A little over a year ago, I bought a Delta HD lathe (probably a 46-450) off of Craigslist. It was missing a few parts, but overall was in good shape structurally and certainly worth restoring. Since I use a 9" Craftsman now, this would be a big step up. Then last January I saw another CL ad, this time for a Delta HD shaper. This one was also in decent shape, more complete but with somewhat more rust. I use a Delt LD shaper now, and it's a good machine but the top is pretty small. So I went and had a look, and picked it up for a decent price (not nearly the steal the lathe was, though).
Here's the lathe, after unloading in my garage:
And the shaper, as unloaded:
I foolishly decide to restore both at the same time, lured by the false economy of a single bearing order and fewer painting sessions. These trivial advantages were more than offset by the confusion of more parts laying around, more missteps ("Anybody know where this wavy washer goes? It sure doesn't work in this motor."), and frankly I didn't have the setup to paint everything at once anyway. But I got past all that, and even got to paint outside since the weather was warm:
(My kids are too old for the swing set anyway.)
Both assemblies went OK, though I did have to make 4 trips to the autoparts store to get the right belts for the lathe. Being variable speed, and not having the original belts, I was approximating my measurements to get close and then working by fit and motor location changes. Also, part of the speed control had been stripped, so I had to figure out how the speed change cable ran and how to replace the missing tension spring--which took a good 3 hours.
Anyway, here they are:
Both machines have new bearings all around. The main paint is Benjamin Moore Impervo, in a cream color, with some Ace Hardware house-brand enamel mixed to maroon for the stripes. Both have 1 hp 3ph motors. I will be putting a VFD on the lathe to get more variable speed off of it, but am going to leave the shaper motor there for the time being (running off of my RPC).
The shaper is now pretty much ready to go. It will be getting the mobile base that's under the lathe head right now, after the lathe is parked. The lathe itself needs some more work--the VFD of course, but I'm also missing the left bearing retaining nut and the indexing pin on the headstock, and the speed control handle and the odd connector it uses are missing too. That connector alone will run between $100 and $200 from Ace Tool Repair--probably more than the lathe itself cost me.
Finally, the Craftsman lathe and LD shaper will go on the block. Maybe I'll get enough for them to pay for those lathe parts.
Kirk
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Originally Posted by Brian Kincaid
