Restoration of a 10” Utilathe - the metric version!

[Brent H]

As the title indicates, I will document the refurbishment of this Utilathe. It is a full metric version of the classic 1020 Utilathe. It came off Kijiji as a project inherited from someone with a project in mind.

As this is the METRIC version, some of the restoration will be smaller than a standard restoration.

If you have any questions or concerns or advice etc just put it all here and I will try to answer!!

 

[Susquatch]

View attachment 17912As the title indicates, I will document the refurbishment of this Utilathe. It is a full metric version of the classic 1020 Utilathe. It came off Kijiji as a project inherited from someone with a project in mind.

As this is the METRIC version, some of the restoration will be smaller than a standard restoration.

If you have any questions or concerns or advice etc just put it all here and I will try to answer!!

Very cool @Brent H !! If anyone can pull this off, you can! Happy to follow along and add my 2 cents as appropriate! Should be fun!

 

[Brent H]

Here are some condition survey pictures.

This is the apron. You can see the path of a hard object across the big gear teeth - I think this just came from above or was possibly inflicted during disassembly or a fall. The main 6” hand wheel is broken off. One “spoke” is missing of the 3 and that sucks as I could have fixed this if the spoke was there. I will find a hand wheel or contract the super talented hand wheel maker @RobinHood ! Everything else looks and feels great.






This next one is the cross slide screw bushing. The Gits Oiler is smashed off but the gear teeth are great and you can also see the graduations on the compound are nice and clean. Some rust on the cross feed dial and it goes from 0 to 2.5 mm







The bearing end of the lead screw and the feed rod. Gits is smashed but the fit is fine and no signs of significant wear on the parts. Missing a 1/4" locating dowel







Top of the Compound and saddle. You can see some evidence of chuck crashing but it is not that bad. You can make out machining marks on the cross slide base still. You can see the broken handwheel off in the lower right corner of the pic.





The saddle rack is loose, common Utilathe issue, the front of the apron looks good (feed handle removed). Gits oilers in good shape and the feed gears are good as well. The half nut engages solid and the change over from longitudinal to cross to threading works smooth.





Metric gearbox. Moves well and no gear damage inside (it is all open at the back so I could inspect) Missing an 1-3/8" ball with 3/8-24 thread



Main spindle gearbox. Everything working. D1-3 spindle nose - works fine. Oil level glass = pooched. Speed and feed handles all move well and detent properly



Dead blow hammer on site just in case things get bent out of shape. Motor is 3 phase 3/4 Hp spins fine but will probably get new bearings and a paint job - VFD and a new belt as the belt is not the correct size. The plastic knob just below the chuck is for a light I believe and is bent all to shite - removal will have to occur. The two gears are in good condition and is the feed fine/coarse selection and idler gear. Ways look good - some dents and scratches but a stoning will be good for me (LOL) and the ways.




Gears Gears Gears! Looking good in there! Some typical wear but no missing teeth and things rotate smooth. Oil is dirty as Frack and there are pieces of crud in there - a good bath and change of the oil will do very well after a paint job!





A rare sighting on Utlathes these days!11 What a piece of tail.......stock! ol' Rusted up bastage that it is.... Perhaps that is why they are hard to find: they eventually biodegrade? This one needs a good soak and scrub and a new gits oiler and some other repairs (key is busted off in the handle and quill lock is the original steel one and these tend to gouge the quill - not sure why they are not a softer choice of material - anyway this will be fixed. Handle is brazed on and then they brazed it on again and then again and I guess could not find a die grinder? this too will be improved upon. Note that this is a Metric lathe and the quill is in inches- awesome!





And this years model, sporting remnants from a by gone era....Miss U1438!.....Bravo!




What a tattoo eh fellas - man oh man....Miss Metric - LOL

 

[YYCHM]

Good news Brent, U1438 was never sunk. It was surrendered and later intentionally scuttled.

 

[Canadium]

Wow! Some significant challenges! If it were mine I would be considering casting my own hand wheel and thread dial base! I know - just too ambitious. But I have been wanting to get into casting for a long time. Just worried my neighbours won't appreciate a blast furnace next door. Maybe up in Barrie that would not be such an issue?

"Miss Metric - LOL" thats too funny! Should make a decal for the headstock with the name Miss Metric.

 

[Brent H]

Hey @Canadium : Ian, if you have the furnace then maybe we can do it! I lack all the other essentials but the the neighbours would just bring over hot dogs and marshmallows and drink beer while we worked on getting Chernobyl under containment..... no issues there!

I have enough pieces of the original wheel to make a casting mold. I could fill in the missing spoke with some clay putty and sculpt it for all that would be required. I do, however, lack the proper sand, the furnace etc to do anything else. There are two brake rotors that would make a good cast iron soup ...alas....

(that was my emoticon test paragraph)....

It would be a cool thing to cast from scratch though.

 

[Susquatch]

Way too much fun @Brent H !

You can see the path of a hard object across the big gear teeth - I think this just came from above or was possibly inflicted during disassembly or a fall.

I think that was a piece of wire or wires or small rod that got rolled between the gear and the smooth upper section of the adjacent gear. It shows no sign of damaging the faces of the gear from what I can see and the tips don't make contact. If you see some face damage that I can't, a light polishing with a small stone should clean them up.

I love your suggested name for her...... Miss Metric. But how do you rationalize that with tailstock? I feel a crude joke about transoceanic couplings coming on, but that may need to wait for the big Chernobyl melt down.....

