Category: Misc

Some friends and I try to get out of NE Ohio at least a couple times a year to get some much needed trail therapy. This spring’s trip took us to Windrock Offroad Park near Oakridge, Tennessee. I’ve been to Windrock several times before and it’s a fun place with a lot of trails. We mostly did blue and black rated trails, like Trail 16, over the three days we spent there. Toyed with the idea of running some reds, but in the end, decided to come back another day for those.

I reassemble the reverse lever and the primary gear train on the lathe and test the power feeds. I still have some fine tuning to do to the lathe itself (leveling it for example) and some gears to replace in the primary gear train due to wear. But the lathe is technically operational at this point!

One step closer to operational on the lathe. I replaced the motor power switch and moved it to a safer location. No music to satisfy the ASMR fans.

A friend of mine gave me a gift certificate to an online Jeep aftermarket retailer (unnamed because they suck) as a “thank you” for helping him with a big project. I used it to go towards the purchase of some Off Road Only brand rock lights for the Jeep. The kit comes with six lights and all the wiring. Although it also comes with a switch and a dome light interconnect, I had already wired up a switch some time ago. It was a pretty easy install and will come in handy for a night time trail ride we have planned for an upcoming Jeep trip.

A little out of order, the Apron was reassembled before the Quick Change Gearbox and the Headstock. It took me this long to get the video edited together. There’s a lot to this component. The Apron is the most complex part of this lathe, I think. A lot of moving parts, a lot of gears on different shafts, and all the felt wicks that have to be fished into different spots.

Continuing to make progress on the restoration of the lathe. I put the headstock back together, making some improvements in the process. I found that the main spindle bearing is out of tolerance.

The next step in restoring the 80 year old South Bend lathe is reassembling the quick change gear box. This went back together a lot easier than it did to take it apart.

Continuing to get this lathe back and running. I put on the tailstock, the saddle, cross slide and compound. In the process, solve an issue with the compound I noticed during disassembly, but did not realize the cause until now.

Starting to put things back together on this 1941 South Bend lathe rebuild. I reassemble the motor and drive pulley as well as the bell housing and bed.

I have an upcoming project idea that will require using my 4-jaw chuck. To prevent any damage to the work piece, I made a set of removable soft jaws for it. I had some left over aluminum flat bar that was perfect for them.