Restoring a Vintage Watchmaker's Lathe

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]

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[Michel-Uphoff]

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

[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.

[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 👍🇳🇱

[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. 👍💪✌

[funkymunky]

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

[marcfaulk]

Very smart method of heat treating the lead screw

[analogdesigner-Jay]

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.

[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.

[Gearz-]

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!

[madhusudanjeurkar]

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

[SpinStar]

Very honorable thing to take an old (and often abused) piece of precision equipment and bring it back, if not better than before! 😊
So many people would just overlook it as an old piece of junk! 😢
Great video!

[KathrynLiz]

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

[mith]

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.

[jozefbubez]

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.

[someotherdude]

This is one of the most informative lathe-related videos I've ever seen. Added bonus: it has a wonderful ASMR effect too, at least for me. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

[bigbadjohn]

. I work with lathes and mills all the time. Never heard of scraping. Really makes a lot of sense. Brilliant video!

[renevanginneken]

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!

[Zircon]

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

[byOldHand]

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