# Clausing 5428 rebuild



## AndySomogyi

I picked in a Clausing 5428 is evidently extremely poor condition. Most of the problems on it are a combination of wear and what looks like some previous owner tearing into it with a hammer and chisel.

Among many things wrong with it are

(1) cross slide screw bent like a pretzel
(2) electrical system fried
(3) bed worn by 6 thousands
(4) fried spindle bearings

I’ll go ahead and post all questions on this lathe here on this thread.

I’m just trying to get it to a usable condition, so first thing I need to fix is the spindle bearings. I’m following the manual, and following another build thread on Garage Journals.

Did everything the manual said, and using a screw to try to pull the spindle out but it seems stuck. Yes, made sure all the set screws are removed. Can’t seem to figure out it it’s hanging up on the back gear gear or the gear at the tail of the spindle.

Here’s some pics of it, 














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## benmychree

It is indeed an imperfect world!


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## AndySomogyi

Pulling the spindle. This thing is stuck really badly on the back gear gear, took first a 3/4 all thread to get it this far, now switching to 1/2 all thread and a socket to get it all the way through the back bearing


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## rwm

Watching!
Those are not hammer marks but intentional oil control groves! Seriously though, are those from dropped tooling?
Robert


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## vtcnc

I'm wondering about the .006" out on the ways. I'm guessing there are many opinions about this problem. Where and how did you measure this?


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## AndySomogyi

After re-wiring my Clausing 5428 to get it to run, I noticed a horrible noise coming from the head stock, specifically the left bearing.

So I took it apart (following the Clausing manual), and much to my horror, this is what I found.

The left bearing does not *look* horrible, but is very gritty when you turn it. There is some pitting on the race.

But it looks like someone took an angle grinder to the spindle journal!!! Also looks like someone tried to disassemble this head stick with a hammer and chisel!!!! There are chisel marks all over this inside. I can’t explain these gouges from the rear journal, it looks like a center punch was driven into it???

The back gear assembly has a oil hole, but looks like someone pressed a new bush in it but neglected to drill out the oil hole. Also someone pulled the spindle out with the key in place destroying the bush completely. Because there was no oil getting to the bush, there was massive wear inside it.

Is this even worth trying to salvage at this point???


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## AndySomogyi

vtcnc said:


> I'm wondering about the .006" out on the ways. I'm guessing there are many opinions about this problem. Where and how did you measure this?



I put a dial indicator on the tail stick and measured the front prismatic way. Also I put a dial indicator on the saddle and measured the top of the prism. Because the saddle only rests on the sides of the way, and the top of the way is not a wear surface, the saddle drops where the way is worn relative to the top of the way.

It’s not 100% accurate but should give a ball park estimate 


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## vtcnc

AndySomogyi said:


> Is this even worth trying to salvage at this point???



That shaft looks like somebody filled in galling with weld and cleaned it up. That part may be shot, but again, I may be wrong about my diagnosis and opinions vary on matters like this. That bearing cover is beat up but to my untrained eye the bearing races don't look terrible.


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## MontanaLon

I'd say it is still worth salvaging as long as nothing else is butchered like the spindle. The journal looks like the original bearing went out and chewed it up. Then they chewed it up even more getting the bearing body off the spindle and fixed that with an angle grinder. Luckily, the journal appearance isn't terribly important IF is is still concentric with the rest of the spindle. If it isn't then the only option would be to make it smaller and find a bearing to fit. Actually reverse that, find the bearing and then turn or grind the spindle on centers to fit the bearing. 

Or grind it down build it up with weld and then grind or turn to original size for an original bearing.

Before I did all that I would make triple sure that spindle isn't bent. It appears to have had a hard go of it and no telling how tore up it is.


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## AndySomogyi

MontanaLon said:


> I'd say it is still worth salvaging as long as nothing else is butchered like the spindle. The journal looks like the original bearing went out and chewed it up. Then they chewed it up even more getting the bearing body off the spindle and fixed that with an angle grinder. Luckily, the journal appearance isn't terribly important IF is is still concentric with the rest of the spindle. If it isn't then the only option would be to make it smaller and find a bearing to fit. Actually reverse that, find the bearing and then turn or grind the spindle on centers to fit the bearing.
> 
> Or grind it down build it up with weld and then grind or turn to original size for an original bearing.
> 
> Before I did all that I would make triple sure that spindle isn't bent. It appears to have had a hard go of it and no telling how tore up it is.



I’m trying to check if it’s bent, but the best I’ve got is V blocks and a tenths indicator. It’s very jumpy because the spindle doesn’t ride smooth on the v blocks 


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## AndySomogyi

The spindle is exactly 1.5 thou oversized (1.8765) on the clean sections and between 0.5 and 1.5 over in the galled up bearing journal. 

I figure I’ve got 3 options: 

1) make a cylindrical lap and lap the OD of the spindle true as is. This will probably drop it down to 1 thou over. Or maybe lap it down to just where it cleans the high spots.

2) get it spray welded to build up the surface than lap it.

3) machine a ledge and heat shrink a sleeve over the galled up journal.

The Clausing manual says that the spindle should just slide out with very little effort. That would indicate that they use a very light fit for the bearings.

The hardest part about these options is how to do them without a lathe? I suppose I can try to beg and plead with our shop boss at work to let me use a lathe there. If that fails, maybe I can make a cylinder lap on my mill with the rotary table.


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## rwm

Could welding or spray welding warp the spindle? I like choice 1.
R


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> Could welding or spray welding warp the spindle? I like choice 1.
> R



I don’t think spray welding can warp it, I know it’s a commonly used technique for building up worn journals. Journals are of course ground after spray welding so that takes care of any uneven coating. I’m also looking into chrome plating. 


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## AndySomogyi

Mapped out the shaft diameters here at 1/2 inch increments, these are in ten thousands over 1.875.

It looks like the spindle was originally made with 2 thou oversized in the ledge closest to then about 1 thou oversize for the rest of the shaft, interesting I think. The section between the center and end journals is clean, nothing rides here so I’m assuming this is the original shaft diameter.








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## AndySomogyi

I contacted Clausing and got a few prints from them. These clearly show that as I suspected, the bushes in the pulley are installed completely wrong. This at least is an easy fix, just need to find another lathe to use so that I can make a pair of bushes.

The spindle is going to be a harder fix. I think I'll probably have to shave a thousands or so off of it, get it chromed and then get it ground to size.


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## rwm

"The spindle is going to be a harder fix. I think I'll probably have to shave a thousands or so off of it, get it chromed and then get it ground  "

Please elaborate on this process. I am unfamiliar. How much thickness can chroming add? Is this like the decorative chrome I see on a car part? Is this process expensive? Would this be as durable as the original spindle?

