New to me 1946 Pacemaker 16x54”

[johnoder]

John, thanks for the link. That is both resourceful and clever. I can imagine somewhere in the distant past that a set up like that one being the first follow-rest. Did you ever use the tee slots again? I don’t recall seeing that before. Do you know of any other machines that had this feature?

Fairly common in older times when it was more commonplace to mount stuff on lathe carriage like boring a big cylinder with a boring bar between centers. Tee slots for securing such work were essential.

Old stuff - even oldie South Bends had some semblance of carriage tee slots

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1617/5795.pdf

 

[Greg Menke]

My old 1912 American had saddle t-slots but I didn't use them, though would have last year I had a long thin job- if I was as clever as John

Lacking the slots I found an older New England pattern follow rest on ebay (has an L shaped bar over the top similar to John's approach)- so it was easy to adapt. I had to saw off one of the legs, mill it down and braze back on to fit the bolt-holes on my carriage.

Height of the L's vertex at the end of the horizontal bar needs to be a bit above the spindle cenerline, so the work is caught by L and can't lever itself up and out. The dimensions of the L cutout is easily modified to suit, I used a scrapped vise jaw.

 

[john.k]

Chain looks way too tight to me ...should be at least 1/2" slack on the return side when its under load.

 

[Peter S]

There’s a silent chain and sprockets where the belts once were

FWIW , You have roller chain, not silent chain.
Looks like a nice lathe.

 

[m-lud]

FWIW , You have roller chain, not silent chain.
Looks like a nice lathe.

A silent chain was like a timing chain on a car engine. Driven by more of a gear than a sprocket. They were not silent as advertised. I think they were more popular on machinery of the 1920's and 30's. I could be wrong on dating the popularity of use.

On the T slot conversation.
I had an old Cincinnati lathe that had T slots on the carriage arms. The good-sized platform gave a substantial flat area for mounting tools. That was an era of making whatever was needed to get the job done. More versatility in the machinery, and the Machinist

Very nice Pacemaker, another vintage lathe being brought back into action. I'm following the process.