Let me introduce myself. I am Sam and I live in Lower Alabama (LA). I have been lurking in the shadows for a while and have read as many of the posts that I could. I have learned so much and am awestruck by the craftsmanship, complexity and creative ways that various machining operations are accomplished.
Recently, I acquired a 15 year old Shop Task Lathe/Mill. I am the 3rd or 4th owner. The machine was in pretty sorry shape when it arrived. One of the previous owners started to replace the Lathes AC motor with a DC Motor with a solid state variable speed drive. I scoured the web and found a wiring diagram and completed the installation. The Mills AC motor had a blown capacitor and the centrifugal switch was stuck.
Mechanically, what a mess. The gear drives were binding up, the spindle was wobbly, the tail stock was stuck and the cross head was bound up in both the x and y axis. I disassembled the majority of the machine and cleaned everything up and painted it. I draw filed all of the gibbs and wet sanded them smooth and flat. The lead screw was bent where the drive gear attached. I was able to straighten it. Various fasteners were broken or the threads were striped. I still need to replace the spindle bearings, they sound rough, and would like to replace the bushings on the lead and cross-slide screws with bearings.
Yesterday, I finally made some chips. I faced and center drilled a piece of CS round stock and put it in between centers. My goal was to align the tail stock and head stock centers. I made a cleanup cut along the length and found that it had a .020 taper over 10 inches. The best I could correct to was 0.0015 with 0.003 run out.
Today I decided that I was going to replace the missing knobs on various levers. Seemed like a simple enough task. I knew what I wanted and had a piece of brass to use. I mentioned earlier that the lathe came with some tooling. There were a few ½ , 5/16 and 3/8 tool bits along with a cutoff tool holder. None of the tools when placed it the holder were at the correct elevation. I ended up putting together different shims to use with each of the tools. I do believe that I will be purchasing a quick change tool holder after Christmas if Santa doesn't bring me one. The internal thread was 6 x 1.0 and of course all of my drills are inch sizes. When I looked up the tap drill size I misread the chart and drilled the first one to large. It took me most of the day, but I did finish 5 of them. When I finish repair my machine I plan to try and build some engines.
Thanks for listening.
Recently, I acquired a 15 year old Shop Task Lathe/Mill. I am the 3rd or 4th owner. The machine was in pretty sorry shape when it arrived. One of the previous owners started to replace the Lathes AC motor with a DC Motor with a solid state variable speed drive. I scoured the web and found a wiring diagram and completed the installation. The Mills AC motor had a blown capacitor and the centrifugal switch was stuck.
Mechanically, what a mess. The gear drives were binding up, the spindle was wobbly, the tail stock was stuck and the cross head was bound up in both the x and y axis. I disassembled the majority of the machine and cleaned everything up and painted it. I draw filed all of the gibbs and wet sanded them smooth and flat. The lead screw was bent where the drive gear attached. I was able to straighten it. Various fasteners were broken or the threads were striped. I still need to replace the spindle bearings, they sound rough, and would like to replace the bushings on the lead and cross-slide screws with bearings.
Yesterday, I finally made some chips. I faced and center drilled a piece of CS round stock and put it in between centers. My goal was to align the tail stock and head stock centers. I made a cleanup cut along the length and found that it had a .020 taper over 10 inches. The best I could correct to was 0.0015 with 0.003 run out.
Today I decided that I was going to replace the missing knobs on various levers. Seemed like a simple enough task. I knew what I wanted and had a piece of brass to use. I mentioned earlier that the lathe came with some tooling. There were a few ½ , 5/16 and 3/8 tool bits along with a cutoff tool holder. None of the tools when placed it the holder were at the correct elevation. I ended up putting together different shims to use with each of the tools. I do believe that I will be purchasing a quick change tool holder after Christmas if Santa doesn't bring me one. The internal thread was 6 x 1.0 and of course all of my drills are inch sizes. When I looked up the tap drill size I misread the chart and drilled the first one to large. It took me most of the day, but I did finish 5 of them. When I finish repair my machine I plan to try and build some engines.
Thanks for listening.
