Straightening a lathe feed rod

[Paul Jones]

petertha,

This is a very interesting comment and thank you for your insight. I think I may be the exceptional case of being luckier than smart because the in situ lathe feed rod straightening worked-out fine and no more problems that I can detect from the lead screw or the feed rod. Lucky the lead screw was not bent and I have used the lead screw to cut both fine thread imperial and metric threads without any further problems in being out of round.

However, one of these days I do want to totally dismantle the lathe carriage and repair a very slow oil leak coming from the carriage oil bath sump (I think the oil leak is from one of the thread dial attachment screws drilled too deeply and into the oil sump - I think I can counterbore the top of the thread hole and use an O-ring slipped over the attachment machine bolt to stop the leak). When I do the lathe carriage dismantling, I will remove the rods and use the measurement technique used by Keith Fenner for further straightening of the lathe drive shaft rods if needed. As you advised, I will check the worm gear block and if necessary, I can fabricate the replacement parts because none are available (see my case of replacing the lathe change gears http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/r...6967#post23027 ).

I have watched several of the rod straightening videos by Keith Fenner and also saw him perform this work live at the June Summer Bash events hosted by Stan Zinkosky in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Keith's techniques are exceptional and I highly recommend trying the methods.

I will let you know how this turns out.

Regards,

Paul Jones