Oops, bought a lathe.

[mbwatch]

I have finished setting up my lathe!

It took a lot more effort than I hand planned to get it running. It turned out that the rear bearing was seized together, and the bearing part that was supposed to be attached to the headstock frame was spinning freely (and surprisingly smoothly). Once everything was cleaned up, I refit the bearing to the headstock with Loctite sleeve retainer (nickelsilver's suggestion) and then found that the rear bearing was still capable of locking up completely on rotation, needing to be tapped on the outside with a brass hammer to jolt it free (caseback's suggestion).

To make the bearings run smoothly, I lapped them with green Timesaver Lapping Compound, hand turning until both bearings were nicely refinished and turn without obstruction (again, nickelsilver's suggestion). This was all a lot more information about machining than I expected to be confronted with so soon.

I didn't like the aluminum Borel base it arrived with since it was a poor fit to the short 10in bed, and so I mounted everything to a hardwood cutting board. For that, I had to wait a few weeks until a pedestal base turned up in a random lot of clockmaker tools on ebay. It is harder than it should be to procure a long M8x1.0 bolt in the USA where we still like our inches but that just arrived today so I could finally finish assembly.

The cheap sewing machine motor is fixed to wood blocks and damped with a soft rubber pad. It came with a foot pedal that was janky as hell and I didn't want to use, so I am instead running it with a voltage regulator. I know at some point I will probably need a solution for more torque but this is a start.

I just got the belt in place and spun it up for the first time tonight. It works great and I am very happy with the results. Much gratitude for the patient help I received from @nickelsilver, @caseback, and @Dell over in my other headstock setup thread. They all worked through explaining to me how things should work and discovering what was out of sorts as I got the headstock to turn.

So thanks again everyone - now I'll have to start turning some stock and you can look forward to more silly novice questions as I do. I'm beginning to collect collets. And I am bothered by how shiny the pedestal is compared to the underside of the bed, so I may eventually give in and take a buff to that. The circle of space where the bed has always been in contact with a base is still shiny so I can assume the whole thing had a polish in the past.

Finished job photos:

[Knebo]

7 hours ago, mbwatch said:

I have finished setting up my lathe!

It took a lot more effort than I hand planned to get it running. It turned out that the rear bearing was seized together, and the bearing part that was supposed to be attached to the headstock frame was spinning freely (and surprisingly smoothly). Once everything was cleaned up, I refit the bearing to the headstock with Loctite sleeve retainer (nickelsilver's suggestion) and then found that the rear bearing was still capable of locking up completely on rotation, needing to be tapped on the outside with a brass hammer to jolt it free (caseback's suggestion).

To make the bearings run smoothly, I lapped them with green Timesaver Lapping Compound, hand turning until both bearings were nicely refinished and turn without obstruction (again, nickelsilver's suggestion). This was all a lot more information about machining than I expected to be confronted with so soon.

I didn't like the aluminum Borel base it arrived with since it was a poor fit to the short 10in bed, and so I mounted everything to a hardwood cutting board. For that, I had to wait a few weeks until a pedestal base turned up in a random lot of clockmaker tools on ebay. It is harder than it should be to procure a long M8x1.0 bolt in the USA where we still like our inches but that just arrived today so I could finally finish assembly.

The cheap sewing machine motor is fixed to wood blocks and damped with a soft rubber pad. It came with a foot pedal that was janky as hell and I didn't want to use, so I am instead running it with a voltage regulator. I know at some point I will probably need a solution for more torque but this is a start.

I just got the belt in place and spun it up for the first time tonight. It works great and I am very happy with the results. Much gratitude for the patient help I received from @nickelsilver, @caseback, and @Dell over in my other headstock setup thread. They all worked through explaining to me how things should work and discovering what was out of sorts as I got the headstock to turn.

So thanks again everyone - now I'll have to start turning some stock and you can look forward to more silly novice questions as I do. I'm beginning to collect collets. And I am bothered by how shiny the pedestal is compared to the underside of the bed, so I may eventually give in and take a buff to that. The circle of space where the bed has always been in contact with a base is still shiny so I can assume the whole thing had a polish in the past.

Finished job photos:

Congratulations!

I'm jealous. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

8 hours ago, mbwatch said:

I have finished setting up my lathe!

It took a lot more effort than I hand planned to get it running. It turned out that the rear bearing was seized together, and the bearing part that was supposed to be attached to the headstock frame was spinning freely (and surprisingly smoothly). Once everything was cleaned up, I refit the bearing to the headstock with Loctite sleeve retainer (nickelsilver's suggestion) and then found that the rear bearing was still capable of locking up completely on rotation, needing to be tapped on the outside with a brass hammer to jolt it free (caseback's suggestion).

To make the bearings run smoothly, I lapped them with green Timesaver Lapping Compound, hand turning until both bearings were nicely refinished and turn without obstruction (again, nickelsilver's suggestion). This was all a lot more information about machining than I expected to be confronted with so soon.

