Wadkin lathe restoration

[wallace]

That is a mighty fine tree house.
I recently got the dating info for wadkins and your lathe is from 1953

 

[sawtooth-9]

Hi Wallace
Thank you on both counts.
We are now in for a solid week of heavy rain, not great for spraying !

 

[heimlaga]

That's a nice lathe!

 

[Eric The Viking]

Like the green colour you have chosen.

If/when you get a gap bed rest, it would be great to see how it fits. I was loking at the pics and struggling to work it out.

Tree house - briliant. Occupants evidently delighted, too.

 

[sawtooth-9]

It's been a long time since I have been able to get back to the Wadkin. Plenty of interruptions including closing down a company, and starting a couple of new ventures !
Have recently bought a Schaublin 13 mill, which came out of a medical research facility and is almost new condition.
So decided the Harrison lathe should come up to the same condition. It's completely stripped and about to be re sprayed.
Once the Harrison is painted I can relocate it in the workshop and finally get access to the Wadkin !
So the Wadkin project is still going, just delayed.

 

[sawtooth-9]

At long last I can get back to the Wadkin restoration !
Have rebuilt the Harrison lathe and sorted out the Shaublin mill.
I started this project quite some time ago and painted the motor and base plate with a single pack epoxy paint ( green ).
after this paint curing for around six months, it still does not have a good hard feel and can be scratched with your finger nail. Having completed the Harrison lathe with a two pack epoxy ( ex USA ), which has an incredibly hard and non brittle finish, have decided to do the Wadkin in the two pack system ( Hardnose paint from PPC coatings ). Believe this is available in UK, not cheap but worth every cent ! ). I was unable to obtain or blend a suitable green colour, so have mixed a deep slate blue / grey, which I think suits the machine better. Therefore I will need to re paint the motor and base plate.
Have just completed the painting of the headstock and the inside of the headstock has been done in a deep red ( hard nose paint ), much like the original red oxide.
The speed change mechanism is ready to fit, and once the motor and base plate are done, I can fit the spindle with new bearings.
Will post some pics of progress, including some from the delay .

 

[sawtooth-9]

Below are the added pics, looks like they show up in reverse order

 

[wallace]

Nice work, in my past restorations I've used machinery enamel which is great for drying times. You can handle and assemble parts the day after. The downside is it is quite brittle and if it gets a ding it chips down to primer. Can you do a walk through with lots of pics when you do the bearings. RS lathes came with different bearing installation depending on age. I'm not sure but some of the later ones had to have pre load set on the bearings.

 

[sawtooth-9]

Hi Wallace
Will post pics of bearing installation.
There will be no Pre load for this Wadkin, the inboard bearing is a plain
bearing and the outboard bearing is a self aligning plain bearing. They have defined seating positions determined by their position on the inboard side. The outboard position is either very accurately machined or has a small degree of float.
Usually, preload is required on timkin type tapered bearings.

 

[sawtooth-9]

I forgot to mention that this paint is really very hard ! But it also is so tough you can belt it with a hammer and it will not chip.
It is usually wise to allow about 4 days to fully cure but you can assemble within two days

 

[wallace]

Do you know if the epoxy can be mixed up to a RAL code and can you get it a semi gloss

 

[sawtooth-9]

Hi Wallace
Best to look at the USA site. www.por15.com/HARDNOSE
They do only 15 colours, so no, they are not making to the European RAL system.
Their products are aimed at the auto / agricultural market.
Whilst their colour range is limited, they are carefully chosen to enable quite a range of colours with careful blending.
The colour I have blended for the Wadkin is light blue(5 parts) with black (1 part ). This works well because their black is a blue back.
These paints only come in a high gloss.

 

[sawtooth-9]

Today I put back the speed change mechanism, and installed the new flat belt.
The flat belt is a continuous belt, with no metal joiner, so that will eliminate the slap that normally occurs with this drive.
Also put one of the plaques on the electrical door, after respraying the black background and polishing the bronze lettering..
Have now prepared both the motor and base plate for re spraying to the new colour.
Because my garage floor has a slope, I have now sorted the adjustable feet, and will fit these tomorrow so I can finally take the headstock off it's pallet. Once this is done, I can proceed to fit the spindle and new bearings.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That link to Hardnose doesn't work.

 

[sawtooth-9]

Should work, but suggest you just google " hard nose paint " or " ppc paints " and that should give you a live link.
If you have trouble, I can email you the Australian and USA site.
If you can blend colours, this is the best paint I have used in over 40 years !

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My apologies - it works fine if you just hold on to be rerouted.

 

[sawtooth-9]

Yesterday, we fitted the spindle so have included detailed pics, as requested. Today, the motor and base plate went in and will test run the headstock assembly tomorrow.

 

[sawtooth-9]

Because one can only add 10 attachments at a time, the remaining pics are below.
These should have appeared as the first, so will know better another time

 

[wallace]

Thanks for that. Did you have to put new bearings in? The original would have been SKF or Hoffman depending on what number your lathe is. You can always tell when some ones been inside before because they use a chisel to knock the split nut around

 

[sawtooth-9]

Hi Wallace
The original bearings were Skefco ( SKF )( inboard end ) and Hoffman for the self aligning outboard end.
the inboard bearing was run dry and a bit noisy, so I decided to replace all bearings.
I think these were original bearings and there was no damage to the inboard split nut.