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Rivett 1030F Project and Docs

I decided to start tackling the non functional Tach. I found that the generator is totally functional albeit a bit loose in all aspects. The piece of plastic that couples it to the shaft was broken. As far as I can tell, it’s just a piece of vinyl hose or something. The glass on the tach was busted…. Likely been busted longer than I’ve been alive. Going to have a new piece laser cut and going to try and clean up the bezel and face the best I can. It was full of chips, and I’m not optimistic that it is serviceable, but I’m definitely going to find out.
 

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IMO, the single biggest weakness on these lathes is the recirculating way lube and the apron pump with no filter. If your waylube pump is still working, change the oil in the apron.
 
IMO, the single biggest weakness on these lathes is the recirculating way lube and the apron pump with no filter. If your waylube pump is still working, change the oil in the apron.
It’s working great, and it has a fresh fill of V2. I’ve heard that they get plugged up, so I’ll keep an eye on it.
 
Thank you for posting the documents. I enjoyed seeing the price lists. This was something I’ve been curious about. Also, I would second the comment on the apron oil pump pick-up. I think Rivett was relying on letting the contaminants sink to the bottom of the sump theory. I also agree with pulling the apron and saddle apart to clean and inspect as there are a few bearings in the apron that never see oil. They rely on their initial lubrication.

On my lathe the saddle and ways were in very good condition. The original scraping could be seen. Rivett had contact with not only the front and back ways but also the front tail stock flat way which they also had oil going to. I guess they were counting on the saddle wearing and very little wear on the tool steel ways. Maybe the theory was to increase rigidity. In contrast my 10EE has about .015 clearance between the saddle and this way, but the cross slide and its casting are heavier. Both machines were in original condition.

I have thought about starting a post on a comparison of these two machines. I would be interested in what others think. Having taken both machines completely apart, there are many similarities but also differences. But I haven’t figured out how to structure the post yet.
 
The comparison is interesting not only to you, Dave. I run most of my turning work on a Colchester Chipmaster and like it, but have also have mild lust to run and work on a CVA and a Rivett 1020F. At the end of the day, similar work capacity but different machines.
 
I checked out the Tach. After removing all of the chips and thoroughly cleaning, I noticed that the top clock spring was broken. I “rewound” it with a couple pairs of tweezers and resoldered it. I hooked it up and it worked, but grossly off. But hooray it works. I’m probably going to sort a digital method for a tach, but that’s future me’s problem.
 

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Just saw this, but beautiful lathe you got there. I have nearly its twin, a 1965 1030F. Did you get a steady rest for it perchance?
I was playing around with all of the back gears, threading etc after an oil change. I thought I did something bad because Forward “quit” working.

After about an hour of trouble shooting in the electrical cab, and cleaning all of the electrical contacts on the contactors, it lead me back up to the main switch panel.

This is where I found out that if you have the thread selection set to left hand, it won’t let the Lathe run in forward hahaha.
This behavior indicates one of the microswitches on the threading circuit is stuck or engaged; it should be an easy fix to repair this. There should be three rods along the front length of the bed; the leadscrew, the feedrod, and one bottom rod which is ~7/16" (from memory, it might be slightly different) square, with two small clamps on it. This is a stoprod for carriage feed during threading. This rod is springloaded to the center. If you remove the serial number nameplate at the right end of the bed (on the leadscrew support casting), you should see two microswitches with rollers inside the casting that engage with this rod. I would expect the stop rod to be jammed or stuck at one limit of its travel, although it's also possible one of the switches is broken or there is a wiring problem. On my lathe the rod was bent by a prior owner so I had to replace it, but it's a pretty simple turning job.

Be careful if you run the carriage all the way to the right end of the bed. There's a small gear on the apron supporting the leadscrew, and the gear will crash into the end of the leadscrew threads before the carriage hits a stop. The leadscrew is not hardened so I removed mine and chased the thread an inch farther.

I second the advice to open up the apron. On mine the lube pump was seized because the small leaf spring protecting the pump piston from sideload transmitted by the hexagonal pump cam was broken. That might explain the wear on your machine. The sightglass on my machine was also fully clouded over.

As for lathe comparisons, I don't remember where but I've written up comparisons between my Rivett 1030F, Monarch 10ees (I've run several and owned a few), and a Nebel Microturn. The summary is they're all similar enough that condition would matter to me more than brand. The Monarch is a little better engineered than the Rivett, but the Rivett is stouter.

I made way wipers for the crossfeed on my Rivett (one area where the factory Monarch is superior). I made mine out of aluminum but would have used brass if I'd known better. Modifying the crossfeed to use way wipers (and for DRO brackets) was nice and easy due to the boxy machined design.
 
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sorry for the radio silence. I’ve used the lathe for a couple small projects. Is so fun to run. The company I got it from hooked me up with the ATS 5C quick closer, a rohm 4 jaw and a bunch of Aloris axa stuff. (Definitely need a bxa setup as well with this rig) that they used with it. So that is nice!

I had a wild freak out moment when a manager said that he was pretty sure he found the steady rest for it. He dropped it at my house and unfortunately I knew that it wasn’t at first glance….. boo hiss.

On a side note, there are no markings, but it looks like this thing is old enough to have sat behind Jesus in third grade. Any ideas? Free to a good home with some shipping and tip for a pound of Busch Light.BEA3D674-54DB-456C-86AE-7BEE814C1B55.jpeg
 

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Just saw this, but beautiful lathe you got there. I have nearly its twin, a 1965 1030F. Did you get a steady rest for it perchance?

This behavior indicates one of the microswitches on the threading circuit is stuck or engaged; it should be an easy fix to repair this. There should be three rods along the front length of the bed; the leadscrew, the feedrod, and one bottom rod which is ~7/16" (from memory, it might be slightly different) square, with two small clamps on it. This is a stoprod for carriage feed during threading. This rod is springloaded to the center. If you remove the serial number nameplate at the right end of the bed (on the leadscrew support casting), you should see two microswitches with rollers inside the casting that engage with this rod. I would expect the stop rod to be jammed or stuck at one limit of its travel, although it's also possible one of the switches is broken or there is a wiring problem. On my lathe the rod was bent by a prior owner so I had to replace it, but it's a pretty simple turning job.

Be careful if you run the carriage all the way to the right end of the bed. There's a small gear on the apron supporting the leadscrew, and the gear will crash into the end of the leadscrew threads before the carriage hits a stop. The leadscrew is not hardened so I removed mine and chased the thread an inch farther.

I second the advice to open up the apron. On mine the lube pump was seized because the small leaf spring protecting the pump piston from sideload transmitted by the hexagonal pump cam was broken. That might explain the wear on your machine. The sightglass on my machine was also fully clouded over.

As for lathe comparisons, I don't remember where but I've written up comparisons between my Rivett 1030F, Monarch 10ees (I've run several and owned a few), and a Nebel Microturn. The summary is they're all similar enough that condition would matter to me more than brand. The Monarch is a little better engineered than the Rivett, but the Rivett is stouter.

I made way wipers for the crossfeed on my Rivett (one area where the factory Monarch is superior). I made mine out of aluminum but would have used brass if I'd known better. Modifying the crossfeed to use way wipers (and for DRO brackets) was nice and easy due to the boxy machined design.
I’m looking for parts for my 1963 1030F. I’m missing all of the doors around the base and I need a tachometer. Do you guys have any ideas where I could find these parts?
 








 
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