Reconditioning a Relmac lathe

[irving2008]

Hi all (is anybody is here... do I hear an echo...)

Anyway, thought I'd use this location as a sometime record of reconditioning a Relmac lathe. Bought for a song a few weeks ago (oops, that should have been a clue) it seemed fine. It lacked a chuck but had a suitable faceplate for a 3.5" one and I had one for another lathe I am recondtioning (eventually, but thats another story) so just had to drill the mounting holes. Also lacked a toolholder but a economy QTC holder, a bit of 1/4 plate and a T-bolt from Chronos sorted that Got it all bolted down in its new home on a specially constructed welded angle iron bench but an inability to turn things in a round fashion and a nasty vibration suggested all was not right... see the next post for the story...

Here's how it looked when I got it:


And heres the install with nice new drip-feed oilers from Adams Lubetech


The list of things to do grows daily

• Polish the spindle

• Remove the inside burr on the spindle rear end

• Replace main bearings

• Fit 3 speed v-pulleys insted of the 2 speed flat pulleys (maybe)

• Sort out backlash on cross feed (nasty 0.4mm 'jump')

• Sort out backlash on leadscrew (less critical)

• Figure out how leadscrew dog clutch should work and sort out