Lessons learned!

 

Good catch Doug. Nobody is right all the time. Glad you got it figured out. bob

 

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Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

Thanks Bob.  No I have never restored any equipment before and I have never owned a Powermatic, so this was the first and hopefully not the last.  Its an easy fix, press out the shaft and reverse it to the other side of the bearing housing.  Mean time I continue to work.


Bob Kloes said:

Good catch Doug. Nobody is right all the time. Glad you got it figured out. bob

 

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Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

I went on to work on the motor cradle.  I was able to strip the paint and file the ends to accept the motor bell. 

Now which one should I use?

The next thing is to drill new holes to mount the cradle.  But what plate do I drill, the Cradle or the motor base? 

I will be on site in Springfield Mo. for the next couple of weeks doing an installation for the company I work for.  No updates during that time.  Thanks and I will be back to finis this project.

 

Doug..

Doug,

Very nice work on this lathe. I'm glad to see someone else doesn't know the meaning of the word overkill, as I've also gotten a little carried away with the use of the buffer making parts shine that didn't before. Also like seeing that I'm not alone in making my own parts when the need arises.

Keep up the great work,

 

Larry

Well I'm back from Springfield MO.  My installation didn't go to well there.  Lighting took out some parts that had us working late into the night.  Saturday the parts were flown into St Louis and driven down to Springfield for the repairs.  That was time I was hoping to spend with Dan Wyatt.  What a great friend.  I only wish I had more time, but the good thing is that I am backup on the site so if needed I will go to Springfield and maybe a side trip to Dan.  I did pick up a mandrel from Grizzy to make a buffing station for my shop.  Well its time to get back to work on this lathe. 

I worked on the lower sheave today getting things to look as if I can get this lathe back together.  I started off by making the speed bearing assembly.

Once I had all the parts ready I assembled the bearing.

Now I needed to prepare the sheave for the bearing.  I had to run the split pin through the sheave.

My next step was to press the speed bearing back into the sheave.

Its funny but I try so hard not to reuse comments when discussing the rebuilding process.  There are only so many ways to tell someone each step of the procedure.  LOL  In my books there is a plastic spacer between the motor pulley and the sheave.  I still have mine and its undamaged. 

Using an allen wrench I tightened the motor pulley set screw against the key stock.

All thats left to do with the lower speed sheave is to connect both assemblies.

Align the key stock with the sheave, slide the assemblies together and tighten the allen set screw.

Well onward and upward as they say.  Don't know who says that but I remember someone saying that LOL.  I took the assembly above and mounted lower speed bracket (at least that's what one of the manuals call it). 

Here's another angle of the bracket.

You can see the end of the lower speed shaft that was made for me by a fellow worker on the Old woodworking Machines forum.  Tomorrow since the weather is supposed to really nice I will take out the bolts and clean them up.  I hate a good looking machine be messed up by not working each detail.  And touch up paint is a must even though most people will never look under the machine.  But its the fact that I would know. 

I also worked on the upper sheave today.  Getting this spring/cup/sheave together at the same time proved interesting.  I finally used 3 hand clamps spaced evenly around the cup/sheave I was able to slowly work the cup down compressing the spring until it was below the clip groove.  I ended up scratching the paint but I did take time to touch it up prior to photo.  I had polished the spring long ago so it looks great.

Hi Doug,

Again ......... excellent work. I don't know if you mentioned using thread locker, but instead of using thread locker I almost always substitute 2 set screws stacked on each other in lieu of the original set screws with the equivalent length. I also like blue Locktite. Most people don't realize the amount of harmonics vibration transfer throughout the entire structure of the machine due to the somewhat violent nature of turning stock down especially at the beginning of the turning process and these type machines are much more apt to have set screws and other fastners vibrate loose over time than other machines that don't vibrate as much. 

 

Anyhoos .......... you are doing an excellent job and I am sure that it will pay off with many enjoyable hours spent making chips. 

 

When you get to my place next I want to give you some hedge (depending what region you are from some people call bois d'arc, or osage orange) to play with. 

 

Thanks ~ Dan 

One last thing tonight.  The manual for the powermatic continues to have errors in the printing.  It calls out for a 2.5 inch split pin to be pressed through the spindle.  That ain't happening...  Its a 3/4 inch pin on each side of the sheave so as to not hit the spindle.

Dan you are so correct.  Thank you for the advice.  It always helps when someone else is watching out.  And we know a lot about someone watching out for us.

 

And there is a difference between red and blue loctite.  Blue is for removeable parts and never hardens while the red is permanent.

 

Thank you so much,

Doug

 

 

Dan Wyatt said:

Hi Doug,

Again ......... excellent work. I don't know if you mentioned using thread locker, but instead of using thread locker I almost always substitute 2 set screws stacked on each other in lieu of the original set screws with the equivalent length. I also like blue Locktite. Most people don't realize the amount of harmonics vibration transfer throughout the entire structure of the machine due to the somewhat violent nature of turning stock down especially at the beginning of the turning process and these type machines are much more apt to have set screws and other fastners vibrate loose over time than other machines that don't vibrate as much. 

 

Anyhoos .......... you are doing an excellent job and I am sure that it will pay off with many enjoyable hours spent making chips. 

 

When you get to my place next I want to give you some hedge (depending what region you are from some people call bois d'arc, or osage orange) to play with. 

 

Thanks ~ Dan 

Today I continued to assemble the lathe.  Before I started I had to invert the bed because I would be installing the lower sheave.  Some would argue that I should have started on the upper sheave first prior to flipping the unit over.  The truth is that I am waiting on an additional part and that would hold me up so I started on the bottom.

I began the day by cleaning up the bolts that I would use. 

All of the bolts today had loctite and a split washer to secure them.

 

I attached the head stock to the bed using 4 bolts.

I was curious about how close the speed bearing would come to the side of the bed.  To see that I had to attach the lower frame.  Its close let me tell you but there is some room for adjustment. I can get about 1/8" clearance between the bearing and the bed.

I removed the frame so that I could attach the speed cam.  This assembly would test my patience.  I tried several different clamps before settling on 2 hand clamps facing each other.  That way I could work with both hands applying the pressure.

After apply pressure I found that if I tapped lightly with a hammer on the shaft that it would loosen up the bind and continue to slide together.  Once I had the shaft where I wanted it I tightened up the allen set screw. Then I attached the frame again and this time I had to make sure that the bearing had clearance to move properly.  I made all the difference when aligned properly where the bearing rode against the cam.

One one picture of the bearing riding the cam.

 

 

Now with the cam in place and the frame bolted down I could begin to see exactly how the variable speed worked.

 

As the bearing followed the cam, it transferred the movement to the lower sheave bearing.  This would force the sheave to close and thus move the belt to the top of the sheave making in effect a larger diameter pulley.  When the cam released the bearing and the upper sheave having a spring attached would force the belt to travel into the sheave and have a smaller diameter pulley.

Last thing tonight I set a 1 HP motor on the lathe just to see what it would take to mount it.  It came with a 3/4 HP and many people have said that the Powermatic 45 was under powered.  A 1 HP motor may help that.

After doing some research on the westinghouse motor I believe thats the way to go.  I have the option of using a reversing switch (if I can find one reasonable).  I'm on a budget and need to follow the boundries.

Hi Doug,

I think I have a couple of extra reversing switches and if I do and since you are doing such an excellent job on breathin new life into the old Powermatic......... I will give you one.

Please send me an email with the specs. for what you need.

Take care my friend. ~ Dan 

Hey Doug I had gotten behind on reading this but man looks like you are getting it there. It is looking great.

 

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com