Toyo Sakai ML-360 lathe... i need help...:)

[YoungBrain]

Hello There my dear friends/Brothers...
andrew in the house!

I'm seeking for advise & help on my mini lathe,
a second hand ML-360 lathe with mill/drill attachment

It has no tailstock & no set of thead cutting gears... does any one amoung our group have this kind of lathe?

i would appreciate if someone could help me find out sources of cheap parts...

Or can someone help me find the right sizes of the back gears? Pitch diameter, the PD, the set up & dimensions...

Hope someone could help, i'll be cutting the gears ( for the very first time) as a last resort...

Thank you brothers. God Bless...

[spro]

Hello! Welcome. I want you to know the reason nobody responded to you. Then you can tell me. Most likely it is because like me we don't have this lathe -mill type unit. It looks very good and you do need those gears. This appears a Japanese similar to the Emco .. I think a manual, information is what you need first to know what pitch and sizes are available or will work from other machines. It may be that you are in better position to find any of these than we are. If I see anything I will note it here. Keep us posted and good luck. It is hard to make gears without gears.

[Jose Rivera]

Also posting in the junk drawer has to do with little response.

Good point. It now appears in the General Discussion forum.

Harold

I seldom go there, consider posting the same in the 3 in one section.

Also I am not familiar with that machine nor if one can still get parts

[GearGeek]

I would try to find a set of change gears vs making them myself..

things you would need to know about the gears to make the gears:

Diameteral Pitch, circular pitch, or module (module used in metric gears)
Pressure angle (typically 20, sometimes 14.5 degrees)
#teeth

If you know those three things you can calculate the rest. If you were to form mill the teeth you would need the cutter range for the number of teeth you are cutting (example: 20DP #6 cutter has a 17-20 tooth range) So with something like a set of change gears you would probably need close to a full set of form tools (I think there are 8 total per DP)

You also need a dividing head or some way to accuratly index the blank to mill the teeth.

I have milled quite a few gears. When you don't have access to a hob or shaper milling works ok, it just takes a while and it isn't as accurate
It is kind of fun in a pain-in-the-neck sorta way though (milled a 66 tooth gear a couple weeks ago on a bridgeport with no power feed that was a bit evil lol)

Best of luck to you though

~GearGeek

[JimGlass]

I never heard of this machine.

I don't see a lead screw in the pics.

Jim

[wolfgangh]

For info about your machine look here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/toyo/index.html

It was sold in Germany by Proxxon (www.proxxon.de) under the name of PD360. They are still in business, and spare parts for the PD360 (which was replaced by the similar PD400 a couple of years ago) are still available. Not cheap, however

I have a PD360, can send you a pdf of the manual if you want. It is a nice little machine for small lathe work, but I found the milling attachment not suitable for serious work in steel. Works ok for plastic, just barely for aluminum.

Regards

Wolfgang

[magic9r]

I have one of these milling attachments badged as a Record, completely disagree on it's capability, I've used mine for complex parts in stainless, Aluminium and Titanium

Titanuim ring from solit in rough form
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q158 ... C00716.jpg

Using a sacrificial arbour whilst machining
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q158 ... C00709.jpg

If you choose the correct cutters and speeds this is a very capable milling unit,
Regards,
Nick

[spro]

Joking alert!! The kitchen counter has the appropriate color scheme. No magic bullet or blender can slice onions, mill a potato or thread carrots quite as well. This is a curious machine. I would say the top headstock knob is power and reverse and the one below disengages the lead screw in a dog clutch. This screw rides in a channel which would be the outer flat bed way. There's more but just speculation too.

[geraldvowles]

Based on the look and colour (Canadian spelling), I'm pretty sure this is called a Manix machine here in NA. Japan or EU? built at one time but perhaps now perhaps impoted from China but subject to higher spec's than typical - don't quote me on that though. Not cheap! Started out as Toyo if I recall correctly.

Probably the best of the US resellers would be Progress Machine & Tool who sell a lot of stuff to jewellers, dentists and the like. They might be a source for you as they have a lot of accessories advertised for these. Go to http://www.progresstool.com and type Manix in the Quick Search box. There are several pages of Manix stuff.

When I was researching this size of machine, my impression was that it was equal to Sherline and Taig in quality but somewhat larger and more solid - but I'm no expert. - Gerry

[geraldvowles]

Interesting observation about the lead screw Jim, I'd not noticed that before. My first thought after you pointed it out was that it might be a helical setup with the leadscrew behind the shield and no rack & pinion but a closer look suggests there's no hand wheel on the skirt for X movement, only the one on the end of what I'm assuming is the lead screw. I guess that's why they had to cover it if that's what it is. I do a lot of plastic and I'm constantly pulling long stringies out of my unshielded one while the rack stays clean. - Gerry

[YoungBrain]

Hello Guys...

Thanks for your reply Guys... Sorry, i was not able to respond to all of you immidiately. I'm busy reviewing for my board examinations which is coming shortly this October.

Wow, thanks a lot. I thought no one would like to respond to my posting...
Thanks for moving this post to the general discussion index....

Spro, you got me laughing with your joke alert... you're definitely right, i converted our kitchen into a shop... ..hahahaha

I tried to contact Manix, a Korean company regarding the spare parts & ask for a quote. They were willing to sell me a Tailstock, Set of belts & the gear assembly... Oh Boy!.....they quoted me 315USD, well i couldn't afford that amount(no source of income yet...)

I had aquired a picture of the tail stock, i'm planning to make it then with your Guiding help...

I'll try to picture some of my tools...

[YoungBrain]

I forgot to mention My dear Brothers...

The number of teeth of the gears are specified at the back cover of the head stock namely:

20,25,30,34,35,36,40,45,50,55,60,70,75

And the coresponding gear arrangement of the gear to yield the desired pitch when threading. If only i could know one of the Pitch diameter of a gear w/ the given # of teeth.... We could solve for the unknowns of rest simultaneously.

I had attemp to create the gears at school last year on our semestral break but i lack materials to make my blanks... i tried using plastic (chopping board...hahahaha ) but it was so soft... Second option was steel, Boy! so tough to machine with a flycutter(gear profile ground to it)... So the best that i could think of is T6 aluminum... unfortunately i have no resource of that metal.

I also Failed on choosing the right gear diameter, just to find out at the end that the smallest pinion was so small to fit the spindle.... hahahahaha