ward 2A lathe

So now we have a very solid 1950's lathe . BUT I want CNC, at least DRO , I used to have a Harrison L5 with screw cutting, This machine is very different and has no topslide but with CNC we only need the saddle and cross-slide as long as they are solid. So It will be a while but the next plan is to CNC it. Its a way of making it a 21st century machine. not just a part of history.

First I need to CNC my Downham mini borer which is amazingly better than i expected for milling steel with cheap Chinese cutters. I should get some carbine.

Before that we are cleaning up a Smart and Brown L4 capstan lathe to sell for funds for the great Dorset steam fair.

went on the mill at work today and used the DRO to cut 10 holes at 20mm spacing. didn't know dro's could do that.

Home straight, just the Brake on the opposite end of the headstock from the chuck to look at, removing three deep grub screws holding the outer housing to the inner shaft reveals the brake shoe levers and the cam at the top. There's plenty of shoe left on one lever.

One missing shoe, and the three screws ! holding it in.

Three screws? Am I missing something?

Great job. I will stick with my hobby lathe!

New brake pads fitted by Villiers Services in Birmingham . nice job £19.50.

re fitting the drum . should have been easy........

first fit. the cam arm was in the wrong position.

second fit , the cam arm was in the wrong position.

at this point we realised the cam arm was on a spline that had moved during the origional dissasembly.

what we thought was a 10 minute job is now next weeks job. She is hard mistress.

Edited By Bob McDougall on 07/07/2018 01:11:03

NDIY, only a guess under the muck in 1st pic/08Jun, think the third screw could be a 'top-hat' shouldered screw acting as a pivot point for the 2shoes, up by the spring.
DaveD

as you say, great job.

Found an assembly error on the capstan feed that makes the feed jam. There is an arm inside the capstan saddle that engages with the capstan turret lower sprocket to push the head to its nest location. There is a button which can move this lever out of position so the turret doesnt auto turn when you move the mechanism back. This lever has an underside peg which needs to be on the INSIDE of the flanged button rod. we assembled it on the outside and it worked for a while then jammed. Image 1 is the outside button, image 2 is the lever in its incorrect position outside the plunger head. it should be on the inside. .

After we fixed it we drilled 1 inch holes in 5mm steel plate with no pilot drill. Nice.

A look at the 'fitted' photo shows three holes in the lever that shoudl be for (presumably recessed brass) screws to hold missing the pad in place.

three screws, not sure this is the right post.

Latest problem is the capstan slide is so worn it sits low centre height by about 1mm. so thinking of shimming the whole capstan head rather than the slide.

Just read this thread after agreeing to adopt a 2a this evening. Great job on the restoration fair play to you!

Did you manage to get a copy of the manual, would really appreciate a copy if you had one?

Wear on the auxilliary Capstan slide has become apparent! . a centre drill is about 30 tho below centre. . The majority of the wear is on the lower section but the upper capstan slider has some signs of wear also. The wear appears to be front heavy so the whole capstan carrige is tilted forward and lower.

the wear from where the gibb strip was located to the moving upper capstan section.

also wear of the capstan head into the capstan saddle.

on bothe sides

ANY options appreciated.

our thoughts are, moglice or equivalent.

Scrape the capstan slider (top bit) flat , cut down the capstan saddle (bottom bit fixed to the bed) and moglice it. but we will still be down due to the turret wear. but we could shim the turret up as its wear appears even but not sure if it is because of the cutting direction you would expect more wear on the frontside ?

Anyone around SN16 would apperciate help. we have got this far but we are not precision engineers.

Have purchased a surface plate and 1" wide cast iron bar to make a straight edge and will run a dial indicator over all the parts we can to get an idea of wear. next post might be in scraping.lol.

Hi have a look at Turcite. It can be glued and screwed to slideway parts and is a permanent repair but will need machining etc.

David

Hi David, yes we are looking at all options, what we are unsure about is just what acuracy is needed in the capstan head. clearly this machine was used to the point when we now have it so it was making parts even with this wear so if we can gain 90% of the origional acurracy . is that good enough. ?

What is the effect of a low center height capstan head ?

my thoughts are ,a centre drill will cut an off centre hole.

a drill will cut a taper

If we know these faults can we compensate for them ?

any hole over drill size is cut by the borijng tool so no problem

small drills will bend to adapt to the centre drill hole.

???

As you say, an off centre capstan will result bin inaccurate work. A Roller box, having been set to metal turned with a toll in the toolpost, will then cut off centre and probably produce undersize and / or tapered, IF the rollers will enter on the job. And, probably the wear is not even, so the capstan will actually be inclined, and be even more likely to produce a taper.

Sounds like the fault needs to be corrected by whatever means, mill back to level and then fit packing to return to design dimension. (Raglan lathes had hardened ways which were bolted to the bed, so that they could be replaced when when worn. So, a similar technique seems needed here )

Keep up the good work. You will have a good solid machine when all is finished.

Howard

Hi there could you inform me witch way the Hoffman N1055 bearings go I took my A2 to bits some year ago then I fell ill and I’m just now getting back to doing the job I like and not the jobs I have to .my memory as taken a hit but I need to make sure .Are the bearings face to face in the or face to back .On the Hoffman bearings the it as the bearing information and the word thrust .My head is telling me to put one bearing with the thrust facing the chuck then the spacers and the second bearing with the thrust facing the spindle nuts on the brake.I hope that someone can help as I would love to rebuild this old girl