About the Factory Stand

In all honesty the metal stand that accompanied this lathe is just barely adequate for the job. I've never been satisfied with it and through a combinatin of sloth and having way too many other more pressing things to do I've not gotten around to making a better one. In retrospect that is a mistake that I would counsel others not to repeat. Make a new and better stand for yourself at the time you first get the lathe.

Specifically, what I find deficient in the factory stand is:

• insufficient sturdiness - Its sheet metal fabrication makes for a too-light stand that does not adequately resist flexing and vibration. I've firmed up my stand by screwing 1/2" plywood panels into the open spaces between the legs on the sides and rear. It helped well enough, but the only significant result is that it permitted me to procrastinate on the task of making an entirely new stand as I should have done.
  
  
• insufficient mass - My added rack-resistance notwithstanding, when turning heavy, out-of-round objects the lathe and stand will want to walk all over the shop. That is a very bad thing. Consequently I put a honking big log section on the bottom shelf for ballast (see photo).
  
  
• flimsy bed mount surface - The 1/2-inch MDF top bends under the weight of the lathe. This invites racking and twisting of the cast iron bed, which at best puts your headstock and tailstock out of precise alignment, and at worst invites cracking of the cast iron bed itself.
  
  
• low height - I stand exactly 6 feet tall and find the lathe is too low for me. Hunching over the lathe, even slightly, is uncomfortable and tiresome. While I can't fault the stand for my stature, the height of the lathe is not something that is readily adjusted either. I could have built a low platform but would rather have spent the time and money on a proper stand. Ergo, nothing happened.

There, I think I've convinced myself that I should make the time to replace the darn thing. Perhaps when the weather warms up...

Obtaining Replacement Factory Parts

Delta does not seem to maintain online information for this lathe. However, it may be possible to obtain parts or service from one of Delta's factory authorized service centers.

Alternatively, online sites such as ToolPartsDirect or Ace Tool Repair appear to have many but by no means all factory authorized replacement parts available online. (Scroll down past the schematics to see the parts price list.)

As you will discover these are by far the most expensive options for those of you who may be trying to restore a vintage lathe. I have personally not had the need to go this route myself, but would be interested in hearing from anyone who has. Please feel free to post a comment to this article.

I have observed that parts, chisel sets, faceplates, and entire lathes do occasionally turn up on auction sites like eBay (that's how I got my lathe, as it happens). When dealing with headstock accessories in particular, it would be wise to ask the seller to provide the Delta part number that is cast into say, the back of the faceplate. That way you can check it against the published parts list to ensure that you're getting one that will actually fit your lathe. Many sellers don't know or have the means to measure the thread pitch of the items they sell.

You may also have luck finding used machines or parts at the Old Woodworking Machines "Bring Out Your Dead" forum. You must first register with owwm.org in order to participate there, however.

Other Sources of Information

If you are new to vintage cast iron woodworking machinery, or "old arn" as it's called, then you absolutely must familiarize yourself with the Old Woodworking Machines web site (a.k.a. the "Mother Ship") and its related forum/support/classified ads site. These sites are the preeminent places on the Internet for those interested in researching, restoring, or buying and selling vintage equipment manufactured in North America. It is impossible to say enough good things about these two sites and the people that frequent them.

When searching OWWM for information about the 46-140 lathe you will have to consult the "photo index" and "publication reprint" pages under the headings of four different companies: Beaver Tools, Rockwell International of Canada, Rockwell Manufacturing Company, and Delta Manufacturing Co., owing to the corporate buyouts that occurred over the years. There are 46-140's out there that are badged by each of these entities apparently, and OWWM relies on its members to categorize their submissions accordingly.

Is This Lathe Right For Me?

If you are new to woodturning generally, or don't have room in your shop for a really big lathe, then in my opinion you can't go wrong with a 46-140 if you find one that has been well taken care of. It's a solid, durable, high quality machine that will certainly outlive you if you treat it well, and you can do a lot with it.

If you already have a large monetary investment in lathe tooling (scroll chucks, faceplates, etc.) and you want to use them on this lathe then you will be successful adapting the 46-140's headstock to any spindle size except 1" 8tpi.

In other words, if you're willing to buy (or have a machinist fabricate) a spindle adapter then anything smaller than 7/8" or larger than 1.25" in diameter will work.

