# Clausing 8520 Parts Sources?



## Ironside (Apr 11, 2018)

Is anyone aware of any parts sources for 8520 parts? Of course I called Clausing to see if there was a chance that they had any of the parts that I need, and as expected, most everything is no longer available.

I've been looking for the "right" 8520 to come along for about 10 years now, and I finally found one but there's a catch. It's missing a couple of parts. A friend of mine turned me on to an estate of an elderly retired toolmaker who had recently passed away, and the family was selling off his possessions. In the basement, I found a disassembled absolutely mint 8520. The owner of it had bought it new in 1966, used it once or twice, then took it apart to move it into the basement of a new house that he had moved to over 20 years ago. He never re-assembled it, and it has been sitting like that ever since. It was broken down into 5 pieces, and all of the small parts were meticulously wrapped in wax paper, covered in what I believe to be Vaseline. The parts were in to separate cardboard boxes. I dug through the boxes, and to the best of my ability determined that there were a couple of pieces missing. The table lead screw, one of the housings that fits on the end of the table under the dial and handle, and the bronze nut for the missing lead screw.

There was also a brand new, in the box, LW Chuck brand dividing head, a 6" Yuasa rotary table, an original 4" Clausing swivel base vise, tons of tooling, including 2 complete sets of Hardinge brand MT2 collets, and all of the original manuals and sales paperwork for everything, including the Clausing factory test sheet with accuracy results on it.

The family offered me everything for 1200 bucks. They had researched the value of the mill on Ebay, but gave it to me with the "discount" price because of the missing parts. I brought it all home and packed it away in my storage locker until I can locate the missing parts. Well after doing some internet searching for the missing items, I'm about just as depressed as I was happy when I bought it. It seems like my only option is to watch Ebay like a hawk until the parts show up, one at a time, over probably what will take years. So essentially,I'm taking a shot here and checking to see if anyone knows at least a starting point for me to locate some of this stuff. Clausing has the bronze nut in stock (326.00), but I think I might be screwed on finding the other stuff unless someone parts out a machine on Ebay.

I know you guys love pictures, but I'm probably not gonna take any until I put it together, whenever. Thanks in advance to anyone who can nudge me in the right direction.


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## woodchucker (Apr 11, 2018)

That lead screw has to be around. Look for a tube, a PVC or cardboard tube in the basement. I'll bet he protected it. Or look in the ceiling.
The nut is probably on it.  Don't give up. It's worth finding for a LIKE NEW Machine


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## Bill Gruby (Apr 11, 2018)

Make up a list of what you need. Post it here and those of us that oen an 8520 will see if we can help.

 "Billy G"


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## Ironside (Apr 12, 2018)

woodchucker said:


> That lead screw has to be around. Look for a tube, a PVC or cardboard tube in the basement. I'll bet he protected it. Or look in the ceiling.
> The nut is probably on it.  Don't give up. It's worth finding for a LIKE NEW Machine




Believe me, I turned that basement upside down. The problem was, that there was no organization to the stuff that was in the basement. There were boxes of housewares, carpentry tools, old farm equipment, literally everything and anything down there. And the boxes were all mixed up together. The inheriting family members live about 5 states away, and they made a trip out here a while back and basically ransacked the basement randomly shuffling through boxes, and taking what they wanted with them. I'm convinced that somehow, the missing parts ended up in a box of other stuff, and was taken by mistake. I took the time to dig through every box that remained, and just couldn't find the parts. The caretaker who is now in charge of emptying out the house to sell it is the old timer's neighbor, and has been placed in charge by the family. He says that he will contact me if he comes across the parts while removing the remaining stuff, but I'm not very optimistic.


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## Ironside (Apr 12, 2018)

Bill Gruby said:


> Make up a list of what you need. Post it here and those of us that oen an 8520 will see if we can help.
> 
> "Billy G"




Thanks Bill. I intend on placing "wanted" ads on various machinist type websites. Not much else I can do at this point. If you fling enough stuff at the wall, eventually something will stick.

The parts I need are:

Screw  696-010
Nut     537-016
Housing   386-011

At the very least, I can buy the nut new if I have to. I think that the housing is gonna be the tough one to find.


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## woodchucker (Apr 12, 2018)

If I had to replace the screw and nut, I would investigate a ball screw. You will probably need to marry it to new ends. But while your at it, you can do anything you want, and if it were me, I would change it around drastically. I would try for a ball nut, and change the ends by securing a standard bridgeport end cap. And that will allow you to add a stock power feed.

Just my 2 cents. I like my 8520, but the power feed would be a big need, if I had to redo the shaft.


