My Lathe

[Oldneweng]

It is the gear mounted on the cross slide shaft, inside the cross slide casting. On my lathe the cross slide is open on top except for a metal strip I fitted. This slides out to cover the hole but doesn't always behave. What setup is on your lathe to do this job?

Attachment 177572

If you look at the picture full sized you will see X. This is a spacer tube made long ago to take the position of the cross slide gear. Your lathe should have a gear here. Undo the two bolts holding the shaft/wheel to the carriage and the gear should be able to be removed after removing the shaft completely. I have calculated the dimensions for this gear. It is 15 tooth (I hope).

I would like to replce it as my lathe has noticable wear in the cross slide and when tightened to minimise slop there is obvious differences in effort needed to turn cross slide due to uneven wear. Loose in the middle and tight at the edge. Power facing would be more precise.

I will look at the pump setup on the lathe at work. This is the one they got to replace mine. They took the pump from mine because the one with their lathe was burnt out. As far as I know it is still there but I have no idea whether it is possible to see anything. If possible I will take a picture. They are used to me doing that. The pump would be 3 phase anyway so no good to me.

I still need to get a better pump for mine as the existing setup is very temporary and I think not electrically safe. If I can ensure proper filtration I might just fit a fountain pump from ebay.

Dean

[Vernonv]

Hi Dean,
Unfortunately I don't have the gear you are after. Here is a pic of parts I do have - they include the some of the drive gears from within the apron as well as a cross slide lead screw (but no gear).


Here is a pic of my cross slide assembly. As you can see it has a plate that covers the gear, although I'm unsure how it is attached. Also note that my cross slide lead screw has been replaced with a "metric" version.

[Oldneweng]

Do you have any cross slide feed? The picture of your old shaft shows a woodruff keyway about 40mm in from mounting bracket. This is the keyway to drive the gear I am talking about. The large gear resting on the shaft is the drive gear that engages it.

Dean

[Vernonv]

Do you have any cross slide feed?

Certainly do. I assume that when "they" changed the cross slide lead screw to metric, they just used the original feed gear from the old imperial lead screw.

[Oldneweng]

Its all clear now. The gears you have there must have been replaced. I plan on replacing my screw at some point but will stick to imperial. I don't see the nut for the screw there. I guess that was used with metric nut pressed in. May go that way myself I think. Costs about $50.00 to buy threaded rod and nut from US. About $300.00 in OZ. I will have to fit this to my existing shaft tho. I tried cutting acme thread but found that there was too much slop in cross slide thread. The tool dug in and broke. That is why I am not making my own shaft. I have thought about using a nylon block attached to nut, which then clamps around thread to stabilize.

That cross slide wheel in the picture looks to be non zeroing. That is the only thing I could consider buying off you but I have made one that zeros. I am using a stainless steel length of measure tape for the marks. You can see it and the 2 screws that hold it in its recess in my photo. I have to convert. 375mm for full circle which is 0.125 in. 3mm per thou. I worked in engineering back in the early 80's and I am happy to use both metric and imperial. I do find myself using metric mostly tho and this is interesting because if I want a finished diameter of Xmm I calculate a cut of 30 mm on the wheel equals a 10 thou cut and 20 thou reduction in diameter which will give me a diameter of Z mm. I am more comfortable with an imperial lathe and it would be harder still if the lathe was part metric and part imperial.

Dean