Why won't 1-8 work? A machinist will (or should) tell you that it's either not possible or just plain unsafe to make a thread adapter that goes from 7/8" to 1" because the root diameter (bottom) of a 1" thread is just ever so slightly larger than 7/8". There would be too little if any metal left to keep the adapter all in one piece. So all you folks with 1-8 headstock accessories are out of luck.

Since the headstock spindle will not accept morse (or jacobs) taper tooling you're mostly out of luck here too, unless you have a scroll chuck. Perfectly serviceable MT #1 adapters may be fabricated from hardwood for mounting in a scroll chuck. This will be demonstrated in future blog postings.

Replacing the headstock spindle with a custom machined one is theoretically possible but doing so would be prohibitively costly unless you happened to have a really good machine shop at your disposal. Your money would be better spent on a larger lathe that has an appropriately sized headstock for your existing tooling.

Newcomers to woodturning are understandably reluctant to even think about creating adapters, faceplates or other workpiece-holding jigs on their own, whether out of wood or any other material. For a beginner that would be putting the cart before the horse. But after a reasonable period of time you will come to appreciate that jig/fixture and tool making are a natural part of the woodturner's craft -- and a source of enjoyment and satisfaction in themselves. And that's the Great Secret about why it is possible to obtain this lathe relatively inexpensively -- most folks (and especially beginners) assume that you must go to a commercial source for all of your accessories. It's just not true.

In sum, this lathe should provide many years of good service to beginning and intermediate turners. If and when the day comes that you discover that you want to become a professional bowl or hollow form turner, you can then move up to a dedicated "pro" machine and turn this one over to someone else who, like yourself now, is looking for a high quality machine at a price that an amateur can afford.

Standard Drive and Tailstock Centers

My lathe came with an original equipment drive spur center and a 3-inch faceplate. These are right-hand threaded at 7/8-14 tpi. You'll need a 1-1/8 inch open end or spanner wrench to loosen or tighten the drive center. Apparently there was a 6-inch diameter faceplate for the lathe as well but the seller had somehow lost track of it over the years.

Also included with the lathe that I bought were a Morse Taper #1 dead center and a cup center for use in the tailstock. These latter items were also original equipment.

The above standard accessories are sufficient for turning spindles and small bowls.

What Can This Lathe Do?

I find the 46-140 to be quite versatile. I have turned pens, Christmas ornaments, chair legs, tool handles, rolling pins, gavels, bowls, lamps, salt shakers, pepper mills, jewelry stands, and various candle holders with it.

The "swing" (vertical distance from the lathe bed to the horizontal centerline of the headstock) over the gap is 7-1/2 inches, permitting a maximum workpiece diameter of 15 inches over the gap. (The steel rule shown in the photo measures centimeters on its left edge and inches on its right edge.)

The swing over the remainder of the bed is just shy of 5-1/2 inches, thus permitting a maximum spindle turning diameter of a little less than 11 inches.

The outboard end of the headstock spindle has 3/4-16 tpi left-hand threads. With a suitably sized and threaded faceplate one may turn items having a diameter larger than 11 inches. Alternatively, many turners attach a sanding disk or buffing head to the outboard spindle end.

An Inexpensive Entry Into Woodturning

From the questions I've answered for others in the past, I have learned that I am not alone in having acquired this lathe relatively inexpensively. I paid 85 USD for it some 7 or 8 years ago. For that price it came with a complete set of Delta chisels and a 3-inch faceplate, as well. All I had to do was drive 50 miles to pick it up. I think it was quite a bargain, considering that contemporary lathes of similar size and quality cost at least four times that much.

Why so cheap, especially since there was nothing mechanically wrong with it?

There are three limitations that seem to dictate the price:

• You will have a hard time finding or buying tooling for it because the headstock spindle threads measure 7/8-14 tpi. It seems that the lathe manufacturing industry has settled on 3/4-16, and 1.25-8 tpi as "standard" sizes for auxilliary tooling.
  
  
• The headstock spindle is solid. It does not have a Morse Taper socket.
  
  
• The tailstock spindle, while it accepts standard Morse Taper #1 tooling, does not have a thru-hole to permit deep drilling, such as one might do with a lamp auger.

In my opinion none of these limitations are or should be considered fatal impediments to buying or using this lathe because they all may be easily worked around. Subsequent blog postings will discuss these matters in more detail.