I have had and used my Grampa Edward's home made wood lathe for quite a few years, and have never bothered to clean it up or upgrade components like... wiring...
So, about a month ago, I decided to play around with the lathe and plugged the old, two wire cord with Bakelite connector into the normal outlet - ZAP! A black puff and some brief flame encouraged me to quickly disconnect! An inspection of the plug revealed that the old, cloth covered wires had fallen apart and were connecting both prongs of the connector. What a wonderful time to take the whole darn thing apart and clean/repair/rebuild!
First step was to take the heavy-assed thing apart and get it on the bench. I did NOT throw my back out, but if it had been a 1 hp motor instead of a 3/4 hp...
Notice the heavy steel and rough construction? My grandpa and my dad were both excellent at built
heavy and stout equipment for use around the ranches. They would just pull whatever looked most useful out of the metal pile and make it look close enough for gummint work... damn gummint.
The next few pictures show some of the wiring for this old beast of a motor. Notice the cloth covered wiring as well as the early rectangular "Thermo-Tector" - a thermal detector/protection unit. There was
a lot of shop and wood dust to clean off, but surprisingly little inside, more cobwebs than anything.
Everything got a thorough cleaning and lubrication. And finally, the arbor of the lathe, all cleaned of rust, dust and corrosion, the wood disc sanded and given a good coat of boiled linseed oil.
The bearings are actually poured Babbitt - which looks like lead but is a harder mix of other soft metals. The grease cups feed into grooves cut into the babbitt to lubricate the shaft.
These bearings did not need to be melted and re-poured, they are still very snug with no movement in any direction. The rotation is free but firm - good thing there is a strong motor to turn the shaft!
More posting to follow as I continue this project!
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