Oh Jerry, you're just to practical. Restoration----The
original support bushings were cast and space and hold the
threading gears in their proper relationship. They were and
will continue to be..cast iron. I just need to duplicate the
original oil grooves as close as I can, not re engineer the
lathe. Besides, the cast iron pilots are already machined
and fit up.
Straight grooves would be simple to make Don, that's not the
problem. There already is one radially close to the flange.
I'm looking to make an external figure eight spiral groove
that leads in from the counter bore in the casting. All of
the old machines used this sort of a groove to pump oil to
the whole bearing surface. And again, rollers not needed
here, the machine ran for half a century without any
noticeable wear and I'd still use the original pilot
bushings if I had them, but...they were one of the
parts that were missing when I bought the lathe.
Of course a CNC Turning Center would be nice to have Grigg,
but....three pieces....you know....doesn't justify my looking
for a $60K machine for the shop. Not really gonna go to the
trouble of setting up the Bridgeport for three pieces, it's
not that critical. I'v about talked myself into just sitting
down by hand with the Dremel and cutting them in as close as
I can by hand.
dg
Last edited by Denny Graham; 01/24/2016 8:08 PM.
