Restoring a Vintage Watchmaker's Lathe

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In this video Mike restores a Schaublin 65 watchmakers lathe. This has been a year-long project and now it's finally finished it's time to put it to use, so keep an eye out for future projects made on this machine.

[@chronovaengineering]

If you would like to support our channel and access additional content please visit patreon.com/ChronovaEngineering. Thanks for watching!

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

Joined 😊

[@user-we7do9vh4p]

Joined!

[@grizcuz]

Filling, sanding and painting those parts took me straight back to the 70's. My old man worked in the paint shop of a factory that produced the 'Rolls Royce of lathes'. I'd sometimes go to work with him on a Saturday and he'd have me cutting up big sheets of wet and and dry paper, changing his and his workmates bowls of hot water and when I was a little bit older he had me taping off the machined surfaces on the castings prior to filling and painting (he'd neatly trim the tape with a razor blade, but I think he knew that might have ended badly if I'd done it). Used to blow my mind how a rough looking lump of metal would look like it was made of glass by the time they'd finished with it. Even though they were on piece work, it had to pass QC and they took a real pride in getting it right.

[@marcfaulk]

Very smart method of heat treating the lead screw

[@iteerrex8166]

Oh yes, very cool technique 👍

[@alanclarke4646]

​@@iteerrex8166"cool" and hot at the same time! 😂

[@Michel-Uphoff]

Now this IS a very decent restoration! So much better than all that disassembly > cleaning > new paint > assembly nonsense that many on KZbin call a "restoration".

[@ChriFux]

they call it restoration, and it is in fact restoration

[@Michel-Uphoff]

@@ChriFux I don't want to be a nitpicker, but restoring means (as much as possible) returning something to its original state. Disassembling, cleaning, painting and assembling is making it pretty to look at. However, the machine "restored" in this way can be completely worthless due to defects and excessive wear and tear. These so-called "restorers" don't even bother to measure the degree of wear and tear, let alone do anything about it. This KZbinr, on the other hand, knows what he's doing.

[@rjung_ch]

What a beautiful restore, it looks like brand new again. As a Swiss living in Switzerland, it makes me so happy to see the tools from the past, where quality was so good. Thanks for taking us along. 👍💪✌

[@funkymunky7935]

You're not an engineer. You're an artist. An artist that uses their engineering skills to produce art. Everything you produce is spectacular

[@analogdesigner]

Superbly done! I'm the proud owner of a Schaublin 70. I did scrape the spindle bearing many years ago. Even though the lathe is in good condition, I plan on scraping the bed in the upcoming winter. Thanks for an excellent video.

[@alungiggs]

Well done. A beautiful machine. The only gripe I have is that I wish your videos were longer. And also, you uploaded more often because I do really enjoy the work and projects that you do. Greetings from Amsterdam 👍🇳🇱

[@sageDieuvids]

Agreed, this could easily have been 30 minutes plus and/or split into multiple parts and I would have watched it all

[@jozefbubez6116]

Great work! Fully agree about the plain bearings and fitted such to a home-built lathe using fine-grain cast-iron, which I began in 1978. The ways were built up using bright-mild steel and show no sign of detectable wear in spite of contrary advice from mechanical engineers.

[@zaxmaxlax]

When I visited the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva there was a bunch of watchmaking lathes, some very old, from the early 1800s. It blew my mind how they could cut tiny tiny gears 200 years ago.

[@mith5168]

Nice outcome … many years of precision ahead! Having restored a number of machines over the years, I found that using a brake caliper clear-coat over the paint, increases the longevity of the finish - both in chipping resistance and staining from oils and coolants. Amazingly tough stuff, and can withstand a variety of solvents as well. 2-part is best, but even the single part provides superior protection as compared to a colored paint film. Keep up the good work and great videos.

[@chronovaengineering]

Thanks for the tips! I generally avoid 2-part clearcoats but because of the isocyanates but, agreed, this would be best.

[@KathrynLiz1]

A beautiful old machine saved from scrap with a lot of very high precision work. Well done... so very worth doing. 🙂

[@renevanginneken7217]

Beautiful restoration. I like the good explanation about the scraping. It seems this skill which once was known amongst many craftsmen is getting lost with the availability of very precise cnc machines and precision grinders. I love the sight of a scraped surface which also provides good indication whether a guide has worn areas. Keep up the good work with your clear comments which is an inspiration and aid for all those other machinists! Thanks from Belgium!