Robert


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> "The spindle is going to be a harder fix. I think I'll probably have to shave a thousands or so off of it, get it chromed and then get it ground  "
> 
> Please elaborate on this process. I am unfamiliar. How much thickness can chroming add? Is this like the decorative chrome I see on a car part? Is this process expensive? Would this be as durable as the original spindle?
> 
> Robert



Hard chrome plating deposits a chrome coating over the steel that's much harder than the base metal, hard chrome plating is usually applied to wear areas like spindles, hydraulic cylinders, etc. The spindles of most milling machines are chromed. Hard chrome can be anywhere from a couple tenths up to several thousands thick. Chrome is deposited by electrolysis. 

There lots of coatings / platings available, like thermal spray welding deposits a steel layer with high heat and velocity, this is usually used to build up badly worn surfaces.


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## AndySomogyi

Copying this here from Chris's thread over at Garage Journals, incase that thread disappears. 

Clausing model 5428, serial 002205, sold in 1960

*3 main drive belts*
Clausing number- 051-014
Original- 13595
Replacement- Gates 7597

*Upper variable speed belt*
Clausing number- 051-021
Original- RVS 506 15
Replacement- 1626V293

*Lower variable speed belt*
Clausing number- 051-022
Original- RVS 505 09
Replacement- 1626V262

*Spindle bearings*
Clausing number- 045-001
Original- Timken 369A and 368A
outer race 362B
Replacement - Timken 369A, 368A, and two 362B races.
I've looked for sealed replacement bearings, and can't seem to find any this size. Guess I'm going to have to stay with open bearings. 

*Bearings for taper attachment, ideler pulley under headstock, and quick change gear box:* 
Clausing numbers (multiple) 50-18 , 044-018
Original- Fafnir 202 KDD5
Replacement- EBC 1623 2RS


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## AndySomogyi

*Bearings for taper attachment, ideler pulley under headstock, and quick change gear box: *
Original- Fafnir 202 KDD5

The lathe uses lots of these, but these are a very common 5/8 ID, 35mm OD, 11m thick. Using 

Koyo 6202-10-2RS  5/8 Bearings 35mm O.D. 5/8mm I.D. 11mm Height


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## AndySomogyi

The bearings on the belt tensioner were also roached, so ordered new ones.

Still not sure what to do about the spindle, we’ll see if any place gets back to me about grinding. 







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## BGHansen

Good luck with the refurb.  I have a Clausing 5418 lathe that takes about 30 seconds to come to a stop after shutting it off at 900 RPM with a 5C collet chuck mounted.  Really nice, solid, smooth machine.  You're going to love the lathe once everything is put back together.

Bruce


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## AndySomogyi

Cleaned up the insides of the headstock. This was a filthy mess. I’m not ready to commit to a complete tear down and rebuild, just want to clean it up and get it usable.

Basically what I did is hose it down with WD40 degreaser, and have it a scrub. Then used POR15 Marine Clean in a household steam cleaner. Not sure how good the Marine Clean is for it, probably not very good because when I drained the steam cleaner, the stuff coming out was black.

So I tried to dislodge as much goo as I could with the steam cleaner, they blew out all the water with compressed air. Then alternate between steam and air.

I also put some cardboard in the cabinet to keep the crud from getting on the motor and lower drive stuff.


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## AndySomogyi

Found out the rear idler bearings were also shot. It was a real treat pulling the rear idler. Basically what I did is there’s a small set screw towards the tail stock, pull that. The end of the shaft has a tapped 5/16 hole.

The trick with the rear idler is that there are two C-clips on it, that center the idler pulley on the shaft. You have to hammer the shaft in all the way to get enough clearance to pop off the outer clip. Then pull the shaft out so the pulley just touches the bed. Now pop off the inner clip. Hit them hard so the fall thought they bed opening for the belts. They’ll end up in the base cabinet somewhere, you’ll have to dig for them. Try to make sure they don’t fall between the bed and the chip pan, you’ll have a hard time fitting them out then.

Thread some all-thread into this hole. Get three nuts, lock a pair on the end of the all-thread to keep it from spinning. Then grab some pipe or large nuts or something to slide over the 5/8 shaft and use the third nut to pull the shaft out, pressing against the base.

Got this idler finally pulled, cleaned up and installed new bearings on it.


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## AndySomogyi

*Mystery Solved*

These stamped cover plates for the spindle bearings have these notches on each one. When I pulled them out of my lathe, they were in random orientations, so I thought they were some sort of train hole. Like most everything with my lathe, it was assembled all wrong. I read through the manual, and it didn't say anything about which way to orient these notches. So tonight I put them up in their recesses, and noticed the notches line up with the oiler holes.

The notches are an opening for the oil inlet. These cover plates aren't just dust covers, they actually provide an oil reservoir for the bearings. If properly assembled, the bearings ride in about 1/2" of oil. So, it's critically important to line them up properly.

I literally can't figure out how my lathe was even operating with the oil holes plugged up like they were.

So, here are some pics showing what I'm talking about. I installed these covers with a block of wood and a couple C-clamps. The clamps help to keep the covers square when installing.


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## BGHansen

Great job figuring out the purpose of the notches.  Figure they'd put them there for a reason, you nailed it.

Bruce


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## AndySomogyi

Straightened out the cross slide gib. This too was badly bent and twisted. Basically what I did was inspect for twist on the surface plate by rocking, and noticing the twist direction. Then place it in the vise and twist the opposite direction with an adj wrench. Check constantly on the surf plate as this material is very soft.

I unbent it by hand, more control that way. Move in tiny increments and check constantly.

Noticed a very strange wear pattern too, these vertical striations.


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## Winegrower

I like your analytical style...reads like a Sherlock Holmes story.


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## Richard King 2

Gee Andy so many photos.  I will link your project on my Facebook page if it's OK with you?  You should have told me as I helped start this HM forum.  I now contribute here too and have my own page here at the top of forums.   You could send the bed to Steve Watkins in Navasota Texas and he could plane the bed and all you would need to do would be to scrape some new oil pockets in it and put some Rulon 142 om the saddle to bromhit back to the original centerline.


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## markba633csi

I'm glad you posted this Andy- shows just what types of abuse an older lathe can suffer-  Good on you for trying to save it.
Interesting too that the later model Atlas 12" lathes apparently copied the headstock design- I have one and it has the same backgear -undergear arrangement
mark
ps by the way, Coleman camp fuel makes a good cleaner/degreaser


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## AndySomogyi

markba633csi said:


> I'm glad you posted this Andy- shows just what types of abuse an older lathe can suffer- Good on you for trying to save it.
> Interesting too that the later model Atlas 12" lathes apparently copied the headstock design- I have one and it has the same backgear -undergear arrangement
> mark
> ps by the way, Coleman camp fuel makes a good cleaner/degreaser



Thanks, yeah this thing is pretty much a disaster. 

