Well the tooling and supplies showed up so back to work we went.
The first thing we did was to finish of the shake adjusting nut. I had turned down the outside just enough to allow the back gear locking pin to clear the nut. This took a couple of test fittings as I wanted to leave as much material as possible. Once we had the outside dimension dialled in I cut some grooves to allow the knurling wheel to do it's job. I had previously purchased a knurling wheel that had a concave pattern to allow me to make knurls that would be similar to a rope lying down. This was not technically a rope knurl however it was close. I also needed to buy a knurling tool holder to fit my Aloris toolpost. This was one of the tools I was waiting for last week. Once the four knurls were done I removed the nut from the lathe and moved it over to the milling machine. Before mounting it in the milling machine I made three marks 120degrees apart. At each location in the middle of the knurl I bored a 1/4" hole down .175". By only going this deep I did not make a through hole that would allow chips to fall in and possibly damage the bearing. These three holes will allow me to use an adjustable pin wrench to either tighten or loosen the nut if required. I actually hope that this can be tightened and loosened by hand. Here are a couple of pictures showing the grooves in the nut and the nut on the mill getting a hole bored.

After this was done I emailed the other owners of these lathes to ask their collective wisdom as to whether I should drill and tap a small hole in the nut to allow me to oil the thrust bearing it sits over. At this time on the original machines there is no way to add oil to this thrust bearing assembly. The only oil it has is what was coated on it when it was installed. At this time it seems no one else has an oil hole either and so far no issues with the bearing. I'll probably just use a slightly heavier oil on this bearing assembly before installing it.

I next took some time to hone out the cast iron bearings. Both bearings had some scoring inside them. There was no large deep scratches just plenty of little ones. I honed both out with a brake hone and then I placed a piece of pipe in the lathe that was just a little bit smaller than the inside of the bearing and wrapped sandpaper on the pipe. I started with 400grit then went up to 1000grit and finished with 2000grit. While the paper was on the pipe I slide the bearing over the paper and then with the lathe turning around 800rpm, moved the bearing by hand in the opposite direction of the rotation of the pipe and sand paper. By going up these three steps I ended up with a pretty smooth silky finish inside the bearings. Some of the scratches are still there but this will just allow some oil to remain to help lubricate the headstock shaft. Once the two bearings were done I did the same treatment to the headstock shaft in the location where the spindle turns inside the bearing. This time I held the sandpaper while the shaft rotated. Again using the 400/1000/2000 grit sandpaper. Once finished there was a very nice polish on the shaft. Since the shaft is hardened steel there were really no gouges or grooves on the surface of the headstock shaft. Here are a few pictures showing the bearings with a before and after shot as well as the headstock.

Once this was done I spent some time cleaning up some of the change gears that came with the lathe and ensuring they would mount on their respective shafts. Unfortunately I do not have a complete set so will have to make some up somewhere down the line. Here is a picture showing the test fit of a couple of these gears.

The last thing I spent some time on was doing a practice repair on a change gear. Since there are a couple of teeth missing from the large back gear and one tooth missing from the large gear on the headstock I wanted to practice on some other stock before doing these repairs. I had purchased some Aluminum bronze welding rod to use with my Tig welder since I do not have an Oxy/Acetylene torch system. I welded up two gears and am not happy with the way they came out. I don't think this will be an issue on these change gears however I don't want the main gears to get this same treatment. I guess this week I'll go out and look at buying a small Victor welding kit with the small pony tanks and then braze up the teeth on the main gears. Of course I'll practice on some smaller change gears first. However here are a couple of pictures of the practice piece. You'll notice I drilled out two small holes to help with anchoring the weld. In the larger gears on the headstock I plan on drilling and tapping two holes per tooth to thread in some 3/16" set screws to use as a foundation for the weld material.

Now I need to try and get my dividing head to work on the mill so that I can mill out the teeth on the repaired change gear. I purchased some gear cutters a while ago so I have the correct cutter for the change gear however the dividing head I purchased for the Van Norman Milling machine does not have the correct dividing plate with it to index the gear correctly. I am missing two plates with the following hole counts.38-39-41-42-43-46, and 47-49-54-58-62-66 holes per plate. I especially need the plate with the 58 and 54 hole count. If anybody reading this might have some plates for a Van Norman dividing head with these hole counts that you would like to sell please contact me through the comment button below.

Well that's all for now. I'll see you all next week with hopefully another installment of the continuing saga on rebuilding this lathe.

Harold

Just a short note. No real work done this week due work and deciding to order in some tooling and supplies before I continue the project. See you next week, provided my parts arrive on time.

Harold

Well my post this week will not be as long as last week's nor will it have as many items done. Never got in the shop until Saturday. At least we have a nice day here sunshine and just above freezing. Hopefully later this week it is supposed to go higher with 4-5C temp and possible rain. This will go along way to getting rid of some of that lousy white stuff around here. With the snow on my roof the solar panels are not making me any money this past month.
Meanwhile in the shop this morning we turned the blank around so we could machine the other end of the "shake adjusting nut". Last week I machined the pocket that would hold the bearing in it. This week I would machine the end that goes onto the large sprocket that mounts on the headstock spindle. This has a threaded connection between the two such that when you unscrew it, it pushes against the thrust bearing which secures the entire headstock assembly inside the headstock casting. For those who may not know what I'm talking about (Sis) here is a picture.

