Harrison L6

I need to remove the carriage/apron assembly from my Harrison L6 lathe. It's not something I've needed to do before.

I'm assuming that by the removal of the right hand leadscrew/feed rod bracket the complete assembly would slide off the end of the bed (once the tailstock is removed of course)?

I was wondering if anyone here has undertaken this task on an L6 (or L5)? If so any advice/tips would be most welcome, thank you chaps.

Hello Nigel,

I don't own a Harrison lathe but I am refurbishing a Churchill Cub which has similarities,

It is a little more detailed than you have outlined.

These are the steps I had to take.

1 Disconnect the feed shaft, probably a taper pin in the coupling

2 Ditto on the leadscrew or look to see if there is a bearing housing let into the gearbox you need to release

3 Remove the shafts support bracket at the tailstock end

4 Make a wooden dowel long enough to bridge right across the apron, rout a groove down the length to match the one in the feed shaft. Carefully draw the feed shaft out towards the tailstock and feed the wooden dowel in to replace it's position in the apron. That will capture and support the worm and it's two thrust bearings that provide powered functions to the saddle.

5 Hold the wooden dowel in position with hose clips on either side

6 Look for and release the underbed guides that prevent saddle lift and remove the bolts holding apron and saddle together. Support the weight of the apron on a wooden block beneath it

7 Withdraw leadscrew clear of the gearbox and slide saddle away from apron which you can now lift away complete with the dowel and leadscrew. Now draw the leadscrew out having ensured the 1/2 nuts are clear

8 Putting it back together is pretty much the reverse of the above

I hope that is about right, hopefully an owner will eyeball this and add Harrison specific points to take into account

Regards Brian

Oh, and I forgot to add. Now you should be able to slide the saddle off the bed.

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to outline the proceedure, and as you say there are similarities.

Fortunately I do have an exploded diagram, so combined with your information things are looking a little more positive.

Thanks again,

Nigel.

I took one off a few years ago, cant recall the detail but I remember it was far from as straight forward as I had expected, sorry not much help but be prepared if nothing else!

Hi, is there anyone you could put me in touch with who services Harrison L6 lathes

In addition to Brian Wood's more knowledgeable advice, this is what i did, as advised by Geoff Halstead, to my BL12 -24.

1 Remove the bearing block for the Leadcsrew and feedshaft.

2 Rotate feefshaft until keyway is uppermost.

3 Disconnect leadcsrew and feedshaft (In my case this entailed driving out roll pins - Replaced by brass shear pins, drilled through to weaken them )

4 Remove feedshaft and leadscrew.

5 I removed, diagonally, two of the four capscrews holding the Apron to the Saddle, and fitted two lengths of studding, having fitted a nut to the top of each stud, the other capscrews were removed, and the nuts slackened to gradually lower the Apron from the Saddle.

Once down the studs were removed and the Apron lifted and put to one side.

If you need to remove the Saddle, you will probably find some "anti lift" blocks at front and rear of the Saddle.

If there are shims, note carefully where they are sited, and replace them, with their blocks, when reassembling.

HTH

Howard