CovMac Lathe Move – Day One.
As a non-engineer, one who has approached this subject as an historian, wanting to save a piece of our industrial heritage, I think it may be of interest to you accomplished engineers, to see how a complete novice took in his first day as an engineer.
What a day I have had! Firstly, I have not been so filthy dirty since being a child. Crawling around under that lathe in years of accumulated dust was an experience. I will try and post pics of this CovMac soonest. It is in a dusty old environment.
My CovMac lathe is the 13" geared head, as shown on lathes.co.uk but with a 54" bed, and a headstock plinth similar to the bigger 17" geared head model.
Progress:
1) Have removed all four big Whitworth bolts holding bed to legs and tray. Three were not much more than finger tight, one was loose.
2) Have removed back gear guard, tail-stock, gap-bed and wooden pole.
3) Have dropped the banjo, taken three gear wheels out, and loosened three out of four of the headstock bolts – the 4th has a bit of face damage, which I will have to dress with a file; I could not get a socket on it. I will have no problems getting the headstock off, I feel.
Lack of progress:
1) I Cannot yet see work out how to get the tool post off, or the slides.
2) I had not noticed, on my first visit, that this lathe is actually concreted into the floor, both ends, tail stock end more so than the headstock plinth. The bottom of the tailstock legs are encased in a fillet of concrete, about 1 1/2 inches deep. This is raised off the floor, by that I mean the legs are not sunk into the main floor. There is less on the headstock plinth end, more just a skim of screed along one end.
This presents me two problems:
1) Making sure I don’t break any cast iron, on de-concreting the plinth and legs.
2) My inclination is to lift the bed and remove the lathe before tackling the concrete, to leave that to last.
Thing is, the lathe is only one foot away from a wall, and I don’t see how I can get the base struts of an engine crane in far enough.
A bonus for a military historian, like myself, the CovMac was a War Department owned item, still with its War Office serial number.
Well, I am not ashamed of myself, on my first day as an engineer, although it was a bit daunting when I first began.
On the feed gearbox, I can move the gear lever, but the lever to the right of that seems seized solid. The spindle turns, and the lead screw does, too. The apron wheels nicely, and the slide work. There wis nil backlash in the side slide, but some in the compound slide.
Tailstock was a massive, heavy mother, and so is the back gear guard.
The motor is huge, and hangs off a cast iron plate your could tack a battleship to.
I shall enjoy a few beers tonight.
Many, many thanks for all your help, gentlemen. This would have been so much harder had I not spoken to you all in advance.
There will be two more days; firstly, when I remove the headstock, carriage, and take the bed off its legs, and shackle it down to a pallet. Secondly, we move the bed, and finally get the legs out of the concrete.
Any further help and advice will be very gratefully received, particularly on the nexus twixt cast iron and concrete..
Today, well, I did not break anything, and did not lose anything. Phew!!!
Chris