Member postings for Richard Kirkman 1

Still had some low different low spots when I started to sand, but they cleaned up quite quickly. I didn't bother to get them all. Did 240 then 600 grit. Left it there

All done with that now. Although I still would like to machine it at some point since it's not square to the table either

Converter now says it's out for delivery today! So might be up and running sooner rather than later

Well it was a lot of filling. But it's a lot flatter than it was

I've just blued it up again, now I've glued a bit of 240 grit paper to a bit of glass so I'm sanding it flatter (hopefully)

It's an old Rockwell 9 inch. Canadian. Not as good quality as startright or however you spell it. But it should do the job when it's aligned properly. It's been causing me problems for a while. Either that or I'm the problem

There's a few low spots, but it's good enough for woodworking

I've brought the chuck and steady inside so hopefully they dry quicker

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Traveling steady is looking very orange. It'll hopefully darken a little since it's meant to be red. But it's probably only 6 or so degrees in the garage. So it's not drying very quickly at all still, I don't need it any time soon. I'll just wait before I sand it and put another coat on. Might even bring it in the house to dry

That picture makes it look better than it is. And that still looks rough

Got the inside of the chuck painted too. I think it looks very nice. Perhaps unnecessarily nice. But I like it

As for the table saw fence it's like this

So I've blued it up

Letting that dry then I'll get back to filing it some more

No maths in this bit, just doing a lab report on pressure difference in pipes as water flows through bends. Plumbing really, or fluid mechanics supposedly. Not what I really want to be doing

It seems like a great idea for getting things flat, but this fence is very very off. I can alter the taper just fine, but it's lengthways not nicely flat. I'll take a picture to illustrate later, but it just needs filing, to begin with at least

Are there any changes in the SC gearboxes throughout the models of the students? I thought they were all the same for the mk1-1.5 at least?

I can't say I remember it making noises?

But cleaning the contacts can't do any harm

I have plenty of other things to get done in the meantime. My table saw fence never cuts straight. the wood attached to the fence isn't flat, putting around a 0.5mm taper on parts, which is an absolute nightmare trying to get things to be consistent and line up nicely. I've taken the wood off, but the metal fence beneath isn't perfect so I'll file it as flat as I can, it can't get any worse. Surface ground is a dream right now, not that the precision is needed one bit!

If you're really bored, I'll send my uni work over to you so I can get on in the garage

Thanks Phil

Rotary converter all ordered. Should arrive on Monday or Tuesday

The coolant tube arrived today so I fitted that

I did put a coat on the traveling steady, but it didn't go very well so I'm going to need to sand it back and get a better finish. I'm loving the orange/red colour. I'll post a picture when it's looking better

Then I took apart my 4 jaw and decided that I would repaint the back while it was apart. It needed a good clean, and I think once again the orange/red will look great. So I stripped and primed it

I had some more woodworking gluing today. But I don't fancy working on the actual lathe. So I took out a traveling steady

I took it to pieces, the paint was in such bad condition I thought I would take it all off with a wire wheel

Then I degreased it and gave it a coat of tractol red oxide primer. Once that's dry I'll give it a coat or two of the same tractol I used on the coolant tank. I'd like to paint the whole lathe in that colour eventually! Just focusing on getting the lathe fixed and working first

Three phase seems like a distant dream at this point. Pandemics don't help getting things installed.

I've spotted a decent rotary converter for about the same price as three phase would cost, so I'm quite tempted by that. We'll see

Any tips for painting the traveling steady and getting a really nice finish? Just with a brush?

Rs ran out of stock after I placed my order. So even though the website said they had one, it hasn't come and now its on backorder for a fortnight. So so much for getting that wired out of the way. Very irritating since when I ordered it, it said it would be here today!

Still, the new belts arrived, the perfect size for the new motor and have space for adjustment. They actually fit the pulleys better than the old belts.

Time for more cleaning...

Coolant pipe all sorted today. Had to wait for wood to glue again, so did a bit of cleaning. Think I need to take the light to pieces if the wiring is going to be done soon

I think it looks quite fitting. The splash guard at the back isn't original. No idea where it came from, but it doesn't fit very well. Still need the tube to arrive, but that shouldn't be long

Rs package should arrive tomorrow so I'll be able to wire that up with some guidance...

Thanks

Richard

There is a flexible metal conduit going already, I just need the Gromit thing to mount it to the hole in the motor. I'm never too sure what they're really called, but I need one. I found it, It's a cable gland. I'll get one

I'm not entirely convinced mine is leaking from the drain plug, I think it might be leaking from the broken casting bit, then running down and dripping off the plug. So, I'll wait till I get the replacement part, then I'll take it all to bits again.

