The Lathe Lever Quiz

[kingcreaky]

Hi all.

I have (last night) at last got round to getting the lathe going. The full story is that I have just bought a replacement motor for the bridgeport (I acquired earlier this month) and I need the lathe working to make a bracket to fit said motor with (catch22) So I hunted out an old single phase motor(short term), pulled the old motor out and span her up... everything seems to work, but I need some of your experience to help me know what everything does. I obviously had a play last night, so I have also detailed my conclusions.

I have labelled each lever for ease of descriptions



Firstly lever A & B appear to effect the speed of the lathe, speeds detailed in the sign




F appears to change the direction of the screw the carriage is driven from



C doesnt appear to do anything?
D seems to effect the speed of the carriage drive screw?
E I havent touched.
G1 & G2 are on the same shaft, but not appear to do anything
1 engages the toolpost slider in and out
2 engages the carriageway left and right
H I cant seem to move it? I dont know what it does?

some more pictures





any help, no matter if its just guessing would be appreciated, Im just learning so your guess would be better than mine!.

I am particularly interested in G1, G2 & H

As always, thanks in advance.

[awemawson]

Well from the diagram H is closing your clasp nuts for threading, and I'd imagine G1 &2 are engaging forward and reverse clutches

1 is engaging cross feed and 2 is engaging long feed

You have three shafts through the saddle. Top one is the lead screw and should only be used when threading.. Next down will have a keyway along it and is your feed shaft for sliding and surfacing (long feed and cross feed). Bottom one is almost certainly either on a pair of forward / reverse clutches, conceivably it could operate on a motor reverser.

Why not get in touch with Tony Griffiths at lathes.co.uk and buy a manual ?

[kingcreaky]

(07-22-2015, 04:21 AM)awemawson Wrote: Bottom one is almost certainly either on a pair of forward / reverse clutches, conceivably it could operate on a motor reverser.

Why not get in touch with Tony Griffiths at lathes.co.uk and buy a manual ?

thanks for your help.

that makes a lot of sense... thinking about it... that shaft does go into the electric box, so I bet it is meant to switch motor on, then once on change direction.

I have just ordered a manual

[John S.]

I'm down Leicester tomorrow late afternoon and can hold over until night time.
How about I pop in and give you a lesson, drop me a PM with address etc.

[kingcreaky]

John that would be amazing... Ive got SOOO many questions

you have been to my place before... we met via mycncuk

[John S.]

Out Hinkley way, shed round the back down a drive ?

PM me the address please as remember the place but not where

[Pete O]

I started a reply a couple of hours ago but we had visitors turn up and they have just left, so I'll just copy and paste what I drafted before the others chimed in:

Looks like a nice lathe. I can offer some basics using my limited experience coupled with some deduction. Actually most of the controls on your lathe have diagrams illustrating their function right near the lever.
You need to understand the function of the 3 long shafts that run parallel with the lathe bed. The top one, with the thread, is the feedscrew which drives the carriage along the bed at a set ratio with the spindle RPM for when you want to cut a thread. The plain shaft directly below it is used to drive the power feed system when you are not cutting threads. The bottom one operates the switch that turns the motor on and off, including forward and reverse. G1 and G2 both operate the switch, they do the same thing, just so you have one close by if you are standing near the apron or at the headstock. You can see the label right above G2 that tells you that Up switches the spindle on anticlockwise and Down for clockwise. Because of the dogleg in the slot for G2 it looks like G1 can only be used for stopping, not starting.

One lever will select whether drive is transmitted to the leadscrew (top shaft) or the drive shaft (second shaft). Both can't operate at the same time. (if your lever F selects forward / reverse power feed and screwcutting, i.e. left-hand or right-hand threading, then I'd say lever C probably does this).

When the main power feed shaft is running, it can either power the crossfeed (for facing) or the longitudinal feed. The picture near lever 1 shows a facing tool going across the workpiece, the picture near lever 2 shows a turning tool moving along the workpiece. So that settles levers 1 and 2.

When the threaded leadscrew is spinning, a split nut is clamped onto it to drive the carriage along the bed. The picture near lever H shows these half-nuts either engaged or disengaged with the leadscrew. The reason that you can't move lever H is that the mechanim won't let you engage the half-nuts while either of the other feed levers (1 and 2) are engaged.

Your lathe has a comprehensive screw-cutting gearbox; lever D selects metric or imperial threading. Wish my lathe had that. The handwheel E selects the thread pitch, as per the threading chart.

Lever A is high range / low range, see the big chart behind it for the range of spindle speeds when used in combination with the levers B.


Okay hope that is some help, certainly not as much help as John dropping by for a lesson.