Atlas is Clausing, I’m not sure of their exactly history, but the later Atlas / Sears was made by the same folks, would not surprise me if Atlas used Clausing parts.

I’d be real careful with Coleman fuel. Parts washing fluid is designed to have a low vapor pressure and high flash points, making them less of a fire hazard. Coleman fuel is pretty much the opposite, it ignites very easy. I’d recommend the parts washing fluid at Tractor Supply, it’s much safer. I sure wouldn’t want to have anyone here accidentally catch themselves or their house on fire.



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## rwm

It's very impressive (read dangerous) when I use Coleman fuel to start a bonfire. I keep a safe distance from the fireball and mushroom cloud. I would not want to use that for parts washing fluid routinely.
Robert


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## AndySomogyi

Richard King 2 said:


> Gee Andy so many photos. I will link your project on my Facebook page if it's OK with you? You should have told me as I helped start this HM forum. I now contribute here too and have my own page here at the top of forums. You could send the bed to Steve Watkins in Navasota Texas and he could plane the bed and all you would need to do would be to scrape some new oil pockets in it and put some Rulon 142 om the saddle to bromhit back to the original centerline.



Thanks Richard, sure by all means link to it. Hopefully someone finds this info here useful.

I’ll give Steve a call, but TX is quite a far drive from Indiana. I spoke with Franjo an Milwaukee Machine Tool, got a price that not completely unreasonable from him, and Milwaukee isn’t that bad a drive. 

I’ll find out more next few days when I get the spindle back together and can get a true runout measurement of it, and a true bed measure once I level it.


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## AndySomogyi

*Temporary Back Gear Fix*

Me back gear bushings are destroyed, most likely because one of the bushings was pushed in all the way blocking the oil hole. So this bearing was running dry for who knows how long.

I need to reassemble the lathe so that I can make new bushings for it (don’t have another lathe nor do I currently have access to one).

So as temporary fix, I drilled out the bushing so at least oil will get to it. It’s not a big deal because I don’t plan on using back gear to turn a 2 inch bushing, I mostly just don’t want this to bind up.


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## AndySomogyi

Took the underdrive assembly partially apart, mostly just to pull the cross shaft to make inserting the spindle easier. And of course, what do I find, more idiotic damage.

One of the belt tension adjustment screws was cross threaded the entire way. I mean, how does one manage to cross thread a bolt like this???

So I had to completely pull this assembly to fix the cross threaded bolt. Gave the entire assembly a good cleaning in my total ghetto parts cleaner. It’s just a nasty job working on greasy grimy parts so I had to clean them. They were all caked with this nasty sticky goo that just would not come off, I think it was probably motorcycle chain lube.


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## Dhal22

Great thread here.   Enjoying following the progress.


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## AndySomogyi

The inside of the underdrive cabinet was an unholy mess, there was literally 1/4” of caked on black grime. I’m not ready to do a full rebuild on this lathe yet, just want to get it to where it’s usable. But I can’t work with that kind of mess, you can’t see anything, the grime gets everywhere. So I decided to clean it out as well as I could.

what worked OK was spraying it down with engine degreaser, this loosens it up very nicely. Then I made a solution of hot water and degreaser and kept washing it down an wringing out the greesy rag in the bucket. Finally got it to this point where at least you can work around it. Yeah, the bucket had some nasty crap in it, was thick with this goo.


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## BGHansen

You are doing an excellent job on the restoration.  True case of "if you do it right the first time, you won't have to do it again".  

Bruce


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## AndySomogyi

Wow, just wow. 

This lathe was originally wired such that all of the current went though that little red normally closed microswitch. ALL the current!

No wonder the contacts on it are fried.

I’m not an electrician, and I’ve never seen one of these magnetic relays before, but all it took was a few minutes looking at how this *can* be wired to realize the purpose of the red switch is simply to interrupt power from the relay coil, it’s not intended as a main switching switch. 

As it was wired, the relay did precisely nothing!!!


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## middle.road

AndySomogyi said:


> <...............> _*I’m not ready to do a full rebuild on this lathe yet*_, just want to get it to where it’s usable. But I can’t work with that kind of mess, you can’t see anything, the grime gets everywhere. So I decided to clean it out as well as I could.


However, you are giving it one heck of a 're-conditioning'. Nice effort & work.
I thought that my 1440 out of a maintenance shop was a bit beat, that poor Clausing was just plain abused.


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## Tim9

I looked at the first picture of your bed and yeah... it’s rough. But don’t get discouraged. My first semi-real lathe was a 90 y/o SB model C with a bed  twice as bad as the way your bed looks. Th apron crank was trashed. Anyway after tweeking and replacing the apron with an EBay apron....that little 9” SB is a surprisingly good lathe. It’s not perfect, but can make very nice parts.
   Your Clausing will be much more ridgid than a South Bend 9”
I’d Concentrate on the cross-slide and compound. Make sure the lathe is leveled. Ignore the cosmetics of the bed for now. Unless of course you’re building stuff for NASA.
  PS.... I’d use mineral spirits or diesel fuel. In my opinion...Coleman fuel is too volatile....too dangerous to use around a shop. I had a friend who used gasoline to clean a wood floor in his utility room. Long story short is that the water heater ignited everything and he was burned and scarred from head to toe. Stuff happens. No need to tempt fate.


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## AndySomogyi

Tim9 said:


> I looked at the first picture of your bed and yeah... it’s rough. But don’t get discouraged. My first semi-real lathe was a 90 y/o SB model C with a bed  twice as bad as the way your bed looks. Th apron crank was trashed. Anyway after tweeking and replacing the apron with an EBay apron....that little 9” SB is a surprisingly good lathe. It’s not perfect, but can make very nice parts.
> Your Clausing will be much more ridgid than a South Bend 9”
> I’d Concentrate on the cross-slide and compound. Make sure the lathe is leveled. Ignore the cosmetics of the bed for now. Unless of course you’re building stuff for NASA.
> PS.... I’d use mineral spirits or diesel fuel. In my opinion...Coleman fuel is too volatile....too dangerous to use around a shop. I had a friend who used gasoline to clean a wood floor in his utility room. Long story short is that the water heater ignited everything and he was burned and scarred from head to toe. Stuff happens. No need to tempt fate.



Thanks, I’m now working on getting the headstock back together to get a good evaluation of the spindle. Then I’m going to level the bed and see how it cuts. First things I need to make are new bushings for the back gear, and a new cross slide nut.

