Dividing head restoration

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

I have a dividing head that is in very bad shape. Yesterday I decided to disassemble it. It is a nice project for evenings when I’m too tired to do more serious work. This thing is very heavy, more than 70kg for sure. It was sitting in the grass where I let it a few weeks ago. Together with the slotting head.

I removed the chuck, a square piece and a rotating base but was still too heavy. Then it crossed my mind to use a strap. In this way I can lift it a few cm without bending myself. To put it on the workbench was another story. I used a chair to lift it in two steps. I can’t wait to finish the workshop crane. And finally here it is. The chuck doesn’t look nice. But surprisingly it runs smooth and the inner part of the jaws are not too bad. Maybe it was used as a vise for a vertical drill.

I started with the base. I removed the old grease with paper tissues and then with cotton pads soaked in acetone.

After there was no more grease I put some Autosol metal polish and I used a drill with a wire brush. The result is very satisfying:

Autosol is a great product! And you have to use only a little. As a bonus the surface remains covered with some kind of transparent vax. Next I started to disassemble the main body.

There are a lot of things inside. Of course there is a worm gear. But no bearings. I suppose this make sense. The gear doesn’t have many teeth. I was expecting more from a precision device. That long tube has a Morse 4 taper inside.

I bought a box of calcium grease to replace the old one. But it is very thick. After some research in the world of lubricants I enlighten myself. Every grease has a consistency number, NLGI. Mine was 3 that is like “vegetable shortening”. I ordered some SKF grease with NLGI 2. According to Wikipedia this should have a “peanut butter” consistency.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I’ve not seen this style of dividing head before. As for number of teeth it is almost universal to have 40 teeth on a dividing head even on the highest precision and 90 on a rotary table. 60 seems a better bet but very rarely used.

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

It looks like it might be off a Deckel FP1.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/deckel/page5.html

Phil

[Phil P]

On Phil P Said:

It looks like it might be off a Deckel FP1.

He has posted previously that it is a FUS 250, a Romanian Thiel 158 copy:

Thiel 158 clone restoration

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All of the ‘European-style’ milling machines have a family resemblance – look at Deckel, Schaublin, Thiel, Aceira, Mikron, TOS and you will see a very similar looking dividing head.

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

This dividing head indeed came together with a FUS250 mill. But it doesn’t appear in the manual. Unlike the slotting head next to it is mentioned in the manual. So there is a chance that the divider belonged to a different machine. It is very similar to the Deckel model. Very nice pictures by the way!

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Sonic,

These things are used to cut helix gears, having fine teeth = broken teeth.

The chuck is glorious and matches the quality of your attachment storage system.

:O)

[RobinParticipant @robin]

Since Brown and Sharpe heads got cloned it is easy to forget that a 40 tooth worm wheel is not the only option, what have you got?

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

It’s cleaning up nicely after languishing in the garden!

Neat tip – using Solvol Autosol. I must remember that. I think it contains a very fine abrasive, as I recall from trying to use it as its own label suggests doing, on a motorcycle’s chrome!

I hope the rest of the attachments, and the machine-tools themselves, were not as mistreated as that poor chuck. Although machine-tools do sometimes show little accidents it does seem drilling-machines and their vices particularly attract “operators” with the tendencies of reincarnated wood-worm.

[Dave Halford]

On Dave Halford Said:

These things are used to cut helix gears

Every universal dividing head that I have seen that can be used for helical (spiral) items has a means of coupling it to the leadscrew of the machine, so it can rotate as the table traverses.

Please could you point out what you have seen on this one that would enable that functionality.

[DC31k]

On DC31k Said:

On Dave Halford Said:

These things are used to cut helix gears

Every universal dividing head that I have seen that can be used for helical (spiral) items has a means of coupling it to the leadscrew of the machine, so it can rotate as the table traverses.

Please could you point out what you have seen on this one that would enable that functionality.

I don’t think there is a way to connect this dividing head to the mill. This is how it looks on the other end, just two nuts with that annoying four slot system.

Funny thing, while searching for more info about it I found another one for sell. In the same city where I live! I do my best to don’t start a dividing head collection.

Since it is a small item I wanted to remove the old paint. The paint stripper solution had almost no effect. This is after I painted it four times with Decanol:

Practically, I opened an archaeological site. I counted four different paint colors so far. I’ll carry it outside and finish the job with the angle grinder with a wire brush.

 

 

 

 

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

I almost finished cleaning and repainting all parts but a new idea crossed my mind. Can I use this dividing head as a spindle for a surface grinder (after removing the worm gear)? I know it is not meant to be used at 1500 rpm. It is a semi universal type. But it is very solid and has only 2-3µm runout. I could make some holes on top for drip oilers.
It has one conical and two journal bearings. And another flat bearing to preload everything.

 

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Given that it’s all there and you’ve done so much work to it, it would be far better to restore it as what it’s meant to be: a dividing-head.

By all means build a surface-grinder but make that entirely as it should be, and the spindle does not need be that massive anyway.

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

The thing is that there is an identical dividing head for sale nearby and it is quite cheap. So I could keep this one and used the other one as a spindle.

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

These dividing heads can be coupled to the mill table with a bit of inginuity. This is mine set up for gear shaping with Sunderland cutters.

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