FINALLY got the redrive "done". i felt quite proud of it (though it
took an embarrassingly long time to do). still have to do the electrical
wiring to the motor (drum switch, 220 volt, etc.) "fired it up" today.
thank GOD it worked ok first time!
my crazy project. there's no way this lathe could be worth the time,
energy, money i've put into it so far. still haven't cut anything with it
yet.
thanks to those who've offered advice/assistance.

b.w.

www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive1.jpg 59kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive2.jpg 45kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive3.jpg 54kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive4.jpg 613kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive5.jpg 130kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive6.jpg 130kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive7.jpg 611kb

Extremely cool!

Congrats on nice work! Especially the part about it working first time!


"William Wixon" wrote in message
...
FINALLY got the redrive "done". i felt quite proud of it (though it
took an embarrassingly long time to do). still have to do the electrical
wiring to the motor (drum switch, 220 volt, etc.) "fired it up" today.
thank GOD it worked ok first time!

snip

According to William Wixon :
FINALLY got the redrive "done". i felt quite proud of it (though it
took an embarrassingly long time to do). still have to do the electrical
wiring to the motor (drum switch, 220 volt, etc.) "fired it up" today.
thank GOD it worked ok first time!
my crazy project. there's no way this lathe could be worth the time,
energy, money i've put into it so far. still haven't cut anything with it
yet.
thanks to those who've offered advice/assistance.

b.w.

www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive1.jpg 59kb

[ ... ]

www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive7.jpg 611kb

Those look nice. Are you now tempted to refinish the rest of
the machine?

Did you build the entire motor support, or is this just a
refurbishment of the original motor and layshaft supports?

I see that the last shot was taken at 1/18th of a second, which
explains why the spokes of the large pulley are not visible.

And I also see that you used a Fuji FinePix1300 to take the
shots.

And -- the last shot was taken at 2006:04:10 16:24:05 according
to the camera's clock.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

In article , William Wixon says...

my crazy project. there's no way this lathe could be worth the time,
energy, money i've put into it so far. still haven't cut anything with it
yet.

Watch out. This lathe has NO lockout to prevent you from engaging
the half nuts and the longitudinal feed at the same time. If you
do this you *will* blow something up in the leadscrew drivetrain.

I may have mentioned this to you at some time in the past, it's
my standard "Star" lathe caveat.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

You did spend some time on that, you even put down white sheets for the
pics. I need you here for a few weeks to take of some projects.

careful with your fingers on that one, don't let a cat in the room while
running.
"William Wixon" wrote in message
...
FINALLY got the redrive "done". i felt quite proud of it (though it
took an embarrassingly long time to do). still have to do the electrical
wiring to the motor (drum switch, 220 volt, etc.) "fired it up" today.
thank GOD it worked ok first time!
my crazy project. there's no way this lathe could be worth the time,
energy, money i've put into it so far. still haven't cut anything with it
yet.
thanks to those who've offered advice/assistance.

b.w.

www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive1.jpg 59kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive2.jpg 45kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive3.jpg 54kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive4.jpg 613kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive5.jpg 130kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive6.jpg 130kb
www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive7.jpg 611kb

thanks for your replies, replies to everyone below...




"Adam Smith" wrote in message
...
Extremely cool!

Congrats on nice work! Especially the part about it working first time!


thanks very much Adam. (whew! i was fishing for a compliment! was afraid
with the crabby old machinists here on this list not only would i not get a
compliment i might get a kick in the ass.)




"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

Those look nice. Are you now tempted to refinish the rest of
the machine?

Did you build the entire motor support, or is this just a
refurbishment of the original motor and layshaft supports?

I see that the last shot was taken at 1/18th of a second, which
explains why the spokes of the large pulley are not visible.

And I also see that you used a Fuji FinePix1300 to take the
shots.

And -- the last shot was taken at 2006:04:10 16:24:05 according
to the camera's clock.

