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These lathes use double tapered hardened steel sleeve bearings that interact directly with corresponding tapers on the spindle. They're theoretically replaceable but practically next to impossible. They can be re-lapped to a certain degree if necessary. They are incredibly tough and long-lived, and require very excessive abuse over a long time to become noticeably worn. That lathe looks great, great price, and older is better overall when it comes to this type of machine.

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I agree with your remarks. Offhand I can't think if a more difficult thing to make, to get a taper to mate is almost trivial in comparison to getting the two tapers perfectly mated, and with very fine finish they have to have. There were lots of lathe makers so many figured it out; It would be great one day get a detailed account or discussion with someone who made these. There are just a lot of head scratching challenges to machining, grind and lapping that geometry for a perfect fit.. The good news is for probably the 1 1/2 dozen or so I've had apart I've only once seen this form of bearing in poor condition (a Schaublin 70 let run without oil. sad. Its on the shelf until I figure out how to remake the bearings). It was obvious turning it over by hand that there was a serious problem. These are hydrodynamic bearing and what happens is the shaft runs on a thin wedge of oil. There should never be metal to metal contact so they should last forever in theory, which based on the number of 100+ year old ones I've seen, they do. Good news indeed. Let them run out of oil though....shame on you. On that note, regarding care of them, remove the tension on the belt when not in use and before use, after oiling, turn the spindle over by hand a few times to make sure there is oil all around the bearing. Let it warm up at slow speeds for a bit (i usually ad oil at that point) rather than turning it on and going pedal to the metal With bearings in good shape I think that is an excellent deal. I just sold a Star like that. It also had the 5 step collets and motor and sold for $1100 Cdn. I believe that lathe is still offered about 10x that asking price

Well, after reading all your comments I thought let's try it, if I fail I just have to blame you. So here are some pictures and a new video at the bottom. Now somehow it got magnetized during the process (tested on a compass) so I'll make a short visit to a watchmaker around the corner. VIDEO: https://youtu.be/soTyUE6Yhqs

excessive clearance in the head stock (wobble) is the bigest problem in any lathe. if thats good -- go for it. vin

Looks complete. You will need a motor to run it. Check the lathe bed and make sure it is smooth with no marks in it. Ask what type of work has been undertaken. how old is it? Make sure the collets are in good shape and not strained, out of shape collets are no good. A fair price I would say.

I agree, shortcuts often turn out to be the long way of doing things. As the old adage goes, check it twice, fix it once, or to put it another way, you need to fully understand a problem before you can resolve it.

Guess I'm a little bit zealous sometimes, but found out the hard way it is just easier to bite the bullet and take the loooooong way and make it correct from the beginning.

Agreed. At some stage, you are going to have to bite the bullet and take a look at the spring, whether it is the old one, or the replacement. Besides it may be a simple fix, so you might not need to stump up for one or other or both of the barrel and/or the spring. I guess it could be simply that everything is so gummed up with old oil and dirt, that the spring simply isn't catching on the barrel. Alternatively, it might only take two minutes with a sharp file to fix the issue. Furthermore, in the extremely unlikely event that you do take an eye out with the spring, whats the problem? You can still see to type "I told you so" with the one remaining good one.

Nice photos. The only person I know who is famous is Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. I used to drink with him in a pub in Lyme Regis. That was before moving to Mid Devon. He’s a hell of a nice guy.

As the price indicates these usually comes with just the barrel drum and cover. The problem with buying complete parts to old movements is that you don't know when it was fabricated. Old non synthetic oils gets bad with time and it ends up you have to pop the cover sooner or later anyway.

All computers have a clock. And since it's usually a CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) with no real attempts to make it all that accurate, it usually isn't. The windows operating systems prior to W-10 have the ability to set the time and date as well as choose your time server. However, the frequency of syncing with the time server of your choice, is not a user defined value. Windows sets it by default at 1,036,800 seconds or, 1 week. Your CMOS clock is free to be totally inaccurate in between sync events. The only way to change this is to edit the registry on your computer. Not everyone cares to muddle around in the registry because bad things can happen if you muck it up. However, if you go to www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-clock/ you will find a very small applet that is free to download. It's only 891kb so it's quite painless. It adds the ability of a user, with administrator privileges, to easily set the sync time to a more useful pattern. It will also allow you to connect via the internet to the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Time) in the US and allow your computer to become in essence, a repeater for the Atomic Clock which has an accuracy of -1 second every 400 years. The file you will need is AtomicClockSync V3.5 and it adds absolutely nothing to your computer in the way of programs. It is merely an applet that edits your registry for you. I've tried it out and it is both virus free and correctly written. Further, you can save the applet on your computer. I placed mine in a folder aptly named, Atomic Clock, and set my sync value at 1 hour, or in my case, 3600 seconds. Now, anytime my computer is on and I'm connected to the internet, I'm automatically synchronizing with the NIST every hour and I know the correct time when I'm setting a watch or measuring accuracy. Should I feel the need, I can access my folder and relaunch the applet to change the sync frequency any time I choose. Cheers, Don

Really great [emoji6] Envoyé de mon Moto G (5) Plus en utilisant Tapatalk