Southbend metal lathe find

[woodtickgreg]

you have me thinking of doing an old delta wood lathe rebuild, notice at this point I'm only thinking and that usually gets me in trouble.

This rebuild has been way more involved than any wood working machine would be, you should restore that delta! The purpose of this thread is to show people that you can buy old iron cheap and restore it back to like new and have a great machine to use for not a lot of money, just elbow grease and the fun of doing it. When you restore an old machine like this it teaches you everything about the machine, I now know this machine and how it works better than any machine I own.

 

[Kenbo]

I am in awe. This is freaking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brink]

Excellent way to lace up a belt.

 

[woodtickgreg]

So today I was thinking, what was I doing last year at this time? I was painting the lathe on the 4th of july in 100+ degree heat. Then I thought, this thing still isn't done and I really need it. Sometimes life and other things get in the way. I have made a little progress on it so I'll show you what I have gotten done so far.

The first pic is of the lathe pushed against the wall in it's final resting place. I also got a 3' square sheet of aluminum from work for free and I mounted it on the wall for a back splash. You can also see where the vfd is going to go, at eye level to the left of the lathe and hopefully far away enough from flying chips.
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This is a Enco brand indexible tool holder for the lathe that I found in a bucket of scrap metal I got from the guy I bought my Burke mill from, a couple hundred dollar freebee! I do have to machine the clamping block but I can do that on the Burke mill.
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More to come.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Here's some pics of the vfd I chose to run the lathe with. This one is totally sealed and suitable for a wash down environment. If it's waterproof it's also dustproof, and since it's in my wood shop that's important. A totally enclosed sealed unit with large heat sink cooling fins and a cooling fan inside the cover of the unit. 110v single phase input, 220v 3 phase output with variable speed and soft start and electronic engine braking as well, all can be set to your desired preferences.
Specs.
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The cover and what it looks like from th outside, it can run an external speed pot as well.
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The internal cooling fan
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The board that it will be mounted to, open in the back for ample air flow and cooling.
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The large deep heat sink fins.
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[woodtickgreg]

I have done some work on the switch and cleaned it up and repainted the cover. The top plate for it was worn off and I could not duplicate it and make it look good. So one of the fab shops I go to for work has a laser, I asked them if they could make me a new plate, they did. Exactly like the original just not painted, all laser cut and etched, very cool and just one of those little touches. I do favors for them sometimes and it came back to me, no charge they said!

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I polished the plate a little
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The painted cover and a new electrical junction box, the box will mount on the pedestal base for the motor wiring connections.
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[woodtickgreg]

Worked on the wiring a little today. I got the connections made in the breaker panel. I installed a service disconnect before the vfd in case I ever have to service the vfd. The vfd is mounted to the wall. I got the refurbed switch installed on the lathe switch pedestal. I also pulled the motor back out of the lathe to inspect the wires and make sure it was wired for 220v and not 440v, I had to know for sure. The wires where in really good shape, the insulation was not all dried out and falling off. I will have to add a ground wire though as it does not have one, it should at least have the motor housing grounded.

Vfd and service disconnect mounted to the wall, disconnect is wired.
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The switch installed back on the pedestal.
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Covers removed from the base and the motor pulled out again for a closer inspection.
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Motor wiring plate
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Motor wires, in good shape
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Kind of at a standstill at this point, I need a special wire to run from the vfd to the motor, it has to be a 3 conductor with ground shielded 14awg wire. I will probably have to go to an electrical supply house for that. I also have to figure out how to wire the switch to the vfd, the guys on the machinist forum can probably help me with this, or I can call the manufacturer of the vfd. I'm so close to getting this thing under power, I am excited

 

[woodtickgreg]

Already getting some help from the machinist's, got the switch wiring figured out and ordered some wire for it. Having a hard time finding the wire for the 220 3 phase though, these vfd's require shielded wire, I need 14/4 shielded wire. I don't need 50' of it though, more like 10' I'm gonna try a couple of local electrical supply's around me next week.