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## Craftsman1946 (Apr 13, 2018)

woodchucker said:


> If I had to replace the screw and nut, I would investigate a ball screw. You will probably need to marry it to new ends. But while your at it, you can do anything you want, and if it were me, I would change it around drastically. I would try for a ball nut, and change the ends by securing a standard bridgeport end cap. And that will allow you to add a stock power feed.
> 
> Just my 2 cents. I like my 8520, but the power feed would be a big need, if I had to redo the shaft.


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## Craftsman1946 (Apr 13, 2018)

There are companies that specialize in making acme leadscrews that should be able to help you out. Just Google speciality acme threads etc. &


Ironside said:


> Is anyone aware of any parts sources for 8520 parts? Of course I called Clausing to see if there was a chance that they had any of the parts that I need, and as expected, most everything is no longer available.
> 
> I've been looking for the "right" 8520 to come along for about 10 years now, and I finally found one but there's a catch. It's missing a couple of parts. A friend of mine turned me on to an estate of an elderly retired toolmaker who had recently passed away, and the family was selling off his possessions. In the basement, I found a disassembled absolutely mint 8520. The owner of it had bought it new in 1966, used it once or twice, then took it apart to move it into the basement of a new house that he had moved to over 20 years ago. He never re-assembled it, and it has been sitting like that ever since. It was broken down into 5 pieces, and all of the small parts were meticulously wrapped in wax paper, covered in what I believe to be Vaseline. The parts were in to separate cardboard boxes. I dug through the boxes, and to the best of my ability determined that there were a couple of pieces missing. The table lead screw, one of the housings that fits on the end of the table under the dial and handle, and the bronze nut for the missing lead screw.
> 
> ...


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## Craftsman1946 (Apr 13, 2018)

You are extremely fortunate to have found a pristine mill. There are companies that will fabricate custom lead screws that are affordable, searching Google will discover them. If your plans are to install a DRO in the future, a ground lead screw is not all that important as you will be using electronics instead of the dials. In any case, if you have one made you will want to furnish the nut so they can match the thread clearance. Clausing may be able to furnish a drawing to help with machining the ends. As far as the missing bearing carrier, please refer to my post on installing a Servo 140 on a 8520. As you see, the bearing carrier is not used & is replaced by the power feed. Some other import power feeds may also work as well. Good luck with your project. Please ignore my earlier reply as the computer froze mid-post.


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## Ironside (Apr 13, 2018)

Craftsman1946 said:


> You are extremely fortunate to have found a pristine mill. There are companies that will fabricate custom lead screws that are affordable, searching Google will discover them. If your plans are to install a DRO in the future, a ground lead screw is not all that important as you will be using electronics instead of the dials. In any case, if you have one made you will want to furnish the nut so they can match the thread clearance. Clausing may be able to furnish a drawing to help with machining the ends. As far as the missing bearing carrier, please refer to my post on installing a Servo 140 on a 8520. As you see, the bearing carrier is not used & is replaced by the power feed. Some other import power feeds may also work as well. Good luck with your project. Please ignore my earlier reply as the computer froze mid-post.



Thanks for the suggestions. I will explore every option available to get this machine up and running. I will check on your post about installing the Servo 140. Actually, I was kind of hoping that someone out there had done a similar install, and would be willing to take advantage of a desperate guy like me and sell the carrier that they are no longer using, lol.

There is one thing that I am absolutely sure of now. If I ever run into a beater 8520 for cheap I will certainly buy it just to parts it out. With the scarcity of parts for these machines, you could set your own prices for them. As recently as a couple of months ago, I passed on a "well used" one for 400 bucks. I'll never pass on one again.


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## Craftsman1946 (Apr 13, 2018)

Ironside said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. I will explore every option available to get this machine up and running. I will check on your post about installing the Servo 140. Actually, I was kind of hoping that someone out there had done a similar install, and would be willing to take advantage of a desperate guy like me and sell the carrier that they are no longer using, lol.
> 
> There is one thing that I am absolutely sure of now. If I ever run into a beater 8520 for cheap I will certainly buy it just to parts it out. With the scarcity of parts for these machines, you could set your own prices for them. As recently as a couple of months ago, I passed on a "well used" one for 400 bucks. I'll never pass on one again.





Ironside said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. I will explore every option available to get this machine up and running. I will check on your post about installing the Servo 140. Actually, I was kind of hoping that someone out there had done a similar install, and would be willing to take advantage of a desperate guy like me and sell the carrier that they are no longer using, lol.
> 
> There is one thing that I am absolutely sure of now. If I ever run into a beater 8520 for cheap I will certainly buy it just to parts it out. With the scarcity of parts for these machines, you could set your own prices for them. As recently as a couple of months ago, I passed on a "well used" one for 400 bucks. I'll never pass on one again.


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## Craftsman1946 (Apr 13, 2018)

Please send me a PM as I may have additional information for you.


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