Enjoy,
DoN.

hi don,
i like the rustic look of the rest of the machine, don't wanna disturb the
patina. :-)
heck yeah i built the entire thang from scratch. whew! that was a workout.
(thought you and others would remember the way the "ugly" (my words)
original was.)

here's the pic of the original... waddaya call it...? "motor and layshaft
supports"?

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe6a.jpg

(all i intend to re-use is the step pulley and the barrel switch) (and some
of the steel bar stock)

that's pretty amazing you were able to glean all that info from my pics. i
didn't know that information was encoded in them. how'd you do that!?
jeez, i almost felt violated. funny you know the make and model of my
camera, if someone were to ask me i'd have to tell them i don't know/can't
remember!

here's a picture that i thought was funny. is this one 1/18 of a second
also? (it's turning/running) (used the flash) (it even stopped the pulley
on the motor!)

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive8.jpg

thanks for the compliment.





"jim rozen" wrote in message
...

Watch out. This lathe has NO lockout to prevent you from engaging
the half nuts and the longitudinal feed at the same time. If you
do this you *will* blow something up in the leadscrew drivetrain.

I may have mentioned this to you at some time in the past, it's
my standard "Star" lathe caveat.
Jim


yeah Jim, thanks, i remember you said that. sorry i didn't send you a thank
you directly, i went to try to find your address in the replies i got to my
original post and got distracted and forgot. thanks for making the pics of
your star lathe available to me. now the only thing is for me to figure out
what a half nut and a longitudinal feed is. :-) i'm kidding, i do believe
i know what the half nut is by taking apart the saddle and i assume the
longitudinal feed is what makes the tool holder move toward and away from
the operator... but i am still completely unsure how to activate them and
am afraid to blow it up. today i was figuring i'm going to need to get a
copy of that south bend "how to operate a lathe" book. hope that'll tell
me. usually i fiddle around with a thing to figure out how to use it but in
this case it seems i can actually cause real damage by fiddling around with
it to figure out how it works and so am afraid to do so. somehow the
controls on the saddle do not make sense. it seems as if if i move a lever
or turn a knob it causes the other knobs/handles to do something else and if
i switch them around they do something completely different, not getting
repeatable results. oh, and one more thing, the handle that slides/moves
the saddle along the ways, it's very stiff and tight, not at ALL smooth.
i'm assuming i'm going to have to take it apart and put in some shims
somewhere, haven't gotten to that yet. thanks again for the important tip!
(the gears inside the saddle have already been chipped/"exploded" but
there's enough teeth left on each one that it can operate ok.) (i was
hoping you'd get a kick out of how i routed the vee belt)




----- Original Message -----
From: "wayne mak"
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 9:53 PM
Subject: seneca falls star lathe update, redrive


You did spend some time on that, you even put down white sheets for the
pics. I need you here for a few weeks to take of some projects.

careful with your fingers on that one, don't let a cat in the room while
running.


chuckle i remember you're not all that far from me here.
yeah, really, careful w/ fingers. when i saw the old catalogs of the old
seneca falls lathes some of them have (cast iron) covers over some of the
gears and i was like "what pussies! i don't need no steenkin' covers" but
when it was running i was like "jeez, this fukin' thing is a finger muncher
monster!" i keep having the compulsion to wipe away the oil that's spitting
out of it and have to keep telling myself to promise myself to never get my
hands near the gears/pulleys while it's running. (the spitting oil was an
unanticipated characteristic, i figure being born and raised entirely in the
last half of the 20th century and having known only "permanently sealed
bearings" i had no idea of the characteristics of a "total loss" machinery
oil system.
:-) (about the cats)

According to William Wixon :
thanks for your replies, replies to everyone below...

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

Those look nice. Are you now tempted to refinish the rest of
the machine?

Did you build the entire motor support, or is this just a
refurbishment of the original motor and layshaft supports?