[@Gearz-365]

An amazing restoration! Keeping machining history alive. You're not just an engineer and clockmaker. You're an artist, and one that I admire a lot! Amazing work as always!

[@allanrichards3752]

I did almost exactly this to my father's Myford ML7 lathe back in the 1980's. Getting the lathe rebuilt by Myford was very expensive compared to what he paid for the machine. I did a lot of scraping during my apprenticeship and was able to get the lathe bed, cross slide and compound slide quite good. The lathe had white metal bearings so scraping them was not too bad. I think the best bearings for lathes would be tapered roller rather than ordinary ball races but well set up sleeve bearings will do well and your lathe has nice long bearings which should not wear quickly.

[@byOldHand]

Very beautiful machine and great restoration. Thank you, I had great time while watching

[@madhusudanjeurkar3178]

This is the first real reconditioning I have seen on youtube. I had felt that nobody seems to know scraping!

[@lohikarhu734]

i have 2 Lorch lathes, one about 1935, type A, and the other is a 1950's LLV with sliding spindle for threading... beautiful machine!

[@mattriley6283]

Impressive work and skills here also what a beautiful machine. I've got a 1970's German manual key cutting machine at home, sometimes old precision tools are a really nice thing to work on.

[@Zircon10]

Very nice restoration...first class workmanship! The end result is not only practical, but beautiful.

[@johnfox4691]

That's a beautiful machine. Impressive restoration.

[@philippedubois3017]

Wonderful work Congratulations

[@RENO_K]

😭 the fact that Inheritance Machining just tried to make a lead screw and Badumts Got screwed Up cus the heat treat bent it (sad fr) And now seeing a viable method on how it could be done well, my questions are finally answered😮😮 That's such a smart idea, spinning it up to make sure it hears evenly And cools evenly

[@eduardopires6140]

Beautiful work! Congratulations.

[@briansavage932]

Came here from the comments section of the latest inheritance machining video. People were suggesting your heat treating method for his lathes lead screw. In the process I tho o I've found another fantastic channel to subscribe to. Cheers!

[@Oldtanktapper]

Truly a thing of beauty! Very nice work, thank you for sharing it.

[@Onionbaron]

Scraping is so fascinating, and I love to watch it being performed!

[@Aikano9]

That surface finish resulting from the scraping is beautiful, looks really good

[@Watcheyes]

Well...quite stunned, increadible work, now I need to search at the library about scraping 😅. Havent hesr about this techninc but now I understand that high precision must have began with this. Im restoring an old Lorch 6 mm lathe right now so this was very interesting to see, mant thanks for showing!

[@daveys]

Some of the old engineering books have great info about scraping. It seems like there was a scraping resurgence in the last few years with most of the engineering KZbin channels doing their version of it. There’s also an old periscope video on scraping which is brilliant.

[@pcka12]

Those hyper accurate machines no doubt owe their accuracy to ancestor machines which were hand finished!

[@ianfiddes9871]

Beautiful work

[@Borgedesigns]

Absolutely beautiful

[@gustgatt]

Que trabajo de precisión, sin dudas domina el ajuste de matricería. Muy entretenido e instructivo.

[@user-so6vl8vh6l]

Beautifully Restored--An Absolute Masterpiece. Well Done. Informative Too.

[@az308gts]

I’ve scraped many many mills, lathes and grinders. I always had pattern as a point of pride.

[@dutchgold7057]

I love being a machi ist when i see solutions like the hest treament its soluch a simple solution but its effective and it got me think how have i not done this before

[@gary.solexa]

Absolutely stunning restoration. Beautiful!

[@ParsMaker]

nice work, It looks better than the new one

[@stuartanderws5705]

I used by bier schaublin to make some barrel bushes mostly. did get to use it to make a cuter for a 10mm escape wheel for a ships clock platform escapement. I needs some looking at but I sort of know the problems with it by now.

[@jacklav1]

Great video- fantastic job

[@KnowArt]

scraping leaves such a lovely finish. I might actually just want a scraped block of cast iron on my wall instead of a painting

[@rogeronslow1498]

What an excellent video.

[@Sugar3Glider]

You could probably build a sandblaster box by threading two big totes together with an access panel cut out one side covered with a plastic flap & magnet bar(s). The arm holes would be a bit more work, but I'm sure you could just wear a heavy jacket and use tight fittings around your holes.

