Show us your lathe

[Maker]

I've never heard of BSA (In terms of lathes) but it it looks big, old and cast iron, provided its not worn out I don't think you can go wrong.

I think I can see machined tree carcass on it though so be prepared to deschmoo it.

 

[Hood]

BSA were quite a big name in lathes especially multi spindles (BSA Acme Gridley) . My Churchill Computurn is basically done by BSA they used the Polish Tarnow as a base.
Afraid I don't know anything about the above lathe though and the one guy I know that would have is no longer here, also the guy that had BSA would have known but they are no longer either, think they went burst about 2 or 3 years ago.

 

[addjunkie]

I have an imported 14x40 lathe badged BSA about 8 years old, then again they also use the name BSA on chinglish 125 bikes

 

[Matthew76]

Thanks guys I will try & get more photos next week. It's approx 5' long & as far as I'm aware been converted to single phase. Will try to get more info.

 

[Matthew76]

A few more photos.

 

[Rig Pig]

A few more photos.

Ahh it's a BSA badge job!

 

[Maker]

Ahh it's a BSA badge job!View attachment 112902

The Gamet spindle bearings and pairs of flat and inverted V-ways make it sound like a Colchester, definitely looks like a good lathe.

Straight-cut gears though, it might be quite noisy at higher speeds. Do you know what type of spindle nose it has?

 

[Matthew76]

I have no idea sorry. I'm trying to find any info on it & wondered what it might be worth.

 

[pondy]

this is my mini lathe, its marked as a clarke but under the crappy yellow paint its a red sieg c3, picked up cheap of ebay, in bad condition and once stripped down found wear on thr back end of the bed, after i made new brass Gibs for saddle it would be loose near the chuck really tight at the tail stock, with nothing to loose i ground bed down with a file then a sharping stone until saddle could be adjusted to take out most of the the slack and still move freely enough, its not going to be the most accurate thing out there but for the limited use i need it should be spot on.

 

[captain-destructo]

well i fought my way to the back of the workshop looking for something the other day and found my lathe again and its in pretty much the same condition it was when i got it post 173 Dec 4th 2013


well i dont think ill ever get around to sorting it out so if any one is looking for a project it would probably take a week just to get it out

 

[arceyered]

That as all been stripped off as it was a botch up. Two hand made banjo's and a set of change gears later I actually cut two 48 tooth gears one at 16 DP and on at 14 DP using the ability of the head stock to move up an down vertically .
They are the two on the left in picture the three holes are there to allow me to use the three jaw chuck , the chuck was stuck on fast so I wanted to set up the lead screw to 8TPI so I could cut another back plate if I had to cut It off , made a spindle locking mandrel and have now removed the chuck and refitted with a paper washer
It is quite rigid in operation as the head stock can be locked in position with two locking pins, was it a good find for me you bet.

Nearly done

 

[God mode restorations]

Mellor 3.5 x 20 . All complete

 

[Perry Owens]

Fitted this no-drilling DRO kit from Machine-DRO this morning. Haven't played with it much as it's -1C in the garage today. I have halogen heaters and they warm me up but not bare metal. I don't want to wear gloves around machine tools.

 

[Windy Miller]

Nearly done View attachment 125018 View attachment 125019

That's a fascinating little machine. Would like to know more about it - any videos of it in action?

I'd be very I interested in seeing how the adjustable headstock and tailstock are used.

 

[Rannsachair]

Fitted this no-drilling DRO kit from Machine-DRO this morning. Haven't played with it much as it's -1C in the garage today. I have halogen heaters and they warm me up but not bare metal. I don't want to wear gloves around machine tools.
View attachment 125028

Looks great. Any photo's of how the linear encoders are mounted? I bought some over a year ago but have not got round to fitting so could do with some inspiration, Thanks.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

My work in progress.
Before.

And after. Home straight. Just need some free time to get finished.

 

[ukracer]

Fitted this no-drilling DRO kit from Machine-DRO this morning. Haven't played with it much as it's -1C in the garage today. I have halogen heaters and they warm me up but not bare metal. I don't want to wear gloves around machine tools.
View attachment 125028

How much did that set you back?

 

[Perry Owens]

Looks great. Any photo's of how the linear encoders are mounted? I bought some over a year ago but have not got round to fitting so could do with some inspiration, Thanks.

I will try to post some photos tomorrow if I can work the camera with gloves on. I can also send you some scans of the assembly manual, which show how the parts are mounted.

How much did that set you back?

