Maximat Compact 10" MQ-3100 Lathe Build

[71 Torino]

Hello,
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Jeff and I am a noob at forums and these sorta things. I did work in a tool and die shop for a little bit. Always enjoyed working on anything metal so I decided to start a little machine shop at home. I started off with a Craftsman/Dunlap 109 followed by a couple of Taig lathes and thought I should step up to something a little larger and more professional. I found this lathe and everything on Kijiji for $250 Canadian (about $192 American) I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. Unfortunately after I got it home I realized that there is hardly any information about these lathes and not much in the way of parts. As far as I know the only part I am missing is the 1 larger belt guard. All the manuals I was able to find either have the bottom of the pages missing or is in a different language. So if anyone has one of these machines or has any information that would be great. I do have a beautiful sales brochure with poster that I could scan if anyone is interested. I plan on tearing apart the lathe over time and cleaning it up and painting it with Hammerite and having the stand sand blasted and painting it as well.
My first set of questions is, what do you guys use for degreasing and cleaning your machines. There is a bit of surface rust on the ways under the chuck, what would you guys recommend for cleaning this or should I send the ways off to be ground?
Thanks,
Jeff

[John Evans]

Forget the grinding as that would just open up a big bag of worms requiring a whole bunch of other repair steps. soak down that rust with some flavor of penatrating oil let it sit overnight and then use a rasor blade to remove the loosened deposits. Repeat several times,do not use sandpaper etc.!! You now have a real lathe so you can get rid of your old toys. Try lathes.co.uk for more info-manuals etc.

[Hands-on]

I suggest you join this group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/emcoV10lathe/info very knowledgeable group on all Maximat lathes. I own a Maximat V10-P mentor and belong to it.

[Cary Stewart]

If you have not already done so go to: www.lathes.co.uk
In the index go to EMCO and follow the trail to your machine. Tony has a copy of the Instruction Book and the Parts List for these machines. He is easy to deal with. Check it out.
My brother has a similar machine complete with the vertical setup.
Cary

[Cary Stewart]

More looking at your photos. Is that a 8" 3-Jaw on the spindle? The 3-Jaw on the floor is probably a 5" and the 4-Jaw is probably a 6". The spindle nose is 1 1/2"-8 same as South Bend, Logan, etc. Lots of rust. Take it slow and easy and you will have a very nice machine. The original paint was a very nice silver blue metallic hammer tone. Tony may be able to help with the S/N and the lathes date of origin. I can't remember if the S/N takes the same format as the Unimat 3s where it is a 8 digit number and the first 4 number are year and month of mfg. You may have to overhaul the motor Not cheap but doable. These were very well built. My brother's (which was my father's before that) was made in 1969.
Cary

[71 Torino]

Forget the grinding as that would just open up a big bag of worms requiring a whole bunch of other repair steps. soak down that rust with some flavor of penatrating oil let it sit overnight and then use a rasor blade to remove the loosened deposits. Repeat several times,do not use sandpaper etc.!! You now have a real lathe so you can get rid of your old toys. Try lathes.co.uk for more info-manuals etc.

Thanks for the input, I will give that a try. Is extra fine steel wool safe to use? I have tried lathes.co.uk lots of useful info.

[71 Torino]

I suggest you join this group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/emcoV10lathe/info very knowledgeable group on all Maximat lathes. I own a Maximat V10-P mentor and belong to it.

I looked at that group. I wasn't quite sure how that site operates, it's a little confusing. I will look back into it. Thanks!

[Charles Spencer]

I use disposable razors to shave off rust then follow with a light buffing with steel wool to clean it up.

I don't know anything about your lathe but it looks like you got a helluva deal. It seems like a lathe you can do some real work on. I'd easily pay what you paid just for the drill bits alone.

Charles

[Hands-on]

I suggest you join this group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/emcoV10lathe/info very knowledgeable group on all Maximat lathes. I own a Maximat V10-P mentor and belong to it.

I looked at that group. I wasn't quite sure how that site operates, it's a little confusing. I will look back into it. Thanks!

You have to ask to join but well worth the effort. Very helpful members and there's two of us that I know who like yourself live in Ontario. I know that with out their help I never would have been able to get my lathe up and running again.

[stevec]

Great deal Jeff.
I've also had little success with the Yahoo groups, maybe through my reluctance to join.
If you haven't yet tried " http://www.Lathes.co.uk" try this link http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page12.html

[SteveM]

Looks like you got a lot of bang for the buck.

Here's some info on your lathe (or at least a similar model):
http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page12.html

You can see some of the parts and accessories.

Since yours has flat ways, you can adapt stuff from other lathes to it, notably the 10" Atlas / Craftsman. You can probably find a steady rest from a smaller lathe and make an adapter plate for it.

Before scraping rust off, look into electrolytic rust removal. You can find info about it on this forum as well as with just a google search. It involves no harsh chemicals and you can dump the liquid down the drain with no ill effects (it's Arm & Hammer laundry detergent).

Another alternative is EvapoRust. Just submerge the parts in it for 15-30 mins and you'll be surprised at how clean they will come out.

The advantage of the above two methods is that they will remove ZERO of the base metal.

Check the before and after pics of this chuck. That was done with electrolytic rust removal in about 1 hour. No scraping at all.

If there is stuff left over after you have tried these methods, then I would go to scraping and fine steel wool.

Use the least aggressive method first.

Since you are going to take it all apart anyway, it will be easy for you to de-rust.

Good luck, keep us up to date and post plenty of pictures.

Steve

[neanderman]

I got a "new to me" lathe recently, myself, and followed the suggestion of another user here to try Spic 'n' Span. I found the liquid version to be superb -- even the oldest, hardest oil film will eventually dissolve and a toothbrush will speed it up considerably. Use it full strength and use it until it gets totally black or stops working well. I've cleaned everything except the bed and headstock on the lathe proper and am just finishing up my first bottle.

For the chip pan, I used clay kitty litter to soak up the liquid, followed by a "green" cleaner, diluted with water. It will need another scrubbing before I paint, but the first treatment worked pretty well.

For the stand castings, I sprayed them down with oven cleaner and hosed them down. My lathe had been re-painted (sloppily...) with latex paint, so the oven cleaner took a lot of the paint off -- all the better for my plan to repaint.

I used a single edge razor blade followed with some #000 or #0000 steel wool for some rust on my ways, which cleaned them up quite nicely.