viceroy 280vs

[chrisg3103]

well someones been telling fibs chap i bought the lathe from said he had never used the screwcutting gearbox but it worked fine. the selector was just stiff from lack of use, had a look in the case, all the teeth on the gears good enough for me.

then i get it back and look a little deeper.....

the key the feed shaft/lead shaft selector gear slides along was bent like a bannana! the key also holds the gear that transfers the power to that shaft so why nothing was turning at all

so one empty gearbox

and lots of bits

i hammered and filed the key flat again but it had damaged itself and the shaft quite a bit, looks like the first job for the lathe is to turn itself a new shaft

back in the gearbox

can just see the now straight key and the gear that slides along it, as well as the power transfer gear thats also held by the key

another problem was the other selector mechanism was a bit siezed, so striped it

can just see the damage by the detent holes, a quick file and a polish the thing was sliding again

the old taper pin took a beating coming out so had to fit a new one, by sheer jammy luck i had bought a box of 3/16'' taper pins the month before

needs trimming....

shaft back in and the selectors all selecting

as far as i got before i needed food. not so peeved seeing as it was fixable, but ill be inspecting more closly in the future! still to figure out the tachometer and look into the huge amount of backlash on the top slide.

 

[shenion]

Sounds like someone ran the feed to the end of the bed and did not stop

I would braze/weld the shaft and then clean it up. If you turn another, can you cut the keyway?

BTW, i found that since getting a lathe i have a source of keys. The HSS tool bits work well I have some 3/16" one that i never use and they have found their way into a riding mower engine and rear wheel keys.

 

[chrisg3103]

if i get hold of a milling table for the top slide i can mill a 3 mm slot on the shaft, or even just clamp the shaft in the tool post

pete had a play with his viceroy and came to the very likely theory that the guy had locked the halfnuts to the leadscrew and engaged the power feed. although there is supposed to be an aluminium shear key to prevent such catastophies, so long as i get my power feed not so bothered about screwcutting

 

[shenion]

I bet if you find the shear key, some idiot had broken it and replaced it with a steel one.

 

[MrFluffy]

Id say from the general lack of missing teeth surrounding the crash site you got off lightly there
Can you build up the shaft a little with weld where the key has tore the keyseat a bit and just turn it back to spec after? I bet its hardened in places where the gears slide/run...

 

[thinfourth]

if it is your first lath then i would advise that you try and make a weak link in the gear train incase you crash the saddle

 

[chrisg3103]

not my first, currently got 3 also there is an adjustable stop to dissengage the power to both shafts at a prestet limit.
is my first 'proper' lathe though, other ones are an myford and a union, but learnt on round and flat top colchester students and a master 2500, lovley lathes

 

[chrisg3103]

well bit more done
more gears

a point to note if anyones going to stirp a viceroy 280 gearbox (never know) imperial grub screws! sneaky beggers

another slidey selector

and the cover on

BUT its being a total nightmare to synchronise the dial and the lever 1 tooth out on either and it dosnt work, and the lever is a bugger to put on as there is nothing on the other side of the box to hold the gear it operates. so got to very gently slide it on the splines so you dont shove the shaft into the gearbox while holding everything else in posititon and pulling out the detent pin need a few extra hands me thinks

 

[madkayaker]

So does it work?

 

[chrisg3103]

like i say, the synchronizing still needs work. will be getting some help tomorrow hopefully! but when it is engaged in a gear and the shaft turned by hand it all does what its supposed to do.

still a bit to do before its ready to run, once the gearbox is perfected its time to start on the tachometer electrics. and get a certified electrician to wire it to the 3 phase distribution board......

i WILL have something turned by the end of the weekend! even if its just turning the mushroomed heads off the brass drifts

 

[madkayaker]

great

 

[hareng]

All the same, still a nice lathe if its not worn.
Hope its just the common characteristic of lever selection on gearboxes, the most i ever have to do on mine worst case is rock the chuck a few degrees.
The *****ies would be very happy just to get a gearbox to engage after two hours faffing about, another reason i wouldnt buy one.

