Mega Adept

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Rainbows on 20/09/2015 19:05:18:

I checked and the cost of an adept in 1933 was £4 10s which equates to £280.11 which happens to be the cost of A C0 Baby from ArcEuro.

I wonder how much it would cost to commerically produce a Super Adept these days considering the generally lower price of steel and low labour cost CNC machining.

C0 comes complete.

Sooper Adapt never had motor etc.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Half nuts will be clumsy, the proven route is a dog clutch.

Neil

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

How small could you make a quick change gearbox I wonder

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The lathe can also be had with a sturdy wooden stand complete with flywheel and treadle at a cost of less than 3 pound, while a useful range of accessories can be had at very small extra cost. From "The Simple Lathe and it't Accessories" The "Amateur Mechanic & Work" Hand books Australian edition 1943, same as 5th edition Feb 1939. Out of a dozen or so lathes described in this little book, the Adept is the only one where a price is mentioned.

Ian S C

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

That would be the licensed Australian made version. I haven't heard of the UK version being sold with a treadle.

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Was there an Australian version of the Adept? I don't think so, or at least I have not heard of it. The lathe ,with stand was an optional extra, It would be easy to make your own with a wooden pully, the one on the stand offered by Adept is similar to a treadle sewing machine, The treadle it's self has a foot pad about 4" sq. The stand has a base about 1ft x 2ft there are two up rights about 8" x 1" tapering to 6" at the top, and a little top on it to fit the lathe. The Adept jack shaft that I use on my lathe, is not used in this set up. I didn't mention height, as if you did build a stand, you could adjust that to suit.

Ian S C

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Posted by Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 04/08/2015 17:18:53:

Posted by John Stevenson on 04/08/2015 11:01:17:

Personally more of these lathes like the Winfield, Pooles, Randa, Zyto and Sooper Adept need saving to prove to the world that we also made crap.

If this was Facebook I would click "LIKE" all over that statement!!!!

I've had a couple of the old "crap" types over the years for referb. One looked promising until I found that the seller had covered a crack in the headstock bearing area with thick dirty black grease. I didn't have to pay anything like the sums these lathes fetch on ebay these days. I did think of taking the other one to work and reboring the bearings for sleeves however I didn't fancy doing the work that was needed to get shut of the wear in the bed.

My impression of both is that once upon a time they were capable of doing decent work and that they hadn't been left sitting around doing nothing. Well worn out is how I would put it. The 2nd one had another interesting aspect. Bearings shot but a decent sized cut that made the motor hum and an even feed produced a pretty good finish. Talking to some older people who would have been around when some of these lathes wear made that's down to the cast iron they used. Pretty low tensile stuff. These days I think they do use much higher tensile cast iron to achieve some level of strength and keep the weight down. Great for vibrations but usually ok providing there is rather a lot of it = bigger lathes. The softer stuff wears more easily.

New or old – don't know really. I looked at the ME10A that's in classified recently. It looked like bed wear causes a taper on shorter lengths. Might not further out where the bed is less used. Answer – some time spent setting the compound to turn true for when that is needed. Actually the way the lathe was set up I would guess that is how the deceased owner used it for making engines. Buy a new Chinese lathe that doesn't turn the taper? Pass. I don't like messing with gears to change feed as the feed needed for best finish varies so it's a case of what particular people favour. It has a gearbox so I would probably go for that. The lathe does show signs of use, more than my older ME10 so of no interest to me. It does need a few things sorting out – at least it would for me.

Not something for Ketan to think about as I don't think he offers a similar lathe – when buying warco though it can be more of a case of take your pick.

I am gob smacked by what people will pay for really old small dovetail bed lathes. The prices larger one fetch has it's amusing aspects too. Once worn it doesn't really matter who made them and some of the names sell for a lot less than others and may even be ok just like the popular ones may be.

I nearly put a bid in on an elderly Rivett on ebay recently. One with a fair few bits that went for very little. I reckon the design concept is flawed but parts of me want to see if it's any good and can be sorted out. I saw sense in the end and didn't. If it was any one on here and they give up do get in touch – I might be seriously tempted. The other one with no bits and pieces wouldn't interest me at all.

I still can't help looking at many of these really old lathes.

John

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[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

There was indeed an Australian version of the Adept, and I have one. It carries the name TNC. I've never been quite sure what to do with it…my Dad gave it to me years back saying it might be useful for my sons, but since there was already a Unimat 3 here that seemed a bit superfluous. Maybe I should emulate Neil and make it a quick change gearbox, power feeds, back gear, the whole nine yards. On the other hand, maybe I should finish my steam launch first.

John

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Thanks for the info on the TNC (Adept [is it a Super]) John, I wonder how many they made, can't have been too many.

Ian S C

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

The TNC is apparently about the same as the Super. If you look through the various links further back in this thread there is some info on them. It is not known if they were actually made in Australia, or if they were made in the UK for some Australian importer/distributor, but they are pretty much identical apart from the cast in letters TNC on the bed. One theory is that Hercus may have made them. If you ever find your way to Cambridge (NZ) you are welcome to take a look at my one.

