Hello Lee,

There are three points where wear leading to clanking can occur, the die block pivot you have tackled.

The second is wear in the oilite bush for the driving pin in the bull wheel that fits into the bottom yoke of the rocking arm and the final spot is at the top of the rocking arm which is located by a top pin held in the adjustable mounting off the underside of the ram.

Your die block attention may just have moved things about from their settled position for a spell before things eased back again on further running.

If you would like drawings send me a PM with your email address

Regards

Brian

PS Mine has a gentle clanking which has been with it for years, it sounds rather like an old agitator washing machine and I just live with it as the level of noise is unchanged over time. If it gets worse I'll look into it.

Edited By Brian Wood on 22/03/2015 10:52:16

I used the advice above and put some grease on the main drive gears then squirted a bunch of oil through the oil hole drilled in the crank for the die block

My clunking sound has now completely disappeared and she purrs along

Edited By Ady1 on 23/03/2015 09:18:42

Hello Lee,

Thamks for the feedback, it is always nice to hear of the outcome and a successful one in this case. the drawings offer is still there if you want them

Regards

Brian

Lee, a good modern alternative to grease on gears is to use spray-can motorcycle chain lube. It is Extreme Pressure lube, just right for gears, and sets like a tacky glue that does not fling off and does not attract swarf quite as much as grease. Trick is to spray it on and leave it to set overnight before running the machine. This lets it set nice and tacky.

Been doing this on my ancient lathe's unguarded change gears for some years and very pleased with the result.

And hospital origin is quite possible. I worked in several hospitals and they have a surprising array of equipment to maintain, including some largish boilers, steam plant and HVAC systems. So used to often have a few machine tools, lathe, mill, shaper, welder etc for the maintenance fitters to use. I suppose these days its all done by contractors on call who just replace whole assemblies and charge accordingly.

Lee – my Alba also has a gentle clank. It's not loud or menacing enough to suggest instant investigation and for the time being it can stay as it is – it's rather soothing when I think about it!

Rik

For me a lathe does the round stuff and a shaper does the square and flat stuff

It's the first machine I've come across which gets scarier the better you get to know it which is the opposite to a lathe for me

The really scary bit is the rams' inexorable march through whatever you put in front of it, the ram stops for nothing, ever. Most of the time this is the workpiece at the point of the tool but every now and then if you are roughing down an odd bit of metal it will take too big a bite and shove the work right out of the vice. I tend to put my work lengthways because of the potential for disaster with a shaper.

A shaper simply powers its way through the weakest point in the cycle, I have read of the entire work table being removed by those big cincinatti shapers when something went wrong

I don't put very much rake in my tools either to reduce the chance of a dig-in when she's steaming through a bit of metal

On a passive workpiece the formation and removal of chips is strangely mesmerising as it carves those curly smoking bits of swarf out

clunk.click.clunk click.clunk.click…

Edited By Ady1 on 27/03/2015 01:24:05

Actually the shaper does not always win. My 6 inch Ammco had a repair done to the slotted arm long before I bought it…it must have had a crash and the weakest link turned out to be there. Quite interesting because on those machines the bull wheel is fiber and apparently have been known to rip teeth out.

My 18 inch Alba had also had an accident at some point. The dovetail on the gib strip side of the downfeed was broken away enough that one screw was missing. I was able to machine the break to a flat seating and then add a piece on with capscrews. This was then machined to match the dovetail and a hole tapped for the gib strip screw. Once painted, the repair was invisible.

The other machine, a 10 inch Alba, seems to have lead a more sheltered life. I did have a 14 inch one too. That came to me in pieces and appeared to have barely even have turned over. Probably spent about 50 years disassembled.

John