# Old Wood lathe(?) Spindle unidentifiable



## Hhochberg7 (Sep 4, 2018)

So I have worked with a retired carpenter for a while restoring tools and building hand tools. As he's settling in to his retirement I bought an old Wood lathe base off him looking to build from scratch. He said he's had it for decades and all he knows is it's made of Baltic Birch. The spindle looked standard enough until I got to the nose, it's the only piece with any sort of part number and it doesn't match any public database. It's stamped 21052 and locks on with a single screw. Can anyone tell me what it is??


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

what part are you calling the "nose" ??

those are called pillow block bearings. very common for shaft driven tools.
the lathe center spur may or may not be homemade. wood lathe spurs are
available from online sources as well as woodworking supply stores.
BUT - they have a morse taper end that must marry to the MT socket.
that whole assembly is more than likely homemade from parts he had on hand.
if the bearings are worn, they are readily available online and auto parts stores such as NAPA.
the newer styles have sealed bearings or grease fittings - not the oil cup on top.

a good machinist with a metal lathe can make just about anything suitable
for different purposes.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

No more than is pictured my guess is the lathe is homemade using common pillow blocks. The flat spot on the shaft is just for the set screw in the step pulley.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Everything I can see looks to be home built, does the drive spur fit on a 5/8" shaft, if so it is made for a Shopsmith lathe.


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## Hhochberg7 (Sep 4, 2018)

Yes the whole thing is homemade. The gentleman I got it from is pretty sure his brother made everything including the machining for the spindle. I'm as green as it gets for woodturni g and this project is very foreign to me. I didn't even know what the spur center was u til this forum. 

Thanks for the info guys!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Hard to say what you should do. It needs a bit of work to make it functional and if you plan to use it a lot I don't think it would hold up to it. When turning between centers there is a lot of pressure against the spur center. The pillow blocks would experience a lot of wear from this pressure. 

Looking at the picture again the spur center is missing the pin which goes in the center. I don't know if you can just get the pin, you may have to purchase a new spur center. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/itemfind.htm?item=505715


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