A long in the tooth wannabe engineer

Hello all, my name is Dave Pattinson (Dave Patt to my friends) and I live in sunny (at the moment) Melton Mowbray. My main hobby is riding, maintaining and to some degree, renovating old motor cycles. I have always hankered after a lathe of some description, however space or lack of it is a major factor so I opted to buy a used Clarke CL500M as a starting point. I have not used it in earnest yet as I am in the process of cleaning, painting and lubricating it. One thing I am struggling to operate is the spindle feed clutch on the mill head. It works ok with the micro feed knob but I cannot it to operate with the handle. I wonder if any member has had this problem and how they fixed it.

Welcome to the forum David. Not sure about the CL500M but on my mill the microfeed clutch is operated by a knob mounted in the centre of the handle axle. If yours has a centre knob, slackening it should engage the main handle.

Another possibility is the head's gib locks are applied, but I don't think the CL500M has any!

Dave

Dave, the changeover knob moves in and out, and can be very stiff - it needs a good thump or yank, depending on which drive you are stuck with. If it moves down, the quill is not clamped tight.

Edited By john halfpenny on 19/04/2021 22:15:45

Edited By john halfpenny on 19/04/2021 22:17:28

Hello David and welcome this site. Hopefully some of the answers on here will help and maybe there will be someone near you who can call and give you some help.

Brian

Hello David

And Welcome.

If you look on Google, you can download the Operator Manual and the Spares List, (two separate downloads )

Some praise the machine. (try searching for posts on the CL500M, or its non mill equipped version, the CL430 )

A friend of mine has one, and it developed an oil leak from the Mandrel.

Judging by the remains that he brought, (Broken composite housing ) not surprising!

I made him a housing to take a 45 x 65 x 10 lipseal.

Following his having moved house, still await a progress report on the repair.

Howard

Welcome 'Pieman',

I see you live in my neck of the woods! Good to have another bike nut on the Forum. You will not be short of advice here on any topic you choose, it is a good place to mix with the founts of knowledge,and you will learn from some mentors of excellence. I do every day!

Martin