Cantek 1440, Birmingham, Wilton CT 1440, and others Rebuild

[turbo711]

Hello. I recently bought a lathe for $160. I could not find any info about it, so I used google images to find one. There is not much info on this lathe. I found out that is called several names with the most common being Cantek, and Birmingham. I joined this forum because a gentleman called johnnyc14 had the same lathe and I needed to contact him regarding the wiring.





Anyway, johnnyc14 emailed me with pictures and even the manual, which I have been searching for. Thanks John! Although the lathe looks rusted, a bit of scotchbrite cleans it up pretty well. It was sitting in a factory back room for a couple of years. It was used to face off 3" diameter aluminum and the saddle was locked, so not a lot of way wear has taken place. No threading was ever done with this machine.



There is a fair amount of wear on the cross slide lead screw and brass nut as well as the tool slide brass nut (lead screw looks decent). An apron gear looks bad too.





My goal is not to make a perfect looking lathe, but to clean everything, fix some parts and make a solid working machine. I'll paint it grey with a brush...
Here are the rest of the pictures I took:









The lathe was fully assembled when I got it, but I didn't take a picture. I read many forums to help me with a lot of different problems, but have never posted my own project/thread so I guess it's about time to contribute a little. I'll try to make it here once in a while to read the posts and put up more pics, but I'm going to be out in the garage with very black and greasy hands for a while! If anybody knows where to buy parts for this machine just post it here in case anybody else needs the info too. Thanks.
Mark

[EdK]

Hi Mark,

My lathe is pretty much the same as yours except for the headstock. Mine doesn't have the Norton gear box.
Here's a link to my fix for the cross slide lead screw. The cross slide parts look identical to the parts on your lathe.

http://www.metalworkingfun.com/thread-2088.html

Oh, and    to the forum.

Ed

   

[dallen]

that bronze gear on the back of the apron which drives the Carriage looks just like the one on my 12X36 Enco lathe, Grizzly Tools, I forget what its called in Canada has the gear but wanted something like 80 dollars for it so I made the last one I had to put in my lathe.

You want to take it really careful with that U shaped part on the drive shaft for the Carriage Feed theres not much material in the bolt holes, its also a real pain to get lined back up

Anyway hope you get it up and making chips

[johnnyc14]

Hey Mark, looks like you have a lot of work to do there. The manual I sent you came from the CanTek dealer here in Edmonton, Arkhurst Machinery. You should be able to contact them with the part numbers from the drawings in the manual. I'm not sure they wil still be able to get parts but it's worth a try. That lead screw would be easy enough to make from the right size acme threaded rod. Of course you would need a lathe,LOL. My cross slide lead screw was bent when I bought my lathe so I removed and straightened it but I never measured the thread pitch. When I made the lead screw for my mill I bought acme threaded rod from The Bolt House here in Edmonton.

John

[Mayhem]

Welcome aboard Mark.

With time and effort there is no reason why you cannot accomplish your goal of having a solid working lathe.

Personally, I would gut the electrical box and start again.

[PixMan]

Good project, best of luck. The cross slide screw really should be replaced along with the mating nut. I don't know if it's the photo, but the thread crests appear close to "pointy" in the middle, while very thick and original at either end. With that condition it's impossible to get backlash minimized in the center of the travel without it being super tight at the ends.

[johnnyc14]

Mark, I am trying to figure which part in the diagram is the worn out gear on your lathe. I think it must be # 26 that is called a shaft in the parts breakdown??

[EdK]

Number 26 is the gear that engages the carriage rack. The worn gear shown in the picture is the one that engages the longitudinal feed worm. The parts diagram for my lathe is real similar to what you posted John and the numbers match. I can't seem to locate that worn gear in the parts diagram though. I'll keep looking.

Ed

[turbo711]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I have been working days this weekend so I couldn't post till now. I'm not too familiar with the proper formalities of posting on forums, so I will just go down the list and try to respond to most of you.
Hello EDK. I read a lot of your thread and saw your drawings on the cross slide lead screw and it looks like PixMan did an excellent job on the lead screw. Improving the factory design on top of that. Personally, I haven't has much experience machining anything other than aluminum and I have never made a thread before. Everything I have done was take a cut , measure and take another cut. I am assuming this lead screw cutting is a fairly advanced machining job. I could try it, but do I need some sort of center rest? The shaft is fairly long. I don't have any extras other than a drill chuck and dead center to fit in the tail stock.
Hello Dallen. I don't even know how you would go about making a concave gear like that. It would be nice to see the process. Also I don't know the u shaped part you are describing. Is it number 71 on the exploded view Johnnyc14 posted?
Hello Johnnyc14. Funny you should say mill, cause that's why I was looking into getting a lathe; so I could turn down the ends of some acme screws to fit into bearings for a CNC router. Anyway, I think there are portions of the lathe lead screw that are fatter than the small diameter of the acme threading, so it has to be cut out of one piece of steel or maybe welded to another piece. Welding would probably bring more problems with getting things perfectly true as well. The worn gear on the exploded view you gave me is number 31 (they only draw a few teeth on the diagram). It threw me off until I looked at it closely.
Hello PixMan. You are correct about the lead screw. The threads in the middle are worn thinner than the original threads on the ends, making it impossible to get rid of backlash. If a new nut was fitted it would wear quickly. I saw the job you did on EDK's lead screw and it looks excellent. I'm not sure why they did the nut mount that way, cause it seems to be a poor design. In fact, my plug is loose in the hole, and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be due to the fact that the tool slide nut just fits in a hole as well. Upon closer inspection, I see the spline like markings on the plug. By the way, what would you charge me to make the "small fortune" second set?
Mark

[turbo711]

Hello Mayhem. I am contemplating that, but I think I'll do the electrical last. Johnnyc14 recommended a 3 phase motor and VFD, but I think that would cost at least $400 even used. Depending on how much the Asian contactors and overload cost, I have to make decisions. The transformer could be okay, if I'm lucky.