Clausing 5418 Lathe

Yes. As to time, you might make a note of the runout you achieved and with what test piece and check it after a few months. As a practical matter, I bought and adjusted mine in AFAIK about 1983. I last actually adjusted it probably 20 years ago. I haven't had a crash. If you ever do, you should certainly check it after that.

As to grease or oil, my better 3-jaw has a grease fitting on it for the scroll. And I periodically use the same SAE 20 (ISO 68) oil that I use most other places on the master jaw slides and a couple of drops around the drive socket with it at TDC. Same on the lighter 3-jaw although applying grease to the scroll isn't as convenient. On the 4-jaw I only use oil.
 
Thanks Robert - I think I'm going to put a light coat of grease on the underside of the scroll plate and on the pinions. This area is pretty well sealedup when the chuck is assembled. I'll use a little oil on the exposed side of the scroll plate and the jaw slides.

Rick
 
So I've been cleaning up the live center that came with the lathe. The point was really beat up. The live center is marked ideal Industries Type S. I talked to Galco who came up on google as a supplier of Ideal Industries Live Centers - After 10 minutes with customer service they admitted they did offer that line but were only a distributor and this person had very little knowledge of that product. She pointed me to the technical support group of the manufacturer which is Apex Tool (interesting that I used to work for Apex back when it was Cooper Tools). I called them and finally got to a technical service phone - they had no clue what I was talking about and weren't convinced they even offered such a product. They suggested I got bad information and pointed me to Glaco :). That's when I gave up and sent a message to the folks that I found that offer a regrind service for points. We'll see what they have to say.
Other than the live center I have completed all of the accessories that came with the lathe

All Accessories.JPG

After adding up conservative used pricing I think I got the price of the lathe in accessores/tooling - note the taper attachment is not shown.
I have a punch list of 15 or so items that still need to be done - these are mainly the "fine tuning" pieces of the puzzle.
Rick
 
So I'm at the fine tuning/asdjustment phase with this lathe - all the things I either couldn't do or didn't want to do until the lathe was completely assembled. The first thing I'm attacking is adjustment of the threading dial. I have instructions for a SB thread dial but I think the clausing design is a bit different. I'm using a criteria aimed at making sure that the dial marks line up with the witness mark when the half nuts are engaged - does that sound right? The Clausing dial has a set screw that holds the gear that meshes with the lead screw to the dial shaft. The dial shaft has a screw driver slot on the bottom. My process was to engage the half nuts and check if the dial marks lined up with the witness mark. If not I loosen the set screw and, using a small screw driver, turn the dial shaft until the dial mark and witness mark align. Then I checked that the alignment was maintained for all the dial marks?

Assuming this is correct - is it a good practice to leave the thread dial engaged with the lead screw all the time or should it be swung out of mesh when not threading?

Thanks
Rick
 
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Rick_B said:
Assuming this is correct - is it a good practice to leave the thread dial engaged with the lead screw all the time or should it be swung out of mesh when not threading?
Click to expand...

There are two schools of thought on this. But it depends upon whether the lathe uses the same carriage feed mechanism for turning and threading or not. It's my opinion in the former case that leaving the threading dial engaged lets you engage carriage feed with less chance of chewing up the half nuts. So my threading dial has mostly been engaged for the past 30+ years. In the latter case, the threading lead screw shouldn't be turning if you aren't threading anyway. So the question would be moot.
 
Thanks Robert - bt I'm not seeing the connection between the thread dial engaged and half nut damage. I'm thinking they are independant of each other and that there is an interlock that prevents using the half nuts and carriage feed at the same time. I'm probably missing something really silly :)

Also - any thoughts on the thread dial calibration process I outlined?

Thanks
Rick
 
I've been thinking about the back gear lubrication issue that was discussed up thread. The basic issue was that there was no good way to get oil to the back gear shaft. Clausing had made a change in 1960 that added an oiler to the inboard eccentric for lubrication. Unfortunately my machine must have been a transition unit and didn't have that oiler. I bought the oiler fro Clausing but have been putting off pulling the spindle to get the eccentric apart for installing the oiler. I decided today to try and get the back gear apart without pulling the spindle - worst case I would have to pull it.

I was able to loosen the back gear engagement shaft on the eccentric as well as the locking collar on both ends of the shaft. That allowed me to slide things around a bit and access the tension pin that tied the eccentric and shaft together. I was able to get that pin out from above and the eccentric then slid right out of the head stock. I drilled a 5/16" hole centered on the eccentric hole for the back gear shaft and installed the oiler. Getting it all back together was simply a matter of sliding the eccentric back through the head stock. lining u the collar and engagement lock and installing the tension pin - it was a snap. It only required 4 hands, quite a few cuss words and a lot of patience but everything is back together and operating as it should.

Another item off the list! unfortunately when I was playing with the thread dial I noticed that the half nut shaft/handle was pulling out of the apron so now I need to drop the apron and see what's going on there. I'm going to replace the tension pin in the lead screw to gear box attachment with a brass shear pin so when they arrive I do both of those jobs at once.

Rick

Rick_B
Posts: 2890
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:45 am
Location: Memphis, NY
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This morning I ran across two identical screws (short 5/16-18 with a large screw driver slotted head) that I'm not sure where they go. I believe they were with the saddle/cross slide parts. I reviewed all of the parts diagrams and the only place that seems likely is on the back side of the saddle from underneath and just behind the gib. On theparts diagram the screws for this area are identified as DL-454 (I think). Is this the right spoace for these screws and, if so, what is their purpose?

Unknown Screw.JPG

Thanks
Rick
 
Hi Rick,

Looked over my 5418 and didn't find any screws like the one pictured. My longitudinal feed rack is screwed to the bed with 10-24 Filister screws. The only other flat top ones were used on my cross feed and compound micrometer dials until they were replaced with knurled-head knobs. Just a handful of slotted-head screws on my lathe; wiper covers on the carriage, chip shield under the head stock, catch on the head stock cover, back gear lever bracket, QCGB shaft covers and wiper covers on the tail stock. Might be a few others I missed.

I attached a picture of my eccentric on the back gear. Mine has the ball oiler; my lathe is S/N 2219, not too far from yours. My dad recalls buying my lathe for the high school shop he taught at in around 1961 or 1962. As an aside the school sadly shut down their shop program in around 1990. I won the lathe in the resulting auction, didn't know about my dad being the one who'd bought the lathe until I got it home. I showed him the snap-on cover with the ball oiler behind it, he never knew it existed so my lathe survived high school shop use (albeit they had 4 Clausings in their shop) for close to 30 years no worse for wear.

I see from the lubrication chart on the 5300 series they have an "oil weekly with SAE 20" on the back gear shaft between the two gears. Nothing about that spot on the 5400 series chart though it does show my eccentric being oiled weekly along with the two gits oilers on the head stock. I'd have to guess that the 5300 back gears must be on a hollow shaft with the eccentric running through the middle. Seems like they'd put oilers wherever there was relative motion between two parts.

Best regards, Bruce

CIMG3474.JPG
 
Hey Bruce - did you happen to look under the rear of the saddle for similar screws? On mine , the gib that goes under the rer bed way is bolted to the saddle with two horizontal bolts. There are also two 5/16-18 holes in the bottom of the saddle that these screws fit i nicely. The large head overlaps the gib a bit so perhaps the screws assist in stabilizing the upward movement of the saddle. That's the only empty holes I can find :) so that's were they are currently located.

regarding the back gear - i'm almost positive my back gear shaft has an oil hole between the two gears - I just can't figure out a way to get at it without a lot of fussng around. My inboard eccentric now looks like yours with the oiler. :)

Rick
 
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