[ ... ]

hi don,
i like the rustic look of the rest of the machine, don't wanna disturb the
patina. :-)
heck yeah i built the entire thang from scratch. whew! that was a workout.
(thought you and others would remember the way the "ugly" (my words)
original was.)

I sort of remember it -- but not the details.

here's the pic of the original... waddaya call it...? "motor and layshaft
supports"?

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/lathe6a.jpg

(all i intend to re-use is the step pulley and the barrel switch) (and some
of the steel bar stock)

O.K.

that's pretty amazing you were able to glean all that info from my pics. i
didn't know that information was encoded in them. how'd you do that!?

There are a bunch of programs which do varying degrees of
recovering the "exif" information from image files. The program which I
currently use is a perl program called "exiftool".

jeez, i almost felt violated. funny you know the make and model of my
camera, if someone were to ask me i'd have to tell them i don't know/can't
remember!

There are something like sixty lines of information which your
camera puts into the file, including the maker and model name.

However -- if you have run the photo through some program which
modifies the image, the new file will not have that information encoded
in it -- unless you jump through hoops to preserve it.

I thought to run the image through exiftool to see what camera
took the shots, since:

1) The image name was a typical camera image name, so there was
a chance that it was the raw image from the camera.

2) The size was large enough so the odds were also that it was
the unmodified image from the camera.

If you want to keep from making this information available to
the world, load into a program and re-save it to a new filename -- even
if you don't do anything to the image, and that will strip off the exif
info.

My Nikon D70 (A SLR which uses the lenses from the old film
cameras) even encodes in there the orientation of the camera (normal,
tilted 90 degrees to the left, tilted 90 degrees to the right, or
(possibly) inverted. This is so programs which are displaying the
images can automatically rotate them to the proper position on your
screen.

And one of the things that the D70 will do is to encode a short
text string in there. I use it for an attempt at a copyright claim in
the images.

here's a picture that i thought was funny. is this one 1/18 of a second
also?

I can't tell on this one. You used some program to perhaps crop
the image, and all that exif tool says about it is the following:

================================================== ====================
ExifTool Version Number : 5.05
File Name : redrive8.jpg
File Size : 49KB
File Type : JPEG
Image Width : 433
Image Height : 639
Image Size : 433x639
================================================== ====================

(it's turning/running) (used the flash) (it even stopped the pulley
on the motor!)

Flash, combined with slow shutter speeds can give a nice effect.
There are modes on the Nikon to select to do this on purpose.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/redrive8.jpg

thanks for the compliment.

You're welcome. It was a nice job. I wish that I could weld
and make things that look like that.

"jim rozen" wrote in message
...

Watch out. This lathe has NO lockout to prevent you from engaging
the half nuts and the longitudinal feed at the same time. If you
do this you *will* blow something up in the leadscrew drivetrain.

[ ... ]

yeah Jim, thanks, i remember you said that. sorry i didn't send you a thank
you directly, i went to try to find your address in the replies i got to my
original post and got distracted and forgot. thanks for making the pics of
your star lathe available to me. now the only thing is for me to figure out
what a half nut and a longitudinal feed is. :-) i'm kidding, i do believe
i know what the half nut is by taking apart the saddle and i assume the
longitudinal feed is what makes the tool holder move toward and away from
the operator...

Actually -- no. The longitudinal feed is in the same direction
that the half-nuts move the carriage -- but much slower, giving finer
feed (and a nicer finish), and reducing wear on the leadscrew to save it
purely for threading.

What you have described is called the cross-feed, which is
usually present on a lathe which also has the longitudinal feed.
Typically, there is a lever or clutch which will engage either, and
select either. I've seen lathes with two clutch levers, one for
longitudinal and one for cross feed, allowing them both to be engaged at
the same time, to cut a nice 60 degree taper. My Clausing has no
clutch, just gears, and the lever slides in a z-shaped slot, so to the
right and up is longitudinal feed, and to the left and down is
cross-feed. But this machine *does* have an interlock so you can't
engage the half nuts when either fine feed is in use, and you can't
engage either fine feed when the half-nuts are in use, thus avoiding the
calamity which Jim described.

but i am still completely unsure how to activate them and
am afraid to blow it up.

