$30 Lathe Tour

[Doug Shepard]

I mentioned on a SMC thread that I might look into turning a chisel mallet and just threw up a dup of this thread there. I thought I'd give a tour of my lathe. It's only slightly interesting from a historical perspective. I've never run across anybody else with one of these and didn't even know these existed. This is one of the first tools ever made by Delta. The label has the original company name "Delta Specialty Co".


Bought this from a guy the next street over during a garage sale. He wanted to get it out of his garage pretty bad and kept lowering the price on me. Finally at $30, I decided to take it back to my No-Kill Tool Shelter. That included a box of assorted motley turning tools, none of which was in very good shape. When I got it, it was pretty much covered in grease, grime, and a LOT of rust on the bed and other parts. Took a lot of soaking in WD40, scrubbing, sanding, etc., and I've never been able to completely rid the original paint of it's grimy look (the paint comes off before the grime does). The threads on the turning shaft were pretty boogered up, but I took it into the machine shop at work and a friend there stuck it on a metal lathe and recut the threads for me. The thing actually works, though all I've managed to do with it so far are turn some 1/4" decorative paduak dowels for pegging some M&T joints.



The guy I bought it from had it mounted on a rickety 2x12 frame setup that threatened to topple over just looking at it. The only idea I took from that stand was making it low for sit-down use. My stand is from 2 layers of 3/4" BB ply. The black wood pieces you see on top of the bed are outrigger legs that attach with a couple of bolts onto the ends when the stand is rolled out for use. The 4x4 rails under the stand are angled on one end with some HD transfer balls mortised in. Once the opposite end is raised about 1-1/2" the transfer balls engage and I can roll the stand around.The motor mount is sort of modeled on the original 2x12 stand. It's mounted on a board that pivots so that you can put the belt on whatever pulleys you want. I did manage to pick up a decent chuck a few years back during a Woodcraft sale, but really need to see about getting a few half decent tools. A couple of the ones that came with it might be made useable, but the majority are pretty much junk.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Cool lathe, Doug. It's nice that you're giving it a new life.

For pretty cost-effective turning tools, the Harbor Freight HSS set isn't bad. If you're looking for something a bit more substantial, the Benjamin's Best line from Penn State is also in the budget price range.

[Frank Fusco]

I don't understand what you mean by the turning tools being "junk". If they were quality to start with, some cleaning up and sharpening will make them good tools for use again.
If you aren't going to use them, suggest you do as I like to do with stuff I don't want any longer, give them away to someone who will use them. They sure won't benefit anyone lying in the bottom of a landfill.

[Bart Leetch]

Here ya go Doug we have a pair. Mine is a little newer than yours I think but not much it was made in the 30's It is called a double duty lathe. The bearings in the head stock are like the bearings in the front end of a rear wheel drive car. The bearings were originally meant to be oiled. I have removed them & packed them in high temp auto bearing grease this has worked out just fine. I have been using it for about 5 years now.

I intend to get a VFD & 3 phase motor & convert it in the future. I'll also build a heavy metal stand at that time. We already have the metal in the form of 2 manufactured home hitch tongues. So about another $250 & I shouldn't be needing another lathe for a long time. If I do I'll build it my self.

The bench bottoms are 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood with 2 pieces of pine between all laminated together with a 2x4 across each end for feet with 1 8" concrete block & then a double layer of 3/4" plywood for a shelf & then 2 more 8" block & a piece of pine or plywood on top of the block. All this has 2 pieces of all-thread running up through each leg or set of blocks & a washer & nylock nut on each end tightened down. Then I laminated up a 2x4 top & ran 3 all-thread Through the top front to back & again washers & nylock nuts. It weighs up at around 430#.

The motor was one I had kicking around in the shop. It wasn't reversible so I had to mount it to the left. The only cost I have in this bench is the all-thread, nuts & washers. I have about $50 in the lathe & belt.

You can get a newer lathe & you can get a bigger lathe but this one will work to turn most of the average things you can think up to turn.

I made a floor stand up for turning outboard from a tire rim with 3 nuts spaced evenly around the rim & welded for 3 bolts to turn through fro feet & a flat piece of metal welded over the center hole with 1 piece of pipe welded to it & anothe telescoping from inside the 1st pipe a nut welded onto the side over a hole & a bolt with a rod welded across the bolt head as a handle running through the nut to hold the telescoping pipe in place with a heavy piece of metal welded to the top end of the pipe & the lathe bandjo fastened to the top of it.

I threw in a special pic since you mentioned a mallet. Its made of red oak & was a surprise for my best friend. He uses it all the time in his shop.

Lets see the junk tools.

