Mini Lathe, Saddle Retaining Strips......

[Stilldrillin]

Just a quick 'un. Though it took me a long time....... 

I didn't like the look of the contraptions which held my 7 x 12 saddle in place.......




Also, I didn't like the horror stories of loose and broken strips. 

I spotted a suggestion of an easy way of sorting the problem, and bought a  length of 6mm m/s. 

Never did have any trouble! So, it all got forgotten, until I spotted the strip in my store pile. 

Now, I know...... "If it's not broke, don't fix it". But, 6 years had passed......... 

I measured the stand off between each strip, and casting. 20thou, front. 5thou rear, and machined the same size steps in the new strips.....




The screws, spaced exactly/ accurately 40mm apart, were replaced with 6mm studding, loctited in place.......




The strips, held with nyloc nuts can now be adjusted easier.......




And give a better bearing area than the originals.

It was blummin cold, out in the workshop. So, I did a quick bit of parting off...... It cheerfully handled an old 1/2" caphead screw! 

David D

[PeterE]

Ahhh, thanks a bunch for that idea  something like that will be one of the mods when I lift the saddle of the bed.

See that you have oilways as well. Are they original or mods???

BR

/Peter

[Stilldrillin]

Yer welcome Peter! 

Don't remember who's idea it was, originally. But it was easy to remember and eventually put into use. 

The oilway is original, and very necessary to get the slide oil inside where it is needed.

David D

[andyf]

....Don't remember who's idea it was, originally. But it was easy to remember and eventually put into use....

The oilway is original, and very necessary to get the slide oil inside where it is needed.

David D

David, it probably came from Jose Meneses in Portugal, here: http://www.toolsandmods.com/saddle.html

I only mention it because he's in the photography business, and his pics are great. Not casting aspersions on your photos, which are better than my efforts with the camera.

Andy

[Stilldrillin]

Thanks for the link Andy! 

I read everything I could, in the early days of ownership. So, that probably was where it lodged in my head. to surface years later! 

Lots of very spectacular/ accurate work there!   
Much too much faffing around for me..... Prefer to use my very limited time for production purposes, whenever possible. 

David D

[winklmj]

Just this past week I converted my 3yr old 7x14 over to new brass plates and shimmed them instead of using the studs-n-nuts. It took a bit of measuring with feeler gauges and a some more trial-and-error to get the right thickness for the shims (front and back were different).

But it was worth it--if I remove a single .0001 shim it will bind up the carriage. Shimmed properly--it slides the complete length of the bed with little effort and is rock solid. I had to sand off a little overspray from the underside of the ways and stone down the serial-number on the end of the bed so I could slide the carriage completely off.

If I remember I will post up pics and show how the old cast-iron gibs only touched on one edge.

New plates and shims highly recommended!