Half nuts are typically engaged by moving a lever to the right
side of the apron to a down position, at which point the carriage will
move fairly fast (depending on the threading gearing).

I would have to look at the photos of the apron of your lathe to
see what controls you have which engage longitudinal and cross feeds.
Sometimes, there is a star wheel which allows you to gradually engage
the clutch, and allows it to slip if necessary.

Identify the half-nut lever and the handwheel which moves the
carriage. Everything else is most likely longitudinal and cross feed.
And as long as you don't have the half-nuts engaged, you can play with
the others with no problems (as long as you stop them before the
carriage reaches the chuck or the tailstock. :-)

today i was figuring i'm going to need to get a
copy of that south bend "how to operate a lathe" book. hope that'll tell
me.

It will tell you how South Bend lathes do this. They are
somewhat different from my Clausing, and yet again different from a
Sheldon ...

usually i fiddle around with a thing to figure out how to use it but in
this case it seems i can actually cause real damage by fiddling around with
it to figure out how it works and so am afraid to do so. somehow the
controls on the saddle do not make sense. it seems as if if i move a lever
or turn a knob it causes the other knobs/handles to do something else and if
i switch them around they do something completely different, not getting
repeatable results.

Interesting. Disengage the feed to the leadscrew (the reversing
lever on the headstock should have a neutral position), and then you can
play with the controls without damaging anything -- but also without it
doing anything useful.

oh, and one more thing, the handle that slides/moves
the saddle along the ways, it's very stiff and tight, not at ALL smooth.

The handwheel? This may imply that you have a longitudinal feed
lever engaged with the clutch set to allow you to override it by enough
hand force.

i'm assuming i'm going to have to take it apart and put in some shims
somewhere, haven't gotten to that yet. thanks again for the important tip!
(the gears inside the saddle have already been chipped/"exploded" but
there's enough teeth left on each one that it can operate ok.)

Are you sure? This may be why you are having strange behavior.

Good Luck,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

hey don,
thanks for your detailed response. my responses/further questions
below...
took a photo of the "saddle"/"carriage" and uploaded it...

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/handles.jpg


"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...



-snip-



You're welcome. It was a nice job. I wish that I could weld
and make things that look like that.

thanks again :-)

-snip-


Actually -- no. The longitudinal feed is in the same direction
that the half-nuts move the carriage -- but much slower, giving finer
feed (and a nicer finish), and reducing wear on the leadscrew to save it
purely for threading.

wow, i REALLY don't understand that. i've used a lathe before but just
don't konw what the parts are called. the lathe i used (and this lathe) i
can move the tool holder/"saddle" side to side along teh ways with the
handle "1" (rapidly and imprecicely) or move the tool holder/"saddle" slowly
(but precicely) with teh long screw under the ways (assuming that's called
the lead screw). are you saying the handle that moves teh saddle rapidly
but imprecicely is called the longitudinal feed? when the half nuts are
engaged (they're engaged onto the lead screw) it moves the carriage slowly.
i don't get what you're saying at all.


What you have described is called the cross-feed, which is
usually present on a lathe which also has the longitudinal feed.


thanks. "cross feed"


Typically, there is a lever or clutch which will engage either, and
select either. I've seen lathes with two clutch levers, one for


i think maybe knob "2" is a clutch.


longitudinal and one for cross feed, allowing them both to be engaged at
the same time, to cut a nice 60 degree taper. My Clausing has no
clutch, just gears, and the lever slides in a z-shaped slot, so to the
right and up is longitudinal feed, and to the left and down is
cross-feed. But this machine *does* have an interlock so you can't
engage the half nuts when either fine feed is in use, and you can't
engage either fine feed when the half-nuts are in use, thus avoiding the
calamity which Jim described.



