17-02-2014, 07:39 PM
Hi,
Very true Big Al. The truth is though that I had suffered enough and as I walked down the yard for the last time I thought this is a new beginning and wanted a totally fresh start. With all the take overs and uncertainty due to production being moved abroad it wasn't the happiest of places to work with nothing but stress; I do miss the perks though of raiding the skips and being able to get lots of jobs done by just asking.
The rain almost stopped with just fine drizzle so I finally wandered into the garage for an hour this afternoon. I've now removed all the electrics from the Lorch and these will not be going back including the wayward motor; I'll upgrade with new motor and controls with possible variable speed but this is some time off yet.
I also removed the wooden backboard with the two shelves revealing more of the lathe. Looking at this Lorch this afternoon I thought what the heck am I doing with this rough looking load of rust; I'm just playing with it? I've decided to strip the lathe; the head-stock appears to be positively located on the beds "V's" so re-assembly should be easy. I need to gain access to the idler pulley buried in the base of the head-stock because I'm pretty sure after many years of poor access this will need servicing? The carriage also has a fault in that one of the controls doesn't work possibly by the operator falling asleep and letting the top slide run into the chuck whilst under power possibly stripping something? The gnarled top slide end indicates this has happened.
I'm not into bodging and to try to re-paint this lathe without a complete strip would be asking for trouble later; many joints are soaked in oil so even if I was to try to remove the old paint/rust this oil would possible creep out to contaminate the new paint? It will not be a major job to strip the lathe and allow a much better end result. Between stand and lathe is a large cast iron tray which would be difficult to refurbish whilst in position but if the lathe is stripped I will be able to bring my new soda blaster into action especially on the cast iron stand and tray saving an enormous amount of effort and time. Because this Lorch appears to be in generally good condition it should respond well to some TLC. This time the bed doesn't require re-grinding saving a lot of cash whilst simplifying the job.
The weather forecast isn't too bad so I can get stuck in and move this job forward unless something else crops up to divert me like a blocked up vacuum cleaner I sorted out this afternoon before touching the lathe. We bought this vac new about a year ago to replace our noisy Hoover Junior and had we known we would have kept the Hoover because this one is forever blocking its filters. What's the point in manufacturing modern vacs adding lots of filters only for a huge cloud of dust to be created each time the filters are removed and cleaned; perhaps it's deemed better to kill my lungs with dust all in one go rather than drag it out?
Kind regards, Col.
Very true Big Al. The truth is though that I had suffered enough and as I walked down the yard for the last time I thought this is a new beginning and wanted a totally fresh start. With all the take overs and uncertainty due to production being moved abroad it wasn't the happiest of places to work with nothing but stress; I do miss the perks though of raiding the skips and being able to get lots of jobs done by just asking.
The rain almost stopped with just fine drizzle so I finally wandered into the garage for an hour this afternoon. I've now removed all the electrics from the Lorch and these will not be going back including the wayward motor; I'll upgrade with new motor and controls with possible variable speed but this is some time off yet.
I also removed the wooden backboard with the two shelves revealing more of the lathe. Looking at this Lorch this afternoon I thought what the heck am I doing with this rough looking load of rust; I'm just playing with it? I've decided to strip the lathe; the head-stock appears to be positively located on the beds "V's" so re-assembly should be easy. I need to gain access to the idler pulley buried in the base of the head-stock because I'm pretty sure after many years of poor access this will need servicing? The carriage also has a fault in that one of the controls doesn't work possibly by the operator falling asleep and letting the top slide run into the chuck whilst under power possibly stripping something? The gnarled top slide end indicates this has happened.
I'm not into bodging and to try to re-paint this lathe without a complete strip would be asking for trouble later; many joints are soaked in oil so even if I was to try to remove the old paint/rust this oil would possible creep out to contaminate the new paint? It will not be a major job to strip the lathe and allow a much better end result. Between stand and lathe is a large cast iron tray which would be difficult to refurbish whilst in position but if the lathe is stripped I will be able to bring my new soda blaster into action especially on the cast iron stand and tray saving an enormous amount of effort and time. Because this Lorch appears to be in generally good condition it should respond well to some TLC. This time the bed doesn't require re-grinding saving a lot of cash whilst simplifying the job.
The weather forecast isn't too bad so I can get stuck in and move this job forward unless something else crops up to divert me like a blocked up vacuum cleaner I sorted out this afternoon before touching the lathe. We bought this vac new about a year ago to replace our noisy Hoover Junior and had we known we would have kept the Hoover because this one is forever blocking its filters. What's the point in manufacturing modern vacs adding lots of filters only for a huge cloud of dust to be created each time the filters are removed and cleaned; perhaps it's deemed better to kill my lungs with dust all in one go rather than drag it out?
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
