Thanks Bazyle.

Found the part in the Grizzly manual.

Question is, what to do, do I leave well alone and live with it as is, or do I dismantle the saddle/apron to get to the bent piece, and then what?

Replace it or could the 'bend' be taken out?

Geoff – Seething at my stupidity. Everyone's boogered off! Must be me

Dank U speelwerk, the perfect solution! You have made my day!

Wonder how many knew about this nifty devise, I certainly did not.

Now I can duplicate that V10P feature I so miss.

Geoff – A skipping with joy.

Up date at last.

The usual delay due to treatment:

The Cross-slide had already been removed in order to mill extra T-slots ala Anthony Mount's modifications.

A change to my lathe compared to his, was that the nut is bolted in place, resting up against a shouldered bush thus alleviating the need to measure and then knock it out.

Apron removal:

1) Knocked out the roll pins from the Feed and Spindle Direction Rods (shafts), but couldn't move the collar over the Leadscrew roll pin, so left it I place.

2) Removed the Rod End Cap that supports the ends of three Rods (shafts)

3) Went to knock out the roll pins that align the Apron on the Saddle, but noticed that they where threaded, so for once the gray matter worked and I proceeded to insert M4 screws into them, even though the Grizzly Manual says roll pins, and Anthony Mount had roll pins in his BH600G.

Once the screws where in place the dowels where easily prised out, just leaving the two recessed cap screws to be undone to free the Apron.

3) Apron suitably supported, it was just a case of sliding it along the Leadscrew until it was free then onto the workbench for examination.

4) Said inspection soon revealed that the Gear Shaft had bent where the collat on the shaft butts against the Apron casting, so it needed to come out.

5) Roll pin securing the Spur Gear to the shaft, but this time instead of the pin coming out with light biffs of the hammer, I had to resort to GBH/ABH to even getting it to budge.

Eventually it did come out, but tinkle, tinkle, tinkle into the Apron bottom. Three pieces, due to the fact that the holes don't line up!

6) I then had to resort to a large diameter drift to do more GBH to get the shaft and gear to part company. Oh how I HATE doing this to a 'precision' machine, it makes me cringe. Needs must though.

Said Gear Shaft soon popped out, cleaned, then into the 3-jaw to see how much damage I'd done.

All I did was hold a length of 5mm ø aluminium tube, to replace the roll pins, against the front way and just touching the shaft between the shoulder and gear.

Well, it sure as heck didn't need a DTI to measure the runout, as it showed 1/16"-3/32" (1.6-2mm). BH etc was my reaction seing that.

7) Now how to straighten it. I had watched my Old Man do miracles with metal, either making or fixing, so I hoped some of his talent had rubbed off onto me.

After two feeble attempts with a drift and club hammer, yes I know pretty useless, I said to meself, "a vice is just a horizontal press is it not" so off I went and the set-up is in my new Photo Folder.

It needed two attempts of heaving on the vice handle to get any movement in the shaft, but the bend was reduced to approximately 1/32". One last try, this time slipping the handle of my long/big shifting spanner over the end if the vice handle I was able to give it an extra bit of heave-ho.

Left overnight again and now the bend would need a DTI to measure properly, but definately around 1/64" or less.

Decided to put it all back and try. Easy to take apart again if needed.

8) While the apron was off, I decided to drill and tap M8 drain holes in the bottom of the casting, then cleaned it out using the parts washer as I had seen CI swarf lying inside the casing, there before I did the drilling and tapping.

Back on the bench I saw the Cu pipe mentioned by Anthony Mount that disappears amongst the gears, it getting oil from a reservoir machined in the Apron top facing, fed via an 'Oil' plug in the Saddle, with this reservoir also feeding oil ways along the front edge of the top facing join to the Saddle, with holes drilled from it down to various spindles.

Now! unless the lathe is slightly Tailstock high and rear high so there is a slight slope, there is absolutely no way the oil is going to flow.

I will see where I can add spring oilers with/withour pipe/s attached as Anthony did on his Apron, to do a better job of getting oil to those gears.

8) While removing a semi-hard almost black substance (grease?) from the two worm gears that provide power to the gear train, I noticed that one of the teeth on the bronze worm gear was badly mauled, with another just slightly so. Anglo-Saxon rend the silence on seing this!

Seing that the Saddle and handwheel moved freely when I had loosened the Apron securing cap screws slightly, I will leave well alone for now and see how things go.

Thinking ahead, what lubrication is recommended for those hard to get at worm gears please.

This post is long enough, so calling time.

Geoff – Oh so much cooler today!

Bazyle,

Ah, didn't think of having a rule in the photos, and I AM always moaning when they aren't!

I must, must put myself in the shoes of someone else trying to tackle this for the first time as well.

Hmm, I need to buy a roll of copper tubing now, as I will be doing a modification to the way the gears in the gearbox are lubricated, photos of the present method added to the original Folder

Have more photos to add, but I had had it by the time I posted yesterday, and they need to be annotated first. I posted too few too soon me thinks now.

Will rectify my error ASAP and post when done. I remember a French colleague actually pronouncing ASAP as a word, with much glee, there being nothing similar in the French language.

Geoff – BH it's cold! Feels it after the heat we've had.

Bazyle,

Don't know what happened between my attempt to remove the collar over the Leadscrew connection to the gearbox output failed, but on Sunday morning it just slid away with ease, thus allowing me to knock the spring pin out and remove said screw.

As requested, new photos uploaded this time with a measuring stick in position. Sorry about the first lot.

One thing that should have hit me between the eyes as soon I put the Apron on the work bench, was that the oil reservoir beneath the 'Oil' plug, on the RH side of the saddle, was NOT connected to the oil channels, therefore, a complete waste of space!

You could have merrily squirted oil in all day, but NOT a drop would have found its way to the gears or shafts in the Apron.

I have, meanwhile, opened that reservoir to the channels, BUT all that will now happen in that the oil will disappear either down the nearest oil hole to the first shaft, or that copper pipe that ends somewhere amongst the gears, with not a drop getting to the rear oil channel.

A solution is called for, and the only one I can think of right now is to drill holes in strategic positions and fit spring oilers, and block off the oil channel where deemed necessary.

With the Leadscrew removed, I've now been able to suspend the Apron in place, so now easy to determine the best positions for the new oilers.

All suggestions are welcome and needed right now please.

I sincerely hope that Anthony Mount reads this, as I'm not sure if he has yet to remove the Apron from his BH600G, as he hasn't some so at the end of his series.

If not Anthony, PLEASE check that the RH oil reservoir IS connected to the oil channels!

If anyone reading this post knows of other owners of BH600 and equivalent lathes, please advise the, to do the same.

Let me know if further photos are required.

I've also discovered what I can only describe as a 'Hit-and-Miss' method of getting oil to the gears in the Norton gearbox, that made me shudder. I've made a new Photo Album and will be doing a separate post.

Bill,

Before that French guy, colleagues and I never pronounced them/it as a word.

Would be interesting to see who comes up with what to flesh out A.S.A.P.

Geoff – Finishing the extra T-slots in Cross-slide today.