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The beauty of this little EW lathe is that the two headstock bearings are individually clamped to the bed. It's also a handy size, having a 19.5" bed.
I'd bought a tiny one of E-bay a while back, but it was too small. However it taught me a bit about lathes and I sold it for a small profit which went towards the re-furb' of this one.
This allowed me to send off the spindle and front bearing for reconditioning. (Before and after shot below).
The housing was bored out 0.01" oversize. The spindle turned down to remove the galling and then built up by a metal spraying process and ground to fit.
The company went out their way to help me out as a private individual, doing it at a very reasonable £110 (the lathe only cost £86!).
The spindle felt a whisker firm in the bearing, the pinch screw was barely even nipped up, but when completely loosened it spun freely.
I then met a few minor problems. They had built up too much length on the spindle and I couldn't get the V pulley block all the way along the shaft.
It took a while for the fix to spring to mind, but again it shows the versatility of having moveable bearing blocks.
I mounted the spindle in it's bearing block pointing the other way and further along the bed! This allowed me to turn it by hand, I put the chuck on and rotated this by hand whilst bringing up the tool to slowly turn off the excess.
The next problem was when it was all built up with both bearings.
There was a slight tight spot, I fiddled around slackening of the clamps , gently tapping it with a wooden mallet to see if it would settle or align itself. I applied plenty of oil and rotated it using a length of rubber strapping diablo fashion, but no the tight spot wouldn't go .
With some trepidation I dug out my old tin of valve grinding compound and applied a little of the fine paste to the front bearing with plenty of oil. It was soon lapped in nicely .
I dismantled it and spent plenty of time cleaning it all out with detergent and hot water followed by white spirit. I reassembled, oiled it and it spun beautifully, a good flick of the chuck and it would run on for a couple of seconds. I took it down and cleaned it again for good measure and the re-built.
The back gear arrangement had me foxed for ages until the penny dropped. I was confusing it with the train of change wheels used to drive the leadscrew for thread turning etc.
I couldn't figure out what it was for... it was impossible to have 4 gears all locked to their shaft and yet still rotate!Then I read on one of the engineering forums and I finally got it.
The grubscrew (drive peg) which fixes the V pulley block to the spindle is slackened off and the little lay shaft with its two cogs is lowered to mesh. The drive then goes from the belt to the V pulley, to the cog which is keyed into it's left face, up to the little lay shaft (stepping down) then back to the big cog which is locked to the spindle (again stepping down) to drive the spindle and chuck.
I expect you all knew that and are sniggering by now .
It will give V low speeds which will be handy if I manage to fine change-wheels etc to finish the re-furb.
I expect you've noticed the missing teeth on the cogs, that's all for another day.
For now I have a working lathe... woo hoo
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Re: Del's Lathe Refurb'
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