Raglan LittleJohn Mk2 bed

[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

Good evening gentlemen,

I have just been lucky enough to aquire a Raglan LittleJohn lathe, which seems like a very nice machine, sturdy and accurate it is promised.

I got it free of charge and I am very grateful for being "treated" this way.

The plan is to restore it fully and then I will have te evaluate to keep or sell it (this is now my 3rd lathe, and I only have so much space in my workshop..)

Anyway, I have read up on this machine on Tony's site (lathes.co.uk) and as far as I can understand, and also see from the actual bed, the flats bedways are hardened and ground strips (apprx. equal to the Myford 7 size in thickness/depth and a little longer) that can be reground if worn. Mine is not that bad really, so no panic, but I was thinking.. they seem to be equal fron and back, and screw holes/plinths matches, so.. it should be possible to swop them?? I mean, what wear there is is on the outer sides of the flats towards the headstock from the carriage and then on the inner sides towards the tailstock. However, if the bed strips were swopped around, there will be a pristine area for both the carriage and the tailstock ASSUMING of course that we are tallking about the most used areas..

Am I crazy or onto something?

BR

Jan Sverre

[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

swop hardened bed strips to even out wear?

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

They are also dowelled on the one I had. Might cause a problem. I managed to persuade some people to do what Tony reckons is impossible. Clock up the inner edge of the strips and regrind the opposite edge. it needs doing rather precisely as even a thou error will cause the saddle to tighten at one end. I was really pleased that it came out perfectly when refitted without having to add new dowel holes 'cause I had no idea just how I could drill new ones.

I suspect the reason they still turn fairly well when the bed is a bit worn because it's rather wider than a certain other make that uses flat rails. The turning is ok but the few thou taper annoyed me so had I it fixed.

John

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[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

Thanks for the reply,

I see the point. The vertical alignment is of course very important to retain. Maybe I just leave as is. The bed not much worn, nor is the saddle (if any), so I hope measurements on the vertical faces will show that I don't have to do anything. Sounds like you have a nice lathe there.. is yours also an Mk2?

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Mine went some time ago Jan. In my opinion they are a very under rated lathe. Mine had the square head so assume that is the more recent one.

I should have also replaced the head stock bearings which I assume are a standard size. A bit of swarf had got in one somehow and had scored the outer shell. I also pumped in too much grease which burst the seals but they may have been like that when I bought it.

When I bought the lathe I later found that one half of a variable speed pulley had a crack in it. It wasn't too difficult to set things up on it to make a replacement.

From memory it might be worth you checking the drive parts. I seem to remember one odd aspect. A shaft with a pulley on it with just a deep groove bearing on one end only.Mine was a bit worn so was replaced. At the same time I managed to to drop it and chip some of the rim of the pulley away. Fixing that bent the head on a Taig I had at the time. It could only just swing it. I had to machine one side of the V in one go with form tool.

When I checked for wear I just mic'd across the rails on the basis that there would be little to none on the inside edges. Again from memory when removed part of the lower inner surface can never have any wear at all.

It had to go though due to rust problems in the garage. I developed a bit of a cough from breathing too many oil fumes trying to stop that happening. Put me of wd40 and others for life. My lathe is in the house now so has to be a bench type to gain storage space.

John

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[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

HI John,

I also had a TAIG once, with al the accessories. I honestly can say I made more stuff back then as opposed to now..

Nice, but tiny.

The feed lever is broken on my Raglan, but apart from teh missing parts, it looks to be in order. Went back today to search for those, but nothing found. Must have a go at the cellar again, I guess..

Well, it wil be yet another project. Enough to keep me busy long into retirement

Jan

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

In response to Ajohnw, the spindle, apart from the earliest Mk1's, use obsolete bearings – at least the outer race as it was rebated to locate, and retain in position, as the spindle was preloaded. Also for rearwards thrust when 

in operation. Further, the operating manual clearly instructs that the bearings are oil lubed, not greased. Grease would cause problems as the lube would build up behind the bearings and likely damage the drive belt(s) as the bearings are not sealed.

 

The only part grease-lubed might be the gear cutting train (and only on the models with the longer spindle, which avoids any swarf falling in that area). I use oil on mine, anyway.

 

Jan,

 

 

A good, well made (and engineered) lathe, far superior to the myford (but costing rather more, in its day). Especially those fitted with the QCGB. The later 5'' was even better, I am told.

 

 

The ways can be removed and reground, then shimmed to retain levels, if necessary. So, yes, crazy to go to the trouble of removing and turning round when the extra cost of regrinding would be certain to correct for any wear.

 

 

Come and join us on the raglanmachinetools.freeforums.net/ site. A quiet forum, traffic-wise, but plenty of help and assistance from the regulars. There are operating manuals on the site (and elsewhere), along with some spare parts available at times.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By not done it yet on 06/09/2016 09:26:50

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

The people who did the rails for me also offered to regrind the bearings. Their method should work out. They first ground up a pocket to hold the bearing, fit it to that and then reground the taper. From what I can gather they did this fairly regularly so other companies who recon machines may be able to do it. In this case they also did a lot of tool room type work. They even had an elderly bloke that did work for model engineers in his lunch hour.

Maybe mine was only lightly worn but I only had the one edge ground on each rail as surface wear wasn't really measurable. They also offered to regrind spacers for me when I refitted the saddle using shims on the basis that this was a better option. I found that the lathe unlike a Myford was fine without worrying about that aspect so it went back just as it was.

The problem with the one edge grind is that it needs doing very precisely so some one needs to clock it up rather accurately. The work was also done on a virtually new slide way grinder. Some top surface wear shouldn't cause problems other than saddle fit as a tool dropping by a thou or so wont have much effect on the dia that is being turned.

LOL They had to be more expensive than a Myford so I can't see the point in that comment. A number of other lathes were as well. It unlike Myford wasn't a budget lathe. I seem to remember reading that Raglan was bought out by Myford and henceforth disappeared. My Raglan encouraged me to try an ML7 as I had been warned that this style of bed does have it's problems – put a lot more strongly than that. Another lathe which I have heard works reasonably well with this style of bed is the Atlas. I've never used one but an owner also pointed out that the bearings can be changed. Probably not on all. I don't know.

John

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[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

Not done it yet:

Thanks for the comment and the invitation. I will join that forum.

John:

Thanks for the inout also.

To both of you: I seems mine is also lightly worn and I might only need a regrind where the saddle has beein sliding

[Jan Sverre HaugjordParticipant @jansverrehaugjord87863]

Bedways came off today.. hmm.. no turning back now

**LINK**

PS! I will be at the Model Engineering show this weekend I may be in the market for some parts and/or accessories for it.. any chance someone knows if there are booths there selling parts for this lathe?

BR

Jan Sverre

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