Member postings for Matthew Furseman

I finally returned to this after quite some time as I was doing some cleaning on other parts of the lathe and stripping my mill spindle (thanks Old Mart for your help in that thread!). The inside was filthy, without about 1cm of gunked up oil with shards of bronze and steel mixed through it. I think the pump on mine is working as I get a smear of filthy black oil over the ways when moving the apron back and forth. The brass dog on the gear selector was stuck solid, presumably glued by the dried out oil. I removed it, soaked in WD40 overnight and then took it to a vice with grips and freed it.

I've cleaned everything a lot and it's now looking pretty good, ready to go back together! I haven't run the lathe under power yet so not sure if the clutch works, I didn't get a micrometer stop with the lathe anyway. I've got a bunch of other problems to solve which I'm working through as I do this 'functional restoration' of the thing, not sure if I should start a new thread or keep asking away in this one.

And it's out!

Once the spindle was removed from the quill I was able to put in a vice with some EPDM for soft jaws, grab a pair of safety specs, then get a drift in and knock it from above with the 3lb hammer. I did have to 'batter the snot out of it' but with the bearings no longer taking any of the shock I figured this wouldn't be an issue. After about 20 heavy blows the taper popped off into a an old garden glove I had bunged over it to try and limit any damage it might cause when released.

I reckon I could have done this in situ if I had made up the top of the taper with a 3/8 socket screw as suggested, although I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to pound it like that when the spindle was still installed. There is some scoring to the spindle window from the drift.

After all that beating it took before disassembly I think I have damaged the bearings. One of the outer races has marks from the rollers, the other seems to have worn unevenly, so I am considering if they should be replaced while the spindle is out.

Photos for anyone interested: My attempts with the vice and wedges.

And the pulled quill with spindle and offending tooling

Hi Howard,

Thanks for your insight, I believe you are right, measuring the thread on the drawbar gives 9.48mm. I've probably got a 3/8 BSW hanging around with my 'old' lathe somewhere.

I've been away from home for a while so did not have a chance to try any suggestions. I finished milling the wedges, doing a slot with much to high of a speed, 1000rpm and 3/4" cutter, which gave plenty of nasty chatter. I drove them in with my 'big' vice until I couldn't turn the handle anymore with all my body weight. I then gave the end of the spindle a few hearty wacks with a 3lb hammer. No change at all, the taper is still thoroughly stuck.

The quill mechanism felt rough so I thought I'd strip the spindle and see if that gave me any ideas along the way. I've got the quill out without too much hassle, although not sure what to do yet.

I'm in Didcot, Oxfordshire, if anyone is keen to give me a hand in person!

Not yet, I've started on the tapered wedges, I think an M10 socket screw would fit, I don't have hex bar but knowing that's an option if it does get stuck would be useful.

Progress is slow, this is my first time on the mill and work is mostly consuming me at the moment.

Thanks, keeping a drawbar seems like the safer prospect, I'm keen to modify the spindle to make it self extracting if I can find a suitable design. I've been milling some wedge plates with the draw bar undone by a couple of turns. Most of the way through that now and no sign of it easing up.

There's a slot, I could put a drift in there so that the spindle is locked as Colin suggests.

The taper is threaded, so no tang, I tried an MT4 drift but it touched the far side of the arbour before contacting the top of the taper. I drive a pair of drifts back to back in, but one of them got mauled up.

I can't see any heat damage on the outside of the spindle nose, but I'm far from a metallurgic expert. I'll take a pic next time I'm in the workshop and post it.

Hi Duncan,

Thanks, I am worried about the bearings. I would really rather not have my first experience with a mill be to strip the spindle and change the bearings. I've only run it up to 300rpm so far and it's happy there, but can go to 2000rpm which I imagine is quite different and damage to the bearings would be much more apparent.

The collet holder diameter is about the same as the spindle nose which makes it hard to get any support in there, once I have these wedges made up I can at least use them to support the spindle while smacking it.

Thanks, I have a lathe, a very old drummond. It's a bit of a chore to use and it's 3/4" spindle thread limits it's duty a lot. With patience I could make this out of brass or aluminum. I've also got a Smart and Brown Model A, which I imagine would do this in a blink, but it's not running yet.