Or you could just buy and modify the handwheel that busy bee sells.....

 

[gmihovics]

Hey @Canadium : Ian, if you have the furnace then maybe we can do it! I lack all the other essentials but the the neighbours would just bring over hot dogs and marshmallows and drink beer while we worked on getting Chernobyl under containment..... no issues there!

I have enough pieces of the original wheel to make a casting mold. I could fill in the missing spoke with some clay putty and sculpt it for all that would be required. I do, however, lack the proper sand, the furnace etc to do anything else. There are two brake rotors that would make a good cast iron soup ...alas....

(that was my emoticon test paragraph)....

It would be a cool thing to cast from scratch though.

I hear the perfect demo for an Ontario members meet up.

 

[Brent H]

@Susquatch well indeed there could be quite the jokes, but I have no time for humour ...nay I say! hahaha

The marks on the gear seem to indicate something rolled through from one side to the other and only mark the top half of half the gear. Nothing on the the other side - sort of threaded its way out..

So the lathe was for sale for a while, probably scared people as it was disassembled and well, a project. The owner "inherited it" as a project and was hard to get a hold of. We set a date of Monday to go see it and that got pushed to Tuesday of this week. I flay out to NS on Wednesday so it is cutting things very close. My one son brings back the work trailer Sunday night ....no word ... Ok ...I build cabinetry and other stuff so I had a gig going for some custom mirrors...fabbing ...painting....nothing.....sent message to seller if he would take E-transfer but setting up to see him Tuesday at 10 am. @Canadium said he could lend a hand (thank you Ian) so I had back up...got reply that he was worried about moving it as it was heavy. - Indeed it is... I sent back no worries I am brining my son and we can get it gone if it is all good. Late Monday - got address and we are a go.......totally blew my Tuesday plans but ...what do ya do....As the Bare Naked Ladies sing..."Drove down town in the Rain...." On site, made wicked turns to get trailer into drive....Did the checks...decided on the price - transferred cash and my #1 son had the back of the truck loaded in about 10 minutes. Pulled the head off the lathe and my son lugged that 150 pounds to the truck. The ways went next - 250 lbs to the truck with the owners son and my boy and then I hauled the base out on a fridge dolly. Total time -departed at 0815 (North of Barrie to Stoney Creek), back home at 1340 with a lathe and custom cut mirrors.....(Brief stop to pick those up in Barrie and feed the boy.

Put the lathe in the picture poses you see, stripped off some pieces to clean up at work (more pics on that as time progresses) Painted mirror frames....Out this am at 0430 to take pics and then off to NS

Miss Metric is now captivating from afar, however, I do have several of her "delicates" to work on after hours ....wink wink...

 

[PeterT]

I cant quite tell, does the apron have a sealed bottom? or am I looking through the bottom into the chip pan? If its sealed up, I wonder how something got in there & ran across the gears unless something internal let go.

What is the increment of the dials, I've always wondered that on this size of lathe?

 

[Susquatch]

I hear the perfect demo for an Ontario members meet up.

I was thinking the same thing, but from what I have learned about Brent, he will be done that task long before the new year!

 

[Brent H]

@PeterT : Apron bottom is sealed (drain plug fitted) there is an opening at the back above the oil level where it would be possible to for something to enter. I am thinking, however, that since this is limited to about half the gear teeth on just that gear, someone had the assembly flipped over and perhaps rolled it across a table top?

 

[Susquatch]

@PeterT : Apron bottom is sealed (drain plug fitted) there is an opening at the back above the oil level where it would be possible to for something to enter. I am thinking, however, that since this is limited to about half the gear teeth on just that gear, someone had the assembly flipped over and perhaps rolled it across a table top?

The most important thing is that any serious damage by whatever caused that ought to be easy to deal with. From what I can see it only marked the tips of the teeth which don't make contact with any other gears.

 

[RobinHood]

If someone were to open the oil fill port and stick a screwdriver in there (or other such object), it just might make contact with the gear and score it.

 

[Brent H]

@RobinHood : tis true good sir...I will make double sure the oil "plug" does not extend into the apron too far

 

[Brent H]

@RobinHood : did you find a mash of imperial/metrification with your old lathe? Seems like the lead screw is 7/8" x 4 mm pitch and the cross feed and compound are 1/2" x 2.5 mm pitch LH and RH respectively. argh!

 

[RobinHood]

Yes. Fasteners were imperial. Gears were DP. Only ratios/lead screws and dials were metric.

 

[Susquatch]

Sounds a lot like my mill/drill. It has a managerie of fasteners in it too. Didn't end up metric or SAE where it matters though. Base 11? Who does that?

If the gears are normally covered then I think @RobinHood nailed it. Might have been some gunk in the port that they tried to clean out by poking something in there.

 

[darrin1200]

I am really looking forward to following this build. I think it is a good chance for me to learn a ton.
Thanks for this Brent

 

[Brent H]

@darrin1200: here is a link to the Imperial Utilathe Restoration project as I see you are also blessed with one of these machines

Restoration/Repairs on a 10" LD Utilathe - Standard Modern

So a few weeks ago I purchased a 10' LD Standard Modern Utilathe serial number U530. The serial number is a bit like a submarine so I hope this project stays afloat and the lathe doesn't become a dive site somewhere. I have not had much time to do anything with it, basically get it home to...

canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

I am hoping this lathe is not quite as intense