- Joined
- Dec 24, 2020
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- 1,193
Okay, it wasn't today, but it was yesterday and the day before I reached a milestone.
A couple of years ago I bought my first Clausing 6913 and then I bought another that was listed as a "parts machine" but it was actually nicer than my first 6913. The second one came out of an auction and it was missing some signifiant pieces. Over the past 15 months I've slowly been able to get pretty much everything needed to get it back up and running. One major problem was that it was missing the entire quadrant/banjo for sending power to the gearbox. I found a partial one on Facebook Marketplace that included the main casting (not available from Clausing), then bought a couple of parts from Clausing, and combined all of that with a couple of the parts that came with the machine, made one of the oiler tubes, and finally got it all together and mounted on the machine. After I powered it up I probably spent half an hour going through every speed in every range at least two or three times....I could have just sat in a chair and watched all the gears and lead screw turn it was so satisfying!
First is the one auction picture they had for it. What it doesn't show was the half a dozen chucks lined up along the back of the chip tray or the big box of new parts that still were in bags with the Clausing part numbers on them. Only one of the chucks was for this lathe, but it was a Buck 3J Adjust True. All the other chucks were sold to help pay for this machine...covered about half of it. All of the handles, knobs, etc were in the box, and even some spares. Luckily I already had another Bison 3J, Buck 6J AT, Bison 4J and even an unmarked 2J chuck that were from the first 6913, so I won't be short on chucks.
You'd never know it, but this machine has seen very little use. The ways are essentially perfect, the variable speed system works perfectly (after replacing the missing lower slave cylinder) and things like backlash are minimal. I don't know why it was in pieces, but it's going to be all back together really soon. The only big task left is fitting the taper attachment that I removed from the first 6913 (since sold). I know getting that perfectly aligned will take some doing, but I've done it before on a different lathe, so I'm not terribly worried.
Here's the quadrant after getting it all assembled:
She's alive!!!! The cardboard was to catch any oil slinging off the gears...I think the manual suggest grease, but I used some way oil for the short test figuring it wouldn't make much of a mess....seemed fine. This was on one of the highest feed rates and it's smooth and quiet. The green tape on the chuck was for counting RPM in back gear when I was checking how close the VS dial was to reality. The slave cylinder cover is off in the video...3D printed one for it today.
The wheels are a saddle setup I made to be able to move it around while I work on it. The tailstock end is actually strapped to one of those round 55 gallon drum barrel movers that has four large casters...the height worked out nicely and it's more than capable of handling the weight.
View attachment IMG_6721.MOV
A couple of years ago I bought my first Clausing 6913 and then I bought another that was listed as a "parts machine" but it was actually nicer than my first 6913. The second one came out of an auction and it was missing some signifiant pieces. Over the past 15 months I've slowly been able to get pretty much everything needed to get it back up and running. One major problem was that it was missing the entire quadrant/banjo for sending power to the gearbox. I found a partial one on Facebook Marketplace that included the main casting (not available from Clausing), then bought a couple of parts from Clausing, and combined all of that with a couple of the parts that came with the machine, made one of the oiler tubes, and finally got it all together and mounted on the machine. After I powered it up I probably spent half an hour going through every speed in every range at least two or three times....I could have just sat in a chair and watched all the gears and lead screw turn it was so satisfying!
First is the one auction picture they had for it. What it doesn't show was the half a dozen chucks lined up along the back of the chip tray or the big box of new parts that still were in bags with the Clausing part numbers on them. Only one of the chucks was for this lathe, but it was a Buck 3J Adjust True. All the other chucks were sold to help pay for this machine...covered about half of it. All of the handles, knobs, etc were in the box, and even some spares. Luckily I already had another Bison 3J, Buck 6J AT, Bison 4J and even an unmarked 2J chuck that were from the first 6913, so I won't be short on chucks.
You'd never know it, but this machine has seen very little use. The ways are essentially perfect, the variable speed system works perfectly (after replacing the missing lower slave cylinder) and things like backlash are minimal. I don't know why it was in pieces, but it's going to be all back together really soon. The only big task left is fitting the taper attachment that I removed from the first 6913 (since sold). I know getting that perfectly aligned will take some doing, but I've done it before on a different lathe, so I'm not terribly worried.
Here's the quadrant after getting it all assembled:
She's alive!!!! The cardboard was to catch any oil slinging off the gears...I think the manual suggest grease, but I used some way oil for the short test figuring it wouldn't make much of a mess....seemed fine. This was on one of the highest feed rates and it's smooth and quiet. The green tape on the chuck was for counting RPM in back gear when I was checking how close the VS dial was to reality. The slave cylinder cover is off in the video...3D printed one for it today.
The wheels are a saddle setup I made to be able to move it around while I work on it. The tailstock end is actually strapped to one of those round 55 gallon drum barrel movers that has four large casters...the height worked out nicely and it's more than capable of handling the weight.
View attachment IMG_6721.MOV
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