Abene mill gearbox insides

I seem to get the feeling that you don't recommend taking the gearbox apart. :-)

One question. On mine the rapid traverse is iffy on engaging. Did you pay any attention to the clutch arrangement for that? I've considered taking mine apart to see if I could fix it. I've never had to time and from past experience I've never had much luck making worn out over running clutches work.

there is a shaft, probably visible in the photos, that has two gears on it - one gear is slid up and down by the shifter, the other gear is fixed at the "back" end - the end away from the visible part of the unit. This is the output shaft, it drives a bevel gear that in turn drives the driveshaft that goes to the table control gears. Each of these two gears has inside one of those needle bearing clutches that allows it to rotate freely in one direction and to lock up in the other direction. The sliding gear is the "forward" gear, I believe, the fixed gear is the "reverse" gear. The reverse idler gear is visible near the top of the gear stack in the photos, sitting on a rather odd shaped piece of metal that in turn rests on flats cut into the shafts that hold the gear clusters.

the "Iffy on engaging" with these types of clutches has got to mean either dirt or extreme wear, I think - perhaps others can chime in here - there is nothing unique to Abene about these clutches. My first thought would be to drain all the oil out and fill with kerosene, disconnect the drive shaft, so there is no load, and run it for half an hour forward and half an hour backwards - then drain the kerosene and refill. the thought being to get whatever crud might be in there to exit the gearbox.

If you do decide to pull yours apart to check the clutch, pull the back off and press the brass gear through the hole in the back to get it off - don't remove anything from the front.

one more piece of info for Abene owners

the oil seals on the gearbox are 17-35-10 (those dimensions in mm are ID, OD, Width)

this seal is hard to find - I did find an oil pump seal that is 17-30-7 that local autoparts stores carry - it's a directional seal, which is not what I prefer, but given that most of the time you are not using rapids, it should be OK The seal is ELRING 483.150, replaces OE 15165-70010 - I have no idea what car(s) that fits, but .....

hope this helps someone - if you have an Abene mill, write this down somewhere

Can not just order the17-35-10 from a bearing stockist. I did a search on one of the online bearing stockist in the UK and found them easily

Maybe it is a location based thing as metric stuff may be more common in the UK still.

well, I was not able to find 10mm thick - I could have special ordered

17-35-7 but I decided to get it over with and use what I could get - 17mm is apparently an unusual size

anyway, here is one more hint for anyone so foolish as to take this gearbox apart

You MUST !!! put the output shaft in place before seating the shaft that drives it - the bevel gear overlaps over the bearing recess (you don't want to discover this fact when you have the gearbox all assembled) - so, here is my new recommended assembly sequence

1. insert the shaft that actuates the gear shifter and get all the shims and snap rings in place (including the bronze shifting fork) and insert and tighten studs into front plate
2. insert the shaft that drives the output shaft through its hole in the end plate and press the bevel gear onto the end, then pull it back as far as you can without dislodging the gear
3. insert output shaft then put the shaft that drives it back into place and let the gears mesh
4. place the remaining two shafts near their holes, and put the idler gear support with the gear on it in place between the three shafts, it rests on flats milled in two of these shafts
5. drop remaining shafts into proper holes
6. check that everything meshes and seems to work
7. put seal into groove in front plate, drop the pipe that forms the middle of the housing in place, put seal in groove in back plate and tap the back plate into position
8. tighten nuts (three nuts, three lockwashers) that hold the whole thing together
9. put spacer onto shifter shaft, then put cam gear in place, then install key and mating part onto shifter shaft

10 run shifter shaft to one end, add readout gear and readout (properly aligned), shifter handle (and tapered pin)

1. insert driven shaft and bearings into rear housing

12 affix covers with oil seals for driven and output shaft

1. affix sheave and key to driven shaft, affix key and output connector to output shaft
2. install sight glass, drain plug, put the whole mess into the mill, tighten and fill with oil to proper level.

aaarrrggghhh ----- don't take this thing apart - but if you have one of these, copy this procedure and save lots of agony

Ok. Similar to what I was figuring. I may try the flush trick when I get a chance.

