# Disassembly of a Deckel FP1 dividing head



## Friendly non murdering Sword (Aug 13, 2022)

I haven't found a comprehensive disassembly guide on the web for a Deckel FP1 dividing head yet so I thought I take some pictures of the disassembly process so other people can refer to this if they come across the same task as I did.

The following dividing head I got super cheap for 190€ - completely without accessory mind you - but I couldn't say no to it. Everything seemed to work, the movement only felt a little stiff. So I disassembled everything and got the movement silky smooth again, see reason below for that.






It is probably the best thing to first remove the swiveling base first, simply remove the 6 screws on that one:




The scissor and indexing plate for differential dividing are also easily removed by simply unscrewing them:






The next thing would be to remove the spindle. To not risk any damage to the worm wheel, I disengaged it first by turning the indexing wheel all the way to the left and locking the worm wheel housing with its clamping lever on the right side of the indexing plate. Then I removed the grub screw and the shaft nut:




The dial can then be pulled of. I had to use a sharp wood chisel to get a small gap first an then using 2 screwdrivers to lever the dial off:









The plunger on the top left of the last picture can be taken out be unscrewing its little ball handle:




Now the spindle can be taken out from the other side. Since everything has a close fit to it and is greased up, some taps with a hammer did the trick:








On the inside at the top you can see the split cotter to lock the spindle. And on the far end you can see the big worm wheel with a small recess, we need that information for later!

Next the worm wheel has to be removed. I first removed the locking lever and the set screw on the opposed side that acts as an endstop when engaging the worm wheel so the gears mesh correctly. When the worm shows signs of wear (increased backlash) the manual states to remove a couple 1/100mm off the top of the set screw so the worm wheel engages a little deeper and the backlash is taken out.






I also found the reason why the movement of the dividing head felt stiff - the set screw wasn't screwed all the way in so the worm wheel would actually engage a little too deep, causing it to bind a bit. But since I have already disassembled it so far, I went all the way in... After removing the black cap on the underside off the worm wheel housing, the worm wheel can be taken out form the underside:


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## Friendly non murdering Sword (Aug 13, 2022)

(max number of pictures reached, so continouned here...)

Next comes the trickiest part... the small worm wheel housing still couldn't be removed because the big worm wheel was in the way:




and I wasn't sure how to get the big worm wheel out. Turned out the big worm wheel is held in place by a press fitted steel ring and to get it out I had to hammer from the inside on the backend at the recess of the big worm wheel, which I highlighted with an arrow in one of the pictures in the first post.






You can also see a spacer ring to get the big worm wheel to a right position in the housing. After that the small worm wheel housing simply slides out and everything is disassembled.






The dividing head seemed a little crusty when I bought it but after the disassembly I have to say all parts look to be in excellent condition, the paint might have given a wrong impression...

So maybe this guide can help anyone in the same position out!


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## pitton (Aug 25, 2022)

Many thanks for this excellent work ! the information you shared are really useful to me for better understanding on how to solve the problem of my blocked dividing head, I can now evaluate that the reason for the actual impossibility to unlock the central shaft is either the polymerization of the grease in the shaft housing or the blocking of the locking upper clamps in position "locked" with the main spindle shaft.
I tried to unlock the shaft by spraying WD40 trough the lubrication small ball valve on the side of the shaft housing and in the locking screw which acts on the top clamp, but without success. Should you or other members of the site have any suggestion on particular solvent fluids which I could use, I would much appreciate. Thanks again to Friendly non murdering sword for this excellent work !


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