Thanks John! I'm gonna rebuild mine soon too...I'm actually doing a complete tear down and rebuild of the whole lathe now...with the exception of the main spindle...that is still gut und tight
OMG I love that wrench I bought it probably 20 years ago in the bay area. You can still find it if you look up "Japanese thin nose adjustable wrench" What I love is that it's very small but it opens to greater than 1 inch.
Thanks for that information. I just picked up a set of TOP HT-200B from Amazon for $28.81. Now I just have to wait for them to arrive from Japan. Was your root problem a broken or dislodged e-clip?
The clip worked itself out of the groove so the face gear no longer engaged. Not impressed with that method of securing. I didn’t talk about it too much, but I was overall disappointed with the quality of components inside that thing. I think a 5914 is a big step up in capability from a South Bend 9A, for instance but say, a South Bend Heavy 10L apron is far more refined, more robust, and more precise when you start messing around inside there.
BTW, Where have you been able to source parts? I need the brass bushings in the gearbox. I was actually thinking about buying a mini lathe just to make parts to fix my 5914. Eventually, I may add a stepper to control longitude and cross feed rates...I already bought the electronics to control everything and already have the stepper too....just trying to figure out if the stepper needs the gear box to drive the movements, or if I can just run it direct drive...stepper might not have enough direct torque without the transmission.
The gearbox is one of the components I still haven’t gone through. But I recall a guy in the SF Bay Area did his a few years ago- his insta is ‘kalamers’. He said the bushings were all available at McMaster-Carr. In my experience (which is mostly SB lathes- just did a heavy 10L gearbox) just carefully digging into it and creating a detailed record of everything will reveal all the details you need to know..
Thanks John! I'm gonna rebuild mine soon too...I'm actually doing a complete tear down and rebuild of the whole lathe now...with the exception of the main spindle...that is still gut und tight
Very nice rebuild video. Tell me more about that offset Crescent wrench at 32:38? It looks like it is very useful.
OMG I love that wrench I bought it probably 20 years ago in the bay area. You can still find it if you look up "Japanese thin nose adjustable wrench" What I love is that it's very small but it opens to greater than 1 inch.
Thanks for that information. I just picked up a set of TOP HT-200B from Amazon for $28.81. Now I just have to wait for them to arrive from Japan.
Was your root problem a broken or dislodged e-clip?
The clip worked itself out of the groove so the face gear no longer engaged. Not impressed with that method of securing. I didn’t talk about it too much, but I was overall disappointed with the quality of components inside that thing. I think a 5914 is a big step up in capability from a South Bend 9A, for instance but say, a South Bend Heavy 10L apron is far more refined, more robust, and more precise when you start messing around inside there.
BTW, Where have you been able to source parts? I need the brass bushings in the gearbox. I was actually thinking about buying a mini lathe just to make parts to fix my 5914. Eventually, I may add a stepper to control longitude and cross feed rates...I already bought the electronics to control everything and already have the stepper too....just trying to figure out if the stepper needs the gear box to drive the movements, or if I can just run it direct drive...stepper might not have enough direct torque without the transmission.
The gearbox is one of the components I still haven’t gone through. But I recall a guy in the SF Bay Area did his a few years ago- his insta is ‘kalamers’. He said the bushings were all available at McMaster-Carr. In my experience (which is mostly SB lathes- just did a heavy 10L gearbox) just carefully digging into it and creating a detailed record of everything will reveal all the details you need to know..
Thank you for posting this video. It has been very helpful.