Thread: Hembrug lathe on the way.

Originally Posted by caskwarrior

Greg if you had access to it I would really appreciate a few photos of the lever action tailstock, I would be very keen to replicate one. On another note it came with a qctp morse taper toolholder, what is the purpose of these, why would you want to hold anything with a mt shank off center? Is there some obvious use case im missing?

Drilling under power using the carriage feed.

Having said that, I also have a couple of those things for my Dickson QCTP and in over 30 years of mucking about with machine tools, I have yet to use one.

PDW

Thanks PDW, that makes sense, also for anyone who was curious this is the tool turret in the top right Greg Q was talking about, quite ingenious. turret.pdf (its the drawing in the top right of that page.)

Originally Posted by Michael G

PM me as I have literally kgs of NiChrome wire here (around 5.8ohm/m ) and I'll never use that much.
Same goes for anyone else who wants to make a hot wire cutter.
There was a thread about the sophisticated one I made here but all the pics have gone //metalworkforums.com/f65/t1514...-foam-castings. Without them it just reads like another precision project.

Michael

Thanks Michael, I just might. I bought some 27ga wire online which was billed as low-stretch. I am aiming for 2.4m or more of cutting length on the wire. I bought a power supply toosince I have a couple of hundred metres of mouldings to cut.

Greg

Originally Posted by caskwarrior

Greg if you had access to it I would really appreciate a few photos of the lever action tailstock, I would be very keen to replicate one. On another note it came with a qctp morse taper toolholder, what is the purpose of these, why would you want to hold anything with a mt shank off center? Is there some obvious use case im missing?

Can do. The casting is different....it has a boss on the back to accept the pivot pin. As I recall the barrel of the tailstock is a lot longer too, but it has been a couple of years since I looked at it.

Greg

I started the cleanup last night, nothing drastically terrible found yet, other than as usual someone has used grease in all the oil nipples, Greg do you know if the spindle bearings in these were oil or grease lubricated, I would be almost positive they should be oil, they were also absolutely packed with grease no breathing room at all. Does anyone have a good method for breaking all the grease down and flushing it out of the narrow passages in all the castings?

*Edit* reading the manual, the bearings are meant to be greased but not with anywhere near as much as is in them.

Regards - Ralph

Some photos below, the reversable leadscrew is a great idea, although as a patternmaker the leadscrew and nuts have not been used much, they are full of crap though.
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I was advised to fill an oil gun with kerosene and just pump that through the oil system to flush out the grease.

Michael

Originally Posted by Michael G

I was advised to fill an oil gun with kerosene and just pump that through the oil system to flush out the grease.

Michael

I've got grease out of a few machines and it really gets in there. I doubt it would be flushed out with just a grease gun I'm afraid. Maybe enough to get it going, but in my experience the grease just basically sits there and will keep breaking down and glob on through. It makes a hell of a mess. I've found completely stripping it and power flushing all the galleries with kero and poking around with bits of wire etc was the only solution. Then wait until you see the crap that comes out!

Yes, pumping kero through won't get all of it but when the alternative is to take the machine apart, some times it is a viable option.

Michael

Some of the hydraulic oils used are quite thin, and to be quite honest I can't see much difference between just squirting proper oil in vs contaminating the whole lot with kero. I don't know how much pressure those oil guns develop, but certainly nothing like what a grease gun can. Often the oil galleries are quite long/thin, and not meant to take grease. I've found the grease gets in there and begins to harden and it can be real tough to get out, even with the part in a parts washer working things like TIG wire through to help flush them out. I've had a couple harden completely and there's no way in heck any gun was going to budge the resulting log-jam.

Clearly what somebody chooses to do with their own machine is up to them, but FWIW I would not recommend relying on squirting some kero through and thinking the machine was then getting correct lubrication. In contrast I'd say you've now got an even bigger mess to contend with. It may be frustrating to have to strip the machine to clean the galleries out, but that's life. It MAY be possible to use a very strong solvent in an oil gun and try flushing with that, I don't know as I've never tried it. I doubt it, but can't say. I've personally only ever used kero and can pretty much guarantee it won't work as the person suggested.

I basically have the entire thing apart anyway, thankfully the headstock is all fine the gearboxes all have pressure oil lubrication I really only have to contend with the saddle at this point, Ill probably try cleaning the galleries with wire, then oil then kero, I will report back on the results, thanks for the help!

Ralph,

Just in case you haven't yet chanced upon this...

The Dutch seller Machinehandel A.G. Bos' website has featured numerous Hembrug lathes over the years and fortunately he has a Facebook page where images of those lathes ( amongst other delights ) still reside -https://www.facebook.com/machinehandelbos/

The photo below shows a lever operated tailstock from a garishly repainted AI DR1.

Bob


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Thanks Bob, interestingly it looks like the tailstock is set up to take collets. I havent seen that before.

You should check with Phil about getting some Kluber Isoflex...I seem to recall those AC bearings at the rear take around 5g of grease.

My machine was ex-telecom, ex-whatever they were called before that. All of the spares that came with it were labelled "artillery lathe", since AI stands for the Dutch phrase Artillery Industries.

Collets: the lever tailstock takes the same collets as the spindle: B26. Good luck finding any outside of Holland. I have most of a complete set in imperial sizes by 64ths. Pretty narrow clamping range. If I was going to ever get that serious again I would look at making a D-4 collet chuck using ER32s

All of this is making me miss metalworking machinery. I bought a geared head drill press last year-same as the Tai-Boga I restored 5 years ago. My new one has the table that NASA used to fake the moon landings. Big craters that you can see from space, which is what gave them the idea, I guess.

GQ

All of this is making me miss metalworking machinery.

I am sure that I speak for everyone on the forum when I say we have missed you and your knowledgeable contributions on the forum over the last little while.

Life can drag you off to other things sometimes but I hope its time to get back on the horse and get some oil/grease/dirt under those fingernails.

Cheers

Mark

Originally Posted by markgray

I am sure that I speak for everyone on the forum when I say we have missed you and your knowledgeable contributions on the forum over the last little while.

Life can drag you off to other things sometimes but I hope its time to get back on the horse and get some oil/grease/dirt under those fingernails.



Cheers

Mark

Thanks Mark...

Don't know about knowledgeable, but I certainly have missed the comradery here. Now that I am a month away from getting the roof on I am letting my thoughts drift back to exactly why the garage floor is 8" thick in "the shop" annex.