To begin with Flather has new digs. I simply could not forsee trying to work on him in the tractor shed again in the winter; not a lot gets done. It was a 3 day effort to get him from the tractor shed down to the shop, about 40 yards. First problem was to slide the massive planer, which was tilted and only half on a roller, back into the shed far enough to pull Flather out. Took a couple of hours but between Pat, Don, crowbar and Chuckles we managed. Flather had been left on pipes under long 2x10's, so I was able to roll him out onto the grass, then it got tricky. We were managing about a foot an hour when I decided to refresh
my memory and see just why I thought Chuckles could not pick Flather up; two wheels in the air made it clear to me. My next thought was to cut the weight down. I unbolted the lathe from its leg and tray assembly. Chuckles could pick the lathe up, but one rear wheel was up in the air, proving the lathe alone weighs over half a ton. With me in the seat way over to the side and Pat riding the three point hitch we got the tire down enough to drive to the shop. While I had it all apart I decided I might as well do what I had intended not to, so I scraped, scrubbed, sanded, etc. the whole botton and painted it. Would have been silly not to. Getting the lathe back up onto the tray inside the shop was another trial. Big problem was finding the center of gravity with my nylon straps so I could get the lathe up evenly.
Wasn't sure what to tackle next, but the fact that this entire case around the gears was loose and wouldn't come off had been worrying me for months. Problem is that when I put a socket to the nut, red dot, and give it a spin gears turn. There is enough thread showing to assure me it is right hand. When I spin it ccw the two gears around the yellow dot come together. I slid a thin piece of oak in there and got it firmly wedged and gave the breaker bar a hard tap and it came right loose. I can only point out that until I have run the lathe I won't have a clue as to what all this stuff does. The entire case revolves on the red-dot-nut and once properly adjusted -??- is locked in place by the nut, blue arrow.
Below is the end with the gear case removed.
Right is the gear box as it faces out.
Right is the same unit with the free gear pulled loose. Pushed in all the way it engages the small gear on its backside to the large gear down inside
the case. Pulled forward the large gear engages the smaller gear. As you can see on the left there is a gear trapped up inside the top of the case, red dot. This gear is pressed onto the shaft above right, yellow arrow, and has a keyway. The gear is driven in a high and a low speed by pulling the free gear in and out.
The other nut, blue dot, when turned cams the gear inside toward and away from the
The free gear is pulled in and out to impart a high or low speed to the gear inside behind the red dot.
Looking from the other side you see two small gears joined by a strap. They are what is driven by the action in the gear box. Below is the cone pulley in place. The small gear on the cone pulley, yellow arrow, is what these two small gears drive.
You can see that the handle, red dot left and right, moves these gears side to side. It offers 3 positions; shown are the outside 2.
trapped gear.
A small oiling hole is in the end of the shaft the free gear slides on. The oil comes out on the side of the shaft and goes up and down a long groove.
It is a week later and all the above is cleaned and put back to rights. Flather is now semi-officially done. What I mean by that is he is all cleaned and painted and appears to be functional, and he awaits a motor to test this last premise. It has been 9 months since Flather became my own on my 60th birthday. Maybe by the time I am 61 he will be running.
There is a lot of discoloration on the bare metal surfaces, but don't you dare to think it is rust! The newly-painted tray is a mess where some 'spilled' gasoline ate the paint off, and the legs need to be painted.
You can see that the babbitt box caps are not pulled down, nor are they painted yet. I still need some advice on this aspect.
Since I had not wanted to paint Flather I decided to go with a close a match as I could find to his original coat. This is a Rustoleum Satin Black oil base. You can see a bit of the original on the plate beneath the tailstock; it somehow avoided the brush. While both are black the satin has more shine. You can see that I didn't go to any great lenghts to feather out chips, runs and rough spots. He is supposed to look well-used but cared for.
The brass Quick Change chart above was pretty shabby. Not sure how to proceed I sprayed it completely with a gloss black and then slowly brought all the raised lines back with 400 grit paper. It is now very readable.
Below is original red which I found on each end of the carriage and left alone. I cleaned up inside the base but did no painting.
What comes next is to motorize his ass. I will need a 4 step cone pulley very much like the one on the spindle. It will run off a counter shaft, which will be powered by a motor and v belt. I know the max. speed I want him to turn at is around 400 rpm. It is a matter of getting all this clear in my head and deciding what to do. Not really so easy. Machine shop class starts next week, so I will have all the equipment I need to go forward.
