You snipped out the part where I mentioned that it could be mounted but disengaged, and was likely shipped set that way to reduce wear on the leadscrew until you are ready to do single-point threading.
Is yours held to the side of the apron by a single screw? If you loosen the screw, can it be rotated so the gear on the bottom end engages the leadscrew? That should be all that is needed to make it work.
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I don't know -- though I must have at one point. :-) I remember the first access to a small lathe (a 6" South Bend, I think) at work back around 1960.
When backed away from the leadscrew, will the gear at the bottom turn by hand? If it is frozen, there is something too tight in the threading dial assembly, and that needs to be disassembled to find out why it is frozen.
If it does turn, rotate it back into contact with the leadscrew (working the carriage back and forth a little until the gear lines up with the threads of the leadscrew and drops into engagement).
Once that is done, with no half-nuts or longitudinal feed (if the latter is separate from the half-nuts) engagement, crank the carriage back and forth. The dial should turn. If it does not, look at the gear on the bottom and verify that it is turning (you should not be able to move the carriage otherwise given the conditions I have described.)
If the gear turns and the dial does not -- check that the screw in the center of the dial is firmly tightened. (Assuming that it is held on by a screw through the center as in the photo on the website you posted a while back in this thread.
It is possible that the dial is a permanent part of a shaft, and there is a setscrew or a pin connecting the dial to the gear. Mine is of the latter design. Make sure that those are in place and tight as well.
Once all of this is verified, with the threading dial pickup gear enaged with the leadscrew, you should observe the following conditions:
1) With the half nut (and possible feed lever) disengaged, the spindle not turning, and the carriage cranked left to right, the dial should turn as the carriage moves.
2) With the half nut (and possible feed lever) disengaged so the carriage is stationary, the spindle turning, and the reverse/neutral/forward lever on the gear train to the leadscrew in either left-hand (reverse) or right-hand (forward) (as when you are threading) so the leadscrew is turning, the threading dial should turn fairly slowly (unless you are set up for a fairly coarse thread, which would cause it to turn faster).
3) With the half nut engaged (as for threading) and the spindle turning, the dial should appear stationary, but the carriage should be moving. (Probably a good idea to set up for a very fine thread while doing this test, to avoid running out of carriage travel while you are looking at what is happening. :-)
The threading dial shows the position of the carriage with relation to the leadscrew, to show you when to close the half nuts (with the spindle running) to track the same path as before. While waiting for the right number to come up, you can sometimes crank the carriage backwards to get closer to the number you want to close the half nuts at. This won't get you started cutting the threads any sooner, but you will be watching the carriage move towards the start of the workpiece, instead of sitting there anxious, waiting for the number to finally reach the right point to close the half-nuts. (This is also the reason that there are multiple numbers and index lines on the dial, so you can (when the threads are right) close without waiting for a nearly full rotation of the threading dial.
You really *should* take the time to make sure that the threading dial works properly on your lathe -- it is a great time saver, so any time invested in making it work right now will be repaid many times over the life of the lathe.
O.K. Remove it from the lathe and double check whether the gear at the bottom turns freely when it is unmounted. If not, loosen the screw which is likely in the center of the dial. If this frees it up somewhat, it is likely that there are chips or other debris either between the gear and the bearing, or between the dial and the upper bearing. Disassemble, clean, relubricate, and check again.
You -- or someone in the thread, and I think that it was you, posted a URL to a page on how to single-point threads on a lathe. Somewhere down a few photos before you get to the threading dial photo.
Better might be to take a photo of your own threading dial on your lathe, and put it on a web site temporarily -- then let us see the URL so we can examine what you have.
More stuff for the file, thanks. BTW you now merit your own folder in the "Tools" section. Oh, wait, that came out wrong...:-)
I swear I have a "Tools" section for all the workshop stuff! Absolutely no disrespect!
Jim Wilkins just fessed up. Whew! I was worried there for a moment.
It is the same one as jsw linked.
More like "better weather". I really do not relish being in the unheated workshop right now. OTOH since the Christmas rush I was able to slow down and concentrate on strategic activities such as design and planning.
The thread cutting was just a light relief which I sort of stumbled into on account of a crappy die.
The worst thing is that I shall have to start the New year with woodworking - my router table needs a better support and, most importantly, wheels, as it rather gets in the way. That amongst other things means that all the metalworking machinery needs to go under cover.
I did not take it wrong. Besides, at MIT, "tool" is (or at least was) a term for someone who focused deeply on a problem -- usually schoolwork rather than hobby work. :-)
Good!
O.K. So that screw in the center of the dial is your key to disassembling it once it is off your lathe's carriage..
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O.K. I've got to go to my shop and do some sheet metal work -- cutting out, notching, and bending up a housing to mount a control panel (for a VFD) to the front of the drill press. I've finally replaced the single phase motor on the floor standing drill press with a three-phase one to allow easy speed control and easy reversing.
I'm already using the VFD, but the control panel is a little out of convenient reach.
The ability to do this is a result of a recent project when I got a small TIG welder at a yard sale this fall, and before the weather turned too cold, I welded up a stand for a corner notching shear which had been kicked (gently) off a workbench to make room for a 24" straight shear (DiAcro), so I can now use both. :-) (I also have a 24" DiAcro finger brake.)
And learned that you really could cut threads on your lathe.
Given that some woods are rather acidic, and the dust settling on the metal sliding surfaces of machine tools can lead to rust, yes, cover.
In the department's model shop at MITRE I had a 24" shear and 24" finger brake on the bench and a 24" Triok 3-in-1 machine on a cart, likely from another closed shop. Although I greatly preferred the bench machines, the
3-in-1 would handle the same jobs adequately and occupied much less space.
I had to dispose of a 13" South Bend lathe (sigh!) to cram in a more useful small knee mill. The main machine shop did have a Hardinge HLV-H but they wouldn't let me run it. I had a Prazi clone in my lab which was good enough for the minimal turning electronics requires.
One of my flip-top tool stands mounts a corner notcher permanently on one side and a shear or compact bender on the other. The pivoting tabletop frame has holes to take a long pipe handle which is very useful to pull against for all three. I can bend the end of long stock by rotating the stand on its casters instead of needing a large open space for the stock to swing around, and it can be supported by a ladder etc.
I've had a 'Newsgroups' folder for over ten years, with sub folders, with sub folders. I also have an archive of tens of thousands of messages in a separate set of folders on my news client. Since the files are stored as text, I can search for what I remember about a subject and find the information.
Interesting! I use all three lathes about 9 times as frequently as my mill.
That could change as I recently got a rotary table and for Christmas a collet block with a 5C collet set but I still do not see it beginning to equal the lathe use.
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