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Craftsman lathe

For $25 it's hard to go wrong! :thumb:

This should give you a taste of what's possible, and how far you may want to go with woodturning. It's hard to tell (from the photo) if that Craftsman will accommodate a scroll chuck and other accessories, but you can certainly turn a lot of stuff with what you have there.

My guess is that you'll want to "upgrade" fairly soon, but $25 is really cheap for an entry ticket into the hobby.

(Let me know how the clean up goes for the rust, etc. I recently bought a bunch of used-in-a-school-shop mini lathes and have yet to get started on the refurbishing effort.)
 
That looks similar to a bench top model I saw. If that's the case, you need to add a motor, don't you? If you have a motor with an appropriate pulley set up on it, then you might have done alright. If you have that then Kerry is right. If you don't have a motor, you probably can get around a 1/2 hp for not too much. Certainly worth the effort for a starter system. Keep us posted on the progress!
 
Hi I have a 1 1/2 hp Baldor motor that my father gave me I had to buy a 4 step pulley for it which cost me 27 dollars. The only thing that worries me though is the tailstock shifts back and forth a tiny bit I don't know if that is normal or I have to adjust it somehow. I cant slide the tailstock up to the headstock to see if they line up it is too hard to move needs cleaning and some oil first.
 
Rodger Bradley said:
The only thing that worries me though is the tailstock shifts back and forth a tiny bit I don't know if that is normal or I have to adjust it somehow.
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Ideally nothing moves at all once it's locked down. An overly wiggly tail stock could be a bit exciting :) I've heard some other folks say that's one of the challenges with the pipe lathes like this, some are better than others...

Well hopefully once you get it cleaned up it it'll lock down better. My best guess at this point is that its just not clamping on there well enough. If not there might be a way to fix it up, you'll learn a lot more as you clean it. It doesn't look like it should be to hard to adjust the slop on the tailstock (I think there's a brass rub screw) or worst case shim it somehow.

I think? it's a variant on this lathe:
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/manual/2s7wypo5em-000247/craftsman-113228162-lathe

It's darn close anyway. Hopefully that's mildly helpful with the break out diagrams.

I'd cross check your motor speed + pully ratios against the recommended turning speeds there. The original pulley setup was for a 1725rpm motor, although you could adjust the pulley ratios for a 3450rpm one. The 1.5hp is likely a bit of overkill for a lathe this small/light but should be ok.

It appears to have a 3/4”-16tpi threaded spindle, and MT1 tapers on both ends.

I wouldn't put anything to large or heavy on this lathe regardless as the old tube lathes aren't super robust so they can't take a huge amount of torque. For small bowl/faceplate and up to medium spindle work it should be just dandy though once you get it rolling (and heck for $25 even if its a stinker the experience working on it is worth that!).
 
Good going on the motor, though I think you find that a bit strong for that setup. Time will tell. I think you are missing a bracket that holds the end of the way that the tail stock slides on. Seeing it is shaped the way it is, I guess you call it a way like on other lathes. Makes no never mind. You might be able to rig something up to handle that. After a good cleaning you probably will be able to see things better and get 'er running. A friend of mine had one similar to yours and if I remember right, the only real big drawback was speed adjustment. To change the belt to a different ration, you had to loosen the motor to do it. My friend rigged up a hinged platform for his motor to mount on and then all he had to do was undo a latch and it rotated towards the headstock to make the pulley adjustment. Might be a useful thing for you to consider. I have no idea how far you are wanting to go with this, but these are inexpensive modifications and quick to make. Go fer it!!!
 
I have some scrap steel laying around and I can weld so I think I will make a bench for it to set on. And I will make the motor so it can slide back and forth to loosen the belt, The stand would look something like this from the manual I found.View attachment 107568Stand.png
 
I've owned 3 of that style over the years and they all worked fine, just sold them to make space. The current one I got for $100, but came with a craftsmand steel workbench, the motor, full set of chisels, multiple head plates/spurs, and a a duplicator jig. Yours is still a good deal. I assume the bearings on the headstock are good, everything else should be an easy adjustment/fix. :thumb:

I do believe Dave is correct the end mount for the tail stock side of the bed looks to be missing. There are a bunch of them on ebay for not much $... https://www.ebay.com/i/283458241804

I also replaced the tail stock center with a bearing one from Grizzly, this one... https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-Cupped-Live-Center-for-Wood-Lathe-MT1/H3403

This spur should fit it (MT1 taper): https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-Spur-Center-4-Spurs-MT1/H3405
 
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Darren did you have any problems with the tail stock shifting from left to right I tightened the locking nut pretty good and still has a little play in it any way to adjust it?. Also the bearings seem fine the spindle is very easy to spin.
 
Rodger Bradley said:
Darren did you have any problems with the tail stock shifting from left to right I tightened the locking nut pretty good and still has a little play in it any way to adjust it?. Also the bearings seem fine the spindle is very easy to spin.
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Is the square stock on the bottom of the round rail loose? Some are on with rivets, others screwed on, may need to tighten it up if so. Otherwise I seem to remember needing to adjust the position of the part that clamps a bit on one of them. I can take a look tonight and see what I needed to do, but if it's clamping and not moving left and right, then it's probably that bar stock/guide is loose. The end plate may hold that in place too once clamped to the bench, which would be another reason to get one.
 
Darren Wright said:
Ok, So it doesn't move when you attempt to move the tail stock back and forth? I'll get up there later to see how mine is setup, finishing up some worky, work right now. ;)
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A couple of the rivets broke on mine. I drilled and tapped both the tube and bar key. Then used set screws with Loctite because there was not enough meat in the bar key to countersink a screw head.
 
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