May have to make a lower support too for the LH bevel gear now the finger support has snapped. There was about 1-2mm gap around the gear before it snapped off. No wonder the gear selection was so poor.
Quick update, I managed to remove the spare box, casing looks good, no damage, perfect gears and yoke. Stripped the old paint off and gave it a first coat of Rustoleum.
Fitted my gearbox, then made a few spacers to align the transfer gears correctly then when to fit the screw gear and found my stub shaft had been turned down to fit the homemade gearbox!! Not a problem, I managed to swap the stubs over but keep the unmarked bevel gear as it was roll pinned.
Following repairing the gearbox I fitted the bull gear pin and detent / spring but first I managed to turn drop the spring inside the pulley, which caused me some consternation, so I made the decision to remove the head and retrieve the spring.
Whilst off I decided to use Mike Kurns’ original new old stock bull gear pin with detent feature as it was longer than my one which seems to have been made to fit. I’ve told Mike he can have the spare pin as it does work and when spares dry up he will at least have another spare for someone who is desperate.
Next up was the saddle, I removed the apron and immediately found the gear housing was snapped but still sat in the same position it should be due to its dowel pins. I replaced the gears and shaft as I had intended but also managed to stick the 2 parts together with my Tig . I say stick it together as it was clearly not welded! (I can tell you that it’s either cast or Zamak and it didn’t like being welded! It was fizzing and giving off a white residue on my torch). I have dropped Mike a line as he has a spare gear case for £32.
I will at least have piece of mind then that all is well inside.
Anyway, all in all I now have a lathe which is in rude health and does all it should with no backlash in the carriage and runs fairly quiet, but that’s not to say I won’t buy more parts to refine it even further and get rid of any evidence of it having seen much work in the past.
Sounds like your end cluster gears are meshed too tight. Stick a bit of paper in the mesh or visually check each one for clearance by holding one gear and rocking the other. If there's no clearance you'll smash a gear up.
Cheers guys. It is quieter now. I found the back gear RH gear had moved over and was grinding in the RH cover. After removing the head to split the bull gear from the pulley to retrieve my spring everything is back where it should be it’s quiet now. Still noisy in back gear but pretty quiet in high speed on Ally. I’ll do another vid tomorrow. I’ll check the gears at the same time just to be sure.
Thanks.
Does anyone grease the side gears or leave them dry? I used molygrease on the open gears in the apron as it says it’s good for high pressure applications like gears but never lubed the transfer gears to the lead screw.
Glad you've got it sorted, i've tried most things to lube and quieten the change gears, and what i use now is the treacle like 600w gear oil I drained out of my 1928 Chevy gearbox, almost silent now, but the chip tray underneath is proper messy.
Yes, I did let the oil settle for a month.
Ignore all those pristine oil free restored lathes on the web, lube is your friend and your Atlas will thank you for it, so give it plenty.
If you use the change wheels you should lubricate them. A sticky molybdenum Disulphide grease such as Molyslip OCL is perfect, although expensive. Normal motorcycle chain lube is probably adequate for your needs.
Here's a good tip, always plug the end of your spindle.
Just had a peep at the state of my lathes oilyness, it's actually not quite so bad as usual, but just look at the chips/swarf that's found it's way out of the end of the spindle bore.
I keep it plugged but had forgotten after turning a long rod the other day, and have been making lots of chips today, this will do more damage to the Zamak gears than anything else,