In my early days i used to mill with the lathe with vertical slide, great for tool posts, cock on line. Vertical slide adds a lot more pressure on saddle and cross slide, my Myford ML7 didnt last long.

Seem to know what you are doing and figure the cross slide out. Hope seller didnt back off jib strips to hide the tightness at ends of travel, other than that acme lead screw and or nut knackered or out of adjustment. Got a brand spanker for a Harrison still in grease proof wrapper but needs extending for the 11" and 140, know of new for Students as well.

 

[Pete.]

Getting there Chris!

I took a bit of thinking for me to realise how to use the gearbox. First you move the slide to neutral, then turn the knob on the front to your desired gear, then move the slide to the same number. Seeing the inside of your gearbox explains why - I was just guessing what the contraption in there looked like until then

 

[chrisg3103]

well got the gearbox sorted! thoght i was going mad but turns out the dial is wrong! someones been at this lathe big style need to go buy a deerstalker hat and a pipe me thinks

here is what i mean

now for this box to work the numbers on the lever and the dial need to match, but as can be seen the dial is at 2 and the lever at 1. this is in fact gear 1, either someone has replaced it with a dial from another machine with the pin in the wrong place or its one of the dials from the top of the gearbox.

also found the aluminium shear key

very much un damaged and definatly still aluminium it lives behind the gears atached to the gearbox shaft. spent the rest of the day rearanging everything and shfting the lathe to its final resting position

started on the tacho, dosnt seem to be a power problem, its fed by the same supply that operates the switches and so on and they all work.
does seem odd that nothing at all lights up though

here is the height of 1970's technology

what a mess, marked 1979 though so got a date for the lathe

 

[Robotstar5]

marked 1979 though so got a date for the lathe

That would be the date the artwork was done for the PCB so lathe is probably younger

 

[Pete.]

I take it you've checked the glass fuse with a meter Chris? They are renowned for breaking the filament inside the cap. Catches you out because a visual inspection makes you think the fuse is good.

 

[chrisg3103]

yep, checked all the fuses (another 2 round the back of the panel) started tracing the circuit and looking up the ic data sheets but it was giving me a headache been about 5 years since i did any real electronics. so found this - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DIGITAL-RED-L...14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

not sure how compatable it would be with the pickup in the headstock though, im not going to loose any sleep over it. worst comes to it i can machine a new ring piece (hehe) with a built in magnet, looks the part anyway

 

[shenion]

There is a 7805 regulator, probably the easiest thing to check. See if power is on the left pin and 5V on the right (tab is - )

 

[chrisg3103]

just had a poke about with a small battery pack and the multi meter, all seems to be getting a nice supply
on the pic with the displays, say pin 1 is the far left pin 8 far right

1 is negative 2 is supply
3 and 4 are the sensor inputs
567 and 8 are for the indicator led's

all the LED's light up as supposed to, getting a supply voltage to all the chips. getting 5v on both sensor theminals though? when 5v is applied between earth and pin 4 the displays light up but fade out quickly. maby it is the sensor? measured the resistance and was 1Kohm which as far as i know for ABS sensors is normal, maby try and adjust the air gap. hmmm

would of thought the displays would light up and show 0 when the machine has power but not running. unless its these 80's displays designed to save power and only come on when supposed to like those huge 80's LED watches

 

[Wedg1e]

That would be the date the artwork was done for the PCB so lathe is probably younger

If you check out the ICs they all have a code eg 79-06; that's week 6, 1979. I think the 7805 regulator says 850 which would be week 50 of 1978.

It is feasible that the electronics could have been subbed out (Boxford did that too) and they might have ordered say 50 or 100 complete boards for ongoing production so yes, the lathe could be a bit younger than 1979.

Either way it looks as though the electronics are original and unmolested even if the gearbox isn't