I recently inquired to Delta about getting a new tailstock assembly (made up of 19 individual parts) for a model 46-305 lathe. This model lathe is at least 24 years old (the last manual revision date is 10/1/78).
With the Delta parts department on the phone, I started getting pricing for the 19 items, since the tailstock assembly is not available as a whole assembly. The first part: $117, the second part: $249. I stopped her there, not wanting the grand total for all 19 parts.
Really, the prices were understandable. If Delta were my company, I wouldn’t warehouse parts for 25 year old lathes either. I would charge the price it costs to make them today.
My question to you ALL, is this:
Is there a secondary market for parts for old tools? Barring that, are tailstocks for Delta lathes interchangeable? Delta parts people were not very forthcoming on the second one…
Seriously, I really need some help here. It’s not as exciting as talking about Norm Abrams, or which table saw I should buy, but I’m hoping someone can throw me a bone…
Thanks,
Kevin
Replies
Refreshingly new!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Try Plaza Machinery, Bethel, VT, phone 802.234.9673, fax 802.234.6325. Ask for Joe. They only answer the phone M-T-W, but he has lots of old WW machines, including lots of Delta parts. They show a tailstock for a 46-110 10" (old style) Delta wood lathe on their web site. Good luck.
http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/plaza/
Be seeing you...
Wow, double wow! Sorry to go off topic, but Bethel, VT! Use to go there every summer while growing up. Not a place I would look for a machinery parts place. The town is, or at least use to be, about 2 baseball throws big! Is the old Bailey still up?
Wow.
Don
If Joe at Plaza can't help, try Harold Barker 3108 klinger Rd. > Ada, OH 45810 phone is 419-634-7328. His specialty is metal and wood lathes. Has a ton of parts for all types of machines. Thought everyone knows of Plaza.
Dave Koury
Very nice...
Thanks for Plaza Machinery (I'll call them Monday) and Harold Barker. Hopefuly one of them has a tailstock they can part with...
I admit I was hoping there might be after market manufacturers of this type of thing, but I suppose it's not a piece of equipment that actually wears out, unlike the market for auto or aviation parts. Bummer.
I hadn't actually thought of MAKING a tailstock, but what the heck? I suppose I could build what would have been the casting out of wood (or wood product), and purchase the actual working/ moving parts, huh?
Not giving up hope on this lathe yet...
Kevin
BIG UPDATE-
Just got off the phone with Harold Barker. Wow. The man has thousands of old lathe parts, including engineering drawings for them. He had old ones and new ones that he had cast himself. I turns out a new tailstock assembly from him is only $125 and a live center only $20.
Harold is retired himself, but still works in the shop and is usually up until midnight. He's going to South America Wednesday until after the 29th.. How do I know all this? Well, Harold likes to talk, too... Nice guy. Looks like I've found my tailstock.
Thanks so much for all your help,
Kevin
If you can't find a tailstock at a price you want to pay, I don't think it would be that difficult to fabricate one. The tolerances required are much less rigorous than for a metal lathe. You could start some entertaining arguments here about what features are needed and what materials to use. (Baltic birch ply would be my first choice, with Formica for the wear surfaces.) As far as techniques, Taunton Press used to have a book on making woowdorking machinery. It mey still be in stock, but I don't see it on the web site.
Making stuff is fun. Making tools to make stuff is fun. But making machines to make stuff is serious fun.
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