# It is possible to make a new apron gear case 10F-11 using lathe only.



## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

A few years ago I made a repair to my gear case, this survived well until the other week I noticed it was moving again, a close look showed that a new crack had appeared across the other side of the part: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/9309-Atlas-apron-gear-case-10F-11-repair 

Something better had to be done so as I had a lump of ally handy I got started, excuse the state of my saw, had it for 20 odd years on site work and it now lives behind my miter saw..

This was my first mistake, my inexperience showing here!




Faced it off in 3 jaw.




Laid a broken spare case on and marked the slotted holes.




Transferred the centres around to the other side.




Drilled holes and trial fit, so far so good.







Made a transfer guide by trial and error to mark the spindle hole.




As you can see this is just SOTP engineering, no actual measuring has been done yet, a bit like drawing around my hand and tracing when I was a kid, that's still working for me! 

Bernard









[h=2][/h]


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## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

Fly cut faced of and squared up the sides using my T slotted cross slide.




After drilling the spindle hole it was reamed to size as I just happened to have a 1/2" reamer handy. I have since been told it was a bit risky using the tailstock as even a tiny misalignment would have ruined the job, but luckily I'd previously adjusted my TS using the two collar method to cut within 1 thou, and even though the ram has a tiny bit of droop further out, my transfer guide goes in the hole with a nice sliding fit..




Turned of the face to leave a boss as per the original.
This is where the mistake of cutting the piece triangular in the first pic reared up to get me, dialing the hole into the 4 jaw was a challenge to say the least! next time I'll do all the turning while the block is still square...




Turned it round an spaced it off with parallels to clear the jaws and spent ages dialing it in again!




Mounted it in my Myford milling attachment to cut out the area below the gear, I figured this was needed to let any chips drop out of the housing, used two sizes of cutter.

If you like helicopters this can be quite a pleasant part of the job as the noise made by the big cutter is exactly like having a Chinook in the shop with you..
This seems to be at the edge of what can be done with this attachment, and I think I was lucky to get away with it. All gibs tightened up it still flexed alarmingly.




Sorry this pic needed turning




Bernard


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## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

More shaping on the T slotted slide, this was a whole lot better, milled pretty good with light cuts. 

Wood router bit in use, this step wasn't needed at this point, the gear relief bevel cut could have been done later when there was less material to remove.













Bernard


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## toolman (Jan 27, 2014)

Very nice, I'll take one in stainless please! :roflmao:


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## chuckorlando (Jan 27, 2014)

Thats pretty impressive milling on a lathe. At least in my limited experience. Nice work man

Did i read that wrong, or did you use a wood bit?


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## iron man (Jan 27, 2014)

He did use a wood bit on the bevel I have been guilty of the same thing on a radius I needed and a carbide router bit was all I had it worked nice.. Ray


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## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

toolman said:


> Very nice, I'll take one in stainless please! :roflmao:



Ha ha!  I think making one in nice leaded steel would be a challenge too far, no chance with stainless..

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chuckorlando said:


> Thats pretty impressive milling on a lathe. At least in my limited experience. Nice work man
> 
> Did i read that wrong, or did you use a wood bit?



Thanks Chuck, yep wood bits work OK with ally choosing the right speed helps a lot, the carriage stop you can see in one of the pics was all done with wood bits.
As Iron man's right and there's a good range of cheap useful radius cutters, the last pic in this thread shows the result.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/14858-Another-carriage-stop-design

Bernard


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## sgriggs (Jan 27, 2014)

Outstanding work!  It's amazing the number of milling operations you can do on a lathe.  It makes me want to buy a 4 jaw chuck.

Scott


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## Tony Wells (Jan 27, 2014)

Nice job, Bernard. You learned some things, and showed folks a few techniques they probably hadn't even thought of.

Good job of taking pictures as you worked, too. Most of my projects are on and off the machine and I never even think about pictures until it is over. I am kind of a single minded person, so pretty focused on the job at hand, whatever it is.

I think you should leave the 4 jaw on your VMC, btw :roflmao:

Oh, and I want to know how you got my saw out of the storage shed, used it, and brought it back without me knowing!


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## thomas s (Jan 27, 2014)

Well done Bernard this is something I need to do to my lathe also.

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Well done Bernard this is something I need to do to my lathe also.


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## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

Had to come up with a way to determine the centre of the lead screw hole, so I made a transfer guide which fitted the support bearing part which took a sharp pointed countersink but anything pointy would have done. Assembled it on a spare apron and punched a mark.

You can see my scribed lines for the top and bottom of the hole by transferring them from the old g/case with a height gauge, still no measuring..




Used a rough old boring bar that had a tool in it that was just right to make the through hole.




I took a couple of cuts, adjusting the tool bit out until it met the scribed lines. This hole is not round but oval to allow adjustment of the backlash in the gears, this was easy to do by moving the cross slide after I had the size correct, I kept going till I broke through into the spindle hole by near enough the same amount as on the original case.




And that's about all there is to it really..













You'll have spotted the three slotted holes are a bit err... 'distressed' this is a result of the milling attachment moving as I tried to mill them, I'll be hand finishing them later, lesson learned!   
	

