Mike Pinches
Member
- Messages
- 126
- Location
- North Wales
I have recently acquired a Drummond B type lathe, made in 1920 from the serial number. It is in need of a fair amount of work to get it to a standard I am happy with, but thought that recommissioning an old lathe would give me a better understanding of lathes than just buying a small lathe from China. I haven't actually used a lathe since in school 20 years ago, and that was only facing a couple of bits of bar.
Eventually I'm hoping to use to make a few bits for my motorbikes as well as a few tools etc.
I haven't had much time to look in depth at the lathe or take anything apart but I have so far found that there is a fair amount of backlash (I think that's the right term) in all the feeds ie they require between 1/8 -1/4 of a turn of the hand wheel when changing direction before any movement of the cross slide or carriage.
There is also a fair amount of rust, though none of it looks too bad. My plan is to dip everything in citric acid to clean it all up. Hopefully this should be fairly gentle an a decent method for removing the rust?
I am not happy with the current motor set up as it is direct drive. I am looking to build a new stand for the lathe to sit on, which is narrower than the current set up to save space in the crowded garage. In to this bench I would like to include a countershaft arrangement. If anyone has any suggestions for making a bench with countershaft or photos on good setups it would be appreciated in helping to design mine.
Eventually I would like to add some form of basic DRO as pretty much everything I will be making will be metric and this will save on having to do conversions. It should also help if I can't remove most of the backlash I think.
Here are a few photos to give everyone a better idea of the condition.
Eventually I'm hoping to use to make a few bits for my motorbikes as well as a few tools etc.
I haven't had much time to look in depth at the lathe or take anything apart but I have so far found that there is a fair amount of backlash (I think that's the right term) in all the feeds ie they require between 1/8 -1/4 of a turn of the hand wheel when changing direction before any movement of the cross slide or carriage.
There is also a fair amount of rust, though none of it looks too bad. My plan is to dip everything in citric acid to clean it all up. Hopefully this should be fairly gentle an a decent method for removing the rust?
I am not happy with the current motor set up as it is direct drive. I am looking to build a new stand for the lathe to sit on, which is narrower than the current set up to save space in the crowded garage. In to this bench I would like to include a countershaft arrangement. If anyone has any suggestions for making a bench with countershaft or photos on good setups it would be appreciated in helping to design mine.
Eventually I would like to add some form of basic DRO as pretty much everything I will be making will be metric and this will save on having to do conversions. It should also help if I can't remove most of the backlash I think.
Here are a few photos to give everyone a better idea of the condition.