Half nuts are typically engaged by moving a lever to the right
side of the apron to a down position, at which point the carriage will
move fairly fast (depending on the threading gearing).


there is a replacement part made of aluminum "4" that engages the half nut
(or what appears to me to be a nut sliced in half, so i figure that must be
a half nut) (this replacement part, i was impressed by whoever made it,
seemed like a somewhat complicated piece of mill work.) i'm a little
worried though, seems to me that it weighs enough/is loose enough that it
can flop down and engage itself. i'm trying to figure out a way to hook up
a spring or bungee or something to prevent it from flopping down and
engaging the half nut "without my permission".




I would have to look at the photos of the apron of your lathe to
see what controls you have which engage longitudinal and cross feeds.


thanks for helping me with this! (!!!) (like i said before, i usually just
fiddle around with a thing to figure it out on my own, i enjoy doing it that
way, but in this case there seems to be the possibility that i can cause
real irreparible (no replacement parts available) damage if i **** something
up here.)


Sometimes, there is a star wheel which allows you to gradually engage
the clutch, and allows it to slip if necessary.


could the star wheel be "2"?



Identify the half-nut lever and the handwheel which moves the


i got the half nut lever and the carriage hand wheel... and have been
fiddling with them, but am afraid to advance any furhter. (and as i
mentioned, the carraige hand wheel is VERY stiff, jerky, rough.)


carriage. Everything else is most likely longitudinal and cross feed.
And as long as you don't have the half-nuts engaged, you can play with
the others with no problems (as long as you stop them before the
carriage reaches the chuck or the tailstock. :-)

last night i tried engaging the lead screw and moving the carriage left to
right under power, which was fun. moved surprisingly slowly. then i
changed the direction of the leadscrew (with teh handle on the headstock)
and it seemed like the motion was rough, maybe as if something was being
FORCED, didn't like that and so stopped doing it. seemed as if the gears in
the headstock, when they were configured to move the opposite way, didn't
like it at all.




It will tell you how South Bend lathes do this. They are
somewhat different from my Clausing, and yet again different from a
Sheldon ...

thanks.




Interesting. Disengage the feed to the leadscrew (the reversing
lever on the headstock should have a neutral position), and then you can


i've had the lever in the neutral position, afraid to engage the lead screw
drive.


play with the controls without damaging anything -- but also without it
doing anything useful.


chuckle (i went to art school, this project has been for me at least
partially a creative expression/outlet, hope though this lathe won't end up
being entirely a kinetic sculpture.)





The handwheel? This may imply that you have a longitudinal feed


i wouldn't have thought it would be called a handwheel. what in the heck is
it called now, the word excapes me now, not a lever, not a knob, "handle",
what's it called? do they refer to this thing as a handwheel even though
there's no "wheel" component to it? "crank"?


lever engaged with the clutch set to allow you to override it by enough

oh! is the longitudinal feel lever the thing on the headstock that makes
the lead screw rotate?!


hand force.


Are you sure? This may be why you are having strange behavior.

it seemed as if there were enough of a tooth remaining on each of the broken
teeth to uninterruptedly engage the mating gear.



Good Luck,
DoN.



in my photo...

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/handles.jpg

"1" moves the carriage from left to right/right to left. (is very stiff
and jerky. i think the pinion gear might need to be shimmed or something, i
think maybe it's too tightly crammed up into the "rack" gear under the
bed/ways. is that what they're called, "rack and pinion"?)
"2" seems to be a clutch that makes "6" turn but i think it also makes "1"
turn too, not sure what "2" does. screw it in, tightens up and engages
something inside, turn it the opposite way and loosens, disengages whatever
it was it engaged.
"3" flops up and down from position "a." to position "b.", tighten the knob
to make it stay at either position. (i'm very confused as to what this
handle does.)
"4" engages/disengages the, i assume, "half nut".
"5" what do you guys call that one? transverse feed?
"6" moves the tool holder toward or away from the operator. this handle
will rotate under power of the lathe.



whew! thanks.

b.w.

