With the headstock running and some debugging in the thread/feed screw transmission, I installed the chuck to start working up the saddle & eventually start making test cuts.

Its beginning to look like a working lathe.  The little red oilers are kind of funny but the big ones on the spindle bearings are somewhat jarring- so at some point I'll replace them with nice brass oilers. 

Here, I moved the lathe around the corner of the bench so I could get at the back side of the saddle.  With the saddle in place, the lathe balances very nicely when suspended from just beneath the chuck.  I used the old trick of putting the strap across the top of the ways, then bringing the ends under and up between the ways to the hook.  The lathe lifts & carries easily with plenty of clearance with the crane in the 1 1/2 ton position.





This is a closeup of the chuck adapter which came along with the lathe.  Its formed of two parts, the first screwing onto the spindle threads.  The 2nd, sandwiched between the first and the chuck is part of an old South Bend backplate (the stamp on it is visible with the chuck removed), turned to fit the chuck recess and the spindle adaptor.  The chuck (also a South Bend) bolts to the middle plate, which bolts to the spindle adapter.  Quite an assembly- but it works well enough.  The 4 jaw chuck here is kind of tired, but it will certainly work well enough to turn a proper spindle adapter for a new, smaller chuck.  The 10" chuck presents some clearance problems with work up near the jaws- and most anything I'll be doing will fit just fine onto a 6" chuck.





;;; eof