Hi All,
This past summer, I posted some pics in the dropbox of a 10" Sheldon I
picked up via a coworker for pretty short money. The "before" pics are
in the dropbox:

Sheldon.txt
Sheldon1.jpg
sheldon2.jpg
Sheldon3.jpg
sheldon4_drive.jpg

I have been working on this machine on and off since I got it in May.
The paint was pretty bad, but overall the machine was in pretty decent
shape. It appears that it spent most of its life in a low use
ebnviroment. It was clearly never used as a make-10,000-of-this-one-part
type machine. It was last known to belong to a company in NJ that made
vacuum tubes, may have spent it's whole life there. The place closed
down in the early '70s, and the machine sat in a dry barn up unitl I got
it in May.

I have spent a fair amount of my free time going through this lathe,
taking stuff apart, cleaning and lubing and stripping paint and
re-painting. Boy do I hate stripping paint. Primed all of the stripped
stuff and painted over with 2 coats of "New Ford Grey" ceramic high-temp
engine enammel. This was not intended to be a museum quality
restoration. I am not generaly overly pickey about the paint on my
machines, but this was UGLY when I got it. So I figured that if I did
not do it now, I never would. I am pretty happy with the outcome.

I went through all of the bearings, etc. Nice machine. All of the
screws are tight with minimal backlash. No broken or missing gear
teeth,decent 3 jaw, 4 jaw,nothing important missing, no ridge on the
ways, etc. There is still some flaking visible on the lesser used areas
of the ways.

The motor that was in it was not original, but was a 1/2 HP, old and
had no reversing setup. I stumbled on a 2.5HP VFD for 50 bucks, so i put
my hands on a free 1.5HP 3phase motor and installed that in the lathe.
The 2.5hp VFD derates nicely for single-to-3phase conversion to near
1.5HP. As this lathe has the cast iron pedastal mount, it has a storage
compartment under the tailstock end that I made into an electrical
cabinet to mount the VFD, fuses, contactor and master power switch.
Worked out nicely, protects the VFD from debris and as I mounted it on
the inside of the door, it swings into plain view for wiring, testing,
programming changes and such.

I just got to get this machine into position and get it leveled and
wired into power this past week. I have only turned a few test parts
using the old lantern toolpost, but this is a nice running machine.
Smooth with little vibration, no funny noises. I can't wait to get a QC
toolpost fitted to this.

Thanks to all of you guys that sent me info and advice on this
machine. I can't wait to start using this thing.

I posted a few "after" pics in the dropbox:

Sheldon_AL1.jpg - overall shot from the headstock end

Sheldon_AL2.jpg - A bit closer view of the headstock end of the machine.

Sheldon_AL3.jpg - A shot of the Magnetek VFD that I mounted in the
tailstock end pedistal base.

Sheldon_AL4.jpg - Shot of the headstock, chuck and topslide.

Sheldon_AL5.jpg - Shot of the gear train that drives the QC box.

Sheldon_AL6.jpg - shot of the tailstock.

Sheldon_AL7.jpg - shot of the under-cabinte drive with the new 1.5HP, 3
phase motor.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and have a healthy, happy new year.

Al A.