I recently traded my friend some wood for his old 46-525 lathe(basically got it free since it was wood from logs I milled up and left over alder). He told me the lathe came from his old high school wood shop in Santa Cruz. I haven't really turned anything except for a baseball bat in high school and found that to be a waste of time. I am going to get into turning pens and small bowls which should be ok with this machine based on the research I have done this far. The problem I am having is trying to find a manual. Does anyone have a digital copy? This lathe hasn't turned something for 10 to 15 years. Is there any servicing I need to do to it before I get working? When I plug the lathe in it makes a hummin noise but my buddy said it has always done that. Should I be concerned about the humming? When I turn it on it seams rather loud but not bad enough to need ear plugs. How would I tell if it needs bearings? I haven't checked to make sure the tail stock lines up but that should be relatively easy to check. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
And yes turning is a tornado of things to buy. Luckily for me I will be able to get some blanks from the slash of the logs I mill. Some walnut slash has good size balls on it where suckers grew out. I hate to throw away that nice figure.
Thanks
Karl