Licking my Wounds Lathe Rebuild Project

[BillyT]

I have been getting great feed back thankyou.

I have been second guessing my choice to have those gears repaired.

I just uploaded another video, this time showing the gear repair in detail.

Lathe Gear Welding Repair

please feel free to comment/like/subscribe.

[awemawson]

Good or bad, a lot of time has been spent doing that repair. I don't know what your local shop rate is but your $500 is under £300 which doesn't buy much skilled time and machinery use.

Obviously it would have been best to source replacements but presumably that wasn't possible. The alternative would be to have the entire gears made from scratch but that would have cost very much more.

I would be tempted to set up a dummy pair of axles and run the gears together for a while, and then somehow put a load on them. Best if they are to fail, to fail outside the headstock.

[Arbalest]

I wonder how the gears were damaged in the first instance. If this occurred by attempting to change speed whilst the lathe was still running then provided you don't repeat this mistake then your repaired gears may last just fine. Only way to tell is to run it I guess. Best option would have been to buy replacement gears if available (and affordable!) making new may not be such a good idea unless you know what steel they're made from and possible heat treatment etc etc. I'd try it with what you have a see how you get on.

[awemawson]

The gears will probably be EN24T - most are. A good tough steel.

[Mayhem]

To be honest - the work isn't pretty but functional beats pretty hands down in my opinion. I repaired some broken teeth on the bull gear of my lathe by drilling and tapping to suit some 1/4" some mild steel rod that I threaded to suit. I then filling the void with brazing rod and then hand filed to shape. However, it was a much bigger gear with large teeth. So far, so good.

   
   
   
   

Only time will tell if you paid too much...

[kenne]

(06-26-2014, 05:53 AM)Mayhem Wrote: To be honest - the work isn't pretty but functional beats pretty hands down in my opinion. I repaired some broken teeth on the bull gear of my lathe by drilling and tapping to suit some 1/4" some mild steel rod that I threaded to suit. I then filling the void with brazing rod and then hand filed to shape. However, it was a much bigger gear with large teeth. So far, so good.

Only time will tell if you paid too much...

I wouldn't have thought of that , but that's how I learn new things , great idea ! I will try this the next time I find an excuse . I assume this was a cast iron gear ?

[Arbalest]

Nice work Mayhem!

[Mayhem]

Yes, that was a cast iron gear.

[kenne]

(06-26-2014, 05:32 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Yes, that was a cast iron gear.

I think almost everyone thats bought machinery ,has bought a pup at least once , The only good thing about it besides learning from it is you get to know the machine better than anyone since it was built . I prefer to rebuild mine when I can , (It's getting harder to do ) , but still makes the machine work better for you . I was told by the man that taught me most of what I know (both things) , the machine knows if you are not paying attention , an if it catches you , it will do something to get your attention , so make friends with it ,treat it well and watch your A$$ .

[BillyT]

(06-26-2014, 04:26 AM)Arbalest Wrote: I wonder how the gears were damaged in the first instance. If this occurred by attempting to change speed whilst the lathe was still running

I come to find out that this lathe was once a school lathe, which likely explains the damage as you pointed out i'm sure they were very rough on it.