1918 18" Lodge & Shipley Selective Head Lathe Restoration Project

It's not quite totally done, but the hard work is over now. As you can see, the motor is yet to be painted, the belt is not on and neither is the belt guard.
The gold lettering shows up a lot better head-on. The words "18" Lathe" are hidden under the forward gear selector lever.
The brass placards were not perfect, but certainly still readable.
The black paint is not my idea. Removing the placards on the headstock revealed black paint underneath. The gold lettering may or may not be authentic. The drawings in the original catalog I have show a different color on the letters, so I used gold. I just thought it looked right. As the end of the bed shows.. it's striking to say the least.

Hard to Believe

This picture was taken the very first day I saw the lathe, before I actually bought it. This was taken in March, 2004.

This will eventually be e multi-page site featuring before and after shots of repairs and parts. Check back soon for more.

UPDATE: The big lathe fired off for the first time about 10:00pm Friday night, December 9th, 2005. There is a slight issue with the belt staying on, but that should be resolved very soon.

Home at last




Finally set in place, wired up and under power. It was exactly a year ago that I was scaling, polishing, fixing and painting. The motor is now also cleaned up. Belt guard is not yet installed, but will probably be put in place in the next few weeks.

If you are wondering why there is a string attached to the tensioner, it is also attached to the disconnect switch. This is to ensure that I do not start the lathe without properly adjusting the tensioner. Turns out the belt issue was simply not enough tension, invariably results in the belt trying to run off.



This picture is for Jkilroy, who wanted to see what chips look like on a black lathe. Note the ball of swarf that has fallen, but seems suspended in mid-air just below the tool!

This is a very easy cut for the machine. To put the curl coming off the tool in perspective, this is a piece of 2 1/2" bar stock, the chuck is 12" and that HSS bit is 3/8" square. The depth of cut is about 1/16th inch and the feed rate is probably close to 1/16th as well.

First test cut with Cleveland Mo-Max HSS bit was at 104rpm. Power feed was engaged with cut at about 1/8" deep. Result was a single, unbroken curl 33" long that only ended when the tool got to center.

Factory Collet Chuck Procured!

Thanks to the keen eye of Mr. John Oder, I just bagged a vintage collet chuck for this lathe.


This is a huge collet chuck, about 60lbs. The collets are likewise enormous, much bigger than I ever expected. Note the gallon jug for scale...
Here is a 5C collet being eaten by the 1 1/4" L&S collet.
And finally, a side by side comparison...