Small vintage lathes

[berger]

RDfella the kak handed part of mine must have ended in disaster some years ago. when i got it the bearing cap was smashed and held down with a crude brace. good old brother got to work and sorted it by making a new spindle bushes and cap

[Greybeard]

Jeez,GB,those words are right out of Maggie thatchers mouth !!

Ah, what a lovely lady. She was all heart 😘

[Greybeard]

some pics greybeard. the apron was drilled and threaded to take the new wheel with the screw butting up to the apron and a locknut fitted. the rack pinion was fixed to a new shaft with a small key and a 23tooth gear pressed on. the gear on the wheel is 16t and these were bits he had hanging about, it works well.

Hey Bergs, you didn't need to take your lathe apart for me! Thank you. Mind you, those pictures show exactly how it works. Many thanks 👍. I'll keep an eye out for some suitable parts.

Would you be happy for me to show the pictures on the Myford Lathes FaceAche page?

[berger]

greybeard it only took me a couple of minutes, it also got a swarf clean. yes you can use the pictures if you want to.

[Greybeard]

I was wondering if mounting the rack upside down and lower so the gear contacts the top of the rack might be a possible solution.

[Rex]

That Skoda lathe is still a relatively Toy-town one though. The lathes used to manufacture ship prop shafts and submarine drive shafts are the big boys. 

[berger]

greybeard to put your rack upside down it will interfere with the half nuts for the lead screw and be a big job because the bed under the rack tapers. i have seen a comment about it weakening the apron the way my brother did mine.  [ faceache].   this is not so, what looks like a possible stress fracture in the picture is how mine was cast. when mine was put together we put a big steel bar in it and my brother ripped down it with a very heavy cut to show me what these lathes are capable of. i was amazed at the cut he had on the tool ripping off a big continuous turning. i think if he had made a weak spot it would have broke or bent the wheel fastening screw when he was making it work very hard.

[Greybeard]

Bergs,
On my lathe the half-nuts would just miss the rack if it was held with countersunk screws. A series of packing pieces could be put between the lathe bed and the rack for the retaining screws to ensure the rack aligned with the lathe bed. To protect the rack from swarf, a narrow shield could be mounted on the old rack holes.

[berger]

GB very interesting , are you going to try it?

[Greybeard]

GB very interesting , are you going to try it?

Ah, good question. I need to weigh up whether it would be worth the effort. I'm already learning to turn the wheel the right way 👍. When I was working on the lathe it just occurred to me that would be a clever fix for the cack-handed operation. I wonder if anyone has done that mod.

[RichardL]

Though the reversing gear modification would, obviously, make lathe operation more intuitive, let us bear in mind that our shift levers are on the right-hand side of our motorcycles and, occasionally, we may be inclined to ride a modern motorcycle. In my case, only in test rides. 

Richard L.

[Greybeard]

I read a comment that said it's normal to turn clockwise for in and anticlockwise for out. I can't argue with that.

[Greybeard]

I have managed to let the blue smoke out of my lathe motor 😬. I've been setting up a NVR stop/start switch. When I'd connected the new wiring and turned on the power there was a flash inside the motor and the power in my shed tripped.
I've had a peek at the innards of the motor and it looks dire; the wiring is rubber insulated and crumbly;  I reckon it's the original pre-war motor. I have probably twisted one of the field connections and it has shorted out.

[berger]

GB oh dear never mind, i had two really old motors with mine, plugged one in and got the same result as you have got, shmokin

[Greybeard]

GB oh dear never mind, i had two really old motors with mine, plugged one in and got the same result as you have got, shmokin

Where did you get a replacement motor from?