lathe - Change gears

[kendo]

Hi Folks
At last i have my new lathe. And my question is this, although it runs
quite nice, the gear train at the rear of the machine sounds a little noisy
and even more so when engaging the power cross / longitudinal feeds
or is this normal

Could this be due to the way it was assembled. It says in the badly
translated manual, when changing the gearing to set the backlash with
a piece of paper ? mmmm. not sure what that means.

Or is there a way of making it a little quieter IE. use thicker grease.
Thank you in advance.

Picture of lathe below

Ken

 

[Jasonb]

I have the same lathe and yes from the factory the gears on the banjo do make quite a noise.

If you slacken of the clamp at the bottom of the banjo it will swing forwards, you can then loosen the gears and adjust their mesh, this is done like they say by taking a thin strip of photocopy thickness paper and compressing it between the gears as this will give the right gap. tighten the gears and then turn over by hand to get teh paper out, it will have a concetina shape.

Once all the gears are done swing the banjo back into place and again use the paper where the top gear meets the spindle.

The feed chart does not show the feeds when using teh middle selector in position "C" but I find this gives the finest cuts so worth using.

If doing a lot of turning where the feed is not needed then putting the left knob in neutral will also make it a bit quieter, you could even disengage the banjo but its not really worth it.


Jason

 

[kendo]

Jason
Thankyou my friend, i will give that a try and will let you know how
i got on.
My Best Regards
Ken
ps can't wait to make some chips :big:

 

[Peter.]

Noise is normal. I'd use some heavy lube on the hub of each gear and maybe some open gear lube on the meshing part itself. I always set backlash by eye - you need to make sure there is SOME clearance, so that if you hold one gear firm the other can move a little whilst in mesh.

 

[Bernd]

Spur gears are in-herintently noisy because they don't slide along the contact surface, they actually hit it. As the previous poster said, make sure the backlash is set close. Doesn't have to be right on. If the backlash is set to tight they will also make a lot of noise.

Bernd

 

[mklotz]

I installed a drip oiler on my gear train cover such that it drips directly on the gears. Filling it with really heavy gear oil just before a session where the gear train is used quiets things quite a bit.

 

[steamer]

That's a good idea Marv....I'll have to do that...

Dave

 

[lordedmond]

Croma drive and chain lube ,in a spraycan is good

it is thin when sprayed but thickens up in use , I find one good spray lasts a year

http://www.morrislubricantsonline.c...uct=275&product=Croma+Chain+Lubricant+Aerosol

 

[kendo]

Hi Guys,
Lordedmond. thanks for the link sounds like good stuff will have to get
some.
Marv great idea, i bet a few guys will give that a go.

Bernd, thanks for the info, I've now learned something new.

Peter, Thankyou also.

I know I'm going of the subject a bit, I adjusted the backlash as described
by Jason.
Switched my lathe on and it ran OK ,then the little fuse at the rear of the
machine blew so i changed it.
This time when i switched it on again it started off at maximum rpm,
Frightened the living daylights out of me, anyway a change of underpants
and a phone call later to warco,they tell me the PCB board has blown
and they are sending me a new one in the post today.
So i guess making chips will have to wait.

Ken

 

[Jasonb]

Ken, with the drive belt being very close to the gears I would be wary of trying the drip feed method as it could get thrown onto the the belt/pully and result in slippage.

I just use a small amount of grease.

Also when you come to alter the ratios for screw cutting etc be very careful about the placement of washers and spacers otherwise you can get the sides of two gears rubbing together which will be noisy.

Jason

 

[kendo]

Jason
Thanks for that bit of info, good job you told me, its so easy to forget
sometimes, when you remove something just how it goes back together.
i will certainly double check before i run.
Great advise cheers :bow:

Ken

 

[mklotz]

My gears are outside the compartment where the belt and pullies are located so oil on the belt is a non-issue. Nevertheless, Jason's advice is to the point.

Ken,

If you're having troubles reconstructing something you've disassembled, whip out the digital camera and take a few shots before reducing it to a pile of bits. Photos don't lie and, more importantly, they capture details that you might not think to add to a sketch done by hand. The digital camera is just another useful shop tool.

 

[kendo]

Thanks Marv
I have a little digital camera on hand,will be making more use of it
in the future.

Ken

 

[Tumbletown]

Hi Ken

I've got the Chester equivalent. I got fed up with the bit of extra noise and move the gear train forward when not using it. Agree with Jason. Its VERY easy to get the similar washers and spacers in the wrong place. Guess how I know. If you change the gear train often it's not too hard but the first time I did it and didn't make any notes it took about an hour before I got it right. Like Jason I also use a bit of grease on the gears. I've put a T1 piston toolpost on my lathe (needs some mods along the way!), changed the chuck nuts for flange nuts, tightened the toolstock clamp a smidgen, checked run out and added a collet chuck. I did stall the chuck sometime ago when turning a tricky part. The motor shut down and wouldn't restart. Thought it might be the board but soon twigged there are a couple of 10A fuses on the back panel. Useful to have one or two in stock I guess!

iechyd da

Adrian