[@Volodia2141]

Great job! 👏

[@iteerrex8166]

Beautiful work and results. Kind of cool, the motor is bigger than the lathe lol. A VFD and a microscopic is a great addition. 15 mins doesn’t justify the weeks of work. Well done 👍

[@billdoodson4232]

What a lovely little video and a beautiful end result. I was wondering how you manage to take material off the main spindle when you lap it and then also remove material from the bearings but keep the correct clearance? Also, like others, I'd love to see more in-depth longer videos.

[@chronovaengineering]

Thank you. I should have explained this in the video but the front bearing is tapered and the back bearing is adjustable by changing the thickness of a shim.

[@gazehound]

Dude, absolutely beautiful work.

[@johnkemas7344]

Beautiful restoration job!

[@JulianMakes]

What a beautiful lathe. Superb job.

[@hoodio]

that setup at the end is absolutely beautiful

[@douglascodes]

A chronova video and a restoration video, all in one!!!

[@steveparker8723]

Beautiful restoration!

[@benotyourboss]

What a beauty it is now!

[@lydiahanke]

Beautiful work!

[@jwrm22]

Well done on the restoration. I'm not a native English speaker, and fascinated by words just as much as engineering. Both likely so to understand the world. Whenever I hear 'high tolerance' I think of large tolerances, but this isn't usually what people mean. It's the high (number, thing) to strive for, as higher is better, unless it's not. People who know the high level are usually much less skilled than people with understanding of the low level. The higher my education, the deeper we went, and the smallest the subject matter became. Where the lowest point is the hardest to reach, yet people don't perceive it this way. This isn't limitted to engineering, though. Assembly is usually much more difficult than high level programming languages, etc etc.

[@EnezReyiz]

That's gold, thanks for sharing. Could you make a video about scrapping tools and how to do it properly?

[@dougidoug]

Made a really nice job on that.

[@christophbeeler2031]

Great, I’ll consider joining the Patreon since I was interested in plans for some of your amazing projects for a while :)

[@johnmay6090]

Nice work. Very impressed.

[@brucesannino6181]

If you keep practicing this kind of work, someday you'll be able to earn a modest living. I refinished a bowling ball once. Unfortunately, when I finished (sic), it wasn't round anymore. Journeyman work sir!

[@lohikarhu734]

the Lorch LLV has some spindle bearing adjustment, but a tiny bit, which is fine enough to feel the friction change with adjustment.

[@ottomanunboxingosmanlkutua5658]

Nice video, thank you.

[@infinitelyexplosive4131]

This makes me wonder how much I could improve the atrocious harbor freight lathe I use. It’s certainly not worth the time compared to buying a better one, but might be a very satisfying project

[@paulsotheron710]

Lovey machine. Great work. 👍

[@madsfelsted2716]

Excellent work! ...One thing, and it's not ment to say something negative about your very skilled work, just about the lathe and it's history. It would be more interesting if the lathe still had it's original paint with it's marks and scratches....😊

[@Davidbirdman101]

Well I didn't understand 90% of what you are talking about but it was a joy watching you work

[@Mizone505]

Y God that's very skilled work. Well done to you 👏 sir.

[@colsanjaybajpai5747]

Very beautifully done

[@felixarbable]

nice my very dirty old boley f1 came yesteday, luckly im not to worried about the accuracy of the cross slide 😂 nothing beats these old schaublins, they really are the best.

[@mercuriall2810]

My Boley F1 hasn’t been dirty or mistreated, and the accuracy of the cross slide is excellent. As far as I can tell it is lack of overall rigidity that limits the cross slide accuracy on the F1, but if you take smaller cuts to reduce the strain on the structure, the rigidity issue isn’t a problem. The F1 is a fantastic lathe imho.

[@felixarbable]

@@mercuriall2810 yeh it's been great, I'm very lucky basically nothing is missing from the lathe at all. Just the motor was swapped and electrics were cut unfortunately. I haven't had occasion to use the friction drive yet but will try it next staff I make It's also just very pretty great industrial design

[@mercuriall2810]

@@felixarbable If you’re not happy with the replacement motor, I came across a PAPST ECA 4511 as used in in the F1 and Lorch Junior, with speed controller for auction on eBay at the moment.

[@felixarbable]

@@mercuriall2810 do you have a link

[@beautifulsmall]

Engineers Blue and Layout blue are different ! Thank you , that would at least partly explain my poor flatening attempts. Love the leadscrew hardening technique. Have you considered making a diy wire bonder ?

[@badger47-n3c]

If you cant find "engineers blue" (which for some reason i couldn't find when i needed it) you can use oil paint with a firm rubber roller on your reference surface. Oil paint takes weeks to dry properly so it is very easily removable.

