Clausing 4904 refresh

[DeadGuyAle]

I’ve enjoyed following your progress. Looking good. Do you have a plan as to when you want it useable by?


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Thanks for popping in and following the refurb!
Progress has been crawling along as you may have noticed. When I bought the lathe the intent was to do some general cleanup and start using it.
Now it's becoming a platform to lean about disassembly, cleaning, painting and reassembly. Thinking I should end up with decent lathe when done.
Don't really have a timeline so attempt to keep things moving forward as time permits.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

With the majority of the work done on the motor cabinet and brackets I started on the quadrant assembly.
Something to note is that the sliding gear handle (blue paper towel) is retained by the small gear with three rivets

When disassembled the handle and gear will slide off the shaft releasing a spring and two bearings.


Will run everything through the ultrasonic cleaner and paint the bracket.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Quadrant and associated parts cleaned, catalogued, and taped for painting.
Nothing complex to deal with on this one.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Apron work is completed



Couple of disassembly/assembly tips.
Worm assembly can be removed as a unit, biggest obstacle is the collar over the oiler shaft being retained by a cup point set screw which leaves a raised mark on the shaft making it difficult to drive out of the casting.
When putting things together make sure the oil line tube is lined up and the rest of unit will drop in place.


Leadscrew clamp can also come on/off as a single unit


Or it can be separated.


Replaced two gear bushings, the worm, worm bushings, worm key to finish off.

 

[Nesse1]

@DeadGuyAle
I'm really enjoying your thread. Keep going...

I've got a soft spot in my heart for Clausing machines, and I'm enjoying watching you bring this machine back to better than usable condition.

Where I work, our facility manager just scrapped out a Clausing 1300, despite my desire to buy it. It was rusty on the outside, but it worked fine in my limited experience. Apparently, within the stupid corporate world, it was easier for the company to scrap it, then sell it to me. To say I'm butt hurt is an understatement. Anyway, please keep up the good work. I'm living precariously through you on this one...

 

[DeadGuyAle]

@DeadGuyAle
I'm really enjoying your thread. Keep going...

I've got a soft spot in my heart for Clausing machines, and I'm enjoying watching you bring this machine back to better than usable condition.

Where I work, our facility manager just scrapped out a Clausing 1300, despite my desire to buy it. It was rusty on the outside, but it worked fine in my limited experience. Apparently, within the stupid corporate world, it was easier for the company to scrap it, then sell it to me. To say I'm butt hurt is an understatement. Anyway, please keep up the good work. I'm living precariously through you on this one...

Welcome to the party @Nesse1
Sad story on the 1300. just looked at the specs, now I want one!
There is some pride of owning machines from a different era and Clausing fills the niche nicely.

Today happens to be the one year anniversary for me and the 4904. The original plan was general clean up and use it. Kind of snowballed from there into a refurbish, thankfully the spindle and ways are still in very good condition.

Will be catching this thread up to the current state over the next few days.
.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Been avoiding dealing with the back gear hub and spindle pulley. Both are keyed to the spindle, independent of each other with no apparent way to get a puller on.

Got lucky and only required some gentle taps to get moving. Came off easily after that.

Back gear plunger is retained via a roll pin. Said roll pin had been sheared off at some point and the plunger came out without issue.
Have yet to drive the remnant of the roll pin out


Cleaned up and did a quick polish on the hand wheel


Not going to touch the spindle pulley bearing. Runs smoothly and is press fit which I don't have the equipment to deal with.
Spindle only has.00015 of runout so best to leave unmolested

 

[DeadGuyAle]

On to the QCGB
Easy removal in this case. Quadrant removed, two bolts, two dowl pins. Had no issues getting it off.


Gear change lever assembly.
Clear the gear on the lever from the gear cluster and you can drive the shaft along with the big bushing out from right to left.


Selector dial and components.
Drive the rod out knurled side first and remove the dial set screw




More to come, gear sets have some quirks to remove.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Final assembly at the factory was to press in the bearings which presents a number of challenges when attempting to disassemble.
Below is how everything sits from the factory.


Staked nuts are a little over finger tight, wrapped the shaft with .010" brass shim stock and held with pliers to remove.



On the Upper assembly the outer gears are not keyed and the mesh with the lower gears limits side to side movement.


With some gentle tapp on the shaft ends was able to push the bearings out and create some room. The key needs to be removed to get the shaft out.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Takes some puzzle solving to remove the second gear set.
All the gears ride on a single key except the smallest gear to the far right that is pinned. In the picture below the gears have been pushed to the left. To do this I had to drive the shaft from the left while it was in the bearing. Small gear to the right will go into the opening and push that bearing partially out.
Ended having to rig up spacers on the shaft and use the face of the gear to push both bearings fully out. Unfortunately I damaged one of the bearing dust covers in the process of removing.
NOTE - Lower shaft bearing is unobtainable - 35mm x 11 mm x 9/16
Upper shaft bearing is available from multiple manufacturers - 35mm x 11mm x 5/8 or 15.8mm 6023zz PN



To be continued