Drummond M Headstock and Bed

Thanks Addy. I agree on making the base a good 1" wide, or more. On mine, which I made some time ago, I incorporated in the base that second piece that sticks down so the main clamping force from the front bolt is only on the front way. The rear clamp is then nipped up just for good measure. This way, the clamping force is not squeezing the two ways together, which might not be good for the lathe. Although, one of the old designs kicking around from Duplex or someone of that era says that they did not use this feature and it did their lathe no harm over many years of use. But the base was 1" or so wide.

I see my lazy pic has righted itself. Aint technology wunnerful.

Hoppers design is the way to go. my lashup is missing the critical central bit for serious work

If you look at the ways in the manual I have highlighted the drummond system in red

The left hand side "grips" the left hand way on BOTH sides while the right hand side way section tightens to the underside of the bed

There is a small clearance at D which I have tried to highlight in blue

Edited By Ady1 on 09/05/2016 10:10:48

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the advice and the really interesting information on making fixed steady. The bed has now been cleaned of grease and muck. It's not quite as bright and sparkly as would like, but I guess that's just vanity and best to stop now before effecting the accuracy for the sake of aesthetics.

I have striped the lathe down as much as I intend to (basically to the headstock) and have the following questions (if I'm not pushing my luck with advice!):

1) With a plate on the headstock thread I put a clock gauge on the top. With firm upward hand pressure on the plate I get about 0.0005" movement upwards, if I increase this pressure there is a slight click or sound and I get 0.0035" movement. Any suggestions on whether I should adjust this? I cannot seem to access the files on the Drummond Forum as I only signed up via email.

2) I noticed that the lathe has lost a tooth on the small cog to the rear of the mandrel, the one that powers the back gear. I am only just getting to grips with the basics of lathes, let alone cog making, so how much of a hindrance is this going to be?

Many thanks for all your advice,

James

You can run her quite happily without backgear until you feel able to take the job on.

You can make the headstock as accurate as you need it to be, roughing down work for example has no need for extreme accuracy

You are now at the stage where you need to teach yourself latheing, which was about a 4 year apprenticeship for a full time employee back in the day.

The only useful advice I can give is don't use a powerful motor or make the belt too tight for the first few months, you will probably have a few mishaps, especially at the start, as you learn

Books like Spareys "The Amateurs lathe" are very useful, you can get cheapo second hand copies all over the place

Edited By Ady1 on 10/05/2016 14:42:40

> latheing

Linky Winky was bad enough, but LATHEING!

As the sign in Sergeant Bilko's mess said "Mind your language, unmarried men present"!

Turning, PLEASE!

Neil

Sounds like you need to adjust the headstock bearings. There should be less than a thou of measurable up and down movement at the spindle, when pushing or pulling on a piece of bar held in the chuck.

Scroll down to page 5 of the Drummond booklet in this link and it gives the full procedure for adjusting the bearings and a good cross-section drawing of the headstock and bearings showing how it all works.

**LINK**

Best fix for the broken backgear tooth, if it is completely missing and unuseable, is buy a used pulley/gear unit on Fleabay. Might be a chance to upgrade to V belts if you dont already have them.

Happy laveing.

Here's the current state of my scrap lashup fixed steady, the 1/2 HP motor is making big jobs miles easier

A 10mm plate for the base, a 1 inch pedestal and a 5 inch ring, plus assorted other bits underneath, all glued together with a 40quid Lidl buzzbox

Lots to still do, tidy up etc, the 30quid Lidl angle grinder and base are making any welding mistakes or messy bits miles easier to remove, sort out and redo. If you ever take the "welding route" an angle grinder is an essential part of the setup IMO

Edited By Ady1 on 09/06/2016 03:05:20

Update on my Lashup fixed steady

The Lidl inverter welder and angle grinder tidied up and finished things off and I started doing some rebar for more stock which involves annoying intermittent cuts

Anyway, the family braincell was active for once and this fixed steady allowed for some serious improvements I had never foreseen

I used the fixed steady to support my live centre, which flexes with heavier cuts because there is always that inevitable overhang

The improvement was massive, so much so that I popped in a 5% cobalt tool and on the backgear I can run up the entire rebar with a single shaving cut, completely eliminating any intermittent cutting

Looks good. Some serious swarf being made there. Good idea on the centre support. Makes up for the somwhat spindly MT1 tailstock centre.