My New Lathes Gloat
I picked up the lathes on Saturday with the help of my son.
The Delta is a 12" x 40" with 16" at the gap of the bed. The bearings are smooth and the spindle runs dead true. There was just a haze of surface rust on the ways that cleaned up with WD-40 and Scotch Brite. It came with 4 face plates and a 3 jaw chuck.
The Vega is a model 24 from the 80's. It needs a little cleaning up but seems like a solid machine. The spindle is just a straight 3/4" shaft. I'm going to turn the end down to 5/8" and chase threads on it. Then I'll make a threaded adapter hub that screws on the shaft and has 1"-8 thread on the outside so I can screw on a chuck. I'll also bore out the face plates and thread them. It's a little bit of work but it will make the lathe more usable.
The Vega has forward and reverse. What would you use reverse for?
Thanks for the advice last week on buying the Vega.
The best part of the gloat, other than getting 2 lathes, is the price. The total for both lathes was $ 500.
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