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pressbrake1
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Bad thing or weak point is the feed boxGlad to hear that it is your go to machine. Not going to lie, I heard some bad things about the Elliott lathes soon after I got it, which threw me a bit off but seeing you say that, and also Smouser with his progress and effort on it, gives me a bit more hope to finish it
The bad machine is the Elliot Concorde. A lathe where the English out chinesiumed the Chinese
If I may ask, what weakness do you see in the feedbox? Is it the small gears? I did notice they are quite thin and are a bit clunky/flimsy to change
pressbrake1
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Known to strip teeth
ill try be a bit careful with the feeds then :P
pressbrake1
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Definitely!
It’s always on my mind!
Hey everyone, I started dismantling the feedbox and I found a 25T gear instead of one of the 24T gear. Can anyone confirm if I'm going crazy please? It is the 6th gear on the top rack of gears (the solid pack) from the left if looking at it in front.
Edit: to be honest I'm not sure if it's the 6th gear or the 1st gear from the left. They are very similar in size but one of them is 25T. If I read the manual correctly there should be 2 24T gears. What's strange is that the previous owner said that he never had any issues with the thread pitches and they all matched with the chart...
Edit: to be honest I'm not sure if it's the 6th gear or the 1st gear from the left. They are very similar in size but one of them is 25T. If I read the manual correctly there should be 2 24T gears. What's strange is that the previous owner said that he never had any issues with the thread pitches and they all matched with the chart...
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Sorry for double posting but I couldn't edit my previous post somehow. Anyways I think I figured out what happened. So it is the 6th gear from the left that is the incorrect one, which maps to no 7 on the wheel selector knob. If my calculations are correct, by setting it to a 25T instead of a 24T you get a thread pitch of around 1.734mm which is very close to 1.75mm which the Elliott does not support out of the box. Although I plan to cut mostly metric threads I think I'd still prefer to have the 24T gear so as everything matches with the chart. If I'm not mistake I could also manage to get a 1.75mm pitch if I change the outer gear which drives the feedbox (nornally it's a 56T) to a 48T and use the numbered wheel on 9. Not sure if that will work but one way to find out. So anyways now I need to machine a 24T gear.
Smouser I want to thank you for this post and for your pics. I wouldn't have realised if it wasn't for you. You have my heartfelt gratitude. Thanks and happy weekend! Enjoy rugby
Smouser
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Pawcu, sorry I somehow missed your posts
I have been pretty busy with work and other commitments so have not really visited the forum or conducted much work on the Elliott.
Unfortunately, I can't advise or help you with your issue. I am still a newbie when it comes to lathes, I am still figuring things out as I go. It looks like you figured out what you need/want to do anyway.
Ps. On this forum you can only edit your post for a limited time (within 1 hour or something).
I cleaned it with a combination of a grinder with wire wheels, drill with wire wheels and hand brushing. It is very tight in there and not easily accessible.Smouser, I wanted to ask you, how did you clean between the ways? There are a lof of triangular support material, not sure if best to use the grinder or the needler gun.
Thanks
If I am perfectly honest, everything in there was not completely back to bare metal, it was just too much of a pita and time consuming.
I did not have a needle gun when I cleaned mine (got one now) so I have not tried that.
Smouser
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As I have said in my previous post, I have not really had a chance to work on the lathe much lately but I do have some small updates.
I stripped the cross slide off paint and masked it up, ready for paint (still to be painted) and also cleaned the compound etc.
Looking through my phone gallery, I have not taken many photos but here are a couple:
The bits were very oily, greasy and rusty.
I thought I would try to clean and remove some marks from the metal so I took a light cut with a face mill on my mill. It worked okish but you could cleary see and feel the the transition between the two sides of the cut. I guess everything was not set up 100% and that surface grinder will work much better than a face mill in a milling machine.
A large fly cutter might work better than a face mill too.
The toolpost was pretty rusty too (everything was rusty, maybe I should stop saying things were rusty ).
I took a couple of light cuts again with the face fill and it turned out pretty well.
I do not have coolant hooked op to the mill so the plan was to just spray oil as I was going along, no chance! Hundreds of super hot chips flying everywhere.
The image below is a screenshot taken from a video and it does not do it justice. There were so many super hot chips!
I stripped the cross slide off paint and masked it up, ready for paint (still to be painted) and also cleaned the compound etc.
Looking through my phone gallery, I have not taken many photos but here are a couple:
The bits were very oily, greasy and rusty.
I thought I would try to clean and remove some marks from the metal so I took a light cut with a face mill on my mill. It worked okish but you could cleary see and feel the the transition between the two sides of the cut. I guess everything was not set up 100% and that surface grinder will work much better than a face mill in a milling machine.
A large fly cutter might work better than a face mill too.
