The Sheldon Lathe Part 2: Walk Through and Things to Consider If Your Looking at Lathes

Before we get into tearing into this lathe, lets walk around it and talk about some different things that we should be aware of. This is by no means an end all be all guide to buying a used lathe, but I do feel this is some pretty solid insight into definite things that we should be looking at.
There is one test that I forgot to go over in this video and that is a rough test for spindle bearing wear. This can be accomplished by chucking up a good 1-1 1/2 diameter cold rolled steel maybe 18" or so long (2ft would be better) and lifting up on the bar. You should feel no movement of the spindle. If there is movement, you would then use a dial indicator to see how much movement there is. Depending on the lathe, that can be a pretty simple fix, or, in the example of lets say, my jet gearhead, a full teardown. On these older belt driven lathes, its a pretty simple fix...providing the bearings are good. We will definitely get into that in a later video.