Many thanks for this and the other advise you've given in this thread (which has been saved). Wayne Cook

I *guessed* that you uploaded them to the dropbox

and was right -- they are there.

It looks beautiful. I wish that I hand one -- and someplace to put it.

:-)

Enjoy, DoN.

">>

If anyone would like, I can take a couple of photos of the assembled gearbox ready to go back into the mill and upload them to the drop box - I won't bother unless someone asks.

I've decided I'm going to make new sheaves to use the J series microgroove belts - this whole exercise stated because I was tired of the flat belt sliding off every time I tried to raise the table - now I know that it is possible that replacing the belt alone will fix it, but if I redesign to use modern belts, then I have a permanent solution with no more fuss and muss - the downside is that I give up the safety feature of having the belt slide off if there is an overload - but I figure if I don't tighten the belt too much I can get slippage instead - the two sheaves are 88 and 51 mm (or 2 and

3.5 inches) so making these, with the exception of the key slots, is within the capacity of my lathe - and I think I know where I can borrow the tools to cut the slots for the keys.

comments anyone? anyone have some spare J series microgroove sheaves in the sizes I need?

** Posted from **

">>

If anyone would like, I can take a couple of photos of the assembled gearbox ready to go back into the mill and upload them to the drop box - I won't bother unless someone asks.

I've decided I'm going to make new sheaves to use the J series microgroove belts - this whole exercise stated because I was tired of the flat belt sliding off every time I tried to raise the table - now I know that it is possible that replacing the belt alone will fix it, but if I redesign to use modern belts, then I have a permanent solution with no more fuss and muss - the downside is that I give up the safety feature of having the belt slide off if there is an overload - but I figure if I don't tighten the belt too much I can get slippage instead - the two sheaves are 88 and 51 mm (or 2 and

3.5 inches) so making these, with the exception of the key slots, is within the capacity of my lathe - and I think I know where I can borrow the tools to cut the slots for the keys.

comments anyone? anyone have some spare J series microgroove sheaves in the sizes I need?

Bill Noble wrote: (...)

Please do.

For the lazy old guys, please provide a link, ala:

Thanks!

--Winston

On Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:29:41 -0800, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

What's with the brass/bronze, non-hypoid, non-helical, curve-toothed gear thingy, Unca (Aunt?) Winnie?

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

Just a comment on the drop box posting: It would have been a lot nicer to put carriage returns in the text posting. So it dosent take about 4 times the width of a screen to read. Beautiful pictures. ...lew...

going to take photos now - I didn't provide a link with original post because the files hadn't appeared in the drop box when I made the posting.

If the gear to which you refer is the one at the "top" of the stack, that is the driven gear - there is a worm gear that drives it, and the worm gear is driven (via a flat belt, which is what started the whole mess) by a 2 HP motor that is inside the base of the mill. There is a picture of the mill itself on my web page (wbnoble.com) under hobbies/tools and a search for Abene VHF-3 will turn up lots of photos.

I will attempt to post the photos with names that will make them come out adjacent to the ones that are already there, and I'll accompany them with another annoying text file lacking carriage returns. Look for them in an hour or so

** Posted from **

ok, I've uploaded more files showing the exterior of the gearbox and the place where it goes in the mill - use the above links but the file names are of the form Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled.txt - the files aren't in the drop box just yet, so you'll just have to fake it.

anyone want photo of the drive sheaves? for what it's worth, the two sheaves are 88mm and 51mm for the gearbox and motor respectively at the largest diameter

here are the links to the exterior views of the gearbox The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled.txt has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled.txt". The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-4.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-4.JPG". The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-5.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-5.JPG". The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-1.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-1.JPG". The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-2.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-2.JPG". The file Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-3.JPG has been added to the Drop Box as "Abene_VHF-3-Gear-assembled-3.JPG".

- this is fine Swiss workmanship - this

Maybe the bearings are Swiss- But arent Abene mills made in Sweden?

That's _Honorary Aunt_ to you, buster.

The worm wheel? I haven't the foggiest.

Hey Bill, can you remind us what the worm wheel does for a living?

Thank you kindly.

--HA Winnie

I agree with Lew, Bill.

Great looking pictures!

--HA Winnie

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:14:37 -0800, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

Thanks, HAW.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine