Due to the mounting plate under the motor that serves as a tensioner for the belt (under the motor's own weight) I would say it's the right direction but could be easily changed I guess.

yeah - I guess the motor was mounted below the spindle, and reversed as well. If the bolt pattern is rectangular it should be easy to reverse.

I have the same model, yes the pulleys are on back to front as on the treadle (mine is on its original stand and was originally a treadle drive), the belt goes down though the table to a lay shaft.

The clutch lever doesn't seem to make sense the other way round, and the original catalog pics of this lathe with the v-belt pulley the opposite way round from the way mine is currently. On that basis I'm going to try flipping it and see how I get on.

these type A lathes normally have an intermediate pulley set, so that the motor stays fixed, and the headstock drive belt moves on headstock and intermediate set for speed change....mine has a motor from an industrial sewing machine, which runs constantly, and a knee-lever engages the clutch one way, through a disengaged position to a braking position.

Thanks! YOu've spotted one of the issues with talking over the videos live. The camera can see way more detail than my eyes could at the time. Now I look at the footage, the pins are way more clear.

Hi! Thanks so much for commenting. I'm really interested in seeing your pictures of the spindle taken apart, plus the ones of the parts I'm currently missing. Can you get in touch via the email address on the "About" page of this channel? You should be able to see it by going to the channel "Home", and then clicking on the ">" next to the channel description, and then finally "View email address". I'm hoping your pictures will help me prepare for stripping the spindle down safely, without doing any damage.

The ply and hinge mount seems to work nicely, and has been unexpectedly well made. This lathe must have been someone's treasured showpiece.

Hi Michel! Thanks for watching! Loving the videos with your new lathe, and perhaps I'm a teeny bit envious too!

Thanks, useful info. That makes the switch to oil easier to pull off, though i think in the long term it would be better to be able to see the oil level at a glance, and have a reasonable size oil reservoir so it doesn't need to be topped up too often.

i seem to remember that the headstock bearings might be hard steel on cast iron, so need to be kept lubricated, but very thinly so...the end play/clearance is quite nicely done by feel, as it's almost like a 'switch' between just right and 'locked up', as per my memory...my smaller Lorch has a split in the hradstock bearings, and a screw to adjust each spindle bearing, as the spindle can travel about 5-6 cm when doing threading operations.

Fun Fact: I was just watching your "scraping" video where you were addressing the saddle of Chinese (?) mini-lathe. I see now that the LORCH machine has a very similar situation as had the other machine. It would be interesting to see how this LORCH passes an examination of "its" tolerances. FWIW.

Any hints you can offer on what order things are best adjusted? Pre-load, then the lock-ring, or the other way round?

Thanks for the tips! Drip oilers does align with my thinking, though I'd never heard the term "zerk" before. TIL.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe I think it's one of those things that's regional/generational... I've just always heard them called Zerk fittngs. Made me curious enough to look it up... Apparently they were named after their inventor, Oscar U. Zerk. TI(also)L!

I do have to be careful, as I could easily accidentally end up with way more gear than I can fit in. This Model A was too tempting, especially as the seller was willing to ship it. It feels way more capable than the 3 hobby lathes I have so far, and I'm hoping it's going to be a satisfying project getting it into shape. Thanks for your tips during the Premiere chat. I'm off to track down some ATF.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Yeah, tell me about getting too much stuff into ones own shop... I had like 5 machines which fit the shop perfectly, and i vapor sealed the shop, started arranging stuff, sealing the tiles and what not, only to suddenly end up with 13 machines in the shop(some in parts, hidden beneath other machines) and no room for any work... But come on, you actually aren`t even near that point, so don`t worry about it, and you aren`t hoarding 3 tonne machines that instantly slurp up cubic meters with just their footprint, let alone needed access area for operating and maintenance... That said, you really did snag some nice machines... I would be wary of taking on such small machines, but that is just my specific viewpoint that is formed from my thought projects and mental gymnastics... Regarding the atf, i`m glad, it`s a great lubricant/washing fluid, depending on usecase... Speaking of car essentials, you should try manual gearbox teflon additive... Its detergent free, just 80w oil with teflon, quite akin to moly grease, but its more like 00 grade grease or near solid oil... I use it on my ways or to lube up any fasteners on machines... I don`t mix it with the whole bucket of way oil, i just add 15% volume to my oil can for ways/leadscrew oiler injections... It works like a charm, and you can use it pure to lube up tailstock bores or similar quill bores where there is no real high speed movement... You can also get some car wax in solid wax form and use it on machine`s painted surfaces... It helps any oil or coolant just piss off without leaving stains or soaking into the paint and cracking it... It wont do much against hot chips, but it is great for keeping the machines looking like new and clean for ages with occasional reapplications... Ceramic paint shields would be better, but are costly as fuck, so wax does it for me... And kerosene will temporarily revive any healthy but oxidized machine paint, so you can do a kero wipe down of the whole machine, followed by some light acetone wipe down and then apply the wax... Don`t use it on bare metal surfaces, for those you have those rust inhibitors which do much better in that department, but to keep the paint looking great, wax will do nicely... All the best and sorry for the mega-reply... Steuss

I don't know of any way to take that except as an amazing compliment. :) Sadly I'm not nearly a talented enough writer to do justice to that scenario.

The catalogue pictures show that the lathe shipped with the pulley the other way round, so the motor is correctly set up for the original configuration of the lathe. As I need to break down the spindle to change the lubrication, I'm going to stick with putting the pulley back to its original orientation. Thanks for the suggestion, as it would probably work perfectly if I wanted to avoid interfering with the spindle bearings.

I've dug up some original catalogue drawings from the late 1800's which show this model with the headstock pulley the other way round, so I think you're right. Trouble is I have to completely disassemble the spindle to flip it around. I need to do that anyway to clear out the dirty grease and switch to oil, so no extra hassle.

​@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe I was thinking the same thing. I've seen a lot of restorations of pulley driven lathes and almost always the largest pulley size on the headstock is closest to the chuck.

Hi Paul! This is the problem with recording the voice chatter while I am recording video: the camera gets a way better view than my aging eyes! Once I looked at the video, I spotted the "25" in loads of places, so it must be some kind of set number. I've seen these numbers on lots of watchmakers tools I've poked around.

Nice idea, thanks for the tip!

Thanks! I'm interested to know more about conical bearings in bicycles. Is this something that was used in the past, or are there still bicycles made today that use this type of bearings?

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe they are still widely used. Some parts of the higher-end equipment moved to industrial bearings, but some say conical bearing runs nicer (e.g. bikespeeds here on the tube), maybe a run-in period improves industrial bearings. Ceramic bearings are the absolute top, very low friction without any lube and very durable. I treated me some jockey wheels and the Ceramic ones make very nice fidget toys :-)

@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe about the time period, I can only say that my cycling maintenance books from mid-90s include a section on cone bearings. I guess industrial bearings popped up in on of the 2000 or 2010 experimental waves.

Unfortunately Evaporust is quite pricey this side of the pond, so I'm cautious about using lots of it. That said I do have a tub full lined up to work on this lathe, but I'll remove excess rust manually before I dunk the parts.

If you look closely you can see the pin on the other side of the handle-head in the video. A bit of a rub with the fine wire brush should show it clearly. That number “25” is surely a production number (it’s stamped on several parts), so that parts fitted to this lathe don’t get put on another lathe and cause ‘fit issues’. Exciting to see old tools and machines brought lovingly back to spec and back to good use once more.

I think he had already more than one very small lathe (3)

Yep, I've featured 3 on this channel already, The original Proxxon, the Chinese CJ0618, and the Unimat SL. I'm fond of the name though, so I don't think I'll change it just yet. The Proxxon is still with me on my adventures, even if it's no longer the only lathe in the shop.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe ok sorry, but I met you when you were already working on the mini Unimat and I thought it was the only one, mine was a joke due to the lack of knowledge of previous adventures

Also, the manufacturer put grease nipples on the headstock. Perhaps the headstock bearings should be lubricated with some kind of grease? I'm looking forward to this series of videos, thanks Mr AVSL.

I agree. A square head would be better than a slotted head, and I think it would be in keeping with style.

​@@janporkpiethey look like grease nipples but are designed to take oil. Myford lathes have similar nipples on them if they don't have the oil cups on them. I've recently cleaned out a Myford ML 10 that had everything packed with grease 😢 while the Myford says it has to take oil. On the Myford lathes only the gears take grease, all the rest oil. Also on bigger lathes you can see an insert with a ball bearing in the middle that is flush with a surface (cross slide, ...), these also take oil and not grease.

The grease nipples aren't original. Having spoken with Emma of Emma's Spareroom Machine Shop, who owns a similar model A, these lathes were originally fitted with oilers, and the bearings are designed for oil. A previous owner may have switched to grease for a specific reason, or just because it doesn't need to be changed as often as oil.

My main reason for thinking of slot-headed screws is that would match every other original fastener on the lathe. The square head screws on the chuck look shop-made. I do agree that square head screws would fit with the look of the lathe too, so I may go that way.

I have the same question

I'm afraid I can't help you. The animation is provided by KZfaq for the start of video Premieres. It's the "Sci-fi" option available from a list of about 20 to choose from.

Terrible music for the intro; please do not repeat!!!

As he showed, you can't even _see_ it on the other side. It's some sort of blind pin, unless the other end is just so flush you can't see it.

It's not visible currently, but I may be able to expose it by cleaning and removing the surface rust.

Hi Gerben, Thanks so much for you emails! I sent you a quick reply just now. One possible reason your comments might disappear is if you included a link in your comment perhaps? KZfaq silently deletes all comments with links, and there is nothing I can do to retrieve or allow them. I'm really grateful for the photos you sent me via email. I'll get back to you soon once I've had a good look through them.

I think you're right about the shim, especially as there is so much scoring on that side of the flange.

That's the plan. This video is just unpacking and first assessment.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe retired watchmaker very picky sorry.