Oh & if you don't have a welder get one & learn how to use it. They come in mighty handy from time ot time. A wire feed will probably do just fine. Mine is a stick welder.

As old Oly,Sven & Lars vould say you ust never know until you ask if some vone has vone of dos funny lookin olt lathes.

[Doug Shepard]

Here ya go Doug we have a pair. Mine is a little newer than yours I think but not much it was made in the 30's It is called a double duty lathe. The bearings in the head stock are like the bearings in the front end of a rear wheel drive car. The bearings were originally meant to be oiled. I have removed them & packed them in high temp auto bearing grease this has worked out just fine.
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Cool. Looks like we'll have to talk to Vaughn about setting up a separate sub-forum now.
I may have to try your grease route. I was able to find some replacement seals for the oil reservoir but every so often I get a tiny seep of oil. Back when I had that taken apart I wondered if I should replace the bearings but the guy that returned the threads on my head stock looked them over and said don't bother - they looked in real good shape.
I'll get a few pics of the tools next chance I get. None of them was high quality to start with, but have some pretty deep rust pitting. I did get most of the surface corrosion sanded off but the pitting is still there. And I noticed some pretty good bluing on a couple of them so have doubts they're going to hold an edge very good. I haven't tried to do much more with them yet as I dont have a jig for grinding or honing the gouges.

[Lee Thomas]

Well, mine is a bit newer, but still sub-1940. Thought you might like to see some photos of one all done up..

I did solve the oil seal problem by replacing the original felt seals with modern oil seals. It did require a little metal lathe work to open the seal housing just a hair. My next step is a set of 1.5" riser blocks for the headstock & tailstock. This will kick it to 14" spin over. I already have a 12" cam lock style tool post so the extra needed on the tool posts is so minor I may not even have to rebuild my tool rests.

Oh, and if you reverse that pulley on the motor you may find that you really get more than one speed and diffrent length belts!



http://www.yankeetoys.org/lee/lathe-4.htm

[Stuart Ablett]

That looks great Lee, nice to see you bring that old iron up to date and get a lot of use out of it!

[Doug Shepard]

Cool. The skill set of the FWW Delta Double Doggie Doody Lathe Sub-Forum keeps improving. Yesterday fully 50% of the owners didn't know which end of the lathe to feed into the planer first. Now we're down to 33%.


I'm not sure I follow you on this one though.

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Oh, and if you reverse that pulley on the motor you may find that you really get more than one speed and diffrent length belts!
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The motor mounting board on mine is attached to a length of pipe with small U-Bolts so it can both pivot up/down as well as slide in/out some to line up different pairs of belt tracks on the pulleys. The pic that shows both pulleys shows the motor currently extended all the way out but can be pushed back in. It really does do different speeds. But I never claimed to be a motor or mechanical savant - am I still missing something?

[Bart Leetch]

Lee is that a Delta (banjo) cam lock tool post did you have to do any modification to it. also do you have any pictures of your riser blocks ( what are they made of) did you make them with the tongues to fit between the ways? This is a conversion I have though about doing.

[Lee Thomas]

Doug, in one of your photos it shows the motor pulley with the small pulley outboard. That should go inboard (reverse of the lathe) This will change your lathe speeds. However, it dounds like you have a sliding motor mount as well. Not sure where this puts you in a speed range, but the right way to do it is to have the motor pulley reversed and just change the belts.



Bart, that is a Delta 12" lathe banjo. It did need the lower lock pad to be turned down .25" to fit in between my ways. If my memory is correct, the 12" has 1.50" and the 11" has 1.25" I love having the cam lock banjo and with the tailstock cam lock I have the best of both worlds. (oddly, the 12" lathe has a nut & bolt tailstock..

Here is a photo of the milling done to the banjo pad:


It does help to have a metal lathe at times...


This refurb took a little more refurb than the Delta though..


The riser blocks will be made out of steel and I am working with a small machine shop to do the milling work for me. All that is needed is a 1.24" notch in the top and a 1.24" groove left on the bottom. (and a spot milled for the tailstock lock pad) I plan to bolt the tailstock riser right to the adjuster plate under the tailstock so that it is one solid block. I will then ream the holes in the 2 blocks to allow me to fit those long nuts used to connect all thread rod togather. If it works out right I can then use these to lengthen the u-bolt for the cam lock. I may use just bolts thru the lock pad, but I have to play with a couple things first. The riser blocks will help with the taller tool banjo, and kick the lathe up to a 14" swing over. I will post up when I get it all done and will have plenty of photos.

BTW, I have quite a few resto's on my web site:http://www.yankeetoys.org/lee/shop.htm