Thread: Dalton Lathes
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Jim Wilkins[_2_] Jim Wilkins[_2_] is offline
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Default Dalton Lathes

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I just un packed my fathers dalton lathe after 11 years in storage.
All cleaned up . A few minor repairs. I have tones of tooling with it
.. And gear sets etc.
9x3 . Where is the serial number normally located?
Also I need instruction about how to use the gears etc and thread
cut.

It has two drives. One threaded , one slotted. There is a thread
counter/ index my father made. As a kid I remember using this lathe
and cutting threads using the counter. But I can't remember enough...
are manuals available?

=========================

In general, if the spindle and leadscrew are geared together 1:1 the
lathe cuts the same pitch as the leadscrew. For other pitches you need
gear ratios the same as the pitch ratios. For example to cut 16 TPI
with an 8 TPI leadscrew the leadscrew has to be reduced to 1/2 of
spindle speed. Gears can't have too few teeth, so the gear for 13 TPI
has 13 * 4 = 54 teeth and would be matched with 8 * 4 = 32 teeth.

A spreadsheet can be useful if you are reconstructing the gear train
ratios.

The thread counter dial on my South Bend allows disengaging the half
nuts to move the carriage quickly back to the thread start, without
stopping the lathe. It's not really necessary, you can back out the
bit and reverse the lathe instead.

The 1942 edition of "How to Run a Lathe" may be better than newer
editions for a lathe from the 1920's: My 1965 South Bend preserves
many relics of that age such as the option for overhead leather belt
drive.