I've finally got the lathe and mill powered up here in Texas. First
time for the mill, although I'm not quite ready to cut metal. The
lathe is an old Delta 11", the mill a Hardinge TM.

First project is fitting a new shaft and bushings for the idler pulley
in the lathe drive. There was .020" or so wear from previous owner
inattention due to relatively inaccessible oil cup. While I was at
it, I pulled the variable speed drive pulley and shaft apart. No wear
to speak of, but you can see the oiler without standing on your head.
That was good news.

Almost done with the new shaft and bushings, should be installed in
next day or so. Next will be an oiler adapter with o-ring to fit the
Hardinge oilers and lube it up before actually cutting metal. After
that it's fab a new X-axis lead screw, old one is junk.

I added a speed pot to the lathe controls, and set up the vfd for the
mill to work through the old gear shift controls. Cool, but reverted
to a pot for the speed control. Both center-off positions are in
series and either works as expected.

Feels good to be making swarf again.

Pete Keillor