On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 10:36:40 GMT, Gunner Asch
wrote:

Some time ago, I posted about having dropped my Clausing 1501 (15x52)
lathe when moving it. Bent the carraige hand wheel shaft, busted a
couple aluminum levers..minor damage all things considered.

This week, Im playing hookie, no urgent service calls, so Im playing
catchup on the machine shop Round Tuit list.

Monday December 26
8 AM
The Clausing is pretty simple, and the design is such you can pull a
front plate to get to the guts of the apron. First thing to tackle was
that bent handwheel shaft. Pulled the plate..then changed shoes when I
realized Id forgotten to dump the oil out of the apron. About a quart
down the old tennies...sigh

Pulling the shaft required removing the front plate, driving out a few
pins etc. Pretty simple. The shaft is .5, with a gear pinned on the
far end, two snap ring grooves, threaded 1/2-20 on the far end, and
two woodruff keyways. About 8" long.

So I dug out a chunk of Mystery Metal (probably Stressproof from a
previous project), and cut it to length, cut the snap ring grooves and
the woodruff keyways, then threaded the end. I fitted the gear, which
is retained by a woodruff key and a cross pin. Cool! I think..no
problems. Then I start hunting for a proper pin. All the roll pins in
my assortment are the wrong size. The hardware store doesnt have the
right size. Neither does the other hardware store, or any of the 3
autoparts stores. The hole is straight, not tapered. Ok...time to
make a pin. All the proper sized stock I have is D2. Not a good
idea.. So I finally turn a pin out of a 16p nail. Double headed
concrete form nail, having searched everywhere for a standard one..no
go..all out.

1pm

There I am, standing in front of a Hardinge HLV-H, turning a ****ing
16p coated sinker between centers...sigh...

Then I try to fit it. Too small. Falls through. Seems there was a
burr on the end I measured. Some filing with a round swiss file fixed
the burr. Make a nail..er pin. Perfect fit..well..a bit too small
again by about .0005. Pin presses in..then falls out the other side.
Very slight taper after all. Sigh....

Make another pin, cover it with red loctite, press it in, and then
wack both ends with a center punch to swell it up.

2pm

Putting the beasty back together..I realize the bronze bushings are
worn. I hate a carraige handwheel thats "floppy". Ok..time to make
new bushings. Scrounging around my Stuff..I find a 12" stick of 3/4"
Mystery Bronze. Using my clearly marked pin gages..I determing the
proper od, and turn a new set of bushings. I press them in
properly..then determine my calculations were not quite right...time
to get out the .5 reamer. Find that my calculatons were WAY off..and
the pilot stud on the reamer wont go into the bushings. Press out the
bushings, put them into a collet, and rebore..after having to remove
the collet at least twice because the bushings pushed back into the
collet and fell into the spindle bore...sigh.

So I bored the bushings, and pressed them back in, then using the
reamer, reamed them to .4985 (marked on the reamer), then tried to fit
the shaft, which was .498. Oh oh....looks like somebody ground the
reamer. Its a 5 flute..so took a bit to measure accurately....4970

****.

3:30pm

Hunting around for another reamer, then measuring it to make sure it
was the right size took another 20 minutes. Then reamed and fitted
the shaft. PERFECT!! Ok..now we are cooking!

The shaft is held in the apron with a snapring, which bears on the
back of the cover plate, which prevents the shaft and gear from
pulling out of the apron, if you pull on the handwheel. The snap
rings seemed ok..so I resued them. I have a snap ring assortment..but
they are all ID snaprings..shrug.


Cleaning the mating surfaces, I put a thin layer of red RTV on, then
assembled everything. This part is a bit tricky, as you have to also
align the carraige/crossfeed selector lever, lock and detents. After
making about 8 attempts, I got it all together properly.

4:30 pm

YAY!!!

I put in all the screws , the woodruff key that prevents the handwheel
from turning, slide on the handwheel, installed the washers and
started tightening the self locking nut that holds the handwheel to
the shaft. As it was nearly tight..I feel a very slight "TINK" as the
snap ring on the inside of the cover breaks in half.

Put head down on side of lathe and ponder life and how much I enjoy
fixing machines.

5:01
Discover the hardware store had closed 5 minutes early.

Put head on steering wheel, and ponder how much I like fixing ****ing
machines.