The above drawing from the 1919 brochure should help. This is a cross section of the headstock, the "shake adjusting nut" is the item with red ink on it. The "large sprocket assembly" mentioned above has the blue line in it and the "thrust bearing" has the green line in it. Since the sprocket assembly is secured to the headstock shaft which runs through the centre of the headstock, when you unscrew the shake adjusting nut it will push up against the thrust washer which in turn pushes up against the headstock casting. This then removes any horizontal slop out of the headstock assembly. Actually a pretty simple system when you think about it. You do not need a lot of torque on this assembly just enough to snug the bearing up securely.
So we flipped the blank around set it up in the 4 jaw chuck and carefully dialled it in such that we had less than 1thou runout on the previously machined surface. Unfortunately the picture showing this was way out of focus. Once it was dialled in we carefully machined out the inner dimension to allow the headstock shaft to come through the nut. We then machined out the pocket where the thread would go. Once that was done we machined two slightly deeper pockets one at the front of the nut and one 1inch into the pocket which would be depressions on either end of the thread to allow easier threading. Once this was done we machined the outside to the correct dimension to allow the sprocket assembly to slide over top. We checked this out with the sprocket assembly before starting the threading operation.
Here are two pictures first one showing the old nut, the second one showing the new nut ready for threading along with the old one sitting beside it on the lathe.

Carefully using thread gauges I determined that the thread was 24tpi. Set the lathe up to cut this thread and then carefully went at it. Threaded this by 5thous increments. Once we got to 25thous depth checked the piece with the sprocket assembly. It would start but that was all so went in again at 2.5thous increments and after two more passes got the assembly to thread on. I was quite happy as it seemed to thread on really nicely. However once I went to unthread the assembly it went 5-6 turns and then started binding up. I was frustrated in that after a few attempts to unthread it it would not come off. We persisted and slowly using a pin wrench managed to unthread the assembly. So went back in and carefully cleaned out the threads again with the threading bar and took three spring cuts to entirely clean out the thread. This time it spun on and off quite easily but with no slop on the thread. So I think a job well done. Here are two pictures. The first one is when I initially spun the sprocket on and the second one is once the threads were cleaned out some more. This time the entire assembly is out of the lathe.

The only thing left to do is decide whether to place knurls back on the nut like my two originals had, which gave you the gripping surface to tighten the nut. Or would insert either grooves or pin holes to use the adjustable pin or slot wrenches. A couple of the other owners with lathes newer than mine have the slots in the nut however I noticed on one of these machines these slots were quite badly damaged. I think boring 3holes in the nut at 120degreees almost through the flange area might be cleaner and less susceptible to damage down the road. I will have to think about this. I'll decide by the end of the week and then either bore it, slot it or knurl it. The only issue against the hole is I would need to buy the pin wrench required for the diameter of the nut since I don't have one at this time.
So that was all we did this week however I'm glad it's done. I'll most likely have to make at least one more for the #39 lathe somewhere down the road as it's nut is also damaged. However I'll probably wait awhile as I would like to see how this one lasts and works. I'm a little concerned that I might have used the wrong material. I used 12L14 round stock for this based on ease of machinability and the quality of the metal. Its tensile and shear strength looked good and the usage of this material was stated as being good for this type of application. Well the material machines beautifully however I noticed that just securing it in the 4 jaw chuck left little marks on the metal where the chuck jaws dug in. There was no real concern about this marking because it was easily cleaned off however it did leave me with a little concern about the strength of the material. However as mentioned before there is no real torque or pressure on this nut so it should still work as required. I might though look at getting a piece of Durabar for the next nut.
Now we need to look at working on assembling the headstock. The only issue I would like to resolve first is the damaged teeth on the back gear and one on the large sprocket. Decisions, decisions. I Most likely just drill, tap and pin into the large sprocket and then fill it with braze material before grinding it back down to the right profile and there's a good chance I'll do the same with the other broken teeth. One thing I'm waiting on is some special welding rod that can be used with my Tig welder that should take the place of brazing. Once I recieve this will trial some repairs on damaged gears and see how this material works.

Well until next week enjoy the weather and the Olympics especially when Canada gets the gold medal in Hockey :=):=)

Harold

I tell you I've had enough of this white stuff around me. Spent half the week moving snow around. Now we aren't as bad as some areas, however when you're not use to it, it just sucks. If we get any more I might run out of room for the snow I've cleared. Oh well can't beat Mother Nature she just keeps doing her thing. I am glad though that I bought a snow blower years ago, it definitely has gotten used this year.

