Hi There

You can’t keep a good engineer down.

A while back, probably about 2 years ago, I posted that I had purchased a brand new Myford ML10 that was about 50 years old. A month later, I had my second leg amputated. My “family basically made me sell the lathe before I got to use it”.

For the last two weeks I have been helping someone to build a Stuart V10 using Facebook Messenger and have thoroughly enjoyed it. His name is also Dave and he is a goldsmith by trade. An engineer, he is not but he is learning fast.

Our next project together will probably be a Stuart Victoria.

i have not ignored engineering having read Model Engineer and Workshop online.

I have also been looking for drawings for the original Stuart 10V as well but no luck. This is the one with a single column and an angled pillar similar to some of the larger Stuart verticals.

I now think I can build one of these using half of the Stuart A frame and an angled column.

So, onto the Super Adept. Having got the workshop bug again, I looked at lathes on Ebay. The smaller ones like the Unimat SL and Unimat 3 go for silly money. Anything I could afford was collection only and might as well have been in the Arctic for all the good they would do me.

Then I saw a Super Adept for £40 or best offer. I offered £90 not expecting them to accept but they did. So, for a £100 I am the proud owner of a nice little super adept. It looks complete including the 4 Jaw chuck.

No countershaft or motor which I hope is a good thing as it may not have been used much. I thought the drive would not be a major problem as I could pick up an old treadle sewing machine table on Facebook Market Place. Then it clicked, silly old fool, I don’t have any legs to work a treadle.

So, electric motor it will have to be. I doubt I will find an original Adept or similar countershaft but I will look out on Ebay for one while I clean and paint the lathe.

I originally thought blue but then thought maybe green. It will possibly end up Myford grey.

I think a timing belt drive from motor to countershaft and possibly a genuine Adept pulley (headstock or countershaft) to match the existing one or possibly a couple of Unimat SL pulleys from RDG. Concentricity won’t be important because they will need boring out to suit which shoulld true them up.

I will post a photo when it arrives but it probably won’t be tomorrow as I am in hospital to have my second cataract done. Only been waiting for two years.

Look like. They took my glasses away halfway through the last post.

Second eye now done.

Just added photos as purchased from Ebay.

Thank you everyone. Hopefully I will be around for a long while. Doing machining through a third party over Messenger brings back hundreds of good memories.

Yes, I know the Super Adept will annoy some people but I have to use what I have, or can afford.

I have a shed full of tools (no machines) which I have not been able to get into which I hope to get help sorting out.

I have a spare bedroom about 9ft x 7ft (estimated) that I can use as an indoor workshop so space is not really a problem.

I just need to get it tidied up. My son, lazy little sod, uses it as a dumping ground.

I will have to rethink the Unimat pulley idea, the Super Adept pulleys look much smaller.
Are silicone O rings more flexible than normal ones? I always used normal O rings on my Unimats but seem to remember they were quite hard.

Thank you Michael.

Chris, I knew what I was buying. Yes, not a precision lathe but it will do what I want. Over 45 years machining experience means I know how to get the best out of it.

Bazyle, I am considering that option. Possibly a stepper motor with a timing pulley drive.

Not decided yet, depends what comes up on Ebay in the next couple of weeks, not really started looking yet.