Boley 4LE

[Keith 66]

Swivel on the compound slide sits in a circular dovetail recess in the cross slide casting & its about 5" across, it has humped up a bit in quite a few places round the edge, this explains why. No cracks so i think the humpy bits can be scraped down.
Other interesting thing, I started dismantling the saddle last night & it has one long tapered Gib strip at the rear. The gib has had a thin piece of steel screwed to its inner sliding contact face with tiny machine screws staggered along its full length.
I cant think anyone would go to the trouble of fitting a replaceable wear plate to the gib at the factory when it was built so can only surmise it was fitted along the line after the gib adjustment reached the limit of its travel & the saddle got sloppy.
It makes you wonder quite how much work this old machine has done!

 

[Keith 66]

Saddle now off & clean, It reveals a tale of woe. I do not have a precision straight edge but a long thread chaser was good enough to get an idea of the wear with feeler gauges. Just under the chuck the front & rear ways are .25mm low
In the centre of the bed the central tailstock ways are .12mm low.
The saddle is worn at least as much. So at least half a millimeter of wear in the worst place. Bearing in mind its large surface area im surprised. It is probably not far from being mooring sinker class at the moment!
Heres a few pics for your delectation!

Heres one of the Saddle underside.

You can clearly see the tiny machine screws holding the old repair shim to the tapered Gib strip, the repair strip is approx 1.5mm thick & quite worn itself.
The machine is a right old basket case to be sure. I do not have the skill to scrape it nor the time, plus my knackered elbows couldnt take it anyway! I have been reading up on reconditioning, Seems to me about the only way to bring it back from the dead is to get the bed reground & moglice the saddle & tailstock. For those who dont know its a low friction filler loaded epoxy that can be used to recondition slideways & is often used on new machines too. Im well used to using epoxy products & the application of this is well within my skill set.
Any ideas welcomed.

 

[Pete.]

Another option would be to use turcite, but at least if you used moglice you could fill that stupid straight oil groove up and make some nice z-shaped ones then it wouldn't wear the main bedway funny.

 

[Keith 66]

The straight oil groove has transverse grooves with felts inset, come to think of it that has worn a tramrail on the bed.
I wonder if someone was using it for tool grinding or similar, might explain the wear.

 

[Keith 66]

Well i have done bit the bullet. It is now stripped completely. The bed & Saddle are strapped to a pallet & are off to Slideway services on monday for a regrind & turcite the saddle job. I hummed & hah'd for a while but in the end thought theres enough "Hammerite rebuilds" out there without me doing another one as well. It was now or never as Brian caddy is retiring at christmas & closing down.
Now gotta flog some stuff to pay for it!

 

[Keith 66]

Went oop north & popped in to Brian Caddys place on the way to pick up the boley, He has done a cracking job on it. Bed reground, saddle ground & turcited, slides like silk with one finger, headstock fits perfectly. Proper job. Now to get it painted & start reassembly. Pics shortly.

 

[Keith 66]

Update! been out in the workshop in the evenings, Bed & some parts repainted, Started on the headstock stripdown bit of a fiddle getting it apart, the rear spindle adjuster nuts were hellish tight & i had to use some heat from a oxy mapp gas pack to shift the first one. The bearings are shallow tapered bronze bushes & the spindle is unmarked. The spindle lock goes through the top of the rear headstock casting & someone in the far past has obviously clouted it with a big hammer as there is a vertical hairline crack in the top of the casting, it being slightly loose in the casting the rear bearing has rotated slightly almost but not quite blocking its oil reservoir, There may be a little bearing scraping required but not much.
I am thinking a steel bridging cap bolted over the crack is favorite to stabilise it. No apparent wear on any of the other headstock parts. Boley used some fine steel in their machines. Heres a few piccys.

Dunno how i missed this before, probably the filth of ages on it but its fixable, Im thinking a cap of steel bolted down into tapped holes & set the lot in epoxy. Not going to risk anything hot like welding.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Enjoying seeing the components of this lathe. I can see where my lathes evolved from.

Are the helical gears for the back gear?
I'm assuming the sit below the spindle if so

 

[Keith 66]

The stepped helical gear sits below the spindle & to the front & is lifted up & into engagement with the other two on the spindle. No busted teeth & little wear so thats good!
Headstock is now mounted on the Arboga mill & i'm machining the top of the cracked part of the casting flat ready for the repair cap.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

The stepped helical gear sits below the spindle & to the front & is lifted up & into engagement with the other two on the spindle. No busted teeth & little wear so thats good!
Headstock is now mounted on the Arboga mill & i'm machining the top of the cracked part of the casting flat ready for the repair cap.

S&b changed the back gear to sit to the rear on the M.
Extra depth on the headstock allowed room for the tumble reverse and gear train. They went back to something more similar to yours on the m mk2 which had a quick change box.

Looking good in Green.

Going to start painting and reassembling my Model L over Xmas.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Im thinking a cap of steel bolted down into tapped holes & set the lot in epoxy.

My first bench-top lathe [an R&A] had suffered the same crack, although a much smaller component obviously, and had been repaired by the previous owner in exactly the manner you describe - although I can't remember any sign of epoxy etc having been used in the repair.