Rs said they didn't know if it was continuous duty or not. I'm sure it'll be fine, so I've ordered it along with the new belts.

Not sure when I'll get the gasket to you Phil, but I will at some point. I was hoping to get the spare parts from Tracy first so I could send you a few little bits since I remember your lathe didn't have the oiler on the end of the larger gear on the LHS.

The coolant tap may need replacing as I took off all the tape that was on it and its a bit broken. Unless anyone would recommend how to fix it? I'll put up pictures later

I've ordered myself some new pipe for the coolant pump too since the old stuff was orange and I couldn't clean the inside

You're right, mine doesn't have a shoulder. I'll have another look at mine tomorrow or at some point

Didn't get much done today. Faffed around trying to get my table saw fence aligned so I mounted my indicator on something that could slide up and down the table slot. It helped a lot

Anyway, I needed to glue some wood up so I had a few hours spare.

Upside down, but still understandable.

So that's how I've wired it. Seems fine to me

Then I took the coolant pipe and tap to pieces. I think I might need a new one

I've cut the gasket material up. Got a sheet of around 40x40cm for you Phil. That's more than enough to replace all the gaskets in the lathe

Will that transformer that you linked to from rs do the job that I need. So I wire from the 415v to the transformer. Then to the low lighting one? Because I need to order the new belts as well. Plus it would be nice to get All the wiring finished

I finished off yesterday by cleaning up all the parts that had come off. So all of the gears on the end have had a thorough degreasing and toothbrushing till they were the right colour again!

It's looking much better. However i'm still at that stage where I don't really feel like anything is properly finished? Even though I've done a lot

Lathe Video

I even put the 4 jaw chuck on for the first time. It seemed a lot lighter than I remember, especially after moving the 3hp motor around! The 4 jaw felt a lot bigger than the 3, but it just felt right.

I made a new gasket for the headstock since the old one was a loose fit on the bolts, so every time it was a pain to line it up to get the bolts through. This new one is tight over the bolts, so stays in place while you move the cap back onto the lathe. So I gave the underside a good clean too since it needed to be cleaner. It makes a big difference

Phil, I'll have a look at the gasket material I've got left and post you a chunk of it. You can get the gearbox and the two spindle ones out of a very small piece. I probably have enough to make 4 or 5 full sets, so plenty spare.

As for the motor neutral stuff, I have no idea. I still need to wire in the new motor, but I'll look in a few days. I'm still fancying the transformer more.

You'll have absolutely no trouble with your spindle, it's no where near as difficult as it looks. The only real issue is the main sliding sleeves lever. I was getting leaks through that before, so I replaced the leather gasket. When I put it back together I tightened the locking nut on the end of the shaft down quite a lot, so the level is stiffer to turn. This meant that it stayed in the position I wanted it to when reassembling the spindle. Very handy since last time i had to use my knee while my hands were full with the spindle. I think a video teardown would be great. Your cold frames looked fine to me!

Anyway, I'm going to have a break from the lathe for a few days. I'm going to try to align my table saw fence and things perfectly since I have a dial indicator now. I could actually do with replacing the fence with a piece of plywood, since it's currently a piece of beech, so it expands and contracts in different directions depending on the temp and humidity, so It'll never stay completely aligned. Then i'll finish off some jewelry boxes I started in the summer (shocking I know, woodwork talk on an engineering forum)

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 30/03/2020 12:40:33

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 30/03/2020 12:41:02

As the spindle is tapped back, using a copper mallet or block of wood and such things to not damage the spindle nose, put in the rear bearing as this will help align the shaft and make sure it is going in square. This helps it go in much easier

Once the spindle is back in place, you must put all the bolts in, lining up the gasket at the same time. I made my gasket tight over the bolts so that it would stay in place and aligned while I tapped the spindle back in

Then you can slide the spacer ring back on that I was on about earlier. If you put the bearing back in to align the shaft then this must be removed before you can do this.

Then the bearing goes back in

Then the locking ring, making sure to tighten it down quite tightly

Then I put my gasket and end cover back on.

I realized as I was doing this that it wasn't going on square, so I took it off and had a look.

I knew the casting was broken, but I thought it was broken on one of the through-holes. Turns out it had broken in one of the recessed holes, making it a through-hole, so this piece is only being secured by two bolts. Not ideal, but it will do for now. I'm still trying to get spare parts from Tracy so hopefully, that'll come too.

This means it's not applying lots of pressure to the gasket all the way around, so it may leak there, but I tried to tighten the other bolts up enough to put a bit of pressure on it. Hopefully, it'll work.

