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Did I ruin my lathe?

J

Jonathan Musselwhite

Joined
Aug 7, 2020
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Location
Louisville, KY,
Hello friends!

I recently bought an old lathe on Craigslist.

The lathe was in working condition, centers lined up, motor ran fine, but the bearings definitely needed to be replaced.

I used a ball pein hammer to persuade the drive arbor back in to the headstock after cleaning everything and inserting the new bearings. In doing so, I managed to deform the business end of things, and now the drive center doesn't seat fully or turn concentrically.

Am in the only dummy to ever do this? Has anyone else done anything roughly as boneheaded and managed to salvage it?

Right now I'm planning to take the damaged piece to a machine shop next week and see if the end can be ground and the taper reamed, but I have no idea what that will possibly cost.

Any advice or assurance is appreciated! Thank you!
 
If I'm understanding your description, it sounds like you peened over the inside of the Morse taper on the spindle. I'm no expert but I'm thinking you might be able to use a small round file and carefully file the inside edge of the spindle to remove the deformed part. If you've bent the spindle, I'm out of suggestions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks! I appreciate the responses.

The arbor looks like it is still spinning true, it just looks like I peened over the end pretty good.

I started to try to correct it with a round file, but got worried I would just bugger it up more.

I'll see if I can get someone at a machine shop to take a look at it, and if it is going to be prohibitively expensive I'll pick up a Morse taper reamer and add 'amateur machinist' to my resume.

I'll keep you posted, and I look forward to to asking actual questions about turning! All I was able to do before I damaged things was just round a piece of ash cut off.
 
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