Our South Bend Model A Lathe was rather stiff when we started working with it but we have been cleaning it up a lot since then.  Now it is running very smoothly by hand – we still do not have it under power yet.

WD-40 has been a great cleaning agent.  It cuts through old dried up oil really well.   There was a slight bit of rust on the ways, so we used some steel wool and very fine-grit  sandpaper (400 grit) to clean them up.

Basically it boils down to a lot of time and “elbow grease”.  Thanks to Ezra, it is looking a lot nicer now.

That is all for now!