An Emergency Repair

After a nasty lathe crash Howard Lewis had to put a few things right.

Whilst turning down an MT3 blank arbor, foolishly, I paid more attention to the cutting tool than to the position of the saddle. Everything came to an abrupt halt, when the saddle collided with the headstock. Despite disengaging all the power feed levers, the saddle was almost immovable. Obviously, I had a major problem.

Looking behind the apron, it was clear that the pinion that engaged the rack was badly bent. What follows is what damage had been done, and the actions involved in recovering from this disaster.

Having to strip down something of which I had no knowledge was very daunting. Help came from a poster on the model engineer forum, called Geoff, who, it turned out lived in the next county. Very kindly, he sent me detailed instructions on how to remove the apron and investigate the damage. My lathe is an Engineers Toolroom BL12/24, which is a cousin to the Warco BH600 and the Chester Craftsman, so some of what follows may be applicable to those machines.

When I contacted one of the importers, it became clear that my misfortune was by no means an isolated case and spares were available from stock.

However, having concerns over the strength of the material originally used in my machine, I considered making parts to effect a repair. This would certainly involve purchasing a gear cutter and when the damaged parts had been examined, it was decided to use silver steel for the shaft. I felt that a replacement could be made which would be a little stronger, and at about half the cost, excluding my time. I also decided to modify the rack, to try to prevent any further recurrences.

Strip down

These follow, generally, the instructions sent by Geoff, but list my actions, in perhaps more detail. 

If it needs saying, put the parts removed in a safe place, so that they do not become lost or damaged pending reassembly.