Thanks for all the answers to my post. I do have the book recommended, 'How to Run a Lathe'. I should have looked in there for nomenclature first. The part that is missing is shown on page 8 and is designated Eccentric shaft, Quill gear, bushing, and a smaller gear that goes on the other end of the shaft. The Compound Rest Top is the problem I am having trouble removing. There is the nut for the screw that controls the feed for the tool post in the base and I don't know how to remove it. I can see the bottom of it underneath the base and there is no screwdriver slot in it. I think it is called the cross feed nut??? There is no screw on the top that holds it. The lathe is a 9" x 4.5 feet according to the brass plate on the end. The apron has a wheel for travel and a lever for engaging the lead screw. There is no 'gear box' or any bells or whistles, this is a pretty basic machine....good to learn on. I am really stuck on the removal of the compound rest top. I am thinking about a bit of heat from a propane torch but am reluctant because of all the cast iron and the expansion issues therein. It looks like when everything is clean and bright that the re-assembly would entail simply pushing the part (cross feed nut) into place with a finger from underneath while engaging the cross feed screw with your other hand while holding the nut in place. In this less than perfect world I have to figure how to get that puppy out first. More suggestions and advise gladly welcomed. Sid Gammon
O.K. Which edition? I've got two -- the 1950 reprint, and an original 1966, and they both don't have that information on that page. :-)
O.K. That is is the back gears for sure. The "eccentric shaft" is what enables the back gear to move into or out of mesh.
Cross feed nut would be a different one from the compound nut. Since my machine is a Clausing, and a lot of things were done differently by different manufacturers, to get around patents, I'm not sure how well they map together.
However -- the cross-slide nut in mine is a T-shaped lump of bronze made of cylindrical sections. The leadscrew goes through the length of the top bar of the 'T', and the vertical part is turned to a diameter which will fit into a hole bored through the cross slide. That is held into the cross slide by an Allen head set screw put in from the Headstock side of the cross slide. You first remove two screws which hold the bearing of the cross-feed leadscrew to the end of the cross-slide, and unscrew the (left-hand thread) leadscrew. Then you slide the cross-slide towards the back, and you can loosen the setscrew and it will drop out into your hand.
As for the compound -- I had to go out and look at it to be sure:
1) Unscrew the double crank handle from the end of the leadscrew using an open end wrench to hold the locknut.
2) Unscrew the locknut.
3) Loosen the set screw in the nut (which looks like a cylinder with two diameters along its length) and unscrew it. (There is a lead shot under the setscrew to hold without deforming the threads.) The movable dial rotates with this held to it by the locking thumbscrew and a small brass plug under the thumbscrew.
4) Unscrew the bearing with a pin spanner. (There are two holes in the face for the pin spanner. (First, loosen the set screw on the side which locks it in place.
5) Unscrew and withdraw the leadscrew (Right-hand thread on this one, I believe.)
6) Under the leadscrew, in the body you will see a long Allen- head setscrew. Loosen this, and the nut should simply drop out the bottom of the compound body.
To see what this looks like on the Clausing, go to my web site:
and click on the link for the lathe manual to download and save it.
The breakdown drawing of the cross-slide and compound is on printed page 19, which is PDF page 39 (there are a lot of pages with similar numbers.) The part you want is at the top of the page.
Hopefully, you can find a similar set of drawings of your lathe, to know how to take it apart.
Yes -- except that you will have habits to unlearn when you get a nicer one. In particular -- you will be in the habit of using the leadscrew and half nuts for "power feed" as well as for threading. This is bad overall, because it wears the leadscrew and reduces accuracy of threading over time. The power feed is taken from the longitudinal groove on the leadscrew instead of the faces of the Acme threads (and produces a much slower feed, and thus finer finish for a given set of gears. It is even slower for the power cross-feed.
I suspect that there is a setscrew holding it in -- but where it hides remains to be seen.
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