Sypher Lathe |
| This is an older model Sypher lathe I found for sale on Craigslist. The stand was included, it is not
square, but otherwise sturdy. It came mounted on a wood top on top
of the stand. It came with a huge 1/2 hp motor. The only thing it was really missing was a handle on the top cross
slide. It also came with a nice 5" 4 jaw chuck. I have since remounted the lathe using some angle iron, and installed a different motor. I also removed the two step flat pulleys and replaced them with three step pulleys. The pulley on the spindle was a 3" 3 belt pulley from the 14" rockwell table saw. It has been returned into a step pulley of 3", 2.5", and 2". The clamp near the front bushing on the head stock is holding together the reverse thrust bushing which is broken in 3 places. It is threaded, so when you tighten the clamp up it holds it in place pretty snug. One real draw back to this lathe is that it has a fully captured lead screw nut, and the lead screw was 1/2"-13 TPI. That required a lot of turning to move the carraige back and forth. And the lead screw nut, made out of aluminum, was pretty worn so there was an excess of play. I decided to replace the lead screw with an Acme 5/8"-8 TPI left hand screw. Here is the saddle set up on the milling machine to open up the slot so the new lead screw could fit through. All back together and adjusted. The lead screw nut is attached to the saddle via a piece of angle to which it is welded. The angle is bolted to the saddle and shimed for proper alignment. Another addition to the lathe is a simple carraige stop, and a few homemade handwheels. In the picture you can see part of the cross slide handwheel. The outer part of the wheel is divided into 62.5 divisions to match the current leadscrew. The inner part of the wheel is divided into 31 divsions which equal approx. .002". A handwheel was also added to the left side of the lead screw. It is graduated around the circumference equal to .001". |
