FILENAMES: PWlathe1yre.jpg PWlathe1yra.jpg PWlathe1yrb.jpg PWlathe1yrc.jpg PWlathe1yrd.jpg DESCRIPTION: These are pictures of the restoration of a Pratt & Whitney lathe. Posted by Michael Miller . The following description was provided: ================================================================= Some folks seemed interrested when I posted pictures of a Pratt & Whitney 14" lathe that I bought last year, so I've taken some pictures of how far I've come since then. Although a year has passed, I have not spent all that much time in terms of man-hours on cleaning and repainting, but I'm proud of the results. PWlathe1yra.jpg - This picture shows the bed, headstock, legs and sadle assembly cleaned and assembled in my basement workshop. I'm fortunate to have a full-size garage door into my basement, so moving this machine in wasn't a big ordeal. PWlathe1yrb.jpg - This photo shows the saddle and compound better. PWlathe1yrc.jpg - This photo was taken a few weeks after the first two photos, and shows additional progress. I've mounted the countershaft onto some 4x4's that are bolted into the joists above. I've also put the spindle back into the headstock. I did not remove the headstock from the bed because I did not feel that it was necessary. I did not have to do any reconditioning of the (babbit) bearings because they are in excellent shape. PWlathe1yrd.jpg - A better picture of the countershaft and motor arrangement. The motor is a two-speed 1/2 HP motor out of a clothes washing machine. I have it permanently wired for 1140 RPM. This motor will not be powerfull enough to run the lathe when I get the powerfeeds and leadscrew operating. I am only using it temporarily and I plan to replace it with a 2 HP motor with VFD someday when I can get the house's fuse box upgraded. The belts that I am using are made from the "SBR" belt material that McMaster Carr sells. They seem suitable, but I have not used them for very long so I am uncertain about their longevity. PWlathe1yre.jpg - A different angle. I have not done any work on the tailstock aside from degreasing the underside of it prior to putting it back on the bed. It is fully functional as it is, so it might be tempting for me to never get around to repainting it to match the rest of the machine. Also you can probably see a fair amount of swarf. My first project was to turn a pulley for the motor. I made a temporary pulley out of some 3" aluminum rod with a hole drilled in one end for the motorshaft. The new pulley is far superior. I still have a lot of work left to do. I have to clean and paint the carriage, tailstock, taper attachment, powerfeed mechanisms and the change gears. I estimate that it only took me about 100 hours of work to get to this point, with maybe another 100 hours or so to go. My expenses have been modest, including the $200 purchase price of the machine, some lumber for the countershaft, the belts, some Rustoleum paint and disposable brushes, kerosene (for degreasing) and some wire brushes for the angle grinder. I also do much of my de-rusting using the electrolytic method, so that has not required much effort from me since the parts sit in the de-rusting tanks while I sleep.