It survived everything I, as a 'never owned a lathe before' rank amateur , threw at it and I never had any complaint/comeback from the next owner who is local[ish] to me.

 

[Viktor_74]

Hello Keith 66!
My first bench-top lathe

 

[Viktor_74]

Чи можна запропонувати параметри зубчастого шпинделя та інших передач?
As well as the number of teeth on the spindle gear?
Зубний модуль передач і так далі?

 

[God mode restorations]

Update! been out in the workshop in the evenings, Bed & some parts repainted, Started on the headstock stripdown bit of a fiddle getting it apart, the rear spindle adjuster nuts were hellish tight & i had to use some heat from a oxy mapp gas pack to shift the first one. The bearings are shallow tapered bronze bushes & the spindle is unmarked. The spindle lock goes through the top of the rear headstock casting & someone in the far past has obviously clouted it with a big hammer as there is a vertical hairline crack in the top of the casting, it being slightly loose in the casting the rear bearing has rotated slightly almost but not quite blocking its oil reservoir, There may be a little bearing scraping required but not much.
I am thinking a steel bridging cap bolted over the crack is favorite to stabilise it. No apparent wear on any of the other headstock parts. Boley used some fine steel in their machines. Heres a few piccys.
View attachment 163129
View attachment 163128
View attachment 163130
Dunno how i missed this before, probably the filth of ages on it but its fixable, Im thinking a cap of steel bolted down into tapped holes & set the lot in epoxy. Not going to risk anything hot like welding.

Cold cast welded it

 

[bigegg]

Hello Keith 66!
My first bench-top lathe

nice!

 

[bigegg]

Чи можна запропонувати параметри зубчастого шпинделя та інших передач?
As well as the number of teeth on the spindle gear?
Зубний модуль передач і так далі?

lathes.co.uk is the first place to look for information.
there is also a "holbrook" yahoo group.

btw:
we have very few Ukrainian speakers on here.
you'll get more replies in English


welcome to the group.

 

[Viktor_74]

Hello! Thank you for accepting the group! Please forgive me in future for my English ... On the site lathes.co.uk, I was already looking, while I did not find anything on the gears. There are very few such machines in Ukraine! And to find information on them is impossible. I will ask for help from you. Once again I will repeat my question, I hope in English:

Interested in information on the size of the gears on the drive spindle: diameter, thickness, tooth module. Parameters of spindle drive gear. Thank!

 

[Viktor_74]

Foto

 

[Keith 66]

Havent had time to touch the Boley since last new year as Mum fell ill & passed away.
Anyway i decided it was time i got back on it before i forgot how it all goes together!
First major job mount the saddle & sort out the leadscrew assembly. Saddle all cleaned up with slightly modified oil grooves & new felts is now on, leadscrew in. Good thing about these lathes is the leadscrew is fully protected so does not get swarf on it, virtually no wear to it or the half nuts.
Because the quick release mechanism was completely dismantled I have flipped the bed upside down so that i can see what im doing. The leadscrew half nuts & mechanism is carried on a bridge casting that is bolted underneath the saddle front & rear, As the bed & saddle have both been reground the machined surface on the bridge casting that they ride on is now rather lower than it was! So its all been reassembled measured & shimmed temporarily, Total ground off Bed & saddle came to 1.5mm! I have to build up the bridge surface by that amount & machine the same off the matching holding down blocks to bring the nuts into alignment with the leadscrew.
All good fun! More pics shortly.

 

[Keith 66]

Bit of a thread resurection here, Four years have unacountably slipped by while i cleared mums house, then father in law passed away a year later, lots of family stuff & then the lockdowns & boatwork.
The Boley went to the back of the list & nothing got done.
Anyway Christmas out of the way & the Boley is taking up space, So as i have just built a little stove for the workshop & its too cold to play boats Its lathe time!
Obvious job to start was fitting up the leadscrew & its half nuts & their mechanism.
I had put the leadscrew back in but it proved nigh on impossible to work on the half nut mechanism with it in place.
The half nuts sit upon a bridge casting that hangs under the saddle from front to rear, they are retained in guide blocks.
Now because the bed & saddle plus have been reground the whole lot is lower & shifted to the rear slightly.
So now when the half nuts are engaged the leadscrew is visibly shoved out of line, maybe ok in the middle but at each end it got tight!
One of the big problems with this lathe is that its had a very hard life. The crash that damaged the compound slide also appears to have damaged the halfnuts & their retaining blocks. Half nuts have been repaired at some time & the retaining blocks welded up (badly)
So i have made new retaining blocks & bonded shims to the saddle, A lot of milling on my little Arboga but it did the job.
Sometimes it seems everything on this machine has been got at by a klutz with a hammer or something! I have spent days cleaning up edges & stoning the burrs down. Bronze main bearings are being scraped to fit the spindle, It turned out that the rear bearing had no retaining pin & had spun slightly nearly shutting off its oil supply. This will be rectified.

Pressbrake said a while back "That I was finding out the time involved in fitting" He wasnt kidding, If i had known how long it was going to take i would not have bothered. But the sheer quality of the machine makes it worth it. Everything is real tight precision fits, These Boleys are simply superb & a pleasure to work on.
More pics as the rebuild progresses.