According to William Wixon :
hey don,
thanks for your detailed response. my responses/further questions
below...
took a photo of the "saddle"/"carriage" and uploaded it...

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/handles.jpg

O.K. This will help greatly. (Though I must admit that I
missed the mention of the image the first time through and I was quite
puzzled at the references to numbers until I got to the bottom and the
image URL was mentioned again.

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

[ ... ]

Actually -- no. The longitudinal feed is in the same direction
that the half-nuts move the carriage -- but much slower, giving finer
feed (and a nicer finish), and reducing wear on the leadscrew to save it
purely for threading.

wow, i REALLY don't understand that. i've used a lathe before but just
don't konw what the parts are called. the lathe i used (and this lathe) i
can move the tool holder/"saddle" side to side along teh ways with the
handle "1" (rapidly and imprecicely)

This is what I was calling the "handwheel". It normally is a
steel or cast iron wheel with a polished rim and a crank handle sticking
out at one point only. The wheel is easier to use for fine control, and
the crank for coarse control.

or move the tool holder/"saddle" slowly
(but precicely) with teh long screw under the ways (assuming that's called
the lead screw).

That is the leadscrew (or at least the main "threading"
leadscrew). There are two others within the range of what you have
photographed -- one which achieves the "cross feed", and is turned by
the crank you have labeled "6". The other moves the "compound" (the
section which can be set at different angles), and that one is turned by
the crank which you label "5". The crank on that one frequently has two
crank handles, allowing you to achieve fine motion by the thumb on one
and the index finger on the other.

are you saying the handle that moves teh saddle rapidly
but imprecicely is called the longitudinal feed?

No -- it moves the carriage in the longitudinal direction.

The leadscrew and half nuts moves the carriage much more rapidly
and precisely in the same direction -- and should be used only for
threading -- assuming that you have a true longitudinal feed in your
apron. I am using the term "longitudinal feed" as a term for a
capability, not a control. More on this a bit later. (If I don't
forget. :-)

when the half nuts are
engaged (they're engaged onto the lead screw) it moves the carriage slowly.
i don't get what you're saying at all.

It moves the carriage fairly rapidly -- depending on how fast
the leadscrew is rotating. This is changed by the gears between the
spindle and the leadscrew (and by a quick-change gearbox in a lathe with
is recent enough).

What you have described is called the cross-feed, which is
usually present on a lathe which also has the longitudinal feed.


thanks. "cross feed"

Crank "6" is the cross-feed crank. However (as you have
discovered) it can be driven by gearing in the apron, and this is
typically quite slow, and we can call that "power cross feed" to avoid
confusion with the function of the crank itself.

Typically, there is a lever or clutch which will engage either, and
select either. I've seen lathes with two clutch levers, one for


i think maybe knob "2" is a clutch.

It looks right to be a clutch.

[ ... ]

Half nuts are typically engaged by moving a lever to the right
side of the apron to a down position, at which point the carriage will
move fairly fast (depending on the threading gearing).


there is a replacement part made of aluminum "4" that engages the half nut
(or what appears to me to be a nut sliced in half, so i figure that must be
a half nut)

It is. I suspect that this once had a longer name, such as
"half nut coupling" or something similar, and it got shortened by use
habits.

(this replacement part, i was impressed by whoever made it,
seemed like a somewhat complicated piece of mill work.) i'm a little
worried though, seems to me that it weighs enough/is loose enough that it
can flop down and engage itself. i'm trying to figure out a way to hook up
a spring or bungee or something to prevent it from flopping down and
engaging the half nut "without my permission".

Hmm ... there *should* be a notch in a part of it inside the
apron into which a spring-loaded ball or something similar is pressed to
keep the half-nuts from engaging volutarily. You will probably need to
take the apron apart -- and possibly put up more photos for us to
analyze -- to figure this out.

[ ... ]

Sometimes, there is a star wheel which allows you to gradually engage
the clutch, and allows it to slip if necessary.


could the star wheel be "2"?

