Well it's a damp and dreary Saturday here in Trenton. Been grey all day. Good day to work in the shop you'd think, however I have been shellacking the wooden shelf I built for the lathe to stretch between the legs and I did not want to do too much work that would cause dust or metal particles to fall on the wet shellac. However we still managed to get some work done over the past week.

Last week I had the QC change gear casting all primered, this week we gave it a nice coat of paint. As well I carefully cleaned the shelf tray casting for the #86 lathe, again using the Foredom grinder to get into all the small spaces. While cleaning this I noticed that there was a faint impression in the casting. I'm not sure whether they cast these pieces in house or whether they came from an outside supplier. However in the shelf bracket was cast "H Bros 170" along the one edge of the bracket where it is bolted to the lathe. On one of the webs was etched the "170" in larger print. I'm guessing that was the part number for the tray bracket. Once the bracket was cleaned it received a coat of primer and then topcoat. Here are a couple of pictures of the bracket being cleaned, then the casting impressions and then the bracket with a coat of primer.

While these items were drying I decided it was time to work on the wooden shelf that I will insert below the lathe between the legs. I first did this on the #39 lathe and thought it was such a good Idea I would do it again. I still had some nice 1/4sawn white oak around so I planed and laminated a few pieces for the shelf. I then made a support structure that would keep the shelf board straight. Once it was assembled I gave it multiple coats of shellac. Here is a few pictures of the shelf structure being made and then shellacked.

Today I took the shelf casting and attached the two trays I made earlier to the bracket. This bracket which was an original one, actually had threaded bolt holes for securing the shelf. I elected to rivet it together just like I did for my other lathe. I won't go through the whole process again as I discussed this in an earlier blog. However after a few hours work the shelves were riveted to the casting and the whole assembly was mounted on the end of the lathe. I also mounted the wooden shelf as well. Here are a couple of pictures one showing the tray and bracket during work with primer of the bare areas and a final picture showing both items mounted and secured to the lathe.

                         

One last thing I did today was drill 4 holes in the dollies and bolt the lathe to the dollies. I did this just to make the lathe a little more secure since once the overhead drive is installed the lathe will be quite top heavy and it really does not have a wide stance on its the legs.

Well until next week enjoy the weather and remember "Don't worry, Be happy"

Harold