I'm glad you were able to get the lathe quieted down. One of the things I like most about using the lathe is it is quiet compared to the other machinery I have in my shop. My lathe (not the HF), which isn't as old as yours, but is still fairly old having been made in the late 1990's, is so quiet I cannot tell it is on by the sound. The air thrown off by the spinning blank makes more noise than the lathe itself. As a consequence, turning can be an almost zen like experience.
Did I want to lock the spindle from turning, when removing a chuck or faceplate was not involved. And that was to use the index pin to dovetail Shaker candle stand posts. The only other times I come close, is if I wanted to power sand something. But then I held it with one hand and sanded with the other. So you see my confusion about why you just want to randomly be able to lock the spindle.
I lock the spindle quite a bit, sometimes when carving, sometimes sanding. Since the PM will only lock in two places I use the pin in the indexing holes to position it close to where I want to carve. There is no significant force on it so the indexing is fine for this.
I lock every time, of course when removing chucks with the wrench. I've got the metal slide that holds the spindle lock button down that I use on occasion.
You may find the it will run quieter with a quality rubber belt rather than a link belt. My first lathe had a Reeves drive and ran much better with a solid belt. Downside is getting it installed.
You know, for all of you romancing and praising that lathe. It's like praising a 1974 Pinto. A real POS car, made at the worst time in Detroit. Of course I already voiced my opinion, but just had to make this car analogy.
My experience is that link belts work great with a solid pulley, especially a machined one. They did not work well on my reeves drive, likely due to the surface of the pulleys. I ended up going back to a high quality rubber belt and it made things run better.
Knock on wood.....I've been running that link belt for a few years now.....no issues.....and the noise level is acceptable; but, thats after a lot of efforts to cut down the things that are rattling.
Which brings us to the metal cabinet. This may well be the largest contributor to noise generation on this old style of lathe. Motor vibrations get amplified in/by that cabinet. There is currently a lot of padding here, there, and most anywhere to cut the clatter.
I had a green 74 pinto - paid $650 for it. I did have to put a junk yard engine in it first thing but hey, that was only $200 and a great education. That car was reliable transportation for me for years. I loved that car.
One of my carpoolers always talked about the reports of how these cars tended to catch on fire when hit in the rear. One day a jeep ran into the back at a red light while that guy was sitting in the back seat. He was so in shock he couldn't even move to get out of the car! (No injuries) After whining and moaning the insurance paid me about twice what I had in the car.
I had the smashed car sitting at my house for months when one day I saw one just like it with the front smashed in. A knock on the door led to selling the car to a guy who wanted to combine them into one! That car turned out to be a good investment.
Maybe it wasn't the best car ever made but it sure did get me around. I suspect the lathe discussed here could be used to turn wood.
that had the only successful 10 MPH bumpers? Remember those? Maybe it was 5MPH, but I think it was the only car that passed the "test" without any damage to the body.
Now we have little cars with eleven air bags and if you hit something at 10 MPH and fire them, it totals the car.
Speaking of Pintos, I had a 1970 - one of the first to come out. Before gearing up stateside to make them Ford market tested roughly 6,000 with Tanus engines from Germany and modified bodies made in Canada. I got one of those for $2,400 off the showroom floor - the second sold in the state of KY. Some years later I was in Germany and helping my landlord work on his car. The engine looked a lot like mine. When I got back to the states I looked carefully at mine and realized that everything on the engine in English was on a sticker - pulling them off revealed the German underneath. That's when I searched around and found I had one of the originals.
I took it in for all the various recalls and was told every time that "this does not apply to yours." Ended up selling it for more than I paid, but wish I had it still. It was just like this one - Butterscotch and all:
