Brought home a relic today

[Jeff]

quote:Originally posted by Jeff

(576, plus or minus)

Well, they should be arriving from the plater on or about wednesday, gold ones in 5/16-18, blue ones in 1/4-20, pilot hole ones in silver steel.
I can't wait to see the blue ones, never have seen blue zinc myself.
BTW, they are modified for the plastic ends, and the pilot hole sizes are a very limited edition at this point, and probably 1/3 of them are already destined for Japan and England. But I still have some more and no one has placed a regular order for any.
Also, the prices were reduced slightly to account for change in shipping.

If you guys have pictures of them in use, send them my way and I'll post them on the site, and if you have a write-up on a project or jig or whatever, send those too!
If anyone plans to order additional t-nuts (ie repeat customers), please contact me via email first (so I can give some kind of repeat customer discount-- haven't automated that part yet).



Jeff in Beaumont
http://t-nuts.com/bt3c
Chromosomes: Monkeys, 44. Humans, 46. Sweet potato, 48. Przewalski's Horse, 66. Forest fern, 144.
Evolution? Yeah right.

Well, they are in, I have them in my truck and will begin boxing tonight for shipping beginning tomorrow.

A quick note on the "blue" zinc......It seems that the plating company's idea of blue is a bit off, since the machinist and I both agree, in whole, that they look silver.

"This is blue?" he asked them. "It looks like silver."
>>"That's what blue looks like."
"So why don't they just call it silver?"
>>"Cuz it's not. It's blue. That's the way it looks."
"Howcome I got some from you guys before that were BLUE blue?"
>>"Those were anodized."

What can you do.

I told him to ask them for some SAMPLES of all the zinc plated steel colors they have so we can know what we are going to get.

Anyway, the silver zinc steel actually looks pretty good, shiny like silver with a hint of blue. I'll have pics when I get them taken and posted.

I am afraid to ask for red zinc......don't know if slightly-off pink would go well with all y'all....

Jeff in Beaumont
http://t-nuts.com/bt3c
Chromosomes: Monkeys, 44. Humans, 46. Sweet potato, 48. Przewalski's Horse, 66. Forest fern, 144.
Evolution? Yeah right.

[Jim-Iowa]

Brought home a relic today

Was at a family reunion and a cousin said he had a lathe that had belonges to his father, he builds twig furniture and said he had ho time for turning. He said I`d give it to a family member, so I brought it home. It is a Montgomery Wards model C4FD889A.
Bearings seem to be fine, but it is missing the headstock handle(I Think)The tool rest, but bottom part is there and needs a motor and belt. This thing is about a 5 1/2" swing(not sure how to measure) and a little over 30". Tailstock seems to be fine.
Probably 50-60 lbs of cast iron in a benchtop format. Paint is very good, I doubt this has seen much.
The ways have very minor surface rust but I think it would clean up ok.
I would like to restore this and use it if I can find the parts to do so. Any advice is welcome.

[RayintheUK]

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrish/engsc_mat.htm#lac may be a good place to start, Jim. Looks like they have a catalogue available and they supply parts for Montgomery Wards lathes.

Ray.

[Jim-Iowa]

Thanks for the link Ray! I`ll check it out and see what I can find.
I tore the lathe down tonight and cleaned it up some.
I don`t think this thing saw much use. The ways cleaned up fine and had no pitting under the surface rust and everything is straight.
Face plate cleaned up good and the bearings in the tailstock spud(proper name?) are tight.
If I can get the parts it should be a fine little lathe.

[Whaler]

Jim

I was a hardware manager for Montgomery Wards in the mid 60s but don't remember the lathe. The only stationary power tool that I carried was the Shopsmith. I still have a Powercraft 1/2 sheet sander and 3/8" 110v drill from that era that are still running strong.
Would love to see a picture of the lathe.

[Jim-Iowa]

Dick: I wish I had a digital camera so I could post a picture.
I have no idea how old this thing is, but I have seen Craftsman/Atlas? lathes that looked simular.
My uncle Herb was famous for his forays to auctions all over southern Iowa and buying anything he could find cheap, He had a whole house converted into a shop and storage. He had and used 1 of only two Carbide Generator acelylene Torches I`ve ever seen. So for all I know this thing could be 40`s-50`s era. It does have sealed bearing in the tailstock though.
Like you say I`m having a hard time finding anything as far as pictures etc on the net.

[Jim-Iowa]

Well I`m getting closer. Dick here is a link to a Wards Lathe that is much larger but looks a lot like the one I have.
http://www.owwm.com/PhotoIndex/detail.asp?id=1845