My Steelmaster 12 x 36 is about 9 years old and has suffered the same problems some 3 times now.Its not that I am unable to learn a lesson .It seems it can be an intermittent problem,that when it catches me at my most unguarded moments, the same bad thing happens.
The traverse pinion shaft gets bent,and winding the carriage manually becomes a series smooth - tight,smooth-tight rotations.
Similar to most machines of its genre,the lead screw sports a long,wide clock- like coil spring which can wind up into a centrally into to a 75 MM wide-almost solid block when the saddle is approaching its limits under auto drive.
Instead of the moving saddle encountering no resistance ,it is met prematurely by a then fully coiled spring acting as a solid. The springs are meant to sit in steel cups positioned at each end of the springs.
I believe the head stock spring end is not consistently locating deeply into its cup ,as it should as the saddle traverses under auto - feed. Instead the spring edge catches somewhere on the outer edge preventing spring compression within the confines of the cup.
On each occasion the rack engaging pinion shaft bends and binds in the hole in the saddle.The pinion and shaft are one piece and the pinion gear is as hard as a bulls forehead.Luckily last time. I ordered a spare. Am becoming a dab hand at stripping the lathe down, but this time, will go the extra mile and pull the lead screw and at this stage , my intention is to shorten the spring width and possibly modify the lead in for the cup.
I am after comments at this stage ,and will place the "repair post" into the project section as I feel this must have happened to someone else,or conversely will happen to someone else and may make a reference for future repairs.
For instance some of the retaining bolts for the slide plates under the ways are mongrels to remove and even worse to replace,so knowing the best techniques and tools used may be handy.
I have yet to take some pics but will do so when I get enough light.
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com...
The traverse pinion shaft gets bent,and winding the carriage manually becomes a series smooth - tight,smooth-tight rotations.
Similar to most machines of its genre,the lead screw sports a long,wide clock- like coil spring which can wind up into a centrally into to a 75 MM wide-almost solid block when the saddle is approaching its limits under auto drive.
Instead of the moving saddle encountering no resistance ,it is met prematurely by a then fully coiled spring acting as a solid. The springs are meant to sit in steel cups positioned at each end of the springs.
I believe the head stock spring end is not consistently locating deeply into its cup ,as it should as the saddle traverses under auto - feed. Instead the spring edge catches somewhere on the outer edge preventing spring compression within the confines of the cup.
On each occasion the rack engaging pinion shaft bends and binds in the hole in the saddle.The pinion and shaft are one piece and the pinion gear is as hard as a bulls forehead.Luckily last time. I ordered a spare. Am becoming a dab hand at stripping the lathe down, but this time, will go the extra mile and pull the lead screw and at this stage , my intention is to shorten the spring width and possibly modify the lead in for the cup.
I am after comments at this stage ,and will place the "repair post" into the project section as I feel this must have happened to someone else,or conversely will happen to someone else and may make a reference for future repairs.
For instance some of the retaining bolts for the slide plates under the ways are mongrels to remove and even worse to replace,so knowing the best techniques and tools used may be handy.
I have yet to take some pics but will do so when I get enough light.
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com...
Unusual problem with Steelmaster 12 x 36 lathe
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire