Pm1236 1-3 speed selection froze

[FTlatheworks]

so, the new parts did not fix the problem either. got it. thanks.

They fixed it, yes. Mine was able to be switched to different speeds, but only with the lid off and applying force to the center of the gear set. With the new parts the speed selection works as it should. I was only specifying that gear head lathes need the chuck to be moved to synch the gear teeth and need to he wiggled to synch the gears up. Some people consider that not working cause they don’t know any better.

 

[yota]

They fixed it, yes. Mine was able to be switched to different speeds, but only with the lid off and applying force to the center of the gear set. With the new parts the speed selection works as it should. I was only specifying that gear head lathes need the chuck to be moved to synch the gear teeth and need to he wiggled to synch the gears up. Some people consider that not working cause they don’t know any better.

that's a great outcome. I think rocking the spindle to change gears must be pretty common. my lathe was made in Japan, and I occasionally have to do that also. it's 58 years old though. must have taken a huge amount of anxiety off your shoulders.

 

[ShawnR]

I was working on the lathe this morning.

I started by moving the gear cluster, laterally, on the main shaft, directly by hand, and found it to not be very smooth (as previously discussed). I took some fine emery cloth and buffed the shaft some. I did find a couple little dimples/nicks. I also applied DyKem and looked for scratch marks, found a few, and worked those areas. The assembly now moved a little better by hand (not using the lever). I then removed the "shoe" that is used to move the gear cluster. It appeared to be a little distorted, but, checking it with a caliper, it was ok. I did find burrs on all edges and filed those off. I also ground about 0.008" off of the length of it as I felt that it might have been contacting the surface of one of the gears sometimes, setting up a "wedging" action transmitted back to the shifting and reassembled that. If I was to pick one thing to focus on next, it would be this shoe. I then removed the knob shaft and cleaned it up a bit and put grease on it and reassembled. There is an o-ring on it so it is not fully lubed by the internal splash system. Another observation I have, which would be larger to address, is all of the sharp edges on every tooth of every gear. I remember a Blondihacks video in which she received a new piece of equipment (lathe I think) and talked about taking all of the new change gears and taking the edges off of them. There seems to be very little space between these gears that mesh from the side, so they have to be lined up perfectly to mesh. I also found that it would be easier to mesh the ABC gears if the 123 gears were taken out of place first. They are easier to mesh back again.

Attached is a video from this morning. In fairness, the 123 are out of gear, and the ABC are perfectly in sync. But it shows that the cluster now moves very freely. Any meshing issues will be one of the other points I raise above, I think....

Regards,
Shawn

 

[ShawnR]

After putting it all back together and trying repeatedly, I am very happy. I am finding gears even mesh occasionally without rocking the chuck, which used to seldom happen. I am going to call it a success!

Thanks to FTlatheworks for starting this thread, and submitting his findings. And to everyone who contributed.

Cheers,
Shawn

 

[FTlatheworks]

After putting it all back together and trying repeatedly, I am very happy. I am finding gears even mesh occasionally without rocking the chuck, which used to seldom happen. I am going to call it a success!

Thanks to FTlatheworks for starting this thread, and submitting his findings. And to everyone who contributed.

Cheers,
Shawn

Good job on the fix. Ignore my messages. You clearly got it under control. Good on you!

I will still see if I can upgrade, or alter my old parts with the play and get some dimensions and we can all kick around our modification and upgrading ideas.