New Life for an Old Wood Lathe

Several years ago, I bought an old wood lathe I found on Craig's List for 50 bucks. I served me well but slowly the bearings wore out and it is too old to find new bearings and too expensive to have it rebuilt. It still turns but not true enough to make anything on. I had a buffing wheel and a wire wheel laying around the shop so I decided to put it all together to make a buffing and wire brush station with the old lathe. I will explain the parts I used as I go along.

The shaft connected to the motor by a drive belt is called a Head Stock. This lathe spindle has a Morse Taper or MT1.

I ordered an MT1 threaded mandrel to 1/2" -20 tpi. (threads per inch). I bought a threaded coupler 1/2" 20 from a hardware store that screws onto the mandrel.

I had some threaded shaft also 1/2" 20 which I cut to 12 inches in length and fit that into the threaded coupler.

I screwed two nuts on each side of washers that hold the buffing wheel on. The buffing wheel was made for a 5/8" shaft so I drilled out a 5/8"dowel piece to 1/2" and held it in place with flanges and washers. Then tightened the bolts with two wrenches.

I mounted the wire brush in the same way as the buffing wheel. At the end of the shaft, I drilled a scrap of wood just deep enough to epoxy a threaded insert that screws into the end of the shaft. The tail stock has a live center mounted in it. (also MT1). The live center fits into a slight indentation in the wood block and spins.

This is my completed buffing and wire brushing station. I like it!