Craftsman 109 Lathe, modifications and upgrades.

I picked up this 109 off ebay without doing much research. These are hobby lathes and not designed to be accurate.

They were probably never very good even when new. With some modifications, it can be usable for home use. It is still not real accurate, but good enough. Use the links above to see the modifiactions.

This lathe was sold by Sears from the late '40s through the mid '70s. This look to be one of the late 40's versions.

It does have thread cutting capability and I picked up a full set of gears. I was able to reuse some of my old Sherline tooling: a quick-change tool post and the tailstock drill chuck.

I picked up a full set of gears for it. It came with a 3450 RPM 1/2 HP motor. It was just too fast and more power than needed. I found a 1750 RPM 1/3 HP motor that works much better.

It also has a power drive, great for cutting threads to turning long stock. There is also a "back gear". That reduces the speed considerably. Real useful on boring or turning hard metals. It came with a small tool holder for 1/4" tools.

The stock chuck is a 3", 4-jaw type. It worked ok but the jaws are a bit worn. It does allow odd-shaped work or boring off-center. I did bead-blast it after this picture was taken.

The compound slide is nice for turning tapers.

Page 2 - Modifications