Thank you Andy. Here are some pictures. From the first you will see that my workspace is small, and full-frontal gearnography is not possible with the gear train in place on the machine. So the second is a general view of it in place and the others of the quadrant and gears off the machine. As I thi...

If I've understood this correctly, a metric lathe needs the following to cut imperial threads: : ML105 129 54-tooth stud gear (9/16" bore) (and Thank you Andy, yes I have found the drawing of this) : the quadrant, stud bolt etc which I think I have : ML114 9 127/135 compound (9/16" bore, and thank y...

... but you're right. Whatever the gears on my "fixed" quadrant, the conversion quadrant is made for 18DP wheels. The distance on the conversion quadrant between its (fixed) bushed bolt and the gear-box spindle centre is about 5.1", which would accommodate the size of an 18DP 135-tooth and an 18DP 4...

No, it seems to measure at 4.25" -- which is 66/16 + 2*(1/16). ...and it is stamped '66'

Have I discovered a hitherto unheard of piece of kit ?

My TDS is metric and has a gear box. It has a "fixed" gear train including the In/Out slider, and a set of stud change gears Lettered (rather than numbered) A to G (actually 16 - 35 teeth). I have a conversion quadrant, which should allow me to cut imperial threads if only I had the right change-whe...

Thanks Andy for the drawing. I haven't been back to the lathe yet to test my new set up in parting. But from the much improved feel of the saddle motion, I'm confident my major problem was the wobbly and maladjusted clamp and gib. It really can't help rigity to have a saddle which is only vaguely as...

You make a good point about the grease. But from the goo I removed, grease had obviously been used before, and no 'grinding paste' effect was apparent. The original surface scraping marks on the rear gib plate are still there (and the lathe is about 35 years old). I used a soft CL grease - just a sm...

Just to report a discovery and some progress. I took my saddle off. I discovered that the stud which holds the Saddle Anti-Lift Clamp to the underside was unsatisfactory in several ways: - the clamp-plate is held on to it by a Nyloc nut, which somebody in the past had loosened (perhaps to remove the...

Yes, Andy describes my problem better than I did. It is largely to do with parting. I've experienced bad finish in plain turning, but it usually turns out to be my own poor tool-grinding at fault. The conventional wisdom I referred to in my original post is that if you fit a rear toolpost and an inv...

Dear All, I am the proud owner of a TDS. I've been fettling bits of it to get the best out of it. One of my problems is a lack of rigidity when turning, and especially when parting. Now for most small lathes, the convention model-engineering wisdom seems to be that a rear tool-post is the most rigid...