I've started milling out the plates to make the wedge as suggested by other posters. This is my first time on a mill so taking things slow. I've squared them up, with the drawbar loose, and it hasn't dropped yet! Ready to put the taper on them now, have to work out how to hold them to get a repeatable angle.

Thank you, I shall, I'm grateful and a bit overwhelmed by the explosion of responses.No luck this evening,, tried drawing it out with the collet nut. I haven't run the machine yet so got about giving that a go before rigging up some wobbly milling setup. Plugged it in, pushed 'forward', and nothing. It turned out that there's a post, which I think is meant to hold a guard, which was interlocked. I didn't get the guard so bypassed it and now it's working but it's a bit late to continue exploring. Fortunately my electrical knowledge exceeds my mechanical.

I gave this a go, I found an odd backplate that came with a lathe that happend to have the right ID and screwed it up above the collet nut with a couple of milling clamps as spacers against the spindle. I got it pretty tight but had to hold the belt drive on the top of the spindle to stop it rotating so this limited how much force I could put into it. No joy unfortunately.

As it happens my workplace does have (a lot) of liquid nitrogen. I'm not sure how happy they'd be lending me a dewar though!

That sounds like something I can tinker away with. Any idea how many / how long I'd need to do this for before I find it will release? Should I try the odd tap on the drawbar as I go?

Err, is that safe?

I've recently got a used Warco Major Mill/Drill. I've had it in pieces and have just put it back together. When I picked it up there was an ER32 collet holder in the MT3 spindle, I think it's been in there a while. I tried the obvious step of loosening the drawbar bolt and giving it a tap with a small hammer but it didn't budge. Since then I've tried a bunch of things, still with no luck:

• I hit the drawbar as hard as I could with a larger 3lb hammer.
• I tried holding the tool down using the 32mm slots clamped onto the table and lifting the spindle back up with the mill handle, but the mill started to rock without anything happening.
• I tried locking the spindle and clamped a 32mm spanner to the table and pulled it down with the T-nut bolts. The spanner bent an alarming amount, but the tool did not release.
• I tried completely removing the draw bar and using a drift, but the gap is to large as there's no tang on the taper. I put a spacer in and tapped up against that, the drift got a roughed up edge from the force, but still the tool didn't move.

My failed attempt with the spanner, I'm worried that the force, particularly and non-downwards component, could have damaged the mill.

I've bought a larger drift which is in the post, although don't expect much from that. Apart from heating the spindle and using a drift / hitting the draw bar, I don't know what else I can do.I don't own a hydraulic jack but even if I did I don't know how I'd apply while the spindle is still in the mill.

Does anyone have further suggestions?

Hi, sorry it's been a while; I've still not taken the apron apart but will soon I think. I've got a stack of original manuals and parts drawings and a brochure for the Model A, I'm happy to scan them to a pdf and upload if that's allowed and there's a demand for them.

I've also found the sheer pin on the first change gear had snapped when I looked under the cover, so need to make/source one.

Thanks! It may be a few days before I can get around to it, work is busy and I'm babysitting this weekend. Do I need to drain the oil before pulling the plate?

I can see the half nut around the side of the apron, it engages and disengages nicely. You do of course have to catch the thread right.

Oh dear, I'd hoped not to have to do that. There's the bolts around the front plate, can you remove the handles and leavers and then take the front plate off the apron without removing the lead and feed screws?

The lockout between lead and feed seems to kinda work, I can lift the feed lever and it clonks into place, if I then push the leadscrew leaver it drops the feed lever back down.

When the leadscrew's engage I can't toggle the feed lever.

I tried slackening the bolts through the top of the saddle and wiggled things about with no change. I removed the black handle, the play I felt was only in the handle, the shaft doesn't seem to turn at all. I assume that the casting behind it comes off but it didn't want to budge from a gentle tap.

Hi Martin, thanks, I did give that all a try already, gently wiggling all the slides and also the leadscrew and fine feed 'screw' while attempting to turn the knob and also while engaging and disengaging the fine feed lever. I also tried turning the knob as hard as I could by hand but it wouldn't budge.