Hello from Devon

[lucerneParticipant @lucerne]

Hi all,

Machining newbie here but spent the last 10 years or so restoring a listed cottage from base structure upwards, removing all traces of cement and damproofing as far as practicable and learning a few new skills along the way.

I now find myself with an emptying workshop and hopefully some more time on my hands, always fancied a metal lathe to play with, and by chance picked one up locally which was sat in the back of a marine engine refurbers. Its been stored reasonably dry, quite a lot of surface rusting and caked on workshop grime but it all spins, the slideways are clean and head and tail stock don’t appear to have any play that I can discern of, certainly not enough to concern me for what I’ll be using it for. The bits all seem to be there other than the motor so I’m thinking of adapting to inverter/motor drive. Its a nice old piece of kit, an early Smallpeice Cromwell on its original base, but next to nothing web wise to refer to. I’m hoping to refurb this nice piece to a useable condition and hoping there’ll be help on here to achieve that.

 

This is what it looks like now:

This is what it should look like:

 

 

 

 

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

It will be interesting to see your progress if you keep us up to date. Lots of Model Engineering clubs in Devon who can help, and Men’s sheds. EDMES meet this Friday if you are near Exeter.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Hi Lucerne.

Welcome to the forum lots of good advice available so enjoy.

If you have not already looked at their site I reckon you might find some info on Smallpiece Cromwell machines at Lathes.co.uk

Link here:  https://www.lathes.co.uk/cromwell/index.html

[lucerneParticipant @lucerne]

Thanks for the replies, @bazyle, I am quite close to Exeter, so will look up EDMES. @v8eng, thanks, I have seen that page and it is useful for history, no manuals though. I’ve started breaking it down for cleaning, Qu, which is the best forum section to get help on how to strip down (or not!) the more complicated items?

[lucerne]

On lucerne Said:

… Qu, which is the best forum section to get help on how to strip down (or not!) the more complicated items?

Help and Assistance should do:  we’re not fussy, and new replies in any section get seen because they pop up in the Latest Replies section.

You might like to ask ‘Is there anything a newbie could get wrong when innocently stripping a lathe?’   Although not rocket science, they have their gotchas, things like the gibs going back in a particular way!   I always recommend using the lathe to cut metal before taking it apart.   Two reasons:

• Nothing reveals faults like cutting metal – lots of audio and visual clues, stiff controls, controls that don’t work. broken shear pins, tapers, slipping clutch, broken gears, missing parts, belts that have stiffened around pulleys, electrical tingles and magic smoke etc etc etc.
• Bearing in mind an old neglected lathe is likely to be riddled with faults, best to identify as many as possible first.  Unfortunately, enthusiastic dismantling is an extremely good way of adding new ones and befogging cause and effect.

Loads of fun ahead!  Welcome to the forum.

Dave

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Two examples of Gotchas:

On the Boxford apron the screw in the middle of the star wheel is reverse handed thread and often therefore gets broken off when ‘undone’.
Also on the Boxford the grub screw holding the screw-cutting engagement lever is cunningly hiding a second grub screw further down the hole.

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

…and as we are technically still in “Introductions”, if you happen to live south-west of Exeter there is also the Newton Abbot club (search “NADMES”). Further west still there is the Plymouth club. Not sure what happens in the north of the county – it’s a fairly big county and the north counts as a foreign country to us southerners!

[lucerneParticipant @lucerne]

Thanks for the replies, I’m quite near to Newton Abbot so I’ll look up NADMES. I’m born and bred South Devon….whats North Devon?…..

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

You’ll think me a mere incomer then – I’ve only been here for 12 years or so! Because we do not do any public running and because of previous vandalism problems, we do not advertise our exact club track location but if you send me a PM, I’d be happy to send you details and be happy to see you there some time.

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

On lucerne Said:

… Qu, which is the best forum section to get help on how to strip down (or not!) the more complicated items?

Help and Assistance should do:  we’re not fussy, and new replies in any section get seen because they pop up in the Latest Replies section.