[@pipodorologio1648]

amazing job....👍

[@lachlanlau]

Incredible work for university students.. and anyone I would think.

[@jimsvideos7201]

First-class work, the lathe and thte video.

[@dennisclapp7527]

Thanks for the detail

[@Rubbernecker]

Absolutely beautiful!!

[@haihod6356]

very cool! beautiful machine

[@sulaimanachir5500]

To care for old items like that requires special patience and precision, and honestly I can't afford that, I've been working on a lathe for 32 years.

[@zuke-ci4vd]

Outstanding job! 👏👏👏😎👍

[@rexmundi8154]

I use a HDMI microscope and a monitor on my Hardinge Super Precision and it functions a bit like a poor man’s optical comparator. I can use a thin Sharpe marker to mark on the screen and be surprisingly accurate on repeat parts.

[@y2ksw1]

At this point I eventually would have opted to make a new machine and keep the old one to look at. I love old machines, but the rust and quirks are part of the age I want to see.

[@ParallelTransport]

A video on your scraping technique and setup would be very interesting. Your technique is different than what Richard King recommends, but obviously works well for you.

[@selkiemaine]

Neat stuff. I'm interested in the difference between the scraping technique you are using here and the hook-shaped strokes one sees when doing larger surfaces.

[@chronovaengineering]

Scraping using hooked-shaped strokes is a technique used only for oil retention (and decoration). It doesn't improve the flatness of a surface. I hope that answers your question and thanks for watching!

[@SnowmansApartment]

I have always been interested in lathes. My hope is to one day learn to make camera parts with one, bit the prices online are way beyond my current capacity. I hope to find one of these and restore it too :)

[@parkermusselman9824]

Wonderful work. One question on scraping the headstock bearing. Were the bearings original or replaced? I would have thought that old bearings would be too worn to just scrape back in as the bore diameter would have gotten, if anything, larger, and the spindle smaller with lapping. Are the bearings adjustable in some way? Thanks for sharing!

[@chronovaengineering]

Good question! The front bearing is tapered, so the spindle just moves inwards slightly. I didn't show this in the video but ID of the rear bearing is parallel and adjustable by reducing the thickness of a shim located in the split.

[@campbellmorrison8540]

Love your work

[@readrepairs]

Great work.

[@AAA-pm2dv]

Hi I am a fan of the type of information you provide I always support you.. I would like to share better information with you.. Thank you and best wishes to you🎉🎉

[@RustyInventions-wz6ir]

Very nice work sir

[@gregfaris6959]

Fantastic work! But after all that care, why use a timing belt that will only introduce oscillations?

[@wasatchrangerailway6921]

I would love to have Apprenticed under you!!!

[@sonnymoorehouse1941]

amazing work

[@josecondemarin9586]

Very nice , take care.Thanks 😊

[@tstthomason]

Absolutely amazing!! I’ve been trying to find videos on how scraping works for a while, without much luck. This is really informative! Do you make the scrapers yourself?

[@DurokSubaka]

I would click like twice if I could what an achievement.

[@user-xe8oi5oq6c]

You literally put your soul into that lathe. Great project! Btw how do its bearings work? I don't see any seals for keeping oil inside.

[@zachariahmiddleton5256]

Loved this video. Your videos are always so simple and well crafted. Probably a long shot but do you know any lathe brands that hit a similar sweet spot of quality/affordability as the Schaublin lathe here but that would be widely available in America? I see a lot of old Craftsman and South Bend stuff.

[@johnsmith-zs9jq]

Louis Levin & Son out of California. They sell for 20 - 30,000 $US . You can also get a Hardinge hlv if you want something bigger. Used machines go from 5-20,000 $US depending on condition and tooling. If thats a bit too rich for your blood, get a Sherline lathe and milling machine. Much cheaper and frankly, for your typical user, just as good.

[@stevenvanravesteyn3647]

Very nice I have a Schaublin 102

[@cnxunuo]

Should show off the full set of collets!

[@duffnutty]

Hello, Lovely video, thank you. When you lap the spindle and scrape the bearing, how are you not increasing the gap between those parts? is there enough leeway with the film thickness?

[@duffnutty]

or are the surfaces tapered?

[@chronovaengineering]

Exactly. The front bearing is tapered and the back bearing is adjustable by changing the thickness of a shim. Sorry, I didn't show this in the video. Thanks for watching!

[@duffnutty]

thanks for clearing that up! nice work. had never seen cylindrical shaping, very interesting :)