The Home Machinist!

G'Day, Would I go out and buy a collet set just to use in the lathe tailstock ?, no way, but since I have ER 32 collets for the mill, a 3MT ER 32 chuck cost me about $35.00 and has been worth every cent, I wouldn't hold a centre drill or reamer any other way. Tightening is not a problem using a 36mm...

G'Day, Some of the Frejoth lathes were identical to the Honden, if you scroll down this page, Big Trev has a thread running on what is required to replace the belt on his, it is not a job for the feint hearted, a link belt is a much easier (although more expensive ) alternative. A photo and location...

G"Day Trev, My Honden has been fitted with a 1.5 HP D.C. motor and KBMM controller since day one and works perfectly, I only use backgear to lock the drive train when changing chucks. The motor is a serious industrial quality Pacific Scientific unit which are not easy to find at a reasonable pr...

G'Day Trev, Thanks for the post, seeing what's involved, I'm convinced that link belts are the way for me to go, before you reassemble, it's worth cutting a screwdriver slot in the end of the backgear engagement shaft as it's a real bitch to adjust the gear clearance without one (been there done tha...

Hi Trev,
I have considered the Fenner Power Twist link belts, the price here in Oz is horrendous, it's cheaper to buy from the U.S. Ohioblademan has 4 foot lengths of "B" section for about $31.00 plus postage.
Regards,
Martin
P.S. Manual sent

Hi Ken,
I have a scanned copy of my Honden manual in jpeg format (about 3 Mb) if you PM me I will send you a copy.
Regards,
Martin

G'Day Trev, Greetings from Melbourne, when you do the belt replacement any chance you could document the procedure with some pics as my Honden is getting close to needing new ones although they have not done much work (mine is one of the batch that were built in1990 and sat in storage for 20 years u...

G'Day, I bought the ER32 version of the same collet chuck a couple of years ago, it came with a recess machined into the rear surface. I turned a length of stock to 20mm (ER32 max) then mounted the chuck with collet to it, measured TIR of recess which was dead nuts , machined firm fitting but not cr...

G'Day Kev,
I have a scanned copy of the Honden manual which covers your model (about 3Mb), PM me and I will forward a copy. Where are you from ?, I'm in Melbourne.
Regards,
Martin

G'Day, Have you considered converting to variable speed drive ? I have the same lathe fitted with a 1.5 Hp D.C. motor and KB controller (old technology I know but they were dirt cheap) this gives a continuously variable speed range of 30 - 1000 R.P.M. and I only ever use the back gears to lock the d...

Can't help with an email address, but using Ebay's seach engine should find him.
Regards,
Martin

G'Day from down under, Your post bought back a few memories, some fond and some frustrating, the first lathe I owned, some 30 years ago was a plain bearing ML10. At the time I was working as a service engineer in the cinema industry and the ML 10 was used for some very demanding optical work. The ac...