Yeah, I’d never use Coleman fuel, it’s just WAY too volatile. I’m using a mix of spray on engine degreaser to dislodge the grease, and heated water based HF degreaser to scrub it away. When I get a parts washer, I might switch to the petroleum based parts cleaner at Tractor supply, I hear it works well, and has a very high flash point so it’s designed to be safe as possible for a hydrocarbon.

If everything else checks out OK, I might take the bed up to Milwaukee to get it ground and then scrape the cross slide, head and tail stocks to the ground bed.


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## AndySomogyi

Made an alignment bushing on the mill rotary table to align the dust cover inside the outer bearing cover. This dust cover ring hangs down and slides on the spindle. Problem was that that when I was pulling the spindle back in, this cover would catch on a ledge on the spindle and you couldn’t pull the spindle in any more. So I made this bushing that’s the exact height of that ledge on the spindle to prevent the cover from catching on it.

I pilled the spindle in with a piece of 3/4 all-thread as a puller. I don’t want to use the rear bearing collar as this would put a lot of wear on those threads.

First you have to pull the main drive gear on, used some wood to block the gear and pulled the spindle in with the all-thread. Used a chunk of pipe to press on the rear gear which presses on the rear bearing. Then once the main gear is seated, took out the wood and pulled the rear bearing on, continued with the all-thread. Here is where the bushing comes into play to lift up the dust cover in the rear bearing to keep it from hanging up on the spindle ledge.

Then when the spindle was in all the way, removed the bushing and installed the outer gear and collar.

I used Anti-Seize to help the gears slide on the spindle, as I have to pull the spindle back out anyway to fit the new bushings I’m making and fit new drive belts.


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## AndySomogyi

Did some more clean up on the gear train. I can’t stand working on greasy nasty machines, so I just had to get this mess cleaned up. Sprayed it all down with engine degreaser, then used water and water based degreaser in our steam cleaner to clean off the gear train and head stock. Cleaned off all the removable bits in a heated bucket of water based degreaser.

Had another nasty surprise. Some idiot busted the feed reversing gear lever. Seriously, HTF does one break something like this, how, how??? It’s was broken and welded together at some point.

Anyway, at least it’s cleaned up and can see what you’re working on instead of digging though grease.


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## AndySomogyi

Did some electrical today. Tried to figure out this wonky dual winding single and phase motor and this drum switch.

Factory wiring diagram isn’t much help because someone replaced the drum switch.

Made this pretty cool mounting plate out of 1/4 plate, tapped a few holes to mount the switch.

Before the switch was literally just hanging there.


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## Tim9

I have a 1-1/2 hp single phase on my Clausing. I replaced the bearings and painted it. I took a couple of pics of the wiring diagram if you need it. FWIW, my Clausing was made @ 1972


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## Tim9

If you need, I can take a couple of pics of my drum switch too. But it’ll probably be a day or so before I can do that.


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## AndySomogyi

Tim9 said:


> If you need, I can take a couple of pics of my drum switch too. But it’ll probably be a day or so before I can do that.



Thanks, but all motors are different. I think I’ve got it figured out based on the Dayton and barrel switch schematics. 

LOL, when I first got it, they had wired twisted together and wrapped with masking tape .

At least this does seem to have a pretty new Dayton 1 HP motor though. 


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## AndySomogyi

Got most of the underdrive re-assembled. Installed the motor on these rubber vibration isolation mounts to quiet this cheap motor down.

This Clausing is the craziest design ever, took forever to get all those hanging rods lined up.


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## AndySomogyi

Got the motor mounted on rubber vibration isolation mounts, and what a massive difference. Sure quieted down the noise amazingly. Eventually I'm going to get a 3-phase motor and VFD, but just want to get it going for now.

Here's a vid of the motor running, compare this against the previous videos.


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## rwm

That's great. I would try some isolation mounts on the cat also!
Robert


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> That's great. I would try some isolation mounts on the cat also!
> Robert



That’s Ike the cat. He’s my little buddy, friendliest cat ever, and yeah, he can be noisy, but we love him. 


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## AndySomogyi

I managed to diagnose the source of the spindle noise down to extremely worn bushings in the main drive pulley.

After going through a long deductive process of eliminating every other possibility, this is the only source of noise that remained. I replaced all the idler bearings, and verified the main spindle bearings are acceptable. The spindle did spin free, and made no noise with the bull gear direct drive pin disengaged. It only made noise with the direct drive pin engaged.

The explanation of the noise is pretty complicated, I tried to draw a pic, but I really need to make an animation. The deal is the bushing are worn oversize, and are almost certainly an eccentric. The belt applies a constant torque to the pulley. But the pulley applies a torque to the spindle through the bull gear pin. The direction of this torque changes as the spindle / pulley assembly rotates. So, sometimes the belt will want to lift the pulley up, and sometimes it will want to drag it down, depends on the angle of the pin. It’s this changing torque that hammers the pulley back and forth. With the pin disengaged, the torque is constant, so you don‘t get the hammering. The main idea is that with this kind of drive pin, you do need a surprisingly tight bushings.

Hopefully this information will help others diagnose their spindle noise issues.

The last two pics here are the actual bushings. Some previous owner rammed one of the bushings in all the way, thus blocking the oil hole.

Because I don’t have access to another lathe (even though there’s a complete unused machine shop down the hall from my office, the university bureaucracy makes it off limits), anyways, I have to use this lathe to make parts for itself. So, as a temporary hack, I packed the pulley bushings full of high pressure grease. I made a quick adaptor, drilled a hole in a 1/4-20 screw (thread of the oil hole), soldered a pipe to it, with a grease zerk. Then packed the crap out of these bushings with grease.

Sure enough, it quieted the lathe down significantly.

I also replaced the motor drive belt with a new one, with the belt change, at least the lathe no longer feels like a rodeo bull.

With the lathe hacked together enough now, I‘m going to make an arbor to hold bushings as I turn them.

I can verify that this drive belt fits correctly, there are two different styles of Clausing underdrive configurations, and both take this size belt:

*Lower variable speed belt*
Clausing number- 051-022
Original- RVS 505 09
Replacement- 1626V262


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## AndySomogyi

Got the lathe together enough to use it to make parts for itself. Got the bushing material to make new bushes, and Made an expanding arbor to secure the bushings when I turn the OD. 

This has a 15° taper, with a steel anvil. I screwed up the arbor OD and made it 0.001 undersize, but it expands so I guess that’s OK. 

Secured the bushes with an aluminum sleeve. 

But unfortunately I screwed one of the bush IDs, the cross slide screw is super worn out and really hard to do accurate work with it. 

Oh well, I’m $17, ordered another blank.


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## AndySomogyi

Got the bushings made, well made one extra because of the size bronze I got.

The expanding arbor work perfectly, managed to get them all within 2-3 tenths dimension wise, and about a tenth roundness wise.

