Thread: The Worn Used and Abused

The lathe mentioned in my last post about the nose thread, is an older 9A, #A1739 for those who track numbers. Its worn, been abused and is generally full of 64 years worth of crud.
If I'd seen it before I bought I would have left it there.

I am dismantling to rebuild, it could be a long job.

Currently I am working on the compound slide. The locking studs are tight in their bores, and I cannot remove them. There is a small amount of vertical movement in the compound, but it will only swivel around 180 deg. Looking a the underneath of the boss, you can see where it has been deformed to the point of cracking. Its either been hit very hard in an attempt to remove it, studs over tightened, or otherwise mistreated.

So now I am looking for ideas on how to remove the studs and then the compound. I don't think the studs rotate, so reverse drilling won't help. I could attempt to drill, tap and thread and pull them out. Does anyone know how hard they are? Or attempt to mill 2 slots in the underside of the boss, lifting the boss out with the studs still in place.

Any ideas, good or bad, welcome.

Are the screws holding the compound the square head type,if so these may well be case hardened,able to be drilled but may be difficult.

If the screws can be removed then there will be other hardened pins under these that grab the taper of the compound.

Have you tried socking the cross slide and compound in solvent?

Hi Pipeclay,

Yes the screws are the square head types and have been removed. Its the hardened pins further in that are stuck.
I have soaked the compound for about a week. No joy yet.

Thanks
Greg

All I could suggest is trying to tap the compound from the base with a piece of aluminium or timber or something soft that wont bruise the spigot.

As you already have a little movement from the spigot a few reasonably firm taps might allow the pins to move back in the cross slide a bit more.

You could also try putting a punch down the holes and tapping the pins back on to the taper,this may break anything that might be binding.

You may have to try both these methods numerous times to get a result.

Worst case may be to drill the spigot out And then machine a new one to suit.

Today I did as Pipeclay suggested and tried to tap the spigot back and forth to coax the pins outwards. Then I used some freeze spray lube on the pins. I then heated the cross slide casting to try and achieve he same result. Then heating and cooling at the same time. I did try to punch the pins back in and then work them out again, that worked or on side, but not the other. At about that time I wasn't holding out much hope of a non-damage repair. I did however drill and tap the pins, but I couldn't budge them using that method either.
In the end milled a couple of holes through the base of the spigot into the pins and beyond. That released the swivel boss but pretty much destroyed the spigot. Even after all that the pins could not be driven outwards and had to be driven through into the centre hole.
I think the spigot is part of the swivel casting, can anyone confirm this? I guess the next is to obtain a new swivel, or try to machine a shrink fit collar to fit over a turned down spigot.

I had a Sheraton once that had this issue. The tips of the locking pins were cut on an angle to match the taper, and the tips of them had bent upwards. The bend at the tips meant that they wouldn't release properly because the bend locked the pin in the hole.

The fix in the end was just a lot of working back and forth. Machine up an aluminium spigot that matches the bore of the dovetail pin on the compound rest, hammer it as hard as you dare, then push the compound hard down onto the cross slide and then punch the pins in until they just contact the dovetail pin. Repeat!

This back and forth eventually shaved enough of the bend off the pins (on the edge of their hole) that the compound finally came all the way out.

the spigot is part of the casting.

Cant see why a new cast iron spigot could not be machined and attached to the existing base,you would just need to check material thickness left on the compound to see if it can be tapped.

you could fit your compound base to a faceplate or 4jaw face the spigot off just shy/flush or a slight spigot. turn a new spigot from steel then bolt it on, 2 offset holes should do to miss the feed screw/nut whatever behind it and not weaken the compound base casting. hell it could even be a bit of plate the right thickness bolted on then turn the dovetail while on the compound easy

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to find a suitable lathe to do the job.

Cheers

I have the guy at Austalianmetalworkinghobbyist looking for a new swivel for me. I'll see what he can turn up.

I have moved onto the saddle. Its was very dirty and full of old oil, some of it varnish hard. It cleaned up ok and after painting I will put it back together.

Photos: The clean apron, is there an oil hole there. A well adjusted gib strip, it touches in at least 2 places. There are more boring photos back that's enough for now.

I have read that there are 3 wicking felts in the apon, does anyone know they all are?

Cheers
Greg Nixon

You could get away with making a new spigot out of cast or steel and tapping your existing compound to 1/2" unf,make the pigot and counter bore to suit the 1/2" unf cap screw.

Might be cheaper than a replacement bottom plate for the compound or a complete compound.

There are a few alternatives. I will explore them when I have a reply regarding a replacement unit.

Thanks for the suggestion.

were the pins actually hardened?