John

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Progress on the tumbler reverse today; the one issue I made for myself is that the separation of the three detents (forward, neutral, reverse) is very small. Fortunately I made the mount for the tumbler slightly eccentric so I could adjust the gear engagement, and it works!

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Still a pigs arse………………………………………………

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

Lathe of Theseus: if you replace all the parts of a lathe is it still a pigs arse?

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

What are those gears made from, Neil? I am considering making some Nylon 6.6 ones for a mill, is there any necessity for steel ones if they are tough enough for the ultra adept? Metals are devilishy noisy after all.

Michael W

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Mini lathes use nylon gears, so should be OK for the Adept, although 0.7 mod is pretty small, but 6mm thickness should help. I would have used 1/8" in brass but I'm too tight.

I wouldn't use nylon in a mill, the shock loads are high and any old-style X2 owner will tell you they won't last forever.

I think the grey and white ones are, I think, delrin/acetal. The small black ones are nylon and the two metal ones fitted to the spindle and tumbler are cast iron. All cut with a 19mm diameter silver steel rack-form hob.

Downside is that to use the 80T gears the middle one will end up going below the level of the baseboard. I'm still missing 35 and 55 and need another 25 and a couple of new 20s as I drilled them 1/4 instead of 5/16 and as they have slots for key I can just open them up. The plastic ones all drilled undersize, but followed up by a reamer they are a lovely fit.

Neil

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Neil, The gears look good considering they are hobbed on your own tools. I only have single point involute cutters, i had the conception that hobbing was only doable on a special machine.

Should be more than enough to carry the saddle along. With plastic it has a tendency to shrink slightly. I take it you drilled something like 0.3 under and finished with the reamer? Its good to have a secure fit on something like a gear if it's carrying a load. My ones are on 4 way spline collars, just a step above having a single keyway really. But all said, it's sufficient for your adept.

I'm not sure about the question of the plastic, i know nylon can crack if it's too thin, my mill originally used a, what they call "fibre gear". And i'm not sure if it can be replaced with nylon, Would a coarse pitched,(like a 1.0MM module)gear crack under these shock forces?

Michael W

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I don't know your mill Michael, but the X2 uses gear that are probably something like 3 mod.

Mini lathe change gears are 1 mod.

Neil

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Hi All,

The cabinet with the TNC lathe in it has just emerged from behind a stack of wood, so I have taken the opportunity to photograph it. As you can see it is in kitset form, but the major parts seem to be there. Someone seems to have made a couple of extra long spindles for it too. I don't have any centres for it, and the gibb strip for the saddle is missing, but that would not hold me up for long if I actually needed to make it work. But what would it do that my Unimat 3 would not do better I wonder? Maybe clean it up a little, and use it for decoration somewhere on the wall.

John

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

John's photo, just like a Super Adept, note spare spindles, two topslides and an original chuck key, by the look of it!

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Sorry, I loaded them to my album and then forgot to link to them. Here is the other pic, with things turned over a bit.. There is only one top slide, but there are plenty of spare spindles for some reason. The two spares are longer, so maybe someone had ambitions? I'm not sure what the alloy wheel is for, but it was with the bits.

John

[Saskatoon Model Engineering SocietyParticipant @saskatoonmodelengineeringsociety]

Change gears look good, Neil. I gave up on doing a change gear set for mine and made a belt and worm wheel single speed leadscrew drive instead. It can be seen in the photo, the yellow thing is the plastic bearing block for the worm which can be swung in or out of engagement with the leadscrew gear.

A bit off topic, here's a pic of mine with a shop made milling spindle and vertical slide being used to mill lengths of home cast bronze into 5/32" hex bar stock for making #4-40 UNC hex head bolts.

Edited By Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 11/10/2016 02:45:03

Edited By Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 11/10/2016 02:50:32

Edited By Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 11/10/2016 02:53:54

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 11/10/2016 02:44:16:

Change gears look good, Neil. I gave up on doing a change gear set for mine and made a belt and worm wheel single speed leadscrew drive instead. It can be seen in the photo, the yellow thing is the plastic bearing block for the worm which can be swung in or out of engagement with the leadscrew gear.

A bit off topic, here's a pic of mine with a shop made milling spindle and vertical slide being used to mill lengths of home cast bronze into 5/32" hex bar stock for making #4-40 UNC hex head bolts.

Is here an Adept under all that?

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Saskatoon Model Engineering Society on 11/10/2016 02:44:16:

… A bit off topic, here's a pic of mine with a shop made milling spindle and vertical slide being used …

.

Brilliant job

MichaelG.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Looks like a fine machine. Nice work!

I suppose I should join in the denigration by asking if it's 99% lipstick, is it still a pig? Sorry, no offence meant!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Very impressive. Even it started as a pig you've certainly brought home the bacon!

Dave

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