The cross slide nut is really badly worn. I recorded exactly how much each 0.020 movement of the cross slide took off, and it’s all over the place. Only way I managed any accuracy is getting semi-close with the cross slide, then using the top slide at a 30° angle (sin(30°) = 0.5), so moved by half in the X.

 Now, I need to pull the headstock apart again and install these bushings.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

looks like you're doing a cracking job! I had a similar issue with the spindle pulley on my Atlas 618 - first the bushings were worn and then when I replaced them I managed to ream them slightly on the tilt. Only properly fixed the problem when I made a new spindle pulley/ sheave.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Thanks! The Atlas and Clausing are a similar design (same company), I’m sure hoping my pulley’s OK. I had a friend say his was 0.003 oversize on the ID, hope I don’t run into that issue.


----------



## AndySomogyi

I did learn something about working with a badly worn cross slide, is that if you back it out and run it back in, it’s impossible to find the same position. Because there’s so much wear on the nut, it never returns to the same spot when you screw it back in. So I found it’s better to just turn the lathe off and drag it back. Yes, it does leave a scratch, but it’s the only way I found to maintain accuracy.


----------



## AndySomogyi

This would partially explain excessive cross slide slip, shim was doubled over.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Used the old and busted lathe to make parts for itself. 
	

		
			
		

		
	




Back-gear bushings made 
race and bearing pulling and alignment bushings made 
new spindle bearings here 

Let’s tear this down and rebuild this spindle.

If I messed up the dimensions of any of these parts, guess I’m pretty much screwed, because I don’t have another lathe and don’t have access to one. If these parts are wrong, I’ve got a big pile of scrap iron.


----------



## rwm

Naw... we would help.
Robert


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> Naw... we would help.
> Robert


Wow, that be great. I called the one machine shop in town, and they have an $10,000 minimum order, plus consulting fee.


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## AndySomogyi

Got the spindle taken out, LOL, was much easier taking it out the second time.

Some hints, make sure you pull the keys before pulling the spindle, some idiot before me didn’t and destroyed both the bushings and dust covers. Took me a while to straighten them out.

This is the elegant way to pull a dust cover, make a washer like this that slides behind it, and pull with a screw.

The dust covers were installed wrong, blocking the oil holes, so bearings were run dry.

Basically follow the manual taking the spindle out.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Looks like I did a pretty good job maintaining tolerance on the new bushings. Was not easy with this lathe, as the cross slide nut is just about ready to fall through, got about 70 thousands of backlash, and impossible to return to the same spot. So I used the top slide at a 30 degree angle (sin (30) = 0.5), so that moves in 0.5 thousands increments. Top slide is also worn, so had to keep my hand on it, keeping it tight.

Got the fit on these just right,  and check out the old bushings. They were rammed in, blocking the oil hole, so they were run dry. I’m guessing about 30 thousands slop with the old ones.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Pressed in the new bushings. They fit very nicely in the pulley. However, because of the crush, they just barely won’t fit over the spindle now.

I made the bushings exactly to spec, however the pulley bore was about 4 thousands under size, which led to increase crush. 

I think what I’ll try is use the expanding arbor as a lap, and try to shave a thousandth out of them.

Used the arbor as a guide to press them

I really don’t want to try to spin the pulley on the spindle now, because I’m concerned the bushings would act as a lap.


----------



## BGHansen

AndySomogyi said:


> Pressed in the new bushings. They fit very nicely in the pulley. However, because of the crush, they just barely won’t fit over the spindle now.
> 
> I made the bushings exactly to spec, however the pulley bore was about 4 thousands under size, which led to increase crush.
> 
> I think what I’ll try is use the expanding arbor as a lap, and try to shave a thousandth out of them.
> 
> Used the arbor as a guide to press them
> 
> I really don’t want to try to spin the pulley on the spindle now, because I’m concerned the bushings would act as a lap.


Well, two steps ahead, 1/2 step back.  On the plus side, sure looks like you are doing every right and not cutting any corners trying to soon up the job.  My complements to your attention to details.  My Clausing 5418 takes about 30 seconds to stop spinning when I turn it off about around 800 RPM.  Yours will probably go 2 minutes.

Bruce


----------



## AndySomogyi

Back gear accomplishments.

I needed a way to hone out the back gear bushings about a thousandth or so because were a bit underside after pressing them in.

I decided to use a 2” brake cylinder hone. Went nice and easy, made sure to take off the same about evenly. This worked very well, ended up with maybe a tenth or so runout.

The spindle itself had a lot of damage from the old bushings running dry. After I opened up the bushings just so it could slide over the spindle, I noticed that the damaged spindle journal left some scratches on the bushing surfaces. There were clearly some raised up sections here. So I decided to make a cylinder lap, to ensure that the journal surface is smooth and flat, without any raised up burrs. I used some coarse, then switched to fine lapping compound, and this very cleanly removed almost all the damage on the journal. I kept continuously monitoring how much material I was removing. The lapping process itself removed about 5 tenths. Then I switched to 400 and 800 grit wet dry paper, used WD40 to keep the sanding clean. Then left the journal reasonably well polished.

Right now, I’ve got about 0.0015 oil clearance between the bushing and journal. Not sure, but I think this is about right.

I’m thinking about using a Dremel and adding some oil pockets.

In this video, I meant to say 1-2 TEN Thousands, LOL, not thousands if front runout. 

Here’s a quick video. I’m putting together an edited, bit more pro video.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Pulled the back gears out, and look what I found under 50 years of sludge, an actual set of back gears.

Soaked them a while in the parts washer bucket, cleaned off all the grime. The bushings and spindle look pretty good, so I just gave them a polish with 1000 grit paper, stoned off all the burrs, and stoned the gear tooth faces.

Finished cleaning up the spindle, polished it with 1000, then 1500 wet, make sure the journal surfaces are nice and shiny. Did a few more measurements and the oil clearance is 1.5 thousands on the spindle to pulley, I think that’s OK. I’m probably going to leave the pulley alone and not cut oil dimples, think it’s OK as is.

Having a fantastic pale ale from Taxman Brewery, my new all time favorite beer.

Gave the headstock a bit more of a clean, but think I’ll hit it with the steam cleaner one more time.

Now basically just waiting on the new rear bearing to arrive. Ordered a precision class 3 bearing. It was expensive, but want to make sure runout is very low.

Finally threw out these nasty ass greasy shredded ancient belts, and fitted the new ones.


----------



## AndySomogyi

The top slide was a real mess, some idiot stripped off one of the gib adjusting nuts. Hence, the gib was pushed out at the end, and the top slide would bind about half way though.

I pulled out the broken screw, took the stop slide apart and gave it a thorough cleaning. There’s a lot of cosmetic damage, going to clean it and fill it with JB Weld and iron filings, then sand it down and paint it.