The toolpost was pretty rusty too (everything was rusty, maybe I should stop saying things were rusty
).I took a couple of light cuts again with the face fill and it turned out pretty well.
I do not have coolant hooked op to the mill so the plan was to just spray oil as I was going along, no chance! Hundreds of super hot chips flying everywhere.
The image below is a screenshot taken from a video and it does not do it justice. There were so many super hot chips!
Smouser
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Cleaning up the tool post might have been a wasted effort as not long after I managed to acquire a few quick change tool holders (T3 size).
The first order of business was to establish if they would actually fit my Elliott lathe.
I compared the Dickson toolpost and the original toolpost on the compound.
As you can see, the quick change tool holder (on it's lowest setting) is sitting slightly higher than the original tool post which will probably put the tool above the centre height.
The solution I think, is to simply extend the adjuster threaded stud by replacing it with one that is a little longer. That should allow the tool holder to go down a little bit further.
The next problem was to get the Dickson toolpost mounted on the compound.
Here are the original and Dickson for comparison.
Simple enough to make an adapter (even for me) on the mighty Warco!
I decided to make one out of aluminium just to get the dimensions correct with the plan to make something out of steel at a later stage.
While trying to part the little adapter off, the whole workpiece came out of the chuck and it got banged up a little, doh! Nevermind, it still works.
The original toolpost securing bolt/handle was a little bit too short for the Dickson toolpost and it would have fouled the toolpost securing nut.
I did a have bit of steel so decided to make a new bolt/handle.
At this stage, things were still going well!
The first order of business was to establish if they would actually fit my Elliott lathe.
I compared the Dickson toolpost and the original toolpost on the compound.
As you can see, the quick change tool holder (on it's lowest setting) is sitting slightly higher than the original tool post which will probably put the tool above the centre height.
The solution I think, is to simply extend the adjuster threaded stud by replacing it with one that is a little longer. That should allow the tool holder to go down a little bit further.
The next problem was to get the Dickson toolpost mounted on the compound.
Here are the original and Dickson for comparison.
Simple enough to make an adapter (even for me) on the mighty Warco!
I decided to make one out of aluminium just to get the dimensions correct with the plan to make something out of steel at a later stage.
While trying to part the little adapter off, the whole workpiece came out of the chuck and it got banged up a little, doh! Nevermind, it still works.
The original toolpost securing bolt/handle was a little bit too short for the Dickson toolpost and it would have fouled the toolpost securing nut.
I did a have bit of steel so decided to make a new bolt/handle.
At this stage, things were still going well!
Pawcu, sorry I somehow missed your posts
I have been pretty busy with work and other commitments so have not really visited the forum or conducted much work on the Elliott.
Unfortunately, I can't advise or help you with your issue. I am still a newbie when it comes to lathes, I am still figuring things out as I go. It looks like you figured out what you need/want to do anyway.
Ps. On this forum you can only edit your post for a limited time (within 1 hour or something).
I cleaned it with a combination of a grinder with wire wheels, drill with wire wheels and hand brushing. It is very tight in there and not easily accessible.
If I am perfectly honest, everything in there was not completely back to bare metal, it was just too much of a pita and time consuming.
I did not have a needle gun when I cleaned mine (got one now) so I have not tried that.
No worries - I understand people are busy hehe
Yeah I think I'm sorted now - I ended up cutting a new 24T gear and last weekend managed to fit it back in - just filled up the oil this morning and currently waiting to check for leaks xD
i'm currently in the process of trying to clean inside the ways - most of the work im having to do by hand which like you said is very annoying xD
In the end ill give it a light wipe with some white spirit - what doesnt get removed will get painted over - if it didn't come off with all the elbow grease i hope it won't come off after painting :P
Also very good process on the compound and tool post! Very good thinking about cleaning them up on the milling machine - you know that thought never occurred to me to do that xD I just cleaned them up with some rust remover and a paint stripper wheel (just the outsides though not the ways) Keep up the good work
I have a couple of new questions if you don't mind me asking :P
1) did you remove the cross slide screw and nut by any chance? In the manual it says that there is a screw to adjust the nut backlash from the top but in my case the actual bolt to tighten the nut is actual from the underside
2) Did you happen to remove this piece or have any more pictures of it by any chance as mine is missing
Thank you once again and looking forward to seeing more pictures
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Smouser
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Continuing on from post 111. I managed to cut the thread on the lathe and then mistakes started to happen again.
As I could not check if the thread would fit the compound I just used a cheap chinese bolt checker string. Similar to this:
The bolt screwed in perfectly so I took it out of the lathe. However, the bolt did NOT fit in the compound's thread. Sigh.
So, I put the handle/bolt back into the lathe and tried to 'pick the thread up' with limited success. Things were not 100% aligned and I was slightly off which resulted in a weird looking thread. O well, another lesson learned. Luckily the weird looking thread seems to work just fine.
