Craftsman Lathe Live Center

Scrappy,
I know someone with a machine shop. I will ask tomorrow. I can’t promise anything. If they let me have access to the machines I will do it for you myself. I’ll know something tomorrow night. Lou

Thanks Lou. I appreciate it.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Scrappy can you PM me any pictures?

Lou, Hows this?

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Why don’t you just replace the bearings Scrappy. Can you tap the old ones out and press new bearing back in

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Karson, Can’t tap it out. The hole does not go all the way through. No way to get to the back of the breaing. If I had the proper bearing puller, it might be possible. But you need a puller to hook inside of a 1/2 inch hole and the outer part to push on the 1.8 inch edge of the body.

Don’t think these were made too long because of poor design. Thanks for hte idea though.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Hi Dan. If I was back home in Mich, I coulld turn you what you need in my shop. but I can offer some ideas. My first thought was to knock out or pull out the bearing and replace it.
Options:
1) If the bearing is in a blind hole, try putting oil in the bottom of the hole and then drive in a steel dowel pin into the bearing to hydraulically force it out.
2) I’ll bet that block holding the bearing is not hardened. If that is correct, you can carefully lay out two holes that will line up with that outer bearing race. Drill two 13/64 holes to the bearing and then knock out the bearing with a 3/16 punch.
If you have trouble doing it, bring it to the picnic and I’ll help you with it.

It would be nice if that center piece was a little longer so you can more easily get behind it with a tool for finishing off the bottom of a piece held in a the jamb chuck. if we get your bearing replaced, I can make you the longer center piece in April when I get home. Do you know if that one is hardened?

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!!

If you have a Harbor Freight pick up one of these slide hammer pullers. Best $20 I ever spent. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=5469

-- Carpenter assembles with hands, Designer builds with brains, Artist creates with heart!

Pretty sure I have one for ya, 2 actually.

My calips read 7/16 thread hole, and an alum body about 1 1/8×1 3/8 , bearing held in with an internal snap ring.

Sound about right? You can retap the hole possibly, I didn’t try an actual bolt in it. Send me your addy and one is yours.

-- Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Wood Works

I’d drill it out like Jim stated and use a punch to punch it out. Sounds like you have lots of possabalities.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Thanks for the ideas guys. Will have to try and drill it out and find a bearing.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Hi Dan. Bring it to picnic and I’ll bring some tools to drill the punch holes.

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!!

Thanks for the help everyone.
I had a LJ ( Sphere ) send me an extra one he had. Thank You!

Thanks to this great site and all those who help each other out.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Scrappy,
I just inherited this same Craftsman lathe. My grandfather built a custom base and cover for it, but passed away before he got to use it. We pulled it out of storage, and everything is in pristine condition… but there are no centers for either end! I checked and Searspartsdirect says that the factory centers are discontinued.

Could you tell me more about the setup you are using for your drive spindle?
I’d prefer to get a spur drive center – mostly because I haven’t even turned, so I don’t want to buy a chuck – but I can’t tell what fits this machine. And I was totally lost on the tailstock until I saw your post. Guess my option is either a jacobs chuck/MT1 live center, or a larger live center, milled out to 1/2” x 20?

-- “I am a soul. I have a body.” Lloyd C. Douglas

I have found myself in this same boat with this lathe. I noted that Jim Jakosh mentioned that you have the capacity to create something similar that would serve this purpose. I would really like to talk to you about that possibility, if you could let me know if you still have the ability to fabricate this and would be willing to I would be extremely grateful.