I figure I’d give the ways a scraping that I’ve got it apart. So I made a mini scraper to get in the dovetail. I’m using a $6 Warner carbide paint scraper blade, works well. Just used a piece of cold rolled and tapped it for the 6-32 holes. I’m making a prism type straight edge to use as a master. This is only my second attempt at scraping. The straightedge here is after 5-6 passes. Still have a low spot, but thinking that will come in as I keep scraping the remaining areas.

The factory gib was badly damaged, so I straightened it, then spent a good bit of time lapping it flat. Eventually I’ll make a new bronze gib, but I’ll just use this for now.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

cool work on the scraping! A word of caution about lapping that gib - it's really had to lap something thin and bent to flatness, as the pressure needed to remove metal (with sandpaper I'm guessing?) will push the bowed area down. Ideally you'd put it on a surface grinder and shim the non-touching areas, grind and then flip it. Not many people have surface grinders though 

If you have a surface plate (I'm guessing from the scraping print?), I'd be tempted to map it and then step grind it with a bench grinder or angle grinder. Get it flat and then bring it in with lapping. Just an idea.


----------



## AndySomogyi

mattthemuppet2 said:


> cool work on the scraping! A word of caution about lapping that gib - it's really had to lap something thin and bent to flatness, as the pressure needed to remove metal (with sandpaper I'm guessing?) will push the bowed area down. Ideally you'd put it on a surface grinder and shim the non-touching areas, grind and then flip it. Not many people have surface grinders though
> 
> If you have a surface plate (I'm guessing from the scraping print?), I'd be tempted to map it and then step grind it with a bench grinder or angle grinder. Get it flat and then bring it in with lapping. Just an idea.



Thanks.
I did get the gib pretty flat just by first straightening it. It was badly bent because one side was pushed out by the broken adjusting screw. I straightened it with a combination of vise work, and hammer / anvil work. That got it flat to about 0.005, kept checking it with the surface plate. Then took the remaining 0.005 off with sandpaper glued to a lapping plate.


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## mattthemuppet2

nice!


----------



## AndySomogyi

Got the flats of the top slide scraped into about 30 PPI, think that’s good enough for a top slide.

Couple tips I’ve come up with are the yellow spotting Charbonnel ink works best thinned with a drip of paint thinner, and likes to go on reasonably dry. The paint thinner works well because it dries and let’s the yellow ink dry a bit on the part, so it doesn’t smear the Prussian Blue.

A florescent light right on top of your work really helps you to see the ink, and is invaluable to seeing under the dovetail.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Wow, not good. Dovetails are 0.005 wider at one end that the other. Guess I’ve got a lot scraping to do.

In a way, I’m kind of not surprised at this level of wear, considering one is the gib screws was rammed in and busted off.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Got the dovetails scraped in, and parallel to within 0.0002, thinking that’s good enough. I got about 30 PPI on the scraping here.

This was really tricky because not only do the dovetails have to be parallel, but the angle has to match the opposing part, so I kept checking both angle and parallelism, and kept adjusting the scrape to being them both in.

Bear in mind that this is literally the third object that I’ve ever scrapped (well, I’ve scraped babbit engine bearings, but it’s different). 

OMG, it’s 5:15 AM here, I’ve been at this for five hours , guess it’s time to get some sleep


----------



## AndySomogyi

Scraped the dovetails on the top slide, this was a bit tricky, but eventually got it. There’s no clearance in the corner of the dovetails, so tricky getting a scraper in there, and even trickier stoning it. I ended up using just one sheet of a diamond hone. That had a sharp edge and let me stone the full width of the ways.

Finished scraping the base and fitted the gib. It has a nice smooth action now, and a good contact patter on all the ways.

The front corner had a lot of damage where some idiot ran it into the chuck. As this was just cosmetic, I filled in the damaged areas with a mix of epoxy and iron filings. Used about a 50:50 by volume ratio. Worked pretty well.

Machined the top and sides with a face mill, all parallel now.

The outer cover had some surprising casting voids. Filled these in with epoxy. Gave everything a nice sanding, and got these parts primed and ready for paint.


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## rwm

I was wondering if you were going to fill in the damaged areas on the compound or just grind them smooth and maybe even symmetric. You obviously have some experience with machine rebuilding and this is looking great. Instead of epoxy mix would you ever consider brazing filler?
Robert


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> I was wondering if you were going to fill in the damaged areas on the compound or just grind them smooth and maybe even symmetric. You obviously have some experience with machine rebuilding and this is looking great. Instead of epoxy mix would you ever consider brazing filler?
> Robert



Thanks. This is actually the first lathe / machine tool I’ve built, learning a lot, but I’ve been building / repairing mechanical things since I was about 5 , and I’m an engineer at my day job.

I thought about brazing it, but decided against it because I didn’t want to risk cracking the cast iron for a cosmetic repair. Figured I’d give epoxy / iron a try.

If it was something that had any sort of stress, especially a tension or shear, I would have brazed it then.


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## AndySomogyi

Didn’t like how the primer was sitting on this part, so wet sanded it down and re-shooting it.


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## AndySomogyi

Paint Time.

Color’s not an exact match, but it’s close enough.


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## AndySomogyi

Pretty happy with how these turned out. Going to check the fit one more time, get it assembled.


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## DavidR8

Wow, those look great Andy! Nice work.


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## AndySomogyi

DavidR8 said:


> Wow, those look great Andy! Nice work.


Thanks man! I was debating adding a few more coats, but I think it’s good enough.


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## AndySomogyi

Installed the jack shaft and the rear bearing race. 

The right shoulder on the jack shaft had some ridges from some idiot hammering it out with a chisel. Though this isn’t a thrust surface, the back gear does bump against it. So I chucked it in the mill and stoned it smooth with a slip stone. 

The jack shaft bearings looked OK, no slop, so I just put them back in. 

The front race looked pretty good, so I left it alone. Also when I measured front runout, it was around 0.0001 at most.

I got ahold of precision class bearings for the rear, and looks like at some point this lathe was upgraded to precision class bearings. According to the Clausing engineer I spoke with, this lathe originally shipped with standard industrial grade bearings. The precision class bearings for the rear was expensive, even on eBay, found an old stock inner one for $140, and race for $40. About 4 times what industrial costs, and brand new, was like $300 for just the roller cage part.

Installed the race with my puller setup, this ensures that it goes in straight. Then measured parallelism with a ground rod with a very slight taper at the face. I ground it so it just catches. Then moves the rod all the way around and measured the race at all positions.

Because these are precision class bearings, they have alignment marks that indicate the location of maximum runout. It’s important that they are aligned with each other. These are these little burnt darker spots on the race faces. If they are not aligned, the spindle will not be parallel with the bored hole in the headstock.