You might like to ask ‘Is there anything a newbie could get wrong when innocently stripping a lathe?’   Although not rocket science, they have their gotchas, things like the gibs going back in a particular way!   I always recommend using the lathe to cut metal before taking it apart.   Two reasons:

• Nothing reveals faults like cutting metal – lots of audio and visual clues, stiff controls, controls that don’t work. broken shear pins, tapers, slipping clutch, broken gears, missing parts, belts that have stiffened around pulleys, electrical tingles and magic smoke etc etc etc.
• Bearing in mind an old neglected lathe is likely to be riddled with faults, best to identify as many as possible first.  Unfortunately, enthusiastic dismantling is an extremely good way of adding new ones and befogging cause and effect.

Loads of fun ahead!  Welcome to the forum.

Dave

Thanks, good advice. I’ll get it cleaned up and operational before any major strip down. I do have some queries prior to that but will open a new thread in Help section

[Engine BuilderParticipant @enginebuilder]

North Devon Model Engineers in the Barnstaple area. We need more members!

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Welcome to the forum

H

[Taf_PembsParticipant @taf_pembs]

Look forward to seeing progress!

Welcome 🍻

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Sorry you couldn’t make it to the last EDMES meeting, our companion model railway club “72a” (the Exeter shed number) were providing burgers. we held the trains for a while in case you turned up:
we even stopped the mainline in case you were on it:

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Welcome!

If you are going to strip and refurbish the lathe, do ensure that you have the equipment to do the job!

Worth taking a lot of measurements, and note how things are arranged, before taking it apart.

Calliper, (or mics) DRI and stand, and Thread gauges, (being an old English nachine, then threads will probably be BSW and BSF, with possibly BA for the gib adjusters.

If you haven’t got any, you might be in the market for Taps and Dies to tidy up threads, or to make new parts.

You will find backlash, with which you will have to live, for almost all the time, even after carefully setting the gibs.

If you go about it the wrong way, you could start with a grubby but reasonably accurate machine, and finish with a clean and bright but less accurate one.

A cautionary tale.

(A friend acquired an old Myford ML4 which had been stripped and rebuilt, but would no longer cut parallel. A stud had been cross threaded so that it pulled the headstock out of line. We had to make a jig, bush the hole, tidy up the stud, and realign the headstock, to restore accuracy)

If you suceed well, you may well improve the machine.

It may be old, but is still useable, especially if the chage wheels are still with it.

Hipefully, they will be in the cabinet, togerther with a 4 jaw independent chuck.

Eventually, you will find a need for a 4 jaw. If you don’t have one, you can buy a new suitably sized one, but will need to make a backplate so that it can be fitted to the lathe.

Now you should soon be starting on the project!

Howard

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

As  they say, “If it aint broke, dont fix it ” As others have said, proceed carefully, too easy to do damage while trying to do good, [ask me how I know ! ] It may be an old machine, but still good enough for the job, a friend of mine has a lathe which looks like it was around at the battle of Waterloo and has the scars to prove it, but still produces good work. I think I would just clean it up, get it running, then start checking it. You might be surprised, in a good way !

Taking things apart is a great way to lose vital bits, again, dont even ask !

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Ah! So an mot the only one having to take everything out of the shop to look for the bit that flew about. Even better if I’d known what I was looking for!

An ex colleague produces very good work,(Better than I can!) on a Drummond lathe that must be a century old.

Howard

[lucerneParticipant @lucerne]

Thanks for all the very useful replies, I’m progressing carefully, and very slowly!

The nice chap I got the lathe off unexpectedly dropped off a box of very grubby parts that he’d found at the back of his workshop. Happily this included a fixed and travelling steady, a 4 jaw chuck with correct back plate, a larger face plate, and best of all, the original main gear covers that I thought were missing. Theres a load of other bits , including a dividing plate, tapping head and others I have no idea about. I’m going to take this across to help and advice now as have a few queries best dealt with there I think.

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