Yes. Not a star in this case -- though the South Bend manual
will probably show one.



Identify the half-nut lever and the handwheel which moves the


i got the half nut lever and the carriage hand wheel... and have been
fiddling with them, but am afraid to advance any furhter. (and as i
mentioned, the carraige hand wheel is VERY stiff, jerky, rough.)

I *think* that you are being fought by the "longitudinal power
feed". Your part "3" looks like a selector to choose between (power)
cross feed and (power) longitudinal feed. You say that it flops around
as well? I would expect detents in it to avoid accidentally engaging
the half-nuts and the longitudinal feed at the same time -- just from
vibration of the lathe as it cuts.

And I would expect it to have a center position in which it does
not engage either the power cross feed or the power longitudinal feed.

When the power longitudinal feed is enaged (and the leadscrew is
turning) it should turn the handwheel "1" to move the carriage slowly
along the bed. This may be engaged, and may be what you are fighting.


carriage. Everything else is most likely longitudinal and cross feed.
And as long as you don't have the half-nuts engaged, you can play with
the others with no problems (as long as you stop them before the
carriage reaches the chuck or the tailstock. :-)

last night i tried engaging the lead screw and moving the carriage left to
right under power, which was fun. moved surprisingly slowly. then i
changed the direction of the leadscrew (with teh handle on the headstock)
and it seemed like the motion was rough, maybe as if something was being
FORCED, didn't like that and so stopped doing it. seemed as if the gears in
the headstock, when they were configured to move the opposite way, didn't
like it at all.

Hmm ... a problem in the tumbler gears (which are what do the
reversing). It looks as though those are hidden under a plate to which
your other threading gears mount, based on the photo with the flash
stopping the spokes of the big pulley. You'll need to pull that apart
and see what is happening in there. The typical design is that when the
reversing lever is in the forward position, a single gear picks up the
rotation of the spindle. When it is in the reverse position, a second
gear is moved between the first and the spindle gear, effecting the
reverse motion. It *may* be that this gear is stripped, or that things
simply need better lubrication.

Or -- it might be that something in the apron and carriage are
fighting motion in the reverse direction.

And -- it might be that your cross/longitudinal selector "3" is
bouncing out of mesh.

For smooth power feed motion you need:

1) the half nuts disengaged (tie that lever up to be safe, until
you can install a detent of some sort.

2) The cross/longitudinal selector "3" in position and prevented from
accidentally disengaging. (You mentioned a nut to lock it?).

3) The clutch screwed in to pick off motion from the leadscrew
(it probably has a long keyway cut through the threads the whole
length -- this rotates a worm gear in the apron, and the clutch
couples this rotation to whichever power feed you have selected
by "3".

For *threading*, you need:

1) The cross/longitudinal selector "3" locked into a neutral
position.

2) The clutch "2" disengaged, so it is not rotating anything inside
the apron.

3) The half nuts selector lever pushed down to engage the half
nuts during a threading pass, and lifted up to disengage it.

It *should* stay in *whichever* position you put it in. In
particular, you don't want it to drop back into engaged position
when you are cranking the cross feed out to prepare for another
pass. If this does not stay, you have serious problems, and
this should be fixed in some way.

It will tell you how South Bend lathes do this. They are
somewhat different from my Clausing, and yet again different from a
Sheldon ...

thanks.

But -- it will at least tell you what kind of behavior to
expect.




Interesting. Disengage the feed to the leadscrew (the reversing
lever on the headstock should have a neutral position), and then you can


i've had the lever in the neutral position, afraid to engage the lead screw
drive.


play with the controls without damaging anything -- but also without it
doing anything useful.


chuckle (i went to art school, this project has been for me at least
partially a creative expression/outlet, hope though this lathe won't end up
being entirely a kinetic sculpture.)