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## AndySomogyi

In order to prevent damaging the spindle threads, wrap them with a lot of tape.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Re-installed the spindle using the pressing fixtures I made. This aluminum bushings keeps the pipe centered on the spindle so it pulls straight.

Using a precision class rear bearing, and made sure to align the bearing alignment Mark with the mark on the front bearing.

After installing and setting preload, measured the runout. At the front getting about 0.0002 and in the rear, about 0.00015. Pretty happy with these runouts.

I’m super happy with the fit of the bushings I made. It spins freely, and comes to a very nice slow stop, you can really feel the oil film in there providing a hydraulic drag.

Then started it up to test everything, and hell yes!!!, finally fixed the massive noise in the headstock. I’m going to put together a video of my diagnostic procedure, and how to go about deductive reasoning.

I still got to play around a bit with the belt tension. It seems kinda tight, however they’re flapping around a bit. Need to adjust the main variable speed drive also.

Couple important things to remember when re-assembling the spindle: 

1: insert some wood blocks and make sure the spindle gets fully pressed into the bull gear. Only the wood blocks hold the bull gear in place.

2: Make sure none of the spindle ridges catch on the bearing dust covers, really each to catch and bind it up.

3: Go slow and easy, spindle should go in steady, if there's any abrupt change in resistance, stop, it's binding on something. 

4: It's easy to catch the rear spacer that pushes the rear bearing in on the spindle ledge, that's why I made an aluminum bushing.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Assembled and installed the top slide. Really happy with how it feels, pretty good for my first go at hand scraping. Remember, it was just destroyed before and feels brand new now. I’ve got about 8 thousands of backlash on the top slide, guess that’s OK. Note, the gibs adjustment is really sensitive, feels best when the screws just literally touch, then it’s solid but still nice and smooth to turn. 

The lead screw had about 1/8” of end play, and there was this gap between the guard plate and the head stock, so I figured the quick change box was not aligned right.

Loosened up the quick change, and it has about 1/8” of movement with the screws loose.

Moved it to the right, about maybe 1/16 or so, and tightened the screws. This got rid of A LOT of end play in the lead screw. 

However there’s still this gap between the guard plate and the head stock, so I’ll just make a spacer for it. 

I moved the end holder part for the lead screw in until it just touches, so now there’s maybe a few thousands of lead screw end play. Much better than the 1/8” of end play it had before.

Installed and adjusted the gear train, it’s actually in surprisingly decent shape.


----------



## AndySomogyi

The nose collar around the spindle was also badly damaged from some damned idiot trying to remove it with a chisel .

It’s cast iron, but it was coated with some sort of copper colored coating, looked like anodizing. Yeah, I know it’s cast iron, not sure what the coating is.

Anyways, cleaned it off, wire brushed all the grease out, cleaned out the gouges with a dremel, and filled them with epoxy.

Then I had a can of VHT high temp brake caliper paint left over from my last car (Nissan 350Z), it was copper. So I painted this collar with that copper paint. I think it looks real good.


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## Shootymacshootface

Very nice restoration! I can't believe the number of things that were Bubba'd up on this single machine. It would have been so much better if Bubba never tried to fix anything.


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## rwm

Outstanding! I did not know about the bearing alignment. Thanks
Robert


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## AndySomogyi

Shootymacshootface said:


> Very nice restoration! I can't believe the number of things that were Bubba'd up on this single machine. It would have been so much better if Bubba never tried to fix anything.



thanks. It’s just astonishing how many things were so completely buggered up beyond belief on this lathe. 

But the thing is like 60 years old, so you can imagine a lot of idiots had ample opportunity to get their hooves on it.


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## AndySomogyi

rwm said:


> Outstanding! I did not know about the bearing alignment. Thanks
> Robert


Thanks, I didn’t either until I read up on the intricacies of precision bearings a few weeks ago.


----------



## AndySomogyi

Got the headstock all put together, and adjusted the main drive belts.

A big issue I had was the belts I bought were just a little bit too wide for the pulley grooves, so they were rubbing together, and the left most belt was being forced out of it's groove. It would have been a nightmare to pull the spindle out again, and order new belts, so instead, I took a razor blade and shaved just a little bit off the left belt. This cured most of the issues. In order to align it a bit better, I put a bit of a twist into the lower idler pulley, to help twist the left drive belt back straight. Not much, just twisted the idler pulley about maybe 2-3 degrees or so. That fixed the belt issue, and all the belts are staying in place nicely, and seem to be tensioned right.

There still is a bit of a vibrations, coming from the under drive. The only part down there I didn't replace was the upper variable speed drive belt. It looked basically OK, but was a bit dry. So, went ahead and ordered a new upper variable speed drive belt.

I'm not 100% sure how tight the variable speed belts should be, but they seem to work better on the tighter side (with less slop).

Ran it for a while, and the spindle bearings come up to temperature after about 10 minutes or so, get about a 20 degree rise in temperature, and then stabilized around 90 degrees F.

Interesting thing with the back-gear pulley, is when you disengage the locking pin, the breakaway torque for the spindle pulley is a lot higher than I thought it would be, but once spinning, it's very smooth, and spins very freely. Not sure if the oil just has to come up to temperature, or the bearing clearance is on the tight side. But did run it in back-gear for a while, and the spindle pulley stays cool.

Here's a quick video of the status update.


----------



## AndySomogyi

When I first put this thing together, I used these vibration isolation mounts between the motor and base. Problem with them was they were too soft, especially in the shear direction, which allowed too much movement of the motor. I still wanted to add some vibration isolation to the motor, so I worked out some math and calculated resonance frequencies of various materials. 

Turns out that a combination of two wood plates with these rubber sheet between them dampens a large range or vibrations. The wood and rubber both have different resonances, and combining them let’s the mount dampen a wide range. This mount design is also fairly rigid in the shear direction, so it lets me tighten the belts well. It’s not the prettiest mount, but it works well, and you almost can’t feel the motor running. That’s saying a lot because this Dayton is a very unbalanced and rough running motor. 

Fixing the motor mounts raised an issue with the belts. Turns out the jack shaft pulley was very glazed over from years of belt slippage and general use. The glazed pulley was causing the new belts to slip, because there wasn’t enough friction. I didn’t want to remove it, so I’m sanding the pulley faces in place to give them a consistent finish to grab the belts.


----------



## AndySomogyi

The headstock is in basically decent shape, so  I’ve been working on making a new cross slide nut. The original nut was so bad that it almost jumps a tooth in certain spots, and made it impossible to make a straight cut. 

Not only was the nut worn, but the screw was pretty badly worn. ACME screws don’t wear evenly, they wear Mostly on the sides of the threads. This causes the screw flats to get narrower than the roots. So a regular ACME thread nut won’t fit right, you have to make the nut crests wider than the roots.

