11% Racing's Adventures in Machining

Today's the day; I finally own a Lathe and a Mill

By sheer dumb luck I met a guy who is helping to sell a 15yrs closed machine shop. I wasn't necessarily looking for this size of machines right now, but the price was right, so I obtained 2 of each, the other pair being put into storage by the moving company ( DFW Movers ) for my dad once he gets a shop to put them in.

All 4 on the truck, pretty sure my neighbors thought I bought a stegosaurus statue

This pic should explain why I hired pros to move the machines. My driveway is about a 20 degree slope, and I have a couple nice black streaks down it from the forklift sliding down on its way back to the truck. If it were dry out and just 1 or 2 machines it wouldn't be an issue and I'd do it Toms way, but buying 4 machines at once and needing to store 2 complicated things. Of course it rained on moving day, so the forklift couldn't make it up the final bump into the garage.

Luckily, I have a 12,000 lb winch bolted to the ground at the back of the garage for dragging in broken or roller vehicles, or lowering said vehicles back out onto a trailer, so the machines made it in, and the lemons car even fit back in with no issues

Chloe was concerned

In the next couple months I have to run 220V to the machines, install a VFD or two, and do some general cleanup before making chips, so there's more to come

In reply to TheTallOne17 :

Wow, congrats!

The first hurdle: Removing the chuck

This lathe uses a threaded nut to retain the chuck on the spindle, and currently a collet chuck is installed. It's a neat thing to get, but I'd like to be able to use other chucks too

The back gears wont hold well enough to loosen this guy, and it sure looks like its seen a hammer before

Any suggestions? I can get a big pipe wrench on some steel in a collet? Or on the back of the spindle? Heat? Penetrating oil? Negotiating?

TheTallOne17 said:

I can get a big pipe wrench on some steel in a collet? Or on the back of the spindle? Heat? Penetrating oil? Negotiating?

No suggestions, but this sounds like the five stages of grief for mechanics

On a SouthBend you lock the spindle by engaging the back gear with the pin still in place.  This essentially locks the spindle drive in two different gears at the same time so there's no way for it to move.  I believe that the Clausing works the same way but it's been over 20 years since I ran a Clausing.

As far as the nut is concerned; are you using a pin spanner that's the correct size and in good shape?  If that's the case you should be able to loosen the nut with a sharp rap on the handle.  If that's not the case then you should get the correct spanner.

In reply to TheTallOne17 :

I don't think I'd try a pipe wrench unless you have a new part ready for whatever you put it on.

It looks like there are holes in the collet for one of those half-circle wrenches.  I'd find or build one of those,  lock the gears in place somehow (on mine I clamp the drive belt in place so it can't move) then give the wrench a good smack with a hammer in the direction of loosening it. Don't beat on it relentlessly, one good sharp blow, then inspect for any movement or damage.  Keep that up until movement or damage occurs.  If movement you're golden, if damage you should have been patient enough to limit it.

Usually these tools don't need a lot of persuasion if they have been used regularly.

I have done the sharp rap method, but the spindle just turns even with the back gears engaged. Perhaps the spanner I have is the wrong size or I need a bigger one or the nut is just tighter than the back gears resistance can hold on it's own. These machines havemt been in use in over 15 year' and were in a production setting where changing chucks was an uncommon event

Failing that, I think I'm going to go with a buddy and a pipe or strap wrench to hold the spindle still, I think there's a few spots that would be safe to hold onto without damaging the machine

Going by APE's post there should be a method of locking the gears so that it shouldn't matter what the back gear resistance is, it will be meshed with two separate gears and be unable to move.  Have you tried that, or are we talking about the same thing?

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I've tried following the instructions on how to lock the back gears; it doesn't seem to put it into 2 gears at once in my case.

I may not have had the spindle clutch lever engaged/braked, so I may be able to do that. Or it may require adjusting the clutch. I'll look closer tonight or next week if I have time. We've got a lemons race to get thru this weekend.

I did reach out to a guy who makes extra long spanners that should fit my lathe to see if he can sell me one

I'd post your questions on Practical Machinist. I'm pretty sure they have a forum just for Clausing. 

Well, the spindle nut is still stuck. But I have a plan; a homemade strap wrench using the timing belt that I need to replace anyways

So let's get the timing belt off. If I havent mentioned it this lathe is a Clausing 6913. It has a 14 inch swing, and came with a 6 position turret tail stock (Clausing 7228) that I'll get around to rebuilding soonish

First forget to take pictures til you're done. Second, poorly follow the cryptic semi out of order instructions in the original manual you lucked into. It took 3 interpretations to get the steps right, made harder by the fact I cant follow any of the steps requiring I run the lathe

Eventually, you pull this:

Out from here:

To get to these:

All while your dog try's to crawl in your lap, sniff everything, and ask why we aren't playing outside

Next up: find what timing belt to order (easy I hope), and call clausing for a new variable speed belt (easy, but $$$) because much like the incredibly hated Nissan Altima, this puppy has a CVT that's in need of a rebuild

Well, I got the chuck off. I ended up disassembling the whole collet closer mechanism, which let me have access to shoot pb blaster in to where the chuck mated to the spindle. From there I did lots of tapping and turning and more taping, followed by heating the chuck (not the retaining nut) and finally giving the spanner a nice hard tap broke everything free.

The chuck was pretty grungy:

As was the spindle:

But now that's free and I know I'll be able to change chucks I'm happy to keep moving forward

Success!

Always a nice feeling.

That spindle nose needs a lot of work.

Yank the key, then clean and stone it.

It's been a bit, and while the lathe is now clean and reassembled, it is still waiting on new belts and wiring. Meanwhile, the Bridgeport still needs disassembling and before venturing into the wiring rabbit hole. And that will be delayed for months due to an upcoming shoulder surgery.

So what can you do with a mill that doesn't run? Check spring forces.

I need to get the relief valve pressure on my X1/9 racecar correct, and the spring that came with the new oil pump appears to be way too heavy, as oil pressure at 4krpm goes over 90 psi

To start: figure out how to center the spring and contain it should it try to run away under compression. I used the spare relief valve that is actually designed to seat the spring

Measure the overall length of the spring (uncompressed) to make sure that at least meats spec, and determine how high you will need to raise the table to reach the installed closed length, and the installed open length

Lock the quilt and raise the table until the string barely starts to exert pressure on your scale. Back off to make sure you are starting at your fully uncompressed length, and zero your scale and table height dial

Slowly raise your table to the compressed (closed) length, forget to take a picture, then raise to compressed (open) length

And compare to the specs from you manual (or desired numbers) My original spring was significantly under the spec pressure

To make up for that, I will need a shim. So I re-zeroed my table height dial (you can also just write down the distance you stopped at, I wanted to avoid math) and raise the table to the spec spring open pressure

The distance I raised the table (0.102") to hit the factory high side of the tolerance, as I want more pressure for racing, will be the size shim I need to install under the spring when it is installed in the pump

TheTallOne17 said:

Luckily, I have a 12,000 lb winch bolted to the ground at the back of the garage for dragging in broken or roller vehicles

genius idea

The lathe runs... kinda

I finally ran 220V in my garage, and got one of the vfds I will need for the machines. Here it is all wired up

Got it hooked up the the lathe, the motor spun right up, and then some odd jingling noises started coming from the CVT assembly.

It turns out that the through shaft (pully push shaft assembly) that limits the outer travel of the moving end of the CVT sheared off at the pin at some point in the past. There were a few design iterations of the part, so mine is a bit different than the diagram. McMaster is getting me a couple new studs of the right size tomorrow, so hopefully this weekend first chips can be made