:-)

The handwheel? This may imply that you have a longitudinal feed


i wouldn't have thought it would be called a handwheel. what in the heck is
it called now, the word excapes me now, not a lever, not a knob, "handle",
what's it called? do they refer to this thing as a handwheel even though
there's no "wheel" component to it? "crank"?

It is where the handwheel *should* be in a later machine, and
serves the function of a handwheel. It is just too early a machine to
have an actual wheel. :-) Your South Bend manual will show you real
handwheels. :-)


lever engaged with the clutch set to allow you to override it by enough

oh! is the longitudinal feel lever the thing on the headstock that makes
the lead screw rotate?!

No -- that is the reverse tumbler lever. There is no
longitudinal feed *lever*. The longitudinal feed function is selected
by a combination of the selector "3" and the clutch "4".

You really need to talk to the other person on here who has a
Star, and ask him just how those are expected to behave on your machine.
If I were there, I would be experimenting and finding out what it is
doing, what it *should* be doing and is not, and how to make it do what
it should do.


hand force.


Are you sure? This may be why you are having strange behavior.

it seemed as if there were enough of a tooth remaining on each of the broken
teeth to uninterruptedly engage the mating gear.

You mean that the teeth were not broken all the way across?

It is possible to build up where broken teeth were with screws
and brazing compound, and then to file them into the shape of gear teeth
again -- with very careful work and test fitting against a mating gear.



Good Luck,
DoN.



in my photo...

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/handles.jpg

"1" moves the carriage from left to right/right to left. (is very stiff
and jerky. i think the pinion gear might need to be shimmed or something, i
think maybe it's too tightly crammed up into the "rack" gear under the
bed/ways. is that what they're called, "rack and pinion"?)

The rack gear, with a worn carriage on a worn bed which are
re-scraped to a good fit will wind up with the pinion too *low* and at
that time a shim mounted between the rack gear and the lathe bed is used
to move it down far enough to engage. This kind of work also probably
requires moving the leadscrew down a little to keep it lined up with the
half nuts and the worm gear in the apron.

My first thought is that you are fighting the longitudinal feed
function (selected by "3"). Can you lock that lever in an in-between
position, where it engages neither the longitudinal feed nor the
cross-feed? (This is where we need someone who knows how *your* lathe
is supposed to behave.

"2" seems to be a clutch that makes "6" turn but i think it also makes "1"
turn too,

It should, depending on the position of "3".

not sure what "2" does. screw it in, tightens up and engages
something inside, turn it the opposite way and loosens, disengages whatever
it was it engaged.

"2" is the clutch. All the way out (loosened) should make it
fairly easy to crank the carriage from end to end -- unless you have a
lock clamp engaged on the carriage.

"3" flops up and down from position "a." to position "b.", tighten the knob
to make it stay at either position. (i'm very confused as to what this
handle does.)

The "knob" is under the lever in 3?

In any case, this *should* -- at least on a normal lathe --
select the power feed (through the clutch "2") to go to the cross-feed
(crank "6"), or to the handwheel (crank "1"). And it *should* have a
middle position where it will drive neither of those -- even with the
clutch engaged.

Can the knob under lever "3" be set just stiff enough so you can
move the lever "3" from cross-feed to longitudinal-feed positions, or
leave it in the middle and drive nothing?

"4" engages/disengages the, i assume, "half nut".

It is in the right place to do so, so that is pretty likely.
The problem here is your missing detent, so it can drop into engaged
position without your agreement.

Later lathes have an interlock which keeps you from engaging
both the half nuts and the longitudinal feed at the same time.
According to Jim, his does not have that. I keep wondering whether it
was simply a part which wore out or got left out when the apron was
apart some time..

"5" what do you guys call that one? transverse feed?

The "compound" crank.

"6" moves the tool holder toward or away from the operator. this handle
will rotate under power of the lathe.

The "crossfeed" crank.

I wish that I were in a position to take a look at this in
person. There is an awful lot which would be quicker with my hands on
the machine to check out what is happening -- especially since it is a m
machine which I have never handled -- working or not.

Good Luck
DoN.
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