On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:56:00 -0500, Pete Keillor
wrote:

The tailstock on my lathe was getting loose, so I decided to pull it
apart. I've been working on one of Andy Lofquist's casting kits, the
filing machine. Anyway, took it apart, placed the phenolic thrust
washer on the tailstock base, cleaned stuff up. Couldn't find the
washer. Not anywhere. Damn! I guess the quantum effect of small
parts tunneling to Floyd's Knob, Indiana is true.

I had some bronze bushing stock for the filing machine, so I made a
new washer, twice as thick to allow for previous wear. Was putting
things back together after washing out the bore, and that damn
phenolic washer appeared out of nowhere and fell in the base casting
where I had looked with a flashlight a dozen times trying to find it.

I guess that quantum tunneling thing works both ways. The upside is I
got rid of most of the play in the tailstock ram.

Pete Keillor
Greetings Pete,
I bought and built one of those filing machines. I did make some mods
though. One was putting an oil groove in the bronze bushing for the
drive shaft. Inside the machine I extended the bushing so that oil
would rain down on it. On the top of the bushing I made a conical hole
that intersects the oil groove. So oil lands in the hole and provides
plenty of oil for the drive shaft. I made the sliding block in the
Scotch yoke out of aluminum nickel bronze. The machine works very
well, is very quiet, and I can back drive it by grasping the file and
pushing and pulling on it. Scotch yokes aren't really made to back
driven so the friction in my machine must be pretty low.
Eric