B
Bogstandard
Guest
This will hopefully be my last post using my old machinery. It is a long one, with a few ramblings to explain why it was done, and why this way.
My Atlas 10F lathe is now 70 years young, but in the time it has been with me, I have resurrected it from a wreck, to one that will match anything size for size on the market today, with regards to keeping size and precision. All due to loving care and attention, and a few mods that the original manufacturers didn't deem necessary. OK it has a few paint chips and is a bit oily, but paint doesn't do the cutting, it is the ironwork that matters, look after that, the paint can be changed anytime.
So, what am I doing in this post?
This lathe is going to a new owner, and before it goes I want to repair the droop snoot on the tailstock. If you try to put a centre into a part while the ram is towards full extension, the chuck droops at the drill point by about 20 thou. This is caused by 70 years of wear as shown in the sketch. I could have done a quikfix and it wouldn't have been noticed for another few months, but that isn't my way. So as shown on the sketch I will be inserting a bronze bearing in the nose, replacing the worn area, and hopefully it won't need doing for another 70 years, so I don't think I can give a lifetime guarantee.
So, away we go.
I have been mulling this over for a couple of months now, you only get one real go at this, bugger it up and you are into a bigtime rescue operation.
I needed a datum point to work to, and eventually selected the top of the ram bore, I reckoned this would be the least worn point. By use of this datum and the screw under the nose I could get a precision bar locked in there to check if everything I am to do later will be correct.
So a bit of hex brass was chosen to make this test bar out of.
It was machined to exactly 1.125", the optimum size of the ram.
I now needed a method of checking the height of the top surface of the test bar, then be able to use the same setting to check when the bar was eventually mounted into tailstock.
I came up with this idea. A friend had given me some very high precision ball raced sliding ways a while back. I mounted my small mag base with a DTI onto the top of one. The same idea was used with my height gauge. These would bridge the gap over the bed and allow me to very smooooothly move them side to side.
They were duly put onto the cleaned down bed, and the DTI was zeroed on the top part of the bar while it was still in the chuck. This was then taken away very carefully, as it had the datum setting for the bar top, and put somewhere safe, hopefully it will retain its setting.
The same system was used to mark the centre of the bar, for later use on the mill.
After this was done, the bar was parted off, end cleaned up and mounted into the tailstock and locked into position against the top face of the bore by tightening up the screw underneath the nose.
Tailstock was locked down, then the DTI was very carefully reintroduced. The difference in height was 0.0005". I think near enough for what I want to do.
To do a double check, I took a swipe across with the height gauge. No detectable difference. So I now knew my datum was the correct choice. I could continue with renewed confidence. The tailstock was rebuilt to allow it to do its last job with a droop snoot.
A lump of bronze was mounted up in the chuck and the end was machined down to 1.375" diameter, this would give me a bush with a wall thickness of 1/8".
I had to do this shot. This is a 1" blacksmiths drill from a set that I bought at Harrogate show, and got rid of the metal as though it wasn't there. I love drilling big holes.
What a useless picture you might think, but this is one of the major bits of the repair, and I will explain why.
I very accurately bored the hole to fit the ram, job done. It was why it was done in that position that was the main part.
If you notice, all the work on the bush was done OUTSIDE the chuck jaws. If it was bored whilst inside, because of the thin wall thickness, the pressure of the jaws would minutely distort the inner surfaces whilst the boring is carried out. When it is taken out of the jaws, the metal springs back to a circular shape and you end up with a slightly triangular hole. Do all boring work like this OUTSIDE the chuck jaws if you can.
The bush was parted off and cleaned up very carefully, then put to one side.
The t/stock was stripped down and clamped to an angle plate, with the t/stock sitting on a pair of parallels between the t/stock and angle plate.
The ram was locked into place and used as a datum face to get the t/stock into perfect vertical position. It was then checked at 90 deg. to the first and it was spot on.
The ram was replaced with the test bar, and was roughly centred by using a point in the chuck and rough aligning it with centre marks done with the height gauge. Thank goodness for preplanning the whole job.
The DTI was then mounted up, and the test bar was centred up. Table locked up until all cutting was finished. Time to take the plunge, no backing out now.
Really sweating on these cuts now, if anything moved or was banged I would be in deep s**t. The hole was bored to 3/4" deep and to a very nice sliding fit for the bronze bush. Don't want interference fit on the bush, because it is machined to such fine tolerances, it just might make it slightly undersize if it is forced into the hole, again causing anal sphincter twitch.
Boring done and perfect. A fine coat of engineering adhesive (Loctite), and the ram and bush slipped into position. The little clamp bolt was tightened slightly.
The whole lot was left overnight, untouched, to allow the adhesive to reach max strength.
A new day, and the ram anti rotation screw hole was drilled and tapped to penetrate the bush, this also acts as a secondary retention of the bush, to give backup to the Loctite. The t/stock was then reassembled using light lubrication inside and out.
Whilst it was off the machine, I took the opportunity to give the t/stock gib and setover screws a good checkout.
Time to try it out.
Ram out close to max, the ram is slightly tighter that it was before, but that will bed in nicely. No up/down movement detectable.
Using the smallest slocombe (centre) drill I have, I fed it into the test piece.
Job done and dusted.
Did it work?
You betcha, better than I could ever have hoped for.
All the worrying, preplanning and doing now over. With a perfect end result.
Life is good.
John the bodgit man.
My Atlas 10F lathe is now 70 years young, but in the time it has been with me, I have resurrected it from a wreck, to one that will match anything size for size on the market today, with regards to keeping size and precision. All due to loving care and attention, and a few mods that the original manufacturers didn't deem necessary. OK it has a few paint chips and is a bit oily, but paint doesn't do the cutting, it is the ironwork that matters, look after that, the paint can be changed anytime.
So, what am I doing in this post?
This lathe is going to a new owner, and before it goes I want to repair the droop snoot on the tailstock. If you try to put a centre into a part while the ram is towards full extension, the chuck droops at the drill point by about 20 thou. This is caused by 70 years of wear as shown in the sketch. I could have done a quikfix and it wouldn't have been noticed for another few months, but that isn't my way. So as shown on the sketch I will be inserting a bronze bearing in the nose, replacing the worn area, and hopefully it won't need doing for another 70 years, so I don't think I can give a lifetime guarantee.
So, away we go.
I have been mulling this over for a couple of months now, you only get one real go at this, bugger it up and you are into a bigtime rescue operation.
I needed a datum point to work to, and eventually selected the top of the ram bore, I reckoned this would be the least worn point. By use of this datum and the screw under the nose I could get a precision bar locked in there to check if everything I am to do later will be correct.
So a bit of hex brass was chosen to make this test bar out of.
It was machined to exactly 1.125", the optimum size of the ram.
I now needed a method of checking the height of the top surface of the test bar, then be able to use the same setting to check when the bar was eventually mounted into tailstock.
I came up with this idea. A friend had given me some very high precision ball raced sliding ways a while back. I mounted my small mag base with a DTI onto the top of one. The same idea was used with my height gauge. These would bridge the gap over the bed and allow me to very smooooothly move them side to side.
They were duly put onto the cleaned down bed, and the DTI was zeroed on the top part of the bar while it was still in the chuck. This was then taken away very carefully, as it had the datum setting for the bar top, and put somewhere safe, hopefully it will retain its setting.
The same system was used to mark the centre of the bar, for later use on the mill.
After this was done, the bar was parted off, end cleaned up and mounted into the tailstock and locked into position against the top face of the bore by tightening up the screw underneath the nose.
Tailstock was locked down, then the DTI was very carefully reintroduced. The difference in height was 0.0005". I think near enough for what I want to do.
To do a double check, I took a swipe across with the height gauge. No detectable difference. So I now knew my datum was the correct choice. I could continue with renewed confidence. The tailstock was rebuilt to allow it to do its last job with a droop snoot.
A lump of bronze was mounted up in the chuck and the end was machined down to 1.375" diameter, this would give me a bush with a wall thickness of 1/8".
I had to do this shot. This is a 1" blacksmiths drill from a set that I bought at Harrogate show, and got rid of the metal as though it wasn't there. I love drilling big holes.
What a useless picture you might think, but this is one of the major bits of the repair, and I will explain why.
I very accurately bored the hole to fit the ram, job done. It was why it was done in that position that was the main part.
If you notice, all the work on the bush was done OUTSIDE the chuck jaws. If it was bored whilst inside, because of the thin wall thickness, the pressure of the jaws would minutely distort the inner surfaces whilst the boring is carried out. When it is taken out of the jaws, the metal springs back to a circular shape and you end up with a slightly triangular hole. Do all boring work like this OUTSIDE the chuck jaws if you can.
The bush was parted off and cleaned up very carefully, then put to one side.
The t/stock was stripped down and clamped to an angle plate, with the t/stock sitting on a pair of parallels between the t/stock and angle plate.
The ram was locked into place and used as a datum face to get the t/stock into perfect vertical position. It was then checked at 90 deg. to the first and it was spot on.
The ram was replaced with the test bar, and was roughly centred by using a point in the chuck and rough aligning it with centre marks done with the height gauge. Thank goodness for preplanning the whole job.
The DTI was then mounted up, and the test bar was centred up. Table locked up until all cutting was finished. Time to take the plunge, no backing out now.
Really sweating on these cuts now, if anything moved or was banged I would be in deep s**t. The hole was bored to 3/4" deep and to a very nice sliding fit for the bronze bush. Don't want interference fit on the bush, because it is machined to such fine tolerances, it just might make it slightly undersize if it is forced into the hole, again causing anal sphincter twitch.
Boring done and perfect. A fine coat of engineering adhesive (Loctite), and the ram and bush slipped into position. The little clamp bolt was tightened slightly.
The whole lot was left overnight, untouched, to allow the adhesive to reach max strength.
A new day, and the ram anti rotation screw hole was drilled and tapped to penetrate the bush, this also acts as a secondary retention of the bush, to give backup to the Loctite. The t/stock was then reassembled using light lubrication inside and out.
Whilst it was off the machine, I took the opportunity to give the t/stock gib and setover screws a good checkout.
Time to try it out.
Ram out close to max, the ram is slightly tighter that it was before, but that will bed in nicely. No up/down movement detectable.
Using the smallest slocombe (centre) drill I have, I fed it into the test piece.
Job done and dusted.
Did it work?
You betcha, better than I could ever have hoped for.
All the worrying, preplanning and doing now over. With a perfect end result.
Life is good.
John the bodgit man.