So, it's all back together, I can continue to work on cleaning it up. I've put some PTFE tape around the plugs so they won't leak anymore either.

I have more than enough gasket material to make at least another 20 sets of gaskets, so I'm going to replace the one from the headstock too.

Phil, If you want any nitrile rubber to replace any of your gaskets with, I'd be happy to send you some since I have so much spare. I know you've done them already but may as well offer. It makes me think of the ridiculous profit margin on the precut gaskets on eBay. 35 quid for that is stupid. But I suppose some people will pay!

I'm very pleased with today's progress. I'm still going to go back out and get it fully reassembled though. Maybe even continue cleaning the other parts!

Not too sure how the motor will be running. Is it simpler to just spend the 25 quid on the transformer and wire that up?

Meshing problem solved. The keyway in the spindle was machined in using a horizontal mill, so the end of the keyway has a radius, but the key only has a radius on one end.

When I first got the machine, the gears were misaligned, as I replaced a part and made sure to put the key back in the same orientation, which was wrong. Anyway, now it's in the right orientation, the spindle went back together beautifully, first try as well!

I had pictures of when I first received the lathe so I could see if there was any damage in there and they were definitely misaligned then too. So big improvement

I managed to find the picture of the headstock the first time I'd drained it, makes for a pretty before/after picture. A vast improvement

As for reassembly, it's just the same as disassembly, but backward. Phil, you'll need to take the main spindle apart a bit further to access the front bearings in there if you can see them, You'll need some c-spanners to get the locking ring off I think.

To start reassembling, put the main spindle through the right hang hole, with the sliding gears already in the headstock, slide the spindle through them as you insert it. You must put both gears on at this point, but the ring spacer at the end can be left off as that can be slid on at the end. Leaving this off allows you some space to fiddle with getting everything aligned onto their keys and to get the handle into the right position for the sliding collar since you need to account for the movement of the spindle pushing the handle back over.

You've got to make sure the spindle lines up with a bass/bronze pin that you can just about see in the last picture. This must be aligned before you start to tap the spindle back in place. The actual part that the bolts go through can be spun into place later, but the spindle must be started in the right place, with the oiling hole that you can see, facing directly up to the sky.

Reassembly has had to come to a stop.

I'm getting gear misalignment between the main selector ones. Once the spindle is back in, the gear just will not slide over any more than that. There's nothing clearly blocking it that I can see. So I have no idea why it's happening

Any ideas? I'll go back and take another look but I think they should line up more than that. It was like this before I took it to pieces too

Had a scrub at the end of the tumbler shaft, definitely no Dutch key.

Inside of the headstock is looking a lot cleaner than it was, and I can't really get it any cleaner without taking more parts out, which I really don't want to do. So I'll reassemble tomorrow. If you look at the before and after, it's a lot better than it was

Took off the thread counter and found lots of rubbish behind there too

I need to sort out the little lighting transformer to get the electrics finished.

So I need a transformer to take the 415v to 250v then use my current transformer to get it right?

I also need to order the correct length belts now the motor has changed, the old ones don't fit at all

Thanks for your help today Phil, big progress!

Yeah upside down, I can't seem to get them to post in the right orientation

I'll test some more with the multimeter later, just need to warm up a bit

Thanks

I've removed the link between A2 and the 13NO as suggested

I think I understand what's going on, but I was confused by there being two A2 points.

I used a multimeter and the resistance was the same for A1-A2 and A1-otherA2

Is this wiring correct now?

Now just two wires out of that one

Lots of pictures, because why not?

Cleaning the headstock is very nasty work. I keep hitting my hands off the gears in there as I scrub and cutting the backs of my hands. I've just about had enough, but it seems a lot cleaner. I'm currently flushing with the old oil again, then I'll clean it one last time and reassemble. Awfully cold out there today.

As for the tumbler arm mystery, you tell me if I'm being blind, I can't see a dutch key!

Looks like there's the starts of the threads on one the actual tumbler arm, but the shaft doesn't seem to have anything?

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 28/03/2020 16:28:10

I'll go have a look again, I suspect it might have been filled with paint!

I'll try to do spindle reassembly too, but that's the tricky but.

The gearbox doesn't need flushing out yet, the muck is caked on so badly I'm having to get in there with a tooth brush. Somehow it's still red under there!

Alright, all wired, as far as I could work out from the directions in the long messages.

Please can this be checked over meticulously as I'm not confident that I did it correctly

I checked the cnd switch for continuity with the yellow wire, the safety circuit is working.

Thanks

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 28/03/2020 13:32:20