Ok last week I left you with the Overhead drive mounted and the transmission installed. When I wasn't shovelling snow I managed to get some time to work in the shop. First thing I did was go to install the eccentric shaft on the front of the casting which is used to raise and lower the three step pulley assembly so that you can engage or disengage the drive belt. Also allows you to take pressure off the belt while you are not using the lathe. This shaft has a divot at one end where a pointed screw goes in to secure the shaft in the casting. Then on the piece of the shaft that extends outside of the casting is a machined flat spot for the set screw from the handle that goes on there. I installed the shaft so the screw engaged the divot then installed the handle so that the setscrew came out on the flat spot. Low and behold the handle does not sit where I expected it to and the movement makes no sense since there are two pins used as stops for the handle and the handle was no where near them. As well the handle has a ball bearingunder pressure from a spring that should go into two detents on the flange of the shaft when it is in the engaged and disengaged positions. After scratching my head for a while and sending off an email to the other owners who have this drive assembly I took a closer look at the shaft. After doing a close inspection at one end I noticed that the flange portion was actually a separate piece. Once we got this apart and cleaned up then the installation went as it should go. Here are some pictures showing what I mean.
First picture shows how the handle looked first time it was installed and you can see the two dots from the broken studs. Second picture shows the shaft with the divot in it as it was removed from the casting. Third picture shows the flange portion removed. Once this occurred the flange could be inserted in the casting and secured by the screw into the divot and the shaft was free to rotate in the flange piece allowing the handle to be mounted correctly so that it moved from stud to stud and the ball bearing went into the detents as it should as well.

Once that was done we could install the three step pulley assembly and then mount the chains on the sprockets. I had to remove the assembly once to adjust the location of the sprockets so that the chain could run true. The sprockets have set screws as well as woodruff keys to prevent them from spinning however there is nothing to tell you where to lock them down until you see how the chain runs. As it was they are locked down right against the new Oilite washers I installed against the casting arm. Here are three pictures the first shows the three step pulley assembly installed and the other two show the handles as they should be. Up for when lathe is running and putting tension on the belt and down when the lathe is not running so as to take tension off the belt. I should also mention you can see a threaded rod with knurled handle in the centre of the three step pulley assembly. This allows you to tighten or loosen the belt tension as the belt wears down over time.

I also quickly cleaned, primed and painted the two doors that go on the casting. I want to thank Tyler in California for allowing me to purchase the front door that went with this overhead drive. Later this summer I'll make a pattern for that door so we can get a new one cast to send back to him for his lathe. Here are four pictures showing the doors installed and what they cover.

 As well I took some time to clean and paint the guard that goes over the gears just to the left of the headstock. When I was moving stuff and cleaning up in the shop I found this on a shelf, evidently forgot to do this when I was working on that area. Here is a picture showing the parts polished and the bracket awaiting cleaning and painting.

 Now that this was done it is time to start working on getting my headstock back together. One of the first things we need to do is work on machining a new "shake adjusting nut". Previously I had purchased a 9" long pieced of 12L14 stock 3.75" dia to use to make the part. Cut off a 2.5" chunk and went to mount it in the chuck. Planned on using the three jaw since I had just confirmed it's accuracy earlier this week. I actually spent an hour checking out the lathe with a test bar prior to starting work on this piece. Was quite surprised at how good the numbers were. However the three jaw does not have reversible jaws and it was not big enough to mount the blank. So we removed this chuck and installed the four jaw chuck instead. Now, I find out that I don't have a chuck key for this chuck. So over to the toolbox to take out a couple of 1/4" drive ratchets and used them as chuck keys. Mounted the blank, dialled it in and started the machining process. I decided that the I would first work on the side that goes over the bearing that this nut presses up against. The bearing then is pushed against one end of the headstock to put tension on the whole headstock assembly. On my original nut there were three small knurled lines that would be used to grip the nut to tighten or loosen it. You do not put a lot of torque on this nut just enough to seat the bearing against the headstock wall. So essentially hand tight plus a little is all that is needed. Then there is a set screw that secures this nut to prevent it from loosening. I could machine this in the nut or I could elect to machine it similar to other machines which have three pin holes for a pin wrench or slots for a slot wrench. I've machined the piece down so I can still do either method. Once the outside was done I bored out the centre to the inner diameter needed to slip over the headstock shaft. Then we machined out the pocket where the bearing goes. This took a little bit of time as I don't normally take more than 20thous at one pass and I needed to remove almost 2.5" of material however the metal machined easily so the lathe did not have to work to hard. Now that this side is done I can flip it over and mount it back up in the 4 jaw dial it in and machine out the other side. This one will be a little more complicated as I need to machine to better tolerances to allow me to thread it so that it fits onto the other part of the headstock. So here are some pictures of the process. The first picture shows the receiver on the left that the "nut" screws into, the nut and the blank I bought. Second picture has my sawn off blank ready for the lathe. Just so you see the third pictures shows where the nut threads into. Even after cleaning and some honing of the stock it is still hard to get the nut into the receiver and to start the thread. I'll have to be real careful when I machine this areas as the tolerances must be very close. Fourth picture is on the lathe part way through the boring process, and the fifth picture shows the one half of the blank all done with the original nut laying beside it.

Now all we need to do is as mentioned earlier rotate the piece in the chuck and machine out the other side. Hopefully by this time next week it will all be done and I can report success. 

So until next week enjoy yourselves and congratulate your athletes who are over at the Winter Olympics. I wish them all the best and Go Canada Go.

Harold