Hi,
Looking out at the frost this morning I thought a perfect day for blasting the Lorch legs? I set up the compressor and blaster and was soon blasting away on the driveway ignoring the bitterly cold gale coming up the valley and the odd shower a bit later. I had removed as much paint and rust as possible using the angle grinder but what a delight it was to blast into tight corners and crevices seeing bright shiny bare metal quickly appear. This time the blaster had a good run before it started to block but by now the blasting media was running low; the legs will be given a close inspection then hopefully they will be ready to receive new paint. What a long drawn out job it has been to get these legs clean unaided by our dire climate.
I knocked off for dinner just as the first heavy shower appeared to soak everything; my skin felt like sharp sandpaper but for once I had beaten the weather; what I thought to be light showers Bron told me it had been trying to snow but I was too interested in the blasting to notice. When the blaster is working as it should it is brilliant and this morning it was rapidly removing the paint and rust; After dinner I tidied up and put the car away then have just had a long hot soak in the bath; all in all a good day and I can now start to move this project forward; next job I think will be the counter-shaft frame; I'm concentrating on getting the stand finished first before starting proper on the lathe. I'm now pleased with progress so far.
Update on the drive belts. I've made a huge blunder in contacting the belt manufacturer in Cleckheaton requesting prices of endless flat belts to suit this Lorch and wasted their time? It's been an honest mistake on my part because the lathe design caught me out. All my previous lathes have had endless belts running within the head-stock pedestal and for many years these have been either Poly-V or "V" belts. When I removed both belts the lathe was sited against the garage wall giving poor access; I merely broke both belts at their metal fastener to measure them; I even used a steel tape measure to double check pushing the tape up through the head-stock and around the pulleys.
I've been looking at the pictures of the lathe and I was amazed to see that the head-stock drive belt actually comes up the outer back of the head-stock through a rectangular hole which can be seen in the picture; then the belt goes over the head-stock pulleys and down through the bed past the hidden idler pulley thereby entrapping part of the head-stock so this belt must be joined in-situ and cannot be truly endless. I've just sent an email apology to the belt manufacturer for missing this. Absolutely nothing can be taken for granted during one of these machinery rebuilds; it would have been even more embarrassing had I actually gone ahead and paid for the new belts to be joined? I can and do get caught out like everyone else even though I take a lot of care to get it right.
Kind regards, Col.
Looking out at the frost this morning I thought a perfect day for blasting the Lorch legs? I set up the compressor and blaster and was soon blasting away on the driveway ignoring the bitterly cold gale coming up the valley and the odd shower a bit later. I had removed as much paint and rust as possible using the angle grinder but what a delight it was to blast into tight corners and crevices seeing bright shiny bare metal quickly appear. This time the blaster had a good run before it started to block but by now the blasting media was running low; the legs will be given a close inspection then hopefully they will be ready to receive new paint. What a long drawn out job it has been to get these legs clean unaided by our dire climate.
I knocked off for dinner just as the first heavy shower appeared to soak everything; my skin felt like sharp sandpaper but for once I had beaten the weather; what I thought to be light showers Bron told me it had been trying to snow but I was too interested in the blasting to notice. When the blaster is working as it should it is brilliant and this morning it was rapidly removing the paint and rust; After dinner I tidied up and put the car away then have just had a long hot soak in the bath; all in all a good day and I can now start to move this project forward; next job I think will be the counter-shaft frame; I'm concentrating on getting the stand finished first before starting proper on the lathe. I'm now pleased with progress so far.
Update on the drive belts. I've made a huge blunder in contacting the belt manufacturer in Cleckheaton requesting prices of endless flat belts to suit this Lorch and wasted their time? It's been an honest mistake on my part because the lathe design caught me out. All my previous lathes have had endless belts running within the head-stock pedestal and for many years these have been either Poly-V or "V" belts. When I removed both belts the lathe was sited against the garage wall giving poor access; I merely broke both belts at their metal fastener to measure them; I even used a steel tape measure to double check pushing the tape up through the head-stock and around the pulleys.
I've been looking at the pictures of the lathe and I was amazed to see that the head-stock drive belt actually comes up the outer back of the head-stock through a rectangular hole which can be seen in the picture; then the belt goes over the head-stock pulleys and down through the bed past the hidden idler pulley thereby entrapping part of the head-stock so this belt must be joined in-situ and cannot be truly endless. I've just sent an email apology to the belt manufacturer for missing this. Absolutely nothing can be taken for granted during one of these machinery rebuilds; it would have been even more embarrassing had I actually gone ahead and paid for the new belts to be joined? I can and do get caught out like everyone else even though I take a lot of care to get it right.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
