building a base for my dad's lathe
 

Folks -

I've been working on a mobile base for my dad's Homecraft Delta Milwaukee
Rockwell 36" lathe, circa 1950ish. The headstock has indexing, which is a
nice feature.... My dad used it in patternmaking for microfilm camera
bodies.
I turned his cremation urn on it.

I'm going to clean the lathe up and polish the ways, but I am not going to
repaint it or anything. The bearings all still feel smooth and have oil
cups for lubrication. My dad had it set up with a 4 speed jackshaft and a
1/3 hp motor. I'll keep the motor for now and then bump up to something a
*little* larger.

Pop had the lathe mounted to a bench with the motor and jackshaft behind the
headstock. I don't have the luxury of that kind of room, so I am mounting
the powertrain more or less vertically. Getting everything set so that the
belts all tighten on rotation is taking some doing, but hasn't produced much
scrapwood...

I am going to set the lathe base up with casters for moving, other than that
it sits flat on a base. I'll set the tailstock column up as storage for
tools and may mount a disc on the outboard end of the headstock for a
*******ized version of "scary sharp" touch up for chisels.

Pics to follow you know where.


John Moorhead

building a base for my dad's lathe
 

Looking forward to the pics John. I recently picked up an old lathe that
looks like the description of your Dads.
An elderly fellow was having to sell all of his ww tools that had spinning
sharpie parts due to his eyesight failing. He was near tears as we loaded
the lathe into my truck.
I am looking forward to the pics, at abpw, I assume?
Regards,
ken

building a base for my dad's lathe
 

Do yourself a favor, if you're still able, and make sure you elevate the bed
on some blocks (1" big enough) so that you can get one of those crevice
tools underneath for cleanup. You can also do dust collection there
between the ways, but I prefer bottom and behind them.

"John Moorhead" wrote in message
m...
Folks -

I've been working on a mobile base for my dad's Homecraft Delta Milwaukee
Rockwell 36" lathe, circa 1950ish.

building a base for my dad's lathe
 

"John Moorhead" wrote in
m:

Folks -

I've been working on a mobile base for my dad's Homecraft Delta
Milwaukee Rockwell 36" lathe, circa 1950ish. The headstock has
indexing, which is a nice feature.... My dad used it in patternmaking
for microfilm camera bodies.
I turned his cremation urn on it.

I'm going to clean the lathe up and polish the ways, but I am not
going to repaint it or anything. The bearings all still feel smooth
and have oil cups for lubrication. My dad had it set up with a 4
speed jackshaft and a 1/3 hp motor. I'll keep the motor for now and
then bump up to something a *little* larger.

Pop had the lathe mounted to a bench with the motor and jackshaft
behind the headstock. I don't have the luxury of that kind of room,
so I am mounting the powertrain more or less vertically. Getting
everything set so that the belts all tighten on rotation is taking
some doing, but hasn't produced much scrapwood...

I am going to set the lathe base up with casters for moving, other
than that it sits flat on a base. I'll set the tailstock column up as
storage for tools and may mount a disc on the outboard end of the
headstock for a *******ized version of "scary sharp" touch up for
chisels.

Pics to follow you know where.


John Moorhead




Hi John;
ShopNotes #10 had a article on a heavy duty Lathe Stand and ShopNotes #67
had another article on a lathe stand for a Mini Lathe suitable for an
extended bed and designed to be portable...nice looking designs...don't
know wether you would be interested, just thought I'd mention it.

GJP