Sanded the riser

Not had a lot of time to work on the project lately, but did get to the garage tonight to do some sanding on the riser so it's ready to move on to the color paint. I'm out of paint, so I placed an Enco order tonight as well. I'm glad I procrastinated the order. I just got an email with codes for free shipping and 10% off. And, Enco is always very fast, so I expect the paint and some other misc items Friday. More pictures this weekend for sure.

Working on the risers

The risers are two cast iron pieces that go between the pedestals and the bed. The tailstock riser was one of the first pieces I worked on. The headstock riser is a bit more complicated, so I had been putting it off. But, the bed is just about ready for paint and these will be the last major item needed to put together the bed, chip pan, and pedestals in the basement. It will finally start to look like a lathe, again. The risers were a bit tough to work with, especially the one on the headstock end. Since they were rough castings, I wanted to smooth them out, but body filler would not stick very well. I did many passes of filling in the top, then having the filler flake back up. The Clausing group on Yahoo suggested that these tend to soak up oil over time and it was suggested that I hit it with a torch. I'm not that keen on hitting anything with a torch, but I did have good luck scrubbing with lacquer thinner until a paper towel did not get dirty. This seems to get the oil out so the filler sticks pretty well.

The bed is just about ready for paint. After a priming, I found a couple spots I was not happy with and spend some time tonight smoothing them out and applied more primer. After another day or so, it will be ready for a quick sanding and the final paint color.

Picked up a Royal 5C lever action collet closer on eBay for $52. I'm surprised it found it so cheap. Sent and email to Royal and they promptly sent me a manual for it as well.

Bed getting closer

I was away from the project for a while due to work, but spent some time the past few days on the lathe bed. I sprayed a guide coat over the primer and let that sit for a day, then sanded all of it off. It's a good way to ensure the entire surface is smooth. Then I put a new coat of primer. You can see how shiny even the primer is in the ports, now. Lots of body filler and sanding and the surface is very smooth now and ready to proceed to the final paint coat.

I've picked up a Cushman 8" 4-jaw chuck and L-00 spindle protector on eBay. The Chuck is very nice; looks like it's hardly been used and I paid less than I would for a backing plate alone. I also bought a 5C collet adapter for a 5418 lathe. The main reason to buy that was to get the elusive 4 1/2MT to 5C collet adapter. I also have a thread protector that does not fit and a closer that is a bit short. I can extend the closer and found the right thread protector in another auction. What is interesting to me is that I paid less than half the price for the adapter and other items as someone else just paid for just hte adapter. eBay can be a bit nuts at time. I also bought a Clausing nameplate. I have the one the lathe came with, but this is a bit later generation and I think the casting is nicer, so I'm going to swap it in. The price wasn't very high and I was the only bidder.

Bed is primed

I got to a coat of primer on the lathe bed today. The hardest part was smoothing the ports. The casting is actually rather rough and the ports are not always even. I used body filler to smooth them out. I ordered some Evercoat Rage Gold and found it much easier to use. I've tried several body fillers including Bondo, Napa lightweight filler, and USC Body Icing. In general, I've learned not to go to an auto parts store to buy body filler. The professional stuff is just so much better. It mixes easier and is much smoother and easier to apply. And, it sands so much easier than the other stuff I used. The USC Body Icing is probably good stuff, but I think the tube I got from Napa was very old. It should be thin, but mine was thicker than Bondo and too hard to use. I bought some Evercoat glaze to use as well. Also much better than the tube of old body icing.

Tailstock pedestal shelves are done

I finished the tailstock pedestal shelves. They are mahogany with quite a few coats of wipe-on polyurethane. I screwed them blind from the bottom so no hardware shows. If I ever have to remove them I'll have to either lift the lathe really high or remove the pedestal. I don't know why they did not originally have a bottom shelf.

I fixed some imperfections in the chip tray finish and re-coated those places. I've found it's best to let the paint dry two whole days before over coating. I've had some problems when I repaint after only one day. So, I'll do the final paint on the chip tray on Sunday. I also worked on the risers. They have a very rough finish on them, so I'm smoothing it with body filler to get a super smooth, shiny finish. Again, I think this will make it easier to keep clean.

Pedestal shelves and painting progress

I have a left-over piece of mahogany and I'm using it to make the shelves in the tailstock pedestal. It originally had two particle board shelves, but they are in poor shape and pretty ugly. Once stained and finished, this will look pretty nice. I'm going to screw them in from underneath so no hardware will show rather than the headless bolts they originally used. I did put a bottom shelf in as well. Not sure why they didn't other than the problem of cutting notches for the bolts, which was pretty easy to deal with.

Aside from that, the door and the bottom of the chip tray are done. I'm flipping the chip tray today to do the top.

More painting: door and chip tray

I've been busy with work and have not gotten as much done lately. I did get another coat of paint on the bottom of the chip tray and the tailstock pedestal door. That door has been my nemesis for some reason. It's the only place I've had problems with paint wanting to wrinkle on me, always when putting the clear coat on. I had to really sand down to remove a bad coat, so I'm giving it extra time between coats. This is hopefully the last pass of the almond. I can't get back to this until Sunday, so that gives it a few days to ensure the almond is completely dry before I try the clear again.

I'm also starting to look at assembling the pedestals. I bought new pads from Enco and I'll try to get them installed pretty soon. I also have a nice piece of mahogany left over that I plan to use for the tailstock pedestal shelves.