Believe it or not, I'm still waiting for my replacement alignment bar to arrive. What a tortured story that has been. First I order the wrong one, then the right one got sent to someone in Los Angeles instead of to me here in Chicagoland. Now, I hope to see the correct one today. I have to admit to leaning toward the "aggressive" in my passive/aggressive complaints to the representatives in India.
In the waiting time, I decided to pull the spindle out to check condition and found it quite acceptable, maybe, even, "very good" for a 1941 machine. Also, had time to do some painting, which will happen in phases. I can post some pictures later. I joined the Facebook South Bend Lathe Group to get specific help when I need it. That has proved useful. One thing about the Myford is that so many of our forum members own them that the resources right here are probably abundant. Ya' know, I bought the lathe to help with A7/A10 projects, I'd like to get back to those, but the lathe is a project in itself, with its own sort of reward.
Richard L.
Gents, gents, gents,
I wasn't really sure where to drop the continuation of my lathe story. A review of this topic has reminded me that it was November 19th when I first decided to stop trying to turn my brake drum until I could get my lathe in alignment (to the level of my skills, tools and patience). Getting the alignment bar is a story unto itself that is tedious, but the lowlights are: I ordered the wrong bar (one #1 gone); seller shipped new bar to wrong address (week #2 gone); seller doesn't admit error for six days (week #3 gone); correct bar ordered and arrives in 7 days (week #4 gone). One day after receiving the correct bar I had the lathe aligned good enough for the likes of me. I've thrown in a picture of the two bars for laughs. Did a lot of cleanup and fiddling in the waiting time that, I hope, will pay off in better parts and lathe longevity.
Anyway, in the pictures, you will see the result of skimming the '57 Ariel rear hub. It seems smooth enough to me, as I wouldn't expect a super-smooth drum surface is necessary or, maybe, even, possible in the cast iron. It seems smoother to me than what it looks like when zooming in on the photo and exaggerating the lines in the finish. Please chime in and let me know if you think I need to try for smoother. In other pictures you can see the gauging hole I drilled to estimate the thickness of the iron by using a toothpick. It appears the remaining thickness of the iron drum lining (before I just skimmed off about 4 thou) was about 0.140". Does anyone know how this compares to the as-manufactured thickness?
Finally, I threw in a picture showing what painting I've done using an oil-based enamel color-matched to the color when I bought it. This way, I can take years to finish it if I want without it being two vastly different colors. If you're curious, you can see the before and after by scrolling up through earlier posts in the topic.
Richard L.
