Well hello again from my workshop. Did not manage to do much during the week other than try and disassemble the "shake adjusting nut" from part of the headstock. This is the name that the Hardinge brothers gave this piece and it was supposedly patented, however I have not found that particular patent yet. Twice I went out in the shop and heated the part with a propane torch and attempted to loosen the nut. When nothing happened I just heated it up again and then stuck it back in the varsol to soak some more. For those who don't quite know what I am talking about here is a picture of the item. The nut is the inner piece which has a part broken off similiar to my other lathe. Inside the broken ring is where the thrust washer would sit and then when the nut is threaded out it would put pressure on the washer against the headstock casting thereby securing the headstock properly. The back piece that this nut threads into is a casting with one side of the gearing that engages the back gear, as well as being able to secure the headstock for machining work in 60 different positions. There are 60 indexing holes drill around the edge.

On Saturday it was such a nice day here that I cut the grass one last time before the snow flies and then I had to spend an hour or so with a person who came and bought my Bowflex Ultimate 2 home gym. I wasn't using it anymore and since I plan to move next spring I am slowly trying to get rid of items I no longer use thereby reducing the amount of stuff I need to move. What little time I did spend in the garage was to start work on tearing apart the overhead drive assembly that I bought from a fellow down in California. Here are two pictures showing the whole assembly from the side and then looking at the gearing and step pulley assembly.

First thing I did was remove the door covering the drive assembly and the small adjusting lever you can see in the first picture. I then removed the two chains. I noticed that the previous owner had just secured one of the chains with wire as the outer plate was no longer there and on the other chain there was safety wire as well however at least this plate was still there. Once this was done I removed the two bolts that held the three step pulley on its adjustable bracket and then removed that assembly. You can see the empty cavity where it resided and then you can also see the assembly in the next two photos.

This was as far as I got on the drive on Saturday. Today I decided to once more try taking that stubborn nut apart. Still no luck. This time I have it sitting on the bench and I am spraying and soaking penetrant fluid on it wherever I can get it to see if that helps. If this does not work I will then have to think about drilling some holes that I can place pins in and see if we can't lever the part out that way. However first we'll continue to soak it with penetrating oil for the next week. With this out of the way I decided I might as well strip clean and paint the headstock casting. Nothing difficult about this just time consuming using commercial stripper and then cleaning it in Varsol. Once that was done used the wire wheel to strip the remaining paint and rust of the casting. Then taped it up and gave it a coat of primer. Here are some pictures showing these steps.

I almost forgot that there was a small pin on the headstock casting that would be the stop for the lever that controlled the back gear assembly. This pin was broken off flush with the casting. Carefully punched and then drilled it out. Here is a picture prior to drilling. This was a fairly simple procedure as well. Later on we'll make up a new 5/32" pin and locktite it in the hole.

Well that's all for now see you next week Sunday. Hopefully I'll have some good news on that stuck nut. 

Harold