~1935 Hardinge Cataract Bench Lathe Restoration

SONICJK

Reminds me of...me No, I'm sure of it. I hate him
Well I wanted a lathe, I wasn't sure particularly why, and I wasn't sure particularly what, but I wanted it damn it.

And then this sweet little gem fell into my lap for the lowly sum of $250. All american made, all cast iron, all badass.
Runs like a top, needs a restoration!





Found this awesome website for info:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/cataract/

Which dates mine to mid 1930's somewhere I'm going to find out more, the guys on practical machinist seem to be well versed in these little guys.

a BIG perk here:

Haven't gone through it all yet but LOADS of drill bits, mill cutters, hss, etc and a bunch of stuff I can't identify. (Shut up I'm learning)

The bench its on is all solid northern hard maple (the bench alone is 450 lbs), which is covered in some shit paint, so that will be first to go (being a woodworker, this part is important!). It will all get sanded down to nice beautiful maple and finished in conversion varnish.
Then I'll strip the paint off the lathe and repaint, not sure yet on color, maybe a light green, or maybe red? I dunno.

Anyway, figured I'd start a thread as I love projects of all types and I've never seen this done on here before.

These seem pretty valuable from my limited research, the compound alone seems to go for over a grand.
 
Nah bearings are fine.
Looks like ass and the design is too pretty to leave it like that ;)
 
SONIC. said:
Nah bearings are fine.
Looks like ass and the design is too pretty to leave it like that ;)
roger that ;D but before you go stripping paint off be aware that most of that old cast iron machinery is filled and smoothed before paint, you start removing that paint and filler and it really opens a can o shitworms
 
VonYinzer said:
Beautiful machine. Paint it battleship grey.

That's the color now pretty much. Trying to think of something that will contrast the maple well.
 
Got it. A lot of our old stuff at work is a cool hammer finish green. I'm sure you've seen it. They painted everything that color in the 50s.
 
VonYinzer said:
Got it. A lot of our old stuff at work is a cool hammer finish green. I'm sure you've seen it. They painted everything that color in the 50s.

Yeah I think that may be in the cards.
Have to figure out what is the preferable type of paint for these things. Has to pretty resilient
 
We paint our industrial gearboxes that we build with PPG Pitthane high build polyurethane. Stuff is bulletproof and impervious to oil, grease, fuel, etc. Any PPG dealer should be able to mix you up any color you want. It's a little pricey, but worth it. We get gearboxes back that have been in stwel mills for a decade, and the paint is like new.
 
You have to use the Pitthane primer though, so make sure you get everything you need. Also, be very careful when mixing it all (it's a two part system, have to add hardner). Mix it wrong and you'll have a bucket of pretty colored muck the consistency of peanut butter.
 
Cute little lathe! Did you get the collets that go with the draw-bar on the back?
 
4eyes said:
Cute little lathe! Did you get the collets that go with the draw-bar on the back?

Aaaaaaand now I show my ignorance here.... Don't know what anything in that sentence means haha
 
That's cool. Looks very similar to an old lathe that was given to my dad a few years back. I've recently been cleaning it up and trying to get it working.

 
SONIC. said:
Aaaaaaand now I show my ignorance here.... Don't know what anything in that sentence means haha
collets are used instead of a jawed chuck to hold different sized and shaped barstock..
quite handy for production runs
 
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