Cantek 1440, Birmingham, Wilton CT 1440, and others Rebuild

[turbo711]

Hello Dr Stan. I just used a m6x1mm setscrew, because that was what I had on hand, in a tap size that was long enough to reach. Is being a little off center normal on a hand machined pulley? I tried to line it up the best I could, but it still went off. I lined it up along a center scribe line on the outside then slid a smaller vise inside a larger vise to the inside groove position as to not cause misalignment, but it still went off.

[Dr Stan]

I should have noticed you're from the sane part of the world that uses the metric system.

Anyway the set screw is not far enough off to cause any problems. If I cut a keyway and need to drill & tap dead on center I'll cut a key seat on a mill in an appropriate sized shaft and mount the pulley, gear etc on the shaft. Then it easy easy to align the hole & the keyway.

BTW, having the keyway and the key seat on center is much more important than the location of the set screw. If one or the other or even worse both are off center one will need to hand fit the key reducing its strength, and making for a poor fit. Each & every time the shaft starts excessive force will be applied to one side of the key eventually resulting in key, key way, and/or key seat failure.

[f350ca]

I think you'll be fine but if your worried machine the end of the set screw to a smaller cylinder that will hit the key.

[turbo711]

As it is right now, the pulley will slide onto the keyed shaft snugly about 1/2 inch then it starts getting tighter. When I do the final assembly and line up the pulleys, I think I'll throw the pulley in the oven for a while at 350 and it should slide on the rest of the way.

[johnnyc14]

Very nicly done Mark. Looks like you'll be up and running soon.

John

[turbo711]

Well I've been busy with the lathe the last month doing a bit of everything. I posted some of the electrical box stuff before the server issues, and I haven't posted it again, so here it is:

I had an idea to cut the box out with the cnc router:



When I went to fold it, I didn't calculate the gap necessary to fold a perfect 90, so the flanges broke off:


And I ended up welding it all the way, which what I was trying to avoid in the first place:


After a generous application of flapper disk grinding and some rivnuts:


The motor box had to be dealt with:


16 gauge (.060") steel was used.


The good old pencil transfer trick:





I bought some HSS drill taps from banggood and they worked beautifully for this application:



So after the boxes were made and painted, I wanted to do something with the base before the lathe assembly started. Mainly enclosing it for storage. First the legs were lengthened and made adjustable to a comfortable height.



The existing stand is 1/4"x3"square tubing and it is heavy.


Some 1/8"x1 1/2 angle was used to form a frame for the sheet metal.


I wanted to fab up a spindle brake at some point, so I welded a pedal while I still has easy access.


A bicycle cable with a disk caliper will be attached eventually(hopefully)...


Tacking some door frames:


Tack adjustment for alignment (big PITA):


And on with the 16 gauge:


Holes were drilled and the panel held tightly to the angle iron while being tacked in place:


Sometimes the clamping got tricky...


And since I don't have a sheet metal brake I decided to just use small angle iron on the corners. And even if I did have a brake capable of 16 gauge, I'm sure I would still mess up the bends, so better to be safe than sorry. Studs were used to hold the corner angle iron.


A back-splash was also fabbed to keep the chips under control




Some door latch parts were machined on the Standard Modern:


The rest were zip cut and ground out of bar stock and shaft.



Assembled latch with paper shim for welding clearance...



A memorable moment when you realize the corner has been turned and you are on your way back to a working machine:


A little bondo for the top sheet metal edge and some paint.


So after thinking about the whole apron suspended by 2 8mm bolts, I looked at the casting and determined the spots for 2 more bolts.


The bolt holes were drilled and tapped as well as an oil fill and drain and oil level weep screw. The carriage and apron were assembled with the new worm gear on the feed shaft. After much finger and hand dexterity tests with a allen key (and about 45 minutes) the worm gear carrier was installed behind the apron. I eagerly turned the carriage handwheel to test the smoothness of the action and heard a metallic sound hitting the chip tray. The key just slid out of the worm gear! I thought that couldn't happen because the carrier would stop it. I was wrong and I was in for some more hex key fun. I am now thinking why the key was hard to remove from the old worm gear. It must have been loctited in or something. Anyway I removed the gear and tig welded some steel on each end to stop that from ever happening again.