		
			
		

		
	




It would be preferable to have done those by pecking with an end mill,  against a fence or some such fixture in a drill press, but as nothing except the positioning of the spindle hole is critical in this part I think I've got away with it on this hidden part!

I still need to finalize the lug area nearest the headstock where the fixing nut will clash with the cheese headed screw (may have to counter sink that one) that holds the part Atlas calls the 'bearing plate', as this lug is the area that seems to fail first I need it to be as  stout as possible. 

I'm leaving that until I've made a new spindle with integral small gear, which is my next challenge to study up on.....
	

		
			
		

		
	




Bernard


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## Dranreb (Jan 27, 2014)

Tony Wells said:


> Nice job, Bernard. You learned some things, and showed folks a few techniques they probably hadn't even thought of.
> 
> Good job of taking pictures as you worked, too. Most of my projects are on and off the machine and I never even think about pictures until it is over. I am kind of a single minded person, so pretty focused on the job at hand, whatever it is.
> 
> ...



Thanks Tony, I often wish I'd been able to employ a youngster to pass on all those ancient tricks of the Sussex country cottage restoration trade I'd learn from the older guys who worked for my dad all those years ago, but that would have required way too much discipline from me, I've always had a habit of taking rather long rest periods between jobs!

This is new stuff I'm learning and as I used to take a photo record of my building work as it helped if a client queried my fees, it's second nature to me now, and it saves taking notes..

I'm amazed that I got your saw across all that water and back without getting it wet.. 
	

		
			
		

		
	




Errmm I don't know where my 4 jaw would fit on a Vintage Motor Cycle.......you've lost me there I'm afraid...

bernard


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## Tony Wells (Jan 27, 2014)

Ahh....VMC = Vertical Machining Center....

Usually referring to a CNC vertical mill with tool changer. The sideways pic made me think of it.

I think I even have the same shims behind the blade guide! lol


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## Scruffy (Jan 27, 2014)

Impressive

Your post showed me things I would have never thought of !!  I'd like to be the youngster you could pass your knowledge down to .  I'm 54 young and a self taught newbies.

Loved your post
Scruffy


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## littlejack (Jan 28, 2014)

Great job sir.
  Another newbie here. Thank you for the enlightenment on all of the possibilities of using the lathe.
  Jack


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## robinj66 (Jan 29, 2014)

That really is excellent work Bernard:man:






[reverse box still going strong :thumbzup: ]


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## Dranreb (Jan 29, 2014)

Well I found out one of the reasons why the Myford milling attachment was so reluctant to keep still, there where some numbers stamped right on the mating surfaces,  :nuts: so there where only two points of contact, the raised bump around the numbers and the opposite point of the circle. There was a lot of oil on the surfaces which proves they weren't touching! 

I scraped those off and it seemed to behave much better!

This is midway through scraping...BAD Myford!





I took a bit more off for nut/washer clearance, as I've now made that slot longer. I tried using my home made boring bar for this and found it cuts very much smoother than the end mills I used before and being longer it's easier to clear any clamping and holding stuff. As I can easily grind any shaped tool for it, its now my fave tool for lathe milling, and cheap.




Drilled two (one each side of the gap in the bearing) easy to reach angled oil holes which hopefully won't attract chips!







So there it is, as always there are a lot of things I would've done differently, and as I had a lot of fun doing it I may well have a go at a Mk 2 some rainy day...

Got a method for making a new gear/shaft worked out, will keep y'all posted on that as and when...

PS, having made one I now have a lot more respect for the poor chap who had to design that gear case, especialy if it the rest of the apron was designed by others! The other components are very tight close by and him having to use the tiniest amount of Zamac possible as his bosses where even tighter!

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robinj66 said:


> That really is excellent work Bernard [reverse box still going strong :thumbzup: ]




Thanks Rob, glad the box is working well, and hope you're having fun making lots of chips now.. 

Bernard


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## drs23 (Oct 15, 2014)

Not sure how I missed this originally but Fantastic Job Bernard! Very impressive.


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## stevos758 (Oct 16, 2014)

Very nice work!


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## Steevo (Oct 27, 2014)

Wow!  Just wow.
I am impressed with your ingenuity and creative use of available tooling.
My Atlas 12" lathe has a loose gear case, but I was planning to just buy one from mymachineshop.net
I never thought about making it.


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## Waldo1 (Oct 27, 2014)

Jeepers. Very impressive and it absolutely displays incredible ingenuity! One question: Why is it that every time I try something like this, it ends up looking like something that the Professor and Skipper made on Gilligan's Island?


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## Uglydog (Oct 27, 2014)

Wow!!
Who said replacement parts aren't available?

Daryl
MN


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## JimSimmons (Oct 28, 2014)

WOW! WOW! and WOW! Made on the lathe, and designed with no measuring instruments.  For your next project may I suggest that you construct a proper milling machine using nothing more than some nondescript scrap metal from the junk yard...and, using only an old 10" mill bastard file and a four-in-hand wood rasp that belonged to your grandpa for shaping tools (and maybe you could dig out the hacksaw buried somewhere in some long-forgotten corner).  In other words, who the hell needs $500,000.00 worth of fancy tools to make a $50.00 object? I SALUTE YOU...WELL DONE!


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