Newby machine help please

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Hi all, I'm a bit new to this lathe lark but being a farmer I need one every now and again for repairs etc.. I bought a cheap Mitchell lathe from eBay and want to do some threading on it but I can't make out how to set the gears, I'll attach some pic and probably some of you may be able to point me in the obvious (but not to me) direction please. I'm not sure if I'm missing some more gears or whatever but I've trawled the Internet and looked for a manual etc for the machine but to no avail… Any help will be great fully received.

Marc

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

pics in album

Edited By Marc Jonah on 10/02/2017 22:04:07

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Post the pictures in an album and then anyone can see them if you like.

David

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Many thanks David, I've just done that. I think.

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

Hello Marc,

Where in the country are you.? Somebody may be able to show you.

Edit :- Just looked at your previous posts. I see you are in south Wales.

Nick

Edited By Nick_G on 10/02/2017 22:08:45

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Marc You can look up Woodhouse Mitchell lathes on Lathes.co.uk web site ( Tony's lathes)

David

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Cheers David, I have emailed to you about it and he sent me what he had but wasn't the same as my lathe, I sent him some pictures back but didn't hear anything further.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

It looks like to cut imperial threads (Threads per Inch) you can just use the levers set as per the chart next to them.. Then to cut metric threads, you have to position the levers and the extra change gears as per the extra metric square chart attached to the machine. The abbreviations on that chart mean "Driver" being the first gear in a meshing pair, the one on the lathe spindle that drives the next gear in the train and so on, and "Driven" meaning the gear that comes second in the pair and is driven by the other gear, eg the gear on teh leadscrew or the gearbox input shaft.

Confusing in writing I know. Would be nice if you could get someone over to show you the ropes in person.

[Simon Williams 3Participant @simonwilliams3]

Could you post a picture of the left hand of the headstock – end on so we can see the gear train please. You've took the cover off, and there is a picture of some of the gears but the rest are lost in the shadows.

Thx Simon

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Many thanks, I've just added another picture side on in which you will see the only 4 gears I have which are 63-60-42-40.

Cheers

Marc

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Posted by Marc Jonah on 10/02/2017 22:52:17:

Cheers David, I have emailed to you about it and he sent me what he had but wasn't the same as my lathe, I sent him some pictures back but didn't hear anything further.

Sorry David this was meant to say "I have emailed Tony about it"

[ScrumpyParticipant @scrumpy]

Hi After looking at your pictures I think it's the same as mine it's a 8 1/2 X 10 or 12 lathe as per the gearing mine is set up for imperial screw cutting the gears on the end are 40 – 60 – 40 looking at the front panel the top 3 leavers are for speed the 1 next down is for travice

The 2 leavers on the angle are for feed and cutting imperial threads there are to figures one on top of each other top for threads bottom for feeds

3 leavers below are 2 on left feed and screw cutting 1 on the right to engage lead screw panel on the end is for metric you have got in my mind a very good lathe

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The label seems to suggest different gears on the end for imperial so with a 63 on the banjo it is probably set for metric. Can't see on the label what it says. Try cleaning the labels and posting new pictures.

The first thing would be to set for say 1mm and put a piece of plastic water pipe in the chuck. Use this to scratch a thread, no need even to cut, and see if it measures up to the setting to prove the end gears are right.

Edited By Bazyle on 11/02/2017 09:38:23

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

When setting the two top levers 13N57 etc make sure the other lever is in N or the gearbox will jam.

The lower levers AB, CD are each power of two ie doubling the mitch which can work together to give a power of 4.

When looking at the metric table as said above the gears go spindle/banjo/banjo/gearbox or as written Driver/driven/driver/driven with the two middle ones on the same axle so you are getting two stages of reduction.

Did you get any loose gears? like another 40 and a 48?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

You can put album pictures into a post using the black camera icon in the 'post a reply' box.

Neil

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

This is what I presumed but, I didn't get any other gears with it so it wasn't making any sense to me. I'll set the gears I have to match one of the metric threads and give it a go. Thanks for your help all, I really appreciate it. Do you have any pictures of yours scrumpy?

[ScrumpyParticipant @scrumpy]

Hi I have just been to the workshop and checked to make sure you are given the correct information

The 2 middle levers feed and screw cutting are numbered LH 5-1-N -3-7 RH 6-2-N-4- blank the bottom leavers are marked LH- B – A RH -D-C with the other lead screw

To cut a thread of 30 tpi the gearbox should be set to 3-BD on levers 40 driving intermediate 60 driven

40 tpi gearbox 3-BD with 30 driving intermediate 60 driven

10 MM Pitch 3-AC on gearbox with 45 driven to a 60 intermediate 63 second intermediate to 48 driven

A full set of gears are 30 40xtwo 42 44 45 46 48 57 60 63 80

hope this helps

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

With that combination of gears it looks as if it's set up for 1¾, 3½, 7, and 14 mm pitch. Not very useful

Russell.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Scrumpy, next time you are out there best measure the DP of the gears and hole/keyway details. Looks like Marc will have to get another 40 from Devall or somewhere for the imperial side.

[Marc JonahParticipant @marcjonah71323]

Thanks guys, I suppose I'm now in search for a full set of gears, now possibly the silly questions bit…. are bit like this still available or are you suggesting having them made?

Thanks

Marc

[ScrumpyParticipant @scrumpy]

Hi I have looked and the manual again and I cannot see head or tail what Russell is talking about, Marc on looking at your photos what gears do you have ,

One small tip if you put the speed leavers in neutral with the motor running and pull the leaver to run the internal pump until oil runs through the sight glass top right this allows the headstock bearings to be lubricated you have a very good lathe

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The gear highest up in the sequence will be linked directly to the spindle and probably rotate at the same 1:1 ratio with the spindle (check this). We can call it the spindle gear as if it were directly on there. The bottom gear should be the input to the gearbox

The gears are at a random position at the moment if I am getting the picture rotated right in my head. The 63 appears to be on the input to the gearbox ie a driven gear. It is never required in this position.

Imperial. The plate by the top left lever says eg "60,40,INT" and "40, 40, INT" the INT stands for "intermediate" and is just to bridge the gap between the other two gears so it will not change the ratio and can be any gear that fits.

The middle top plate shows you the threads you will get eg for third column 8,9,10,11,12,13,14 for each lever number setting BUT only if you have 40: INT 40 on the gears.
For the moment you are gong to have to put 40 on the 'spindle' and 60 on the gearbox with whatever fits, probably your 42 in the middle to bridge the gap.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

This means you get threads which are finer than the plate by 60/40 eg 8 becomes 8×60/40 = 12

The table then becomes (should be 5 columns but can't paste properly from Excel)

      ac   bc   ad   bd

1    3     6    12     24

2     3.375 6.75 13.5 27

3     3.75  7.5  15    30

4     4.125 8.25 16.5 33

5     4.5    9     18        36

6     4.875 9.75 19.5 39

7     5.25 10.5  21     42

column on the left is lever position 1,2,3,4, etc

Edited By Bazyle on 11/02/2017 15:13:49

Edited By Bazyle on 11/02/2017 15:29:24

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

For the missing gears you can still get industrial gears from eg Devall but the hole in the middle and the keyway probably won't be as required. You need to know the 'Diametric Pitch' or DP. Take the 60 gear, measure the diameter over the teeth in inches, calculate (60+2)/(diameter). It will be a round figure like 12,14,16. If it is not a round figure it may be metric which we can tackle later.

Devall look under "spur gears inch"

You will be able to sort out the hole size and keyway on your lathe after a bit of practice. COme back for advice when needed.

[Author]

Posts