Murad Cadet: Adding power crossfeed with printed gears

Hello! Last year I documented my attempts to restore a rusty old Murad Cadet to working condition (ME thread here) and it's been a lovely little machine.

However, despite having the lead screw power nut my particular lathe didn't have any of the apron gearing for the power crossfeed feature. I put a couple of lazy Sundays with Fusion360 into the problem and have come up with a working set of 3d printed gearing that does the job (surprisingly!) well.

DISCLAIMER: This is the result of a good chunk of trial and error, and it works on my particular lathe, your mileage may vary etc. All that being said, I've put the files online here:

Link to 3D printable parts on Printables

As far as longevity goes, I'm not certain. The feed will only really be used for light surfacing so I'm hoping they'll last a decent length of time, and if anything goes Very Wrong the plastic should self destruct before any damage to the lathe.

Demonstration Video:

The interior of the (upside down) apron. The cross slide shaft gear leads to a half inch shaft, with another 7/16 (I think) the next in line.

This is the solution I ended up with, the transfer gear can be pushed in and out of mesh using the selector. The printed transfer gear is noticeable through the cross slide handwheel feel when not engaged, though even with a little use it's bedding in. I might cut a metal one at some point or if it breaks.

Gearing in place. The bevel gear just floats on the shaft as what I thought was some sort of threaded retaining hole is just a blind centre hole. I also combined the bevel and spur gear as it's a printable part - I imagine proper metal gears would be separate on a bushing.

All buttoned back up. A little M8 threaded rod and a random knob for actuation.

The example surface finish looks pretty good to me!

I have made gears for a Myford Drummond M Type lathe from Acetal with no problems so far. I had been making them from cast iron but it is so messy and Acetal is do much easier to cut and having using the plastic gears for for months with no problems eavan heavy cutting tough EN 24T and screw cutting many internal and external threads.

David