Tuesday December 27

9am

Purchase new snap rings.

10am

Start to assemble machine, putting cover plate on apron, and it sticks
a bit, so with gentle thump, I tap cover home..and it wont go the last
1/8th inch.

Removing cover plate..I discover that the detent that prevents the
apron from being placed into feed AND cross feed, had jumped out of
its socket, and had snapped into two pieces when I Thumped the cover.
Its made from cast iron, looking like a round nosed 38 special round,
with a 5/32 shaft on the primer end, .83 long.

****

Decide to bore a hole in end where shaft had broken off, and silver
solder in a new one, then cut to length.

12pm

Pressed in new shaft, and the body of the cast iron detent crumbled
like rotten cracker.

Put head on side of press, and ponder how much I like fixing these
****ing god damned ****ing machines. ****!

12:30pm

Select proper piece of Mystery Metal and turn to .375, use a form tool
and put proper round nose on proper end, in collet.
Reverse work piece, and turn shaft on end to 5/32. Looking pretty
good! Polish up nice, then compare to original..and discover its 1/8"
too short.

1:30.pm

Polish up new piece, after determing that it was the right dimensions.
Install in cover plate, and install cover after 4-6 attempts. Then
remember that I was supposed to use RTV sealent.

Remove cover, clean off all old RTV..old being relatively speaking,
and artisticly lay on another thin bead

Reinstall cover after 3-5 attempts. No hammer!
Install all screws.
Start to install handwheel..and woodruff key slips out of my fingers
(1/8x1/2), enters a worm hole and was last seen headed for Trotter
Indiana as worm hole closes with a small bang of vacuum.

Stand bemused as I ponder how much I like fixing ****ing godamned
****ing ****ing godamned ****ing machines! ****!!!!

2:45pm

Purchase 2 (two) proper woodruff keys at 2nd hardware store. The first
having given me a blank look when I spoke the magic word.."woodruff"

3:00pm

Discover woodruff key had been stamped from Mystery metal and needed
some serious work on oil stone to get to 1/8 thickness.

3:30 pm

Install key, install handwheel, gingerly snug nut on
handwheel...Voila..snap ring held!!

Spin handle..and carriage grinds its way down ways. Grinds????
Discover carraige lub is dry. Discover cheap assed ball detent
lurication thingys were in various shades of disrepair. Fill best
oiler with Vactra #2, and force oil into lubers. Then pressure them
up with rubber tip on air blow gun, until oil spurted out from under
ways, along with rust, mange, spooge and Stuff. Refill lubers with
Kroil, repeat high pressure air treatment until Gunk stopped coming
out. Refilled with Vactra #2.

4:30

Spun wheel..and carraige silently and smoothly floated down ways
nearly 2 feet. Wheee!
Decided that wheel crank(bent from the drop) needed to be replaced. It
unscrewed, but outside handle was too damaged to be reused. Simple
bolt with plastic body that spins on bolt.

Rummaged around though Stuff..until found the proper 5/16th x 4"
socket head bolt. Selected a piece of delrin from Plastics bin.
Bored hole in delrin blank, finished ends with form tool for
cosmetics, and counter bored with counterbore tool to fit bolt head.
Discovered delrin had gotten hot, and counter bore was too small for
bolt head.
Dug out tiny boring bar and bored to fit.

5:30.

Fitted handle with lock nut to handwheel. Looking good!!
Filled apron with ATF.
Changed shoes and socks when I discovered Id not replaced the drain
plug in bottom of apron.
Refilled apron with ATF.
Adjusted all detents, gibs, and effortlessly traveled the carraige
back and forth down the pristine ways, pondering how much fun it is
fixing up fine old machines.

Too bad the main drive belt ($80 from Clausing..variable speed belt)
is busted. I might have actually fired it up and turned something with
it.

Now all I have to do is weld up the 3 busted (aluminum) handles, and
wait till I hit the Lotto to order the belt.

Sigh

Gunner, with lots more projects to look forwards to this week.

That was especially entertaining cause I've personally witnessed your
cussing and you can put a real sincerity to it.

Sounds just like when I work on machines. During the 8th assembly I'm
obviously concentrating on the last 3 parts that are real tricky and
forget the easy 2nd part that I successfully inserted 8 times before.