Hello John,

A common problem with Zyto and old Myford lathes up to and including ML4 as well as Winfields and other clones.. They were all built to a price which meant direct engagement of traverse pinion which gives the carriage movement you are experiencing.

If and only if you can see a way of getting an intermediate gear engaged between these two will you fix that; otherwise it is a case of getting used to it and being careful with working near the chuck.

Regards Brian

Hi John this is the mod I did on my M Type lathe saddle. I had a casting from Geoff Walker which allows you to add an idle gear to make the handwheel to rotate in the corect direction to saddle direction. I had a few close shaves before the mod.

If you want any info just ask.

David

That remounting of the rack suggestion seems a good idea, but as the teeth will tend to accumulate all the falling swarf, some thoughts on how to shield it would be needed prior to cutting metal.

 There is a picture of a Super Zyto in lathes UK showing an inverted rack:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/zyto/index.html

Edited By old mart on 10/04/2022 18:49:01

If you have the space to get the mod in John, and there would seem to be enough as it has been done already and allow for suitable guarding, that is rather a neat solution. I wish you well with it

Regards Brian

The inverted rack is brilliant in its simplicity! Other alternatives in the meantime include using a handwheel on the right-hand end of the leadscrew to feed the carriage along. And / or fit a carriage stop so you cant move the carriage close enough to hit the chuck.

Edited By Hopper on 10/04/2022 23:04:48

This id a mod I made to my Grayson lathe it could also be done on the Zyto by using parts from an old hand drill

The feature is, as said, the handwheel pinion engaging directly with the rack.

Later machines have an Idler gear in the train, so that the Saddle movement is as expected.

Older lathes do have some strange quirks.

The Myford ML4 Leadscrew is right hand thread, so that a power feed towards the Headstock requires two Idlers, in the train, where we would normally expect only one.

It is just a feature with which you learn to live, in the same way that some machines have the Saddle traverse handwheel on the Headstock end of the Saddle, while others have it on the Tailstock end. You just become accustomed to that machine.

Can cause problem when there are two machines with opposite features, and memory lapses, though!

(The Guy Arab 5 bus had a conventional gearchange pattern. The preceding Arab 4 had a mirror image; as did the GS used by Green Line. Being unsynchronised,, you had to know which you were driving! )

Howard

Good stuff John. I am a big fan of the leadscrew handwheel. Much better for feeding than the carriage handwheel. Much steadier and more senstitve and with the graduated dial a previous owner added to my Drummond M-type, it is accurate to the thou. So much so that I added one to my ML7. But it really needs the M-Type leadscrew dog clutch to take full advantage of it. So that is on my Round Tuit list.

I did take a look at my Drummond M-type rack in the shed today and the top of the rack is absolutely littered with swarf, as it sticks out past the bed way and swarf lands right there. The ML7 by contrast has the rack mounted up higher and tucked in underneath the front shear, so no swarf lands there. Could be something to look at on your Zyto before inverting the rack.

I have an old hand-crank gearbox of an old sewing machine like the one below, that I plan to one day add to the apron of the M-Type as a handwheel reduction gear and rotation reverser. They seem to be common and cheap to buy. It;s just two gears in a housing, one large one small. Perfect, with a little fettling to fit the existing gear and spindle and hand wheel.

Habit from using other lathes.

When my M Type with reverse handwheel was the only lathe I used, it was fine. No problem at all. But I had not used a lathe at all in the previous 20 years or more, so no real residual habit. But once I got the ML7 and went back to the "normal" rotation of handwheel old habits very quickly re-asserted themseslves and now the M-Type catches me out every time.

It appears you are right Dave, from a reliable source, the Naval Historical Society. According to them, 1934 was the year British (and thus Commonwealth) ships changed to the modern system of "Port" means the pointy end moves towards Port. They make reference to the blooper in the Titanic movie, set in 1912 when helm rotation should have been bass-ackwards. **LINK**