Lathe Repair

Finally got the tailstock on the lathe fixed.  When I got it, the tailstock was rusted together and someone had tried to force it apart with the feed screw.  That ruined most of the threads inside the barrel.  It was easy enough to get apart but the barrel wouldn't go back in.  I had to sand the rust off the barrel and inside the bore and then buy an Edison phonograph to get it back together.  

Actually, I didn't have to buy the Edison to get it all to go back together and work but I ran across the Edison while looking for a motor for my polisher.  I was looking for a motor for the polisher because I was going to polish the tailstock barrel instead of sand it.  When I  plugged in my new polisher, it blew the circuit breaker and the GFCI in the kitchen.

While I was looking on Ebay for a used electric motor for my old polisher, it suggested "Edison Phonograph."  I hadn't thought about my Grandparent's Edison in a long time so I went shopping through 44 pages of stuff on Ebay and I found one that was affordable.  How in the hell Ebay knew I'd be interested in that is beyond me.  Edisons have a crank.  They don't have motors.  Never did find a motor for the polisher.  Can't afford one now that I bought the Edison anyway.

Got all that done today and then used the feed screw to chase whats left of the threads inside the barrel and it works.  It has a few tight spots but it works. 

From what I was told when I bought it, this may be the first time since the late 1960s that the tailstock has worked.

Hard to believe I've written all this about a tailstock without posting a picture  like this

but I did!