After only 20 years of owning it.
After only 20 years of owning it.
My indian lathe always had a small problem. The compound feed was a bit dodgy, in that it was always tight then loose, or in simple terms, it would bind a bit once in a while. never so bad that i could not turn it, I just could never make smooth cuts. I largely got by with out it, I have a taper attachement, but a couple evenings ago I decided to see what was wrong. I was in the shop, and short of cleaning it up, I could not really see anything else to kill a couple hours with. I took apart the compound slide, and found that the screw in the compound slide would bind a bit when turned, but if slightly forward it would would not bind at all. With the screw out, I tightened up the gib, and made a brass bushing to hold it about .060 forward. I put it back together with the new bushing in it, and to my delight it worked perfectly. I think the bushing must have been missed at the factory. I put an indicator on the side of the compound and there was less than .001 error over the length of it. This is reasonable as the compound was just about never used. Now I can build a driver to spin it with my cordless drill no problem. If it is ever a problem again, meaning if the brass bushing does not last, I will build an end for it with thrust bearings, but I doubt I will use it enough for that.
Re: After only 20 years of owning it.
Well done!
Brings to mind an old friend who had a problem with a Jet band saw. It went through wheel bearings at an unreasonable rate. I discovered that the bearings had no spacer between them, so when the restraining nut was tightened it applied pressure against the inner races. Careful measurement so I could make the needed spacer and the bearings were no longer troublesome.
Amazing how some things come from the maker with issues.
H
Brings to mind an old friend who had a problem with a Jet band saw. It went through wheel bearings at an unreasonable rate. I discovered that the bearings had no spacer between them, so when the restraining nut was tightened it applied pressure against the inner races. Careful measurement so I could make the needed spacer and the bearings were no longer troublesome.
Amazing how some things come from the maker with issues.
H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Re: After only 20 years of owning it.
Funny you mention that. I have a relatively large Dayton belt sander that clearly was a product of 1980s Taiwan. It's a pretty solid machine—it can make short work of just about anything (including your fingers), but had persistent problems with belt tracking. After a number of years of putting up with it, I decided it was time to figure out the cause.
It turned out there was no spacer between the bearings supporting the upper (idler) roller. The roller assembly is retained on its supporting shaft via a “Jesus” clip, so some axial movement is possible. Without a spacer between the bearings, there is nothing to keep the outboard bearing from drifting inward toward the other bearing. When that happened, the outer end of the roller would slightly sag from belt tension, the roller would go out of parallel with the (lower) drive roller, and the belt would go out of track.
Why a spacer in that location was omitted baffles me, but that was the way the unit was built. A spacer of the proper length permanently fixed the tracking problem.
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Music isn’t at all difficult. All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!
Music isn’t at all difficult. All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!
Re: After only 20 years of owning it.
I see I am not the only one with these problems. After seeing how much a new 16x48 lathe costs these days, I am seriously committed to mine.