Thread: Who made the Herless SM-1 Mill?

Thanks 'Rusty',

Interesting about the quill. I can say that 'yoda' (as they call him at H&F Melbourne) has confirmed the machine is actually Taiwanese. The motor is Taiwanese, so without being definitive, that does seems to suggest it comes from there.

The quill:

P1110858.JPG

The 'not metric yet' thing is that my lathe is a 1941 South Bend 10L (it is shown in the pic in my initial posting). I've just got it back on its feet and purring after a year long strip, clean, and replace-what-needs-it-if-I-can-find-it, and filling and smoothing of the castings and paint etc. It does not do metric and I have not yet got as far as figuring an accurate means and cost effective means to do so (I could spend $500 US on the change gears ...), and I've not yet got to figuring how to make alternative stud gears for it with my current tooling. I reckon I'll be posting a few question on that at some stage.

At any rate, here is an example of something that wants replacing and is metric - one of the (cast iron) lead screw nuts.

P1110843.JPG

Toast!

Originally Posted by StrayAlien

The 'not metric yet' thing is that my lathe is a 1941 South Bend 10L (it is shown in the pic in my initial posting)... It does not do metric and I have not yet got as far as figuring an accurate means and cost effective means to do so

A few of us cut gears, so help should not be too difficult to get. The main thing you need is a dividing head for indexing around. Ewan (Ueee) has a 127 hole plate for a dividing head for cutting that all important 127t gear if you only have a semi-universal dividing head and can't manage differential indexing.

Michael

Originally Posted by StrayAlien

Thanks 'Rusty',

Interesting about the quill. I can say that 'yoda' (as they call him at H&F Melbourne) has confirmed the machine is actually Taiwanese. The motor is Taiwanese, so without being definitive, that does seems to suggest it comes from there.

The quill:

P1110858.JPG

The 'not metric yet' thing is that my lathe is a 1941 South Bend 10L (it is shown in the pic in my initial posting). I've just got it back on its feet and purring after a year long strip, clean, and replace-what-needs-it-if-I-can-find-it, and filling and smoothing of the castings and paint etc. It does not do metric and I have not yet got as far as figuring an accurate means and cost effective means to do so (I could spend $500 US on the change gears ...), and I've not yet got to figuring how to make alternative stud gears for it with my current tooling. I reckon I'll be posting a few question on that at some stage.

At any rate, here is an example of something that wants replacing and is metric - one of the (cast iron) lead screw nuts.

P1110843.JPG

Toast!

Has the Southbend got a Norton box for threading or change gears? Also, sometimes the 63 tooth driver gear is a better alternative to the 127 follower for calculations to cut metric on imperial with only 0.005"/39.370" (1 metre) error

Maybe change the C.I nut to bronze. Has Hafco down there got spares? Can check up here if you like.

Michael, thanks. I'll remember that.

Rusty, it has a gearbox not change gears. I've done some research into my options - including the 47/37 or 80/63 combos which seem reasonably accurate - but then it is figuring out how to 'somehow' insert that into the geartrain. Though with just a 38 tooth stud gear I could get to about 1% but that would mean cutting using the 4 TPI gearbox setting which people say to avoid on these boxes! Same for 19 teeth ... but that seems a bit small ...

For a leadscrew nut I am a bit on the fence as to whether it would need to be perfect or can suffer some inaccuracy - as long as the leadscrew itself is accurate then I would guess it'll be okay. Bronze? Yes - I wouldn't replace them with CI ones unless someone said it was a good idea!

Re H&F stocking parts, the guys down here said no - but I have recently emailed their sales depot just in case, and even if they do not, I get another lead.

Originally Posted by StrayAlien

Michael, thanks. I'll remember that.

Rusty, it has a gearbox not change gears. I've done some research into my options - including the 47/37 or 80/63 combos which seem reasonably accurate - but then it is figuring out how to 'somehow' insert that into the geartrain. Though with just a 38 tooth stud gear I could get to about 1% but that would mean cutting using the 4 TPI gearbox setting which people say to avoid on these boxes! Same for 19 teeth ... but that seems a bit small ...

For a leadscrew nut I am a bit on the fence as to whether it would need to be perfect or can suffer some inaccuracy - as long as the leadscrew itself is accurate then I would guess it'll be okay. Bronze? Yes - I wouldn't replace them with CI ones unless someone said it was a good idea!

Re H&F stocking parts, the guys down here said no - but I have recently emailed their sales depot just in case, and even if they do not, I get another lead.

PM sent.

Originally Posted by Michael G

A few of us cut gears, so help should not be too difficult to get. The main thing you need is a dividing head for indexing around. Ewan (Ueee) has a 127 hole plate for a dividing head for cutting that all important 127t gear if you only have a semi-universal dividing head and can't manage differential indexing.

Michael

Michael, The nut in this thread is the same as those you cut for me a few weeks ago.