and a half feet.

The spindle seems to have a bronze bushing. No roller bearings in sight.

My friends here has a retired cousin who has done a lot of scraping during his life as a machinist and may volunteer to scrape the ways.

Now we're on to painting to keep the rust away. Then we'll look at the various mechanical issues.

[mickeyf]

The bed is worn in a surprising way. It's doesn't just have wear near the chuck, but seems to extend for almost two and a half feet.

If the lathe was used in production for a particular operation for a long time that could effect the wear pattern. I have a lathe in my get-around-to-rebuilding-collection that was apparently used for just one thing. The lead screw looks like no one ever cut a thread, but the compound thread was no longer acme, but worn to the point of being a V thread, and the nut was nearly threadless.

[davidwdyer]

It almost looks like it was used frequently to cut very long threads. Long wear on the bed and crapped out nut on the lead screw nut. I find it funny that the lead screw looks brand new.

[wierdscience]

Im guessing that a Rapid Travel for Carriage to move it back quick after cut on those long pieces,a old Machinist in my area thought VDF Lathes were the best machines on the Planet.

I believe so, the literature on Tony's site mentions mechanical rapids.

[mickeyf]

I find it funny that the lead screw looks brand new.

Frequently the half nut is made from a softer material (bronze?) intentionally. If only by virtue of being smaller it should be cheaper to replace than the lead screw.

[Richard P Wilson]

Have a very close look at the half nuts before jumping to any conclusions about them needing replacement. A lot of years ago I bought an old lathe very cheaply because both the vendor and I thought the half nuts were stripped. When I got it home and took the nuts out, the threads were solid with dried compacted dirt and swarf, so they were nearly smooth and wouldn't grip the leadscrew at all. When I'd cleaned them out, they were virtually perfect.

[davidwdyer]

I believe so, the literature on Tony's site mentions mechanical rapids.

Yep. I think that's it. It's something I don't need though, so I'll just leave it off.

[davidwdyer]

Have a very close look at the half nuts before jumping to any conclusions about them needing replacement. A lot of years ago I bought an old lathe very cheaply because both the vendor and I thought the half nuts were stripped. When I got it home and took the nuts out, the threads were solid with dried compacted dirt and swarf, so they were nearly smooth and wouldn't grip the leadscrew at all. When I'd cleaned them out, they were virtually perfect.

Good advice. Will do.