I didn't like the aluminum Borel base it arrived with since it was a poor fit to the short 10in bed, and so I mounted everything to a hardwood cutting board. For that, I had to wait a few weeks until a pedestal base turned up in a random lot of clockmaker tools on ebay. It is harder than it should be to procure a long M8x1.0 bolt in the USA where we still like our inches but that just arrived today so I could finally finish assembly.

The cheap sewing machine motor is fixed to wood blocks and damped with a soft rubber pad. It came with a foot pedal that was janky as hell and I didn't want to use, so I am instead running it with a voltage regulator. I know at some point I will probably need a solution for more torque but this is a start.

I just got the belt in place and spun it up for the first time tonight. It works great and I am very happy with the results. Much gratitude for the patient help I received from @nickelsilver, @caseback, and @Dell over in my other headstock setup thread. They all worked through explaining to me how things should work and discovering what was out of sorts as I got the headstock to turn.

So thanks again everyone - now I'll have to start turning some stock and you can look forward to more silly novice questions as I do. I'm beginning to collect collets. And I am bothered by how shiny the pedestal is compared to the underside of the bed, so I may eventually give in and take a buff to that. The circle of space where the bed has always been in contact with a base is still shiny so I can assume the whole thing had a polish in the past.

Finished job photos:

Great work Michael...it looks fantastic , I have the same issue with my foot pedal, inconsistent with the voltage it will supply. I also have that same power regulator, and hadn't thought to use it on the motor .

[nickelsilver]

Looks great!

 

I love that the American makers made tip-over T-rests the norm way back when most European makers still had fixed rests. I flip the rest back countless times on any given part, not having that feature would make turning miserable.

[mbwatch]

1 hour ago, nickelsilver said:

I love that the American makers made tip-over T-rests the norm way back when most European makers still had fixed rests.

I've been reading Ward Goodrich's 1902 book The Watchmaker's Lathe: Its use and abuse and he can't get through a chapter without commenting how European watchmakers had fine trade mastery but crappy tooling and so the less trained Americans ran circles around them with superior tools. And American shop foremen had to put up with skilled but slow Europeans until they could be convinced to give up their old school ways and adopt American tools. Over and over he describes this.

[nickelsilver]

Over here the absolute most looked for lathe by most serious watchmakers is the Schaublin 70. It has 20mm more spindle height than a WW "8mm" lathe, takes larger collets (12mm, W-12), and is sort of a bridge between a watchmaker lathe and larger ones like a Schaublin 102. I had one for a short while a quarter century ago, but for me it's too big for fine work, and too small for larger work- so I was happy with my WW lathe and 102, got rid of the 70.

 

Anyway- over the years, looking for tooling, I came across a couple of tip-over rests for the 70. I had never seen one, and figured it was a cool find and I'd find a home for them. OH MY GOD- everyone I knew with a 70 was fighting over them. I ended up trading one for some other tooling to one friend, kept the other for some years and ended up giving it to another friend. They weren't made by Schaublin; there used to be several companies making various accessories for Schaublin stuff- but I cannot understand why Schaublin never made one for these lathes. There must be thousands of 70s in use out there.

[Dell]

13 hours ago, mbwatch said:

The cheap sewing machine motor is fixed to wood blocks and damped with a soft rubber pad. It came with a foot pedal that was janky as hell and I didn't want to use, so I am instead running it with a voltage regulator. I know at some point I will probably need a solution for more torque but this is a start.

I use a Jack industrial sewing machine motor to run my Pultra although I converted it to a potentiometer they are brilliant the torque is excellent even at slow speed, I know everyone said to use a graver you need speed but if you look at any of my videos on YouTube where I am using a graver you will see I never run it fast .

as nickelsilver said the tip over tool rest is the rest to have because when turning you need to measure regularly & if you don’t have a flip over it’s a job to get callipers in and impossible to get a Mike in , I have made a few for friends because they seem to command silly prices.

https://www.tysew.co.uk/jack-jk-513a-550w-3-4hp-energy-saving-servo-motor?language=en&currency=GBP&gQT=1

[mbwatch]

@Dell your photo here of the pivot drill guide thing just helped me understand that the entire tool rest assembly isn't only used for hand tools, but serves as a post for other attachments. I don't know what I hadn't realized this yet.

[SwissSeiko]

2 hours ago, Dell said:

I use a Jack industrial sewing machine motor to run my Pultra although I converted it to a potentiometer they are brilliant the torque is excellent even at slow speed, I know everyone said to use a graver you need speed but if you look at any of my videos on YouTube where I am using a graver you will see I never run it fast .

I also have this motor on my larger Taig lathe. Plenty of torque and power for that machine. I removed the foot pedal switch and installed a toggle switch. Ive never taken it past 1400 RPMs but I think it'll go much much faster. I also slow it way down for lapping. A great motor. But for the watchmaker lathe, I need a foot pedal

[Dell]

I can’t use a foot pedal because my leg shakes so it’s like I am revving the lathe up, I prefer to set the speed and know it’s stable.