Is my lathe finnished

My old lathe is trying to kill me guys...facing off a bit of cast iron today and the tool seemed to have got dragged into the work and shot the tool post across the workshop.I have noticed this summer that the cutting quality has been a bit hit and miss and after today i know why..the whole saddle can be lifted off the bed by about 2mm and i have the adjusting screws wound right up and i cant get it any tighter onto the bed and i just dont trust the bleeding thing now. Is it worth getting work on the bed or do i just put it out to pasture after all these years This is the link to my model. cheers chaps.

**LINK**

Others here can give better answers than I, but offhand, 2mm sounds like an awful lot to be due to wear. I'd have thought you would have had a noticeable problem years ago if that were the case.

Are you sure there.s not something missing in the assembly?

I would agree with Bandersnatch, 2mm is too much for just a wear problem, like he says, you'd have known about that degree of wear ages ago, sounds more like something has come undone or fallen off or similar, but I am sure it should be easy to fix. Mind you, I'm from the make-do-and-mend era, not the "oh, it's not one hundred percent, let's buy a new one" all too common these days!

Chris

I'm not sure there is a problem with the carriage/saddle as they are not designed to take loads in the up direction as the cutting action should push the carriage into the bed ways not try to lift it off the bed. I think more investigation and information is required as I am not convinced the problem is with the carriage.

Bob

With that much play could it possibly be that a saddle gib strip has either disintegrated or more likely become dislodged or fallen out? That might explain why tightening the adjusting screws right up has no effect.

Martin.

Pure guess work. If the lathe in the link is the one the op has. It looks like the gib strip has a locking bolt. This would have to be released before adjusting the gib strip.

Cheers Michael.

Saddle gib strip?????????

I think there may be some confusion over parts of the lathe the.....

The saddle/carriage is the part that sits directly on the bed of the lathe, cross slide is as the name implies the slide that goes across the lathe and top or compound slide is the slide at the top of the lathe. The cross slide and the top slide in most cases have gib strips and can be adjusted, it is not usual to have gib strips on the saddle unless the lathe has a flat bed, if there is any adjustment for wear it is normally shims.

So where exactly is the movement?

Bob

Roofer, Is the saddle cracked or distorted perhaps?

Ian S C

I can lift up the apron side of the saddle about 0.5 to 1mm on my Boxford, not seen as any problem, if I apply the saddle lock it is rock solid.

Ok i have it licked...at some point in its life the saddle gib adjusting screws had been modified from set screws and locking nut to headless bolts that dropped right through the saddle/gib with a nut on each end....ive been adjusting in the past from the top not knowing it was doing nothing but turn the whole lot and not tighten up.Thanks for all the help and advice guys anyway