Stripped gears on Warco mini lathe

[David Lawrence 2Participant @davidlawrence2]

Hi all, Just been machining a chuck backplate on my mini lathe, light cuts, the tool dug in into what i think is a stanless steel backplate, big noise and screms from the head stock. I think i must have stripped some gears as the backplate bearly rotates now. I see on the Arc euro site they sell all sorts of gears for these small latrhes. Question is has anybody had to replace some of these gears and how to do it. is it a 2 hour job or 2 days, thanks for looking

[David Lawrence 2Participant @davidlawrence2]

[Philrob27Participant @philrob27]

Axminster tools can supply replacement gears they also have a diagram on there web site to show which gear you need

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

ARC show how to strip the whole lathe here including the bits with the gears, time will really depend on how able you are and if you have the tools for the job.

[ScottParticipant @scott]

David

Have you had the motor cover off? You might be lucky and it's just the toothed drive belt. Also not unknown for the drive belt pulley to come undone from the end of the shaft. From memory it's only a small screw that holds it on. It can make a good graunching noise if it comes off under load

Good luck

Scott

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

If it's stripped the gears change the spindle gears for the steel ones and use the plastic one for the layshaft.

Reason being it's easy to swap the plastic ones out without a massive strip down.

Buy two plastic ones so you have a spare because of the old adage if you have a spare the original one won't break.

By from ARC, not plugging ARC but they are the cheapest by far. If you don't believe me ring Warco on Monday.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

Change the HI/LOW gear leaver to the other range to what you were using and see if you get some drive then .
If you do get drive then the other gear is stripped .

While I don't regard the replacement of the headstock gears as being difficult for me, I can't gauge anyone else's mechanical ability but if you follow the instructions from ARC and take your time you should be ok .

I would replace both gears with steel ones and never have to worry about them again although you may notice that they are a little noisy .

One thing that rarely gets mentioned is how do you lubricate the steel gears once the headstock is back on the lathe ?
I drilled and tapped two 1/4 inch holes (each one aligned to the high and low gear on the spindle ) so I can squirt some chain lube or spray type lithium grease onto the gears every so often and then plug the holes with screws .
It's a simple Mod that is best done while the headstock is dismantled so it can be cleaned and assembled -this Mod also suites the X2 mill as they use the same gears .

Ian

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Problem is with the two steel gears is, for a rank beginner is they are not forgiving and you stand more chance of wrecking a motor or spindle board than a £5.41 plaggy gear.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

Yes true it can sort of act like a safety devise although no guarantee that damage will not occur elsewhere ,I would have suspected the belt drive to be the next weakest link which is also cheap to fix but more accessible .
One issue I have with running plastic on steel is the relatively rough finish of the steel gears for these machines that I feel would chew the plastic gear up pretty quickly .
I suppose that David will have the weigh it all up and work out which way he wishes to proceed .

Ian

[David Lawrence 2Participant @davidlawrence2]

Hi all, Update to the stripped gears. Thanks for all the advice, having removed some covers it looks like the news is good, the toothed drive belt has some teeth missing and the belt broke in half removing it. So a new drive belt may all thats needed, The drive shaft and layshaft seem ok, so it looks like it got off OK, The stainless steel chuck back plate lives to fight back another day. I have had the lathe for 12 years and its the frist time i have had any trouble like this. I should stick too what i know, Aluminium and Brass. David

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi David,

Don't fear turning iron and steel on a mini lathe. at 12 years your toothed belt was past it's best before by date

Neil

[Keith MoatParticipant @keithmoat36026]

I have the Warco Super mini lathe, which has all steel gears and brushless motor and the belt seems to be the only fail safe on the machine in these situations. I've only had it a month and I've managed to damage a few teeth on the belt when the tool dug in, same thing, screaming from the head stock etc. Luckily it's still running ok, I think the belt was a bit loose and it's not totally taken out the teeth to the full depth.

In the US they have an overload cut sensor out on some of their machines, which could save the belt (maybe ?) in these situations. Does anyone know if there is such a system available over here ?

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