 

[Kenbo]

It's gonna be sad to see this whole thing come to a close. What a great ride it has been.
Glad that you took us along

 

[woodtickgreg]

It's gonna be sad to see this whole thing come to a close. What a great ride it has been.
Glad that you took us along

Ken, it's not done yet, still a little more to do and then I have to figure out how to post a video. :dunno: Seems like I always have to figure out something.

Today was a monumental achievement, after months of work I finally got the wiring done and threw the switch for the first time! Everything works as it should, I engaged everything forward and reverse, the original switch works with the vfd. She is smooth and quiet.....well until I engage the gears, I think I can quiet them down a little with some adjustment, the back gear definitely needs to be adjusted. Still I am very happy with her, she is alive again and will be making chips soon. I ran it for about a half hour and the spindle bearings didn't even get warm, that's a huge relief considering the work I put into them. The belt I stitched up runs quiet as can be also. This is a very rewarding day for me. A little adjusting here and there, get a 3 jaw chuck, get the tailstock set and dialed in, get the tool holder mounted, and I'll be making chips. So a little work to do yet but I would say 98% done.

 

[Mike1950]

CONGRATS Greg!!!!

 

[Brink]

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[woodtickgreg]

Brinkster you kill me, when you use a like button you really use a like button!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Just a little update, I got the lash set in the gears and it quieted down quite a bit. I set the clearance with the lathe running and just tuned it by ear, when it ran the quietest that's where I locked it down. I can't help myself, I keep going to the shop to just turn it on and watch it run, I can't wait to get the small details finished up on it so I can make some chips. I can't wait to watch this thing cut metal and make some tools.

 

[HomeBody]

Congrats on the lathe coming out so well. I'd love to do one but over my head for sure. I might start small on my 30's Delta drill press. Need bearings. Gary

 

[woodtickgreg]

Worked on the south bend today, getting a little closer to saying it's done. I had to re-machine a clamping block to mount the tool holder on the lathe. The cool part about this was I got to use my recently found and purchased Burke mill for this. This little mill is just so damn much fun to use! It's way better than trying to machine with my drill press, but you use what you got sometimes. Here's a couple of picks of the mill under power and making cuts, the smoke trails from the cutting oil is kinda cool.

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[woodtickgreg]

After I got the clamp block machined I test fit it on the lathe and mounted the indexing tool holder.

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[woodtickgreg]

Then I sharpened and installed a high speed steel cutter and set the height and made a couple of test cuts. I faced off the end of a piece of high carbon hot rolled steel and then made a few test cuts along the length. This allowed me to play around with the under drive speed as I had it set to fast, tried a couple different spindle speeds, and a few feed speeds as well. I used the feed in both directions and tried different depths of cut as well. She seemed to like a .010" cut the best. Then I tried the same with a carbide tipped cutter, I'm still playing with that. First three pics are with the hss cutter and the last one with the dime is the carbide, I think I can pick up the speed a little with the carbide, maybe I'll play around with that a little more tomorrow.

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[woodtickgreg]

Here's a pic of the vfd "variable frequency drive" and the service disconnect. The disconnect is just a non fused air conditioner disconnect, It was cheap at home depot, like 6 or 8 bucks. I like it because when you pull the link it is dead and you have to make an effort to put the link back in and make it live again. That's a good thing when you are working on the lathe or vfd. now for those who have not used one of these vfd's as I haven't before, I gotta tell you they are very cool. for not a lot of money they allow you to run 3 phase motors with single phase power and no power loss either like the old static phase converters. I am going to install a variable speed pot on this one, that allows you to adjust the speed with a dial while the motor is running. This thing makes no noise and starts and stops supper smooth. you choose how fast you want it to start and stop when you set it up.

The vfd and disconnect.
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The lathe with chips on it.
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See I told you all I was going to use it and get it dirty! She is very cool, I love this little lathe, so fun to use.
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And my 2 old american iron machines that make up the machining part of my little basement shop. This corner is set aside for tool making and such.
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Still more to come but she's getting close to done!

 

[Kenbo]

Absolutely incredible. I love it.