£402 including delivery. Quite a lot compared with Chinese offerings but I wanted a kit from a uk supplier, with a 2 year warranty, and didn't want to faff about fabricating brackets etc. The kit went together easily, everything fitting as it should.

 

[brewdexta]

I bought this back in June so quite a quick renovation for me. It was single phase but worked off the socket, i.e. the actuator and thermal overload had been bypassed so the switches did not work, they are momentary. It's a Denford Viceroy wood lathe, bought because I was having a lazy look for a Viceroy, a graduate or a wadkin wood lathe and this came up, not too badly priced and quite close.

I got a diagram from Denford that implied that the Danfoss actuator can be wired for both single and three phase so a spark and I tried to rewire it, which we partially succeeded in doing, but although the single and three phase actuators are similar, this one had a 415v coil in it so 240v would not quite actuate the actuator So I bought a modern Danfoss actuator and thermal limiter and off it went.

However it was intermittent and the fault was at the motor, we suspected a faulty crimp, but to get to it you have to take the motor out, or the lathe off the base, so that is what we did.

I then discovered it was only 1/4hp, the original 3 phase school rated motor would probably have been 3/4hp. At that point, I had a dilemna, stay single phase or go 3 phase and add a VFD and add speed control, or just go 3 phase 415 straight of my big workshop inverter but no speed control

I wanted at least 3/4hp, preferably 1hp. Looking at modern frame sizes and the small base on this model, some are bigger, I couldn't get a single phase 4 pole 3/4hp motor in a 71 frame that would just fit in the base. I could get 3 phase 3/4hp motor in a 71 frame but I wanted a bit more grunt with a VFD especially at lower speed so ended up buying a second hand 3 phase 1hp Brooke motor from an old Boxford.

I decided to go for a VFD, but didn't want to fill it full of wood dust so I went for a fanless "cold plate" WEG VFD. I bolted it to a 8mm aluminium plate along with some heat sinks. The plate was 8mm mainly because I could tap it to add the VFD, the heat sinks, the cable strain relief P clips and fix it to the inside of the lathe without messing about with nuts. Heat conducting paste was used sparingly between components. The thick plate could also absorb any spikes in heat if using the lathe hard for a while.

Here's the base with the old motor still mounted and the new 3 phase motor

here's the motor on the newly painted base with VFD. It bench tested a treat but the bearings on the motor were a little noisy, only slightly so I swapped them, cost about 8 quid for the pair.

Once bench tested I added the control cable with the original on/off momentary switches and a 100k wire wound potentiometer and a shorter mains lead with strain relief to go to the actuator. Easier to do this now than when its tucked inside the lathe. It is a good job I did as I had two problems, firstly the on/off switches were used to switching mains on the actuator, not the low volts DC of the VFD control plane. So I had to clean the switch. Secondly it took me while to realise I had to disable unused digital inputs for it to work if I only wanted on/off and not jog/reverse etc. these are enabled by default. Here it is waiting for the rest of the lathe.

In the mean time I gave the rest of it a make-over. I usually hate hammerite but I thought I would try and keep it original. So I found that rustoleum do a hammered finish that approximates to the lightish blue used. It may not have the slightly turquoise tint but it's close enough. However using it by brush, it either run unless horizontal, or didn't form a hammered finish, here's the door brush painted, horrible.

So i bought a couple of aerosols of the same stuff to try, much better and is OK to apply down to 5c. I could have bought some thinners and used the tin and got the spray gun out but this was about the same price and 2 aerosols should be enough and less messing about as I was doing this in tea-breaks.

One man's orange peel is another man's hammered finish

So I set about derusting, filling and spraying the rest. scabby tool rests and banjos

Filling the tailstock, the piece of cardboard was used while teaching the youngest the difference between single and 3 phase motors, she's only 8 but she gets it as its similar in theory to sound waves and she plays trombone

continued - reached 10 picture limit

 

[brewdexta]

More filling, the base filled and rubbed down with a heater up its jacksy just before I paint it

Tool rests ready for sanding

And the main body, I didn't take it fully apart and the badge rivets wouldn't turn out which makes it a pain to fill/sand/paint.

But it was worth it, I think.

And put together, I replaced some of the knobs with more modern bristol levers. The only obvious sign of the VFD is the the chicken head knob next to the on/off switch for speed control

Not complete yet, I need to turn up some new clamps for the tool rests, wire in the actuator and add the tacho and switch for the actuator, but it is largely done. I will do the clamps next then turn some wood to see how the VFD/motor performs.

Cheers
Andy