Thread: Compound slide problems.

I was turning a 60 degree taper.
When I started turning the slide it was quite stiff then it loosen up and I noticed some sideways movement of the slide then saw that the gib had come loose, I stopped the lathe and as I wound the slid back a small rod come out from the Compound slide. The rod is 3mm dia and 9mm long ( they maybe some sort of bearings).

I Had a look at the instruction manual which told me sweet bugger all. So looked up Frank Hoose Getting Started.
I decided to take the slide off and as I lifted it off, there in the metal shaving I saw another little rod.
The gib which was quite rusty has a slot milled across it.
Would this be where the rods fit?

You are all over the place in your discription. What type of lathe do you have?
Try and see if you can find a manual on line. Most of the time you can find free manuals for everthing if you look long enough.

See if the round rods fit in the slot. I have never seen anything like it. If they slip in the slot they might be what the feed table runs on. If that is the case there should be set screws to adjust the tension on the ways. If it does not look like there is anyother place for the rods then that is where they go.

If you can post a picture Ican help you. I owned a machine shop before I retired.
I still have a small machine shop at home. Sorry you are having problems.

I would take the whole carrage apart and clean it and put it back to gether. You should be able to figure it out.

There are THREE pins located in holes aligned with the adjusating screws. When returned to there respective holes, one will stand out further than the other two, this one aligns with the cut-out.

As for the rust, I carefully ran my gib along a diamond stone to remove the rust and then used the same stone along all contacting surfaces to take off the rough edges.

Cheers

KenM

Mark, basically what Ken said above.

You may also want to look at Rebuilding the 9x20 Asian Lathe here

Frank Hoose's site is excellent but mainly aimed at the 7x12 Mini Lathe, my first "go to" site for the 9x20 is Steve Bedair. He also shows how to replace the gib screws with socket heads (which I aven't done yet)

By the time you have worked your way through all the links on Steve's site, and the info on his own site, you will know your 9x20 lathe inside out.