I then stuck the bolt back in the lathe to cut a taper and finally added a handle and a ball knob.
The old gaskets of the qcgb were very tired.
So I got some gasket paper and made some new gaskets for the qcgb.
Finally, I refitted the qcgb to the lathe, filled it up with oil and replaced the (still to be refurbished handles and dials) back on. They do have new ball knobs.
Due to time constraints, I can't justify spending the time on the little things. Things like the handles can be refurbished/smartened up or remade at a later stage. It is not how I planned things but needs must, the lathe needs to be assembled and working sooner rather than later.
*Edit* Forgot I also cleaned to tool holders up a little (photo was taken mid cleaning).
I have got 6 x 'normal' tool holders, 1 x tool holder with a 'V' for boring bars, 1 x parting blade holder and 1 x 40mm Boring bar holder.
As I could not check if the thread would fit the compound I just used a cheap chinese bolt checker string. Similar to this:
The bolt screwed in perfectly so I took it out of the lathe. However, the bolt did NOT fit in the compound's thread. Sigh.
So, I put the handle/bolt back into the lathe and tried to 'pick the thread up' with limited success. Things were not 100% aligned and I was slightly off which resulted in a weird looking thread. O well, another lesson learned. Luckily the weird looking thread seems to work just fine.
I then stuck the bolt back in the lathe to cut a taper and finally added a handle and a ball knob.
The old gaskets of the qcgb were very tired.
So I got some gasket paper and made some new gaskets for the qcgb.
Finally, I refitted the qcgb to the lathe, filled it up with oil and replaced the (still to be refurbished handles and dials) back on. They do have new ball knobs.
Due to time constraints, I can't justify spending the time on the little things. Things like the handles can be refurbished/smartened up or remade at a later stage. It is not how I planned things but needs must, the lathe needs to be assembled and working sooner rather than later.
*Edit* Forgot I also cleaned to tool holders up a little (photo was taken mid cleaning).
I have got 6 x 'normal' tool holders, 1 x tool holder with a 'V' for boring bars, 1 x parting blade holder and 1 x 40mm Boring bar holder.
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Smouser
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I did the same with the inside of they ways. Cleaned as much as I could then cleaned with white spirit. Whatever was left, got painted over.No worries - I understand people are busy hehe
Yeah I think I'm sorted now - I ended up cutting a new 24T gear and last weekend managed to fit it back in - just filled up the oil this morning and currently waiting to check for leaks xD
i'm currently in the process of trying to clean inside the ways - most of the work im having to do by hand which like you said is very annoying xD
In the end ill give it a light wipe with some white spirit - what doesnt get removed will get painted over - if it didn't come off with all the elbow grease i hope it won't come off after painting :P
Also very good process on the compound and tool post! Very good thinking about cleaning them up on the milling machine - you know that thought never occurred to me to do that xD I just cleaned them up with some rust remover and a paint stripper wheel (just the outsides though not the ways) Keep up the good work
I have a couple of new questions :P
1) did you remove the cross slide screw and nut by any chance? In the manual it says that there is a screw to adjust the nut backlash from the top but in my case the actual bolt to tighten the nut is actual from the underside
2) Did you happen to remove this piece or have any more pictures of it by any chance as mine is missing
View attachment 410875
Thank you once again and looking forward to seeing more picture
1) Is it this you are referring to?
I have not re assembled those parts yet so it should all still be accessible for me to check. I am not home currently but will see if I can establish what is going on there.
2) I did have that part off to clean and paint but do not have any more photos of it, sorry.
From memory, it is a simple little lever with a spring and ball bearing that helps to prevent it from moving once it is in one of the two positions. Again, I am not at home currently so I can't check but will hopefully get a chance on the weekend.
Yes those 2 - no worries no rush. From where I am currently I have a long way to ever get to assembling those pieces :P
Thank you once again.
Also congrats on the machining
The handle came looking really good!
Smouser
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Yes it is
#cry emojiAs I have said, I removed the 'bolt' from the lathe, but it did not fit. I then put it back in the lathe to take a few more thread-cutting passes but I obviously did not pick the thread up properly again.
Result = dodgy thread.
However, it seems to work fine by just testing it. The true test will be to see how long it lasts in use.
I am pretty confident that I will get a decent amount of use out of it as it is before it fails it is not overly loose and tightens up fine. When it fails, I will make a new 'proper' one.
I am definitely not happy/impressed with the thread but it is one of those things that happened. All I can do now is use it as is or make a new one.
Smouser
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Luckily, there is a replaceable 'insert' part where it screws into so it is not directly into the top slide.
When/if the bolt fails I will remake the bolt and the female insert part.
Part number 3 - Tool post nut
