Need some wisdom concerning Clausing 5900 series lathes.

[ltlvt]

Okay let me start by saying what I think the shift sequence is supposed to be on the Apron/Carriage for my 5913 lathe.

Fact #1 it has a 3 position shift lever to control Longitudinal -Neutral-Cross slide
Fact #2 it has another lever that has 2 positions and it opens and closes the half nut. Down being open and up being closed. .

Shift lever for 3 position of carriage seems to work just fine.
Shift lever that opens and closes the half nut will open in the down position and close in the up position as it is supposed to.

My Delima is that when the half nut is in the closed position the cross slide and the longitudinal can each be engaged. There is a safety latch and detent pin that is suppose to be the fail safe to keep goth cross slide and longitudinal clutches in the neutral position.

I have taken the shift mechanism apart and can see nothing wrong.

So am I worrying about something that I should not be concerned about ? Or What is out of time or adjustment?

A HUGE FYI is when I bought the lathe only half of the Half Nut was there and it had 0- ZERO threads in it and the banjo and gears that drive the quick change gear thread box were broken. I have replacement gears and replacement half nuts but don't want to repeat what the idiot I bought the machine from.

Anyone who has one of these lathes or has owned/operated one could you please point me in the right direction. I may need to contact Clausing Tech support to get further help but wanted to try the forum first. Thanks in advance.

 

[machPete99]

My 5914 lathe from around 1972 does appear to have a lockout of some sort that prevents engaging the apron feed and half nuts at the same time. I have not disassembled the apron but I would guess that cam Q-316 has something to do with this (see first attachment). You might want to check that the set screw on that cam is tight.

The attached drawings are from a later lathe version (1976) and there have been some changes in the apron over the years but that cam seems to have been in there for a while.

There are a number of files on this IO group:

clausing-lathe-and-mill groups.io Group

New Home for Clausing Lathe and Mill

groups.io

 

[ltlvt]

My 5914 lathe from around 1972 does appear to have a lockout of some sort that prevents engaging the apron feed and half nuts at the same time. I have not disassembled the apron but I would guess that cam Q-316 has something to do with this (see first attachment). You might want to check that the set screw on that cam is tight.

The attached drawings are from a later lathe version (1976) and there have been some changes in the apron over the years but that cam seems to have been in there for a while.

There are a number of files on this IO group:

clausing-lathe-and-mill groups.io Group

New Home for Clausing Lathe and Mill

groups.io

I agree with you about the cam Q-316. I almost loosened that set screw last night and tried to re-time the cam to the clutches but was hoping there is a procedure/sequence to follow when doing so. I also have the drawings via a PDF file and most of the pages I printed out and laminated so I have them available when looking inside the machine. Tonight, I think I will make a short dummy shaft to insert inside the worm and turn it to replicate the movement of the apron/carriage when shifting the gears. Certainly, will be better than crashing the machine under power trying to figure it out. LOL I have at least $500 in parts that were destroyed when last owner trashed the machine. More than many would have paid for the machine in its sorry state when I bought it but like I keep saying "I have an Iron Deficiency" My disease of restoring these old Cast-iron beauties has very few limits when it comes to cost. Sad but true. BTW I have been a member of the Clausing group for several years now. It may be where I got the pdf file that I have.