[How-To] Half nut disengages leadscrew if I rock the carriage handwheel back and forth.

[Papa Charlie]

So today I was out at the storage unit doing some work on my Grizzly G9249 lathe. I have a lot of play in the carriage handwheel and was rocking it back and forth I noticed that the half nuts were rocking so adjusted it them as it states in the manual. Unfortunately, I still have the play in the carriage handwheel, but now the half nuts, and this could have been the case before I made the adjustments, will disengage from the leadscrew. Now I am doing this pretty violently but they shouldn't be disengaging.

Any suggestions as to how to deal with this?

 

[benmychree]

If this is done on many lathes, that will happen, so, don't do it, and if anything, hold the half nut lever in the closed position when threading, only releasing it at the last moment.

 

[Papa Charlie]

I have never had to do this before. Of course I have not rocked it back and forth while threading so when it is just being driven by the leadscrew it may be just fine.

I just wish it was under power right now so I could test all the functions.