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Old Delta lathe updated

Nick Jonkman

Nick Jonkman

Joined
Mar 16, 2024
Messages
8
Likes
83
Location
Wyoming, ON
Hi folks. Many years ago I bought what was left over of an old Delta wood lathe from the local school board. It had been robbed of parts needed to keep some other ones going. There was no tailstock, tool rest, motor, spindle pulley, spindle was damaged, etc. I had bought it with the idea of fixing it up for my father who was diagnosed with cancer and he had always wanted to try wood turning. My father and my wife both were diagnosed with the disease in the same week. My father passed away that fall and my wife survived for 4 years after that. So the lathe got shoved into a corner where it stood for many years. At the time we had started a store selling woodworking tools and supplies. (See my introduction). We became a dealer for OneWay as well as Henry Tailor tools along with others.
We had been doing any turning I wanted to do on my old homemade machine. After retiring around 2010 I got looking at the old Delta as my old homemade was not too suitable for some of the exotic turning I was seeing done on YouTube. One day while still in our store a fellow came in from out of town while I was out looking for a lathe bed and headstock as he had a tail stock. What he had was a Delta tail stock with the base block missing. I convinced him that he would be better off selling me the tailstock. I had my buddy make me the spacer block under it and then it sat there for many years. Now fast forward. To use it I had to do more work myself. Now having set up a new shop with a machine shop in it I went to work. I first made a new spindle with Morse taper in it. Then I made a sleeve and hub with the indexing in it as the original would have had. Since I fell in love with the variable speed the OneWay lathes had I bought a VFD and a 2 HP three-phase motor. I added a double pulley on the motor and two different size pulleys on the spindle sleeve plus built the control for the drive. This gives me two different speed ranges. I made a bunch of different tool rests and added a OneWay Talon chuck. Now I was able to do some real turning too.

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Most of the money I invested was in the motor about $200 and the VFD about $150. I think I might have paid about $75. for the lathe The tail stck ended up in a trade for an other part. The rest of the parts wouuld have been under $200. The other thing I used to be Jet dealer but I don't think they are around in Canada anymore.
 
Richard Coers said:
Curious how much you invested in the old Delta vs buying a used Jet 1642. I bought one for $1,000.
Click to expand...
Dang! Mine was $2k but it came with tools, chuck, pen spacers and a half dozen pen and bottle stopper blanks/hardware... Is yours evs with a rotating head stock?
 
By the way I also have the free standing Delta tool rest stand. That would allow me to use the out board end for small table tops etc.
 
My first lathe was an old Atlas, which I think was made by Delta, so pretty much a clone. I never had variable speed, but did get a 1 hp motor for it and the link belt. Also put it on a table that was made from 2 sections of a glue lam beam. Pretty sturdy. I did get a good deal of use out of it before selling and getting a 3520A. I think I replaced the bearings in it too.

robo hippy
 
Nick Jonkman said:
Most of the money I invested was in the motor about $200 and the VFD about $150. I think I might have paid about $75. for the lathe The tail stck ended up in a trade for an other part. The rest of the parts wouuld have been under $200. The other thing I used to be Jet dealer but I don't think they are around in Canada anymore.
Click to expand...
Friend down the road restored his 14-111 and we ended up going the 3/4hp DC motor route. It's been a really nice solution. I do love your indexing plate, that's magnificent.
 
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