Reconditioning my Takisawa TSL1000

I acquired this machine many months ago and have been picking away at as a project. As with many machines of this age, its first big problem was just an incredible amount of dirt/grime/etc! It appears that it was smacked in the apron by something at some point in its life (handles were bench, carriage gibs cracked), but generally the bed seems to be in great shape and the spindle/gearbox run well.

Here is what I have done to it:

1. Opened up the headstock, cleaned out old oil/grime. Changed the oil. Replaced drive belts. Spun it up to full speed and it runs nice and quiet with no runout! Win!
2. Tore apart the apron/carriage/tailstock. Cleaned up everything for examination. Wiped/scraped/vac'ed the machine including cleaning out an ancient mass of coolant in the reservoir, and scraping off a lot of loose paint. The cross and counter slides certainly have some wear (frosting is mostly worn through).
3. Disassembled the apron. Straightened the carriage lever shaft to within .003". Machined a replacement bushing (old had about .005" radial play), and installed into the apron front cover. Straightened the carriage and cross feed levers. Inspected everything in the apron. Replaced the power feed countershaft roller bearings (were dinged up from ingesting chips sitting inside the base of the apron IMHO). Changed all rotary oil seals on the apron.
4. Scrubbed and cleaned the ways, carriage.
5. Fabricated some heavy steel "feet". Tapped the mounting holes to M20x2. Fabbed some heavy duty leveling screws.
6. Leveled the bed to within ~.002", based on the two flat ways (rear carriage way, front tailstock way). Used some 123 blocks on the two flat ways.

So now I'm assessing the condition of the ways, apron, tailstock. This is where I wondered if folks could chime in. I believe the ways have minimal wear, which I believe is typical for these machines (quality steel, hardened bed ways). I had previously put an indicator based on the carriage, it it looked like the tailstock ways rose about .001" across the full travel. Here is what I've done to assess wear:

1. Checked level on the cross slide way and carriage top surface (which are very close) while sliding the carriage across the whole bed. The carriage seems to be low at the front (dovetail way) about .02". It does not seem to change much across the travel. Maybe a slight amount, but I'll need to dial in the level even better. I have only been using my "coarse" machinist level so far (.005"/12" per division), but I have a high precision one I can switch too.
2. Checked level on the tailstock base while sliding across the bed. It also doesn't seem to change much across the bed (less then my current level/twist tolerance). It seems to be low in the rear (dovetail way) about .002". Not sure this is worth even writing home about!

So at this point I'm debating what I should do. My goal isn't a perfect restoration, but I'd like it to be tight/accurate as I'll probably have it for a long time once I get it dialed in. It seems clear to me that the base of the carriage is quite worn down (~.02"). I have a mill as well, and could easily set up the apron and machine it down. I could then build it back up with turcite, and scrape it back in using the bed as a reference? Some photos of where she sits right now.



Interested in advice here!

These are nice little lathes. I picked one up in about the same condition as yours. Works great for quick jobs.
Here’s a link to mine.
Takisawa TSL-1000 project lathe

Nice! Yeah have perused your thread before! Did you do any reconditioning of sliding surfaces when you were rebuilding yours? I hope to strike some balance here between a full restoration and reconditioning. Compared some of the other lathe's I've had this one is in incredible condition, despite having some wear. Both of my former SouthBends had visually noticeable bed wear!

Ooops, sorry, saw you posted on my thread
I didn’t do anything to the bed or sliding surfaces except cleaning and oiling. The worse trouble it might have had was clogged passages and ports in the main carriage delivering way lube. It needed a real good roto rooter job and bath.
I may have to adjust my headstock bearings slightly as I have noticed some strange chatter in the spindle.

Yeah no surprise on that. Any place where the oil has been sitting for a long time it tends to be pretty goopy. The old felts are basically like rocks too. I power washed the carriage casting the other day then followed up with compressed air. I think I got all the goop blown out of them.

I've been letting it settle a bit before taking out the master precision level and trying to get the bed really flat. Always a bit frustrating to assess all the wear since you never know what to trust! I'm thinking I'm going to try to measure between the ways and the underside way surface that the carriage gibs run on (which is machined not scraped, but should be unworn).

I am a bit baffled on this machine. I have leveled the ways quite precisely (using the two flat ways), and assessed wear on the carriage ways. It appears there is about .001" on the rear way, and ~.003" on the front V way. Not too terrible. However, the cross slide way, and the machined top surface of the saddle appear to be about .02" off level relative to the ways. I initially thought the bottom of the saddle must be worn that much (which is quite possible) but I see no ridge that would indicate that. Is it possible the cross slide way is not level with the flat ways on this machine? That would be quite odd. I wonder if maybe the saddle was replaced or machined at some point, but there is no evidence of replacement (paint matches perfectly), and I'm not sure why someone would machine the base unless the machine was being reconditioned.

Photo from before disassembly and cleaning.

I picked up a TSL-D 800 about a year ago and finally got around to getting it properly leveled this past weekend. The machined surface on top of the saddle on mine is way out of level too, but it's not cutting a taper (about .0005" over 12 inches) so I don't know if it matters. Mine is a 1990 model and the ways don't look worn to me at all.

My problem is I don't think oil is getting to the back ways... Does anyone know how to get access to the oil passageways that go across the saddle? Guessing I have to take the apron apart.

If you drop the apron it will become clear. There is a small copper hard line that goes from the oil pump on the lower right, down across the bottom of the apron and then up into an oil passage on the left upper face of the apron and into the bottom of the saddle. If you pull it apart it will be clear. The rear way has a felt in it and I would guess that hard turned into an oil saturated rock that needs to be replaced

Oddly enough the ways on mine were the most worn of the running surfaces although still not terrible. That and the compound ways (which have no active lube). Machine must have been used for a lot of small OD op's. I'm planning to freshen up my cross slide ways and then turcite the saddle and scrape them in to align.