Anyway back to the wiring:


Starting the process


Control box complete. Of course it wasn't that easy, it took me the better part of a day to figure out where all the wires went.


That's all for now folks. Still need to make some face-plates for the front of the lathe and figure out the brake thing as well.

Mark

[turbo711]

I know the belt isn't the right one, just there for looks:)

[Mayhem]

Excellent work, thanks for sharing.

[turbo711]

Hello guys. Been busy with the rebuild and got some more work done. I traded some work to a fellow for slotting my quill, so I could make a pin.


Over to the shaper to put some flats on it:

Finished and ready:


On to a faceplate:


Here is Rev A. The faceplate has to be widened to match the rest of the plate widths. LOTS of time went into designing this on the computer. I also had some bed flatness issues that really show up when using a .125 90 degree v-bit. Anyway, the bed was cut flat and on with the show.

On the subject of the gearbox, I filled it with oil and went to install the "dimensionally stable" cast iron lid. There was a gap of about .040" in some places. I had to remove the grey Threebond gasket maker I just put on and use blue Locktite silicone gasket maker to fill the space. The only thing I can think of why this happened was the continuous dropping of tools on the top, peened the surface causing it to arch. I could be crazy though!


So then I discovered a depressing fact that I never found out until I was working on assembling the threading gearbox. The feed shaft rotation is going through the norton gearbox. Anytime a carriage or cross slide feed operation is being done (all the time) the power goes through this gear set. I thought it was just for threading, but it is also for feed speed. I don't know a lot about lathe gearing so it went over my head until now. Because this gearbox is not in an oil bath, there is a fair amount of wear on some parts, particularly on the left hand "power input" section. So here we go. One of the norton lever's has a sloppy hole where it contacts a galled shaft.

This shaft is close to $100cdn, so I will probably make one, but in the meantime, I will cut another circlip groove and flip it around. This shaft is metric and is a few thou larger than 5/8ths.



A bushing was cut from the old cross slide lead-nut, long enough for both holes in the lever using the old lead-screw as an arbor of sorts to cut the OD.

The ID was then rough bored to a size close to the final dimension.

That was the easy part. Since a mill isn't in my budget at this time, I came up with a way to hold the lever to the toolpost, using this insert clamped in one of the tool holders. Because the height is adjustable, this job was doable.

The lever was then bolted in and squared.

The lever was then center to the chuck using the shaft and the unworn lever. This is possible because of the gear shaft hole is unworn on both levers.

This was all done to keep the shaft centers at the correct distance apart while "boring" the hole to accept the bushing.
Using adjustable reamers the hole was enlarged to accept the bushing with an interference fit. This step took a long time and had to be done slowly as to not damage the reamers or throw the lever out of alignment. This probably isn't the easiest or even a recommended procedure, but I worked with what I had. Cast iron is nice to cut though..

After the hole was done, the bushing was pressed into one side of the lever, cut off with a hacksaw, faced on the lathe and pressed into the other side of the lever. Both sides had red locktite applied. Don't know if it will help, but it made me feel better anyway.


Since the faced bushing was pressed to the plate, it was flush, but I milled the outside surface.

Then the holes were reamed gradually until the shaft slipped in nicely.

Now that that was done, The gears on the levers needed bushings too, and one needed a shaft, so...








The old bushings were some kind of plastic, maybe teflon. The finished bushings and shaft:


So after that, the position pins on the norton levers were worn and one very badly. It was welded and they were both turned down. I think the angle is 10 degrees.


Now that they look fit for use, the receiving plate had to be dealt with, and since I can't weld or repair cast worth a s@#t, and because I don't trust the existing hole positioning, I just cut it out and made a steel insert. The back was milled flat with the cnc router. I doesn't like it one bit.

Parts were cut and checked for fitment.



A drill bit guide was made to drill the new holes.

The drill bit was then ground to a 10 degree angle with a diamond disc. Then hand ground the rest of the way with a dremel and diamond disc/stone. Don't know if it will work, but we will find out.


That's all for now. Before I drill the new lever position holes, the inside of the gearbox has to be complete. I found a few more bushings I can make and another shaft, to tighten things up pretty good. Let the chips fly!

[Mayhem]

Top work Mark. I'm really impressed with the new faceplate that you engraved. I'll have to pay someone to redo the one for my lathe.

Thanks for sharing.