Hello from Minneapolis

[Chronicle]

Hello everyone,

I am a self taught machinist and dabbler in all things mechanical. My job for the last 25 years has been designing and building interactive museum exhibits, particularly for kids. I am nearing completion of a '53 Sheldon lathe restoration which I will use at my workplace and will join my '51 Logan there. My interest include any well made tool, from hand tools to large machinery as well as acquiring to knowledge to use them to their best effect.

Nice to be a part of the group.

 

[michael-au]

Welcome to the forum

 

[GreenTwin]

Welcome, glad to have you.

That sounds like a job I would really like.
I have tinkered around with electro-mechanical devices all my life.

We like photos, so feel free to jump right in a post your projects here.

Pat J.

.

 

[minh-thanh]

Hi @Chronicle .
Welcome !
Glad to have you.

. My job for the last 25 years has been designing and building interactive museum exhibits, particularly for kids.

You have a great job .

 

[awake]

Welcome

 

[WisJim]

Welcome. I'm just a bit east of you in Wisconsin. I just putter around trying to get my shop in usable shape after moving into town.

 

[TinkerJim]

Welcome Chronicle...

I live a little bit east of River Falls Wi and have a 9" South Bend of 1920 vintage, along with a few other machines. Model projects have been mostly steam, Stirling, and vacuum engines. About a half-dozen years ago the trusty old lathe spent some time at A & D rebuilders in Roberts WI - and returned home 100 years younger !

 

[Chronicle]

Welcome Chronicle...

I live a little bit east of River Falls Wi and have a 9" South Bend of 1920 vintage, along with a few other machines. Model projects have been mostly steam, Stirling, and vacuum engines. About a half-dozen years ago the trusty old lathe spent some time at A & D rebuilders in Roberts WI - and returned home 100 years younger !
View attachment 153535

What a lovely SB. My Sheldon was last run at the Gedney Pickle factory 20 years ago or more. I have taken it apart and repaired or replaced every flawed part I could find, but the ways appeared fine. The saddle has tapered gibs which were "repaired" by someone with more enthusiasm than skill, but hopefully it will work fine. We have used A and D for work on a Bridgeport mill and they would be they folks to fix the saddle if it doesn't work as designed. The completed lathe will have a DRO and so some of the wear may be less of an issue. After almost 15 years of working on it sporadically, the only things that remain to do are mount the switch and the DRO display. Here is a picture of what it looked like when I picked it up. I realized that I don't have a good overall picture of it's condition now, but I will post one so you can see the transformation.

 

[SmithDoor]

Hello everyone,

I am a self taught machinist and dabbler in all things mechanical. My job for the last 25 years has been designing and building interactive museum exhibits, particularly for kids. I am nearing completion of a '53 Sheldon lathe restoration which I will use at my workplace and will join my '51 Logan there. My interest include any well made tool, from hand tools to large machinery as well as acquiring to knowledge to use them to their best effect.

Nice to be a part of the group.

Welcome to the group

Dave

 

[TinkerJim]

What a lovely SB. My Sheldon was last run at the Gedney Pickle factory 20 years ago or more. I have taken it apart and repaired or replaced every flawed part I could find, but the ways appeared fine. The saddle has tapered gibs which were "repaired" by someone with more enthusiasm than skill, but hopefully it will work fine. We have used A and D for work on a Bridgeport mill and they would be they folks to fix the saddle if it doesn't work as designed. The completed lathe will have a DRO and so some of the wear may be less of an issue. After almost 15 years of working on it sporadically, the only things that remain to do are mount the switch and the DRO display. Here is a picture of what it looked like when I picked it up. I realized that I don't have a good overall picture of it's condition now, but I will post one so you can see the transformation.

Chronicle...your Sheldon looks like a solid machine well worth bringing back to active life again! Look forward to seeing what it looks like when finished and what DRO you will fit.
The South Bend 9A has a small diameter dial collar on the cross slide screw making the divisions close together. So after the redo by A&D, I fit a dial indicator to give the actual position of the slide. It's a Mitutoyo reading in 1/2 thou increments on a very rigid mounting to the lathe carriage (which conveniently had two tapped holes on the rear shear). Advancing infeed for a cut is dead certain, repeatability is fantastic, and the renewed accuracy of the lathe's ways makes it a joy to use. I rarely look at the screw collar these days !

 

[Chronicle]

Hello TinkerJim,

Sorry about the tarty reply. I am not used to the HMEM interface and didn't realize I had a message that had not seen.

I use a similar setup on my Logan, except that it simply contacts the back of the casting on the cross slide. That surface is not flat and of course the indicator slips off from time to time. I rigged it up years ago when I needed it for a work project, and It works just well enough that I haven't redone it properly. I like your solution. The previous owner of my Logan made many custom parts for the lathe as well as other "special tools" over the course of his trade school education and career. I bought almost his entire workshop from his estate after he died but it was in a jumble of unsorted boxes into which everything had been dumped. In the months after I brought everything home and started cleaning and sorting it I kept finding parts which were very carefully made, but their purpose was not clear until I found the next in the the set. There were times early on, when I would have a machining issue that I didn't know how to solve or setup, and I would look back over the things in my toolboxes and discover that he had made a thing to solve that exact problem but I had not known enough early on to see it. Sometimes I felt like I he was teaching me from "beyond the grave". He made an interesting indicator attachment for the the carriage which has proven to be very versatile. I would like to make something similar for the cross slide. Here is a picture.