Decided that I had digressed too much from the original purpose of the 'taking the plunge' thread in Q/A forum, as I have now purchased the lathe and am in the process of cleaning it up.
To everyone who answered my endless questions in that thread and PM's, I thank you greatly.
I will chronicle the cleaning up and putting together of my lathe here, and figured I would show the workbench I ended up with based on guidance from others.
The "shop" is being limited mostly to a one-car garage which has to share room with my girlfriend's 250cc scooter, and lots of random junk that we just don't have room for in the house. Presently everything is being limited to the single 8ft x 3ft workbench:
I had already begun cleaning the lathe a little a week ago, but Simple Green just wasn't cutting it, and I didn't want to spend the first year of ownership with tennis elbow from all the scrubbing. I got very little cleaned in that attempt, but I did at that point have the 3-jaw removed, and the gear case opened. I had cleaned some accessories as well.
Today I hung the light seen above, then cleaned up the workbench - amazing how Ive only had it for a week and it's so covered in junk already. Brought my laptop and Canon Rebel t1i dslr out with me, and set everything up for work.
The laptop was primarily to follow the minilathe 'getting started' walkthrough on mini-lathe.com, which uses the same lathe I purchased, and had some very good tips. Figured it wouldn't hurt to follow along while I worked.
There was not as much of the goop as I have seen in some pictures elsewhere, but still plenty to get through:
Switching to kerosene ($5.88 a quart at walmart), I doubled up the nitrile gloves and got to work. I started off by testing the kerosene on the ways, and found it cut RIGHT through the 'chicken fat'. The tailstock was removed so that I could move the carriage further, the turret was removed to gain a little more breathing room, and once the ways were clean enough to feel comfortable moving the carriage around, the leadscrew retaining bracket on the right end was removed so the carriage would come completely off. Notice also the control panel cover has been opened up to gain access to the other end of the leadscrew as well. Care is being taken to prevent the kerosene from splashing on the electronics, and if it's noticed on any plastic it is removed immediately.
The leadscrew proved to be a little more tedious to clean than I had hoped, the goop on it was not particularly thick, but well embedded in the threads.
I did not have a decently stiff brush that could flex all the way around the screw, so I disengaged the thread-cutting gears, and backed off the retaining screw for the gear directly attached to the leadscrew shaft, just enough to get it to slide past the gear that drives it. This let me turn the gear, and thus the leadscrew, with one hand while vigorously brushing with the other.
At this point I went to lunch, and came back to find that my overhead light would not turn back on. It pops angrily, flickering on briefly, then goes dark... and if I leave the switch on it tries to pop/flicker occasionally but refuses to come on and stay on. I suspect a bad bulb, and will take them out and inspect them tomorrow.
I had not realized until it stopped working how much difference that light was making - it was impossible to make out enough detail to ensure that I was getting all the gunk off of the parts without the light, and this was just shy of 11am, plenty bright outside, just not in the shop. At this point I called it quits, and here I am writing all about it.
This thread is serving me a few purposes - one it gives me practice in writing up a work-in-progress type post, two it lets those of you with more experience see what I'm doing, spot thing sin my pictures that might be questionable, and chime in to give me advice - ALL advice is welcome. Third, it might bring back some nostalgia for some of you that haven't had the opportunity to open up a new machine like this in a while ;D
Comments, suggestions, advice and warnings are all welcome at any time.
- Ryan
To everyone who answered my endless questions in that thread and PM's, I thank you greatly.
I will chronicle the cleaning up and putting together of my lathe here, and figured I would show the workbench I ended up with based on guidance from others.
The "shop" is being limited mostly to a one-car garage which has to share room with my girlfriend's 250cc scooter, and lots of random junk that we just don't have room for in the house. Presently everything is being limited to the single 8ft x 3ft workbench:
I had already begun cleaning the lathe a little a week ago, but Simple Green just wasn't cutting it, and I didn't want to spend the first year of ownership with tennis elbow from all the scrubbing. I got very little cleaned in that attempt, but I did at that point have the 3-jaw removed, and the gear case opened. I had cleaned some accessories as well.
Today I hung the light seen above, then cleaned up the workbench - amazing how Ive only had it for a week and it's so covered in junk already. Brought my laptop and Canon Rebel t1i dslr out with me, and set everything up for work.
The laptop was primarily to follow the minilathe 'getting started' walkthrough on mini-lathe.com, which uses the same lathe I purchased, and had some very good tips. Figured it wouldn't hurt to follow along while I worked.
There was not as much of the goop as I have seen in some pictures elsewhere, but still plenty to get through:
Switching to kerosene ($5.88 a quart at walmart), I doubled up the nitrile gloves and got to work. I started off by testing the kerosene on the ways, and found it cut RIGHT through the 'chicken fat'. The tailstock was removed so that I could move the carriage further, the turret was removed to gain a little more breathing room, and once the ways were clean enough to feel comfortable moving the carriage around, the leadscrew retaining bracket on the right end was removed so the carriage would come completely off. Notice also the control panel cover has been opened up to gain access to the other end of the leadscrew as well. Care is being taken to prevent the kerosene from splashing on the electronics, and if it's noticed on any plastic it is removed immediately.
The leadscrew proved to be a little more tedious to clean than I had hoped, the goop on it was not particularly thick, but well embedded in the threads.
I did not have a decently stiff brush that could flex all the way around the screw, so I disengaged the thread-cutting gears, and backed off the retaining screw for the gear directly attached to the leadscrew shaft, just enough to get it to slide past the gear that drives it. This let me turn the gear, and thus the leadscrew, with one hand while vigorously brushing with the other.
At this point I went to lunch, and came back to find that my overhead light would not turn back on. It pops angrily, flickering on briefly, then goes dark... and if I leave the switch on it tries to pop/flicker occasionally but refuses to come on and stay on. I suspect a bad bulb, and will take them out and inspect them tomorrow.
I had not realized until it stopped working how much difference that light was making - it was impossible to make out enough detail to ensure that I was getting all the gunk off of the parts without the light, and this was just shy of 11am, plenty bright outside, just not in the shop. At this point I called it quits, and here I am writing all about it.
This thread is serving me a few purposes - one it gives me practice in writing up a work-in-progress type post, two it lets those of you with more experience see what I'm doing, spot thing sin my pictures that might be questionable, and chime in to give me advice - ALL advice is welcome. Third, it might bring back some nostalgia for some of you that haven't had the opportunity to open up a new machine like this in a while ;D
Comments, suggestions, advice and warnings are all welcome at any time.
- Ryan