The Machinery Handbook has the specs for an ideal ACME thread, this is just a starting point for making what I call a ‘modified ACME’ that’s designed to fit worn screws. But all of this has to be really done by feel — cut a thread, see how it fits and adjust. It’s a massive pain when you’ve only got one lathe, and have to use it to make parts for itself, and always pulling the cross screw to check fit.

After a few tries, got a decent fitting nut, so I lapped the screw to fit, as it was MUCH more worn in the middle than the ends.

I also make a video on cutting an internal ACME thread for a worn screw.

Had a bit of a challenge with the bit, made a jig to cut it at a perfect 14.5° angle. 

After I installed the new aluminum ‘practice’ nut, made a few test cuts. OMG what a difference. It actually cuts straight now. Has about 0.0003 wiggle over 10”. Looks like the badly worn nut was a huge part of why it wasn’t cutting right, thinking that the nut would move on the screw, it was so worn.  

With the new nut, about 0.003 backlash in the cross screw. But it had a taper with 0.010 backlash, so total of about 0.013, which is MUCH better. Before it was about 0.090 backlash.


----------



## AndySomogyi

I had a very bad and confusing belt tracking issue with my lathe. The first obvious symptom was the belts looked all cocked in the top pulley and wanted to ride out. This was caused by the fact that new belts were slightly wide and pushed each other out. Hence caused it to get slightly cocked.

This is where it gets worse. Because it was slightly cocked, the top it the belt wasn’t riding flat. In the under drive, there is a flat idler pulley that pushes on the top of the belt. The face that touched the idler, this causes a torque in the belt that pushed it further out. As it was pushed further out, this caused it to get even more cocked on the v belt grooves. As it got more cocked, they caused one side to wear heavily, which cussed to to get even more cocked which resulted in an even greater lateral load on the belt. In control theory, we call this is a classic positive feedback system.

In fact, it was so bad that when I first assembled it, the left belt was actually riding up out of its V groove. If I really loosened the tension up, it would still drag A LOT on the idler but would stay in the groove. But best case was that the idler dragged the belt about 3/4” to the left. This was causing a lot of wear on the belt.

To cure it, I came up with the idea of making a new ‘guided’ idler pulley which does not allow the belts to move sideways. In effect, the guided idler gives a positive lock for the belt position. This stopped the runaway feedback loop. I also machined a slight curve at the base of the new idler pulley grooves, and this causes the belts to self-center.

With the new idler, belts track straight and true, and no longer want to ride out of their grooves. Another benefit is it got rid of some more vibration and the lathe is very smooth now. Earlier, I re-engineered the motor mounts to isolate much of the motor vibrations.

The lathe runs pretty smooth and quiet now. There is some wear on the bed, and after leveling it, it does cut about a 0.0004 bulge near the chuck, but not terrible.
View attachment IMG_3859.MOV


----------



## AndySomogyi

The lathe is more or less usable now, I still need to make a bronze cross slide nut, but works OK temporarily with an aluminum one.

Now I can stop being a lathe repairman and get onto to why I bought the thing for in the first place: to make parts for this. It’s a 76 Porsche 912 (that’s a VW bus engine powered Porsche 911), and I’m swapping in a Weber carbed Subaru 2.5. So need to make lots of custom hose bungs, manifolds, flanges, fittings and all sorts of fun stuff.


----------



## Tim9

Good write up Andy. I’m kind of the same way. If I made an aluminum practice nut....I’d probably leave it that way until it both bugged me and I had time to do it right with bronze. So many projects and not enough time.


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## WEL0058

Andy - Just finished reading this great thread.  

Man that was a lot of work.  Hope you did not pay to much for the lathe.
It seems like every thing is a project but you tell yourself while you are in there might go head and do just once.

 You inspired me to think about hand scraping my crossfeed and compound  dovetails.

I am reconditioning my 1946 Clausing 100 mk3 lathe and upgrading to a quick change gear box and the advance apron.
My thread is under the Clausing section.

To save some time, you should check out this site:









						Clausing Lathe 5900-37 Cross Slide Nut - BM Parts Tech
					

To place an order please email: info@bmpartstech.com



					bmpartstech.com
				




Clausing Lathe Cross Feed Nut - Cross feed Nut for 5900 Series lathes.
3/4″ diameter shank, 5/8″-10 Left Hand ACME Threads 
– please measure your screw before ordering to confirm it is correct for your machine.
Made from 360 Brass.  $55

 I have replace both the crossfeed and compound lead screw nuts from them.  The fit was right on.

If you are in Indianapolis, Indiana- they only have one machine shop?  Would think with all the manufacturing going there would be more.  My wife has family down in Columbus/Hope of Indiana - always looking forward for a trip up there.

Bob G.


----------



## akjeff

Just read the entire thread. Really outstanding job Andy, and great documentation! I need to scrape in the sloppy compound and cross slide of my Craftsman, and this really helps!


----------



## AndySomogyi

WEL0058 said:


> Andy - Just finished reading this great thread.
> 
> Man that was a lot of work. Hope you did not pay to much for the lathe.
> It seems like every thing is a project but you tell yourself while you are in there might go head and do just once.
> 
> You inspired me to think about hand scraping my crossfeed and compound dovetails.
> 
> I am reconditioning my 1946 Clausing 100 mk3 lathe and upgrading to a quick change gear box and the advance apron.
> My thread is under the Clausing section.
> 
> To save some time, you should check out this site:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Clausing Lathe 5900-37 Cross Slide Nut - BM Parts Tech
> 
> 
> To place an order please email: info@bmpartstech.com
> 
> 
> 
> bmpartstech.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Clausing Lathe Cross Feed Nut - Cross feed Nut for 5900 Series lathes.
> 3/4″ diameter shank, 5/8″-10 Left Hand ACME Threads
> – please measure your screw before ordering to confirm it is correct for your machine.
> Made from 360 Brass. $55
> 
> I have replace both the crossfeed and compound lead screw nuts from them. The fit was right on.
> 
> If you are in Indianapolis, Indiana- they only have one machine shop? Would think with all the manufacturing going there would be more. My wife has family down in Columbus/Hope of Indiana - always looking forward for a trip up there.
> 
> Bob G.



Hi Bob, 

I’m in Bloomington (south of Indy). We had a machine shop that did one-off odd machining jobs, but he retired. The other one only does production CNC jobs. And the shops I called up in Indy don’t seem to want any single part business, as the prices they quoted were crazy. One shop wanted like $1500 for literally chucking the spindle in an OD grinder and shaving a few thousands off a bearing Journal. 

That’s the main reason why I set up a machine Shop in my garage: I do prototype auto engineering and fab, and everything I do is one-off custom. 




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