help with viceroy lathe

[joncritoph]

hi all

just registerd as im looking at getting a viceroy lathe and am going to need a bit assistance

a freind of a freind has one in the back of a container that im going to look at in the near future, they have sent me a few pics, but could do with some help identifing the model and if its worth picking up




i think its a later model tds 1 but not 100% sure

i can see that the handle + half nuts for the lead screw are missing, are these hard to get hold of/make my own?

i cant sem to see a chuck, and im not sure what ones will fit

ill have to physically look at it to see if the change gears are present, (fingers crossed)

anything else that looks to be missing? or that ill need to check?

thanks for any help/advice you can give me

jon c

forgot to mention, its also missing a drive belt, but ill prob change the 3 phase motor for a single phase one anyway so im not worried about that

[LesT]

The nameplate should be stamped with the type etc, (above the back gear handle)
The half-nuts and handle unit might be difficult to find, would be very difficult to manufacture.
You could try Bede in Newcastle perhaps.
I think I can see a backplate on the spindle nose, a chuck should be easy to find. Whats that sitting on the toolpost ?
Drive belts are easy, Use Nu-T link belt. Can be difficult to fit though, I thought I was going to have to turn my lathe upside down to fit it.
I would suggest keeping the three phase motor and fitting an inverter. Gives good speed control.
Les.T.

[joncritoph]

thanks for the assistance

unfortunatly the few pics i got sent to me didnt show the actual name plate, im fairly sure its a tds 1/1 without gearbox.

i thought that might be a chuck on the back, but not 100% sure, i assume a chuck to suit would be easy enough to get hold of?, nothing special to look out for?

its the half nut and parts im mostly concernd with, if i cant screw cut with the lathe its not really worth me picking it up

[joncritoph]

well i decided to take a chance and am now in the possesion of the above lathe

it was left in an old school workshop and seems to have had a few mishaps whilst it was in use
unfortunatly its also been robbed of some important parts (presumably when its siblings were sold off many years ago)

iv managed to acuire a single phase motor that should fit ( pully will need boring though) and bought a 4 jaw chuck of the bay for a reasonable price, so it looks like i can actually get it running soon.

however its had all its change gears and the entire half nut assembly removed.

iv looked into making change gears and can probably muddle somthing together to cut my own, most likely in delrin, if it will stand the forces?

the biggest hold up though, is the half nuts and associated parts. I think i can make sumthing similar to origional (again with delrin) but i cannot find any drawings for the parts. iv searched though every file posted here and gone thought every pdf page but there are no drawings of the half nut castings, the engagment handle (with ratchet) or of the short rack that is used for the auto dis-engagement lever

does anybody happen to have such drawings? i think its for parts No's ML105 301, ML128 3, and ML128 2?
alternativly could anyone measure and photo the parts for me?

im hoping someone will be able to assist, otherwise ill be stuck trying to take scale measurements off the few photo's iv managed to find online, and designing up the rest myself.

iv still got to purchase all the tooling and other bits (drill chuck, centers etc) befor i can get to the other bits, but i would like to have a proper plan of how to get this lovely machine up and fully running.


thanks for any help you can give.

jon c

[Denford Admin]

Did you check these scans ?
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=2941

I'm sure ML105 301 is in there (ML105 302 certainly is but I'm not sure the preceding page is 301 or not )

[LesT]

ML105 301 are the straight arms that carry the half nuts. They pivot on ML105 302.
Not sure what the drawing before ML105 302 is, but I don't think its ML105 301.
Regards,
Les.T.

PS Although apparently two parts ML105 301 is listed as "casting", 1 off required.
So I presume the casting was machined to make the threaded hole and then cut in half ?

[joncritoph]

Did you check these scans ?

yep already been though all of those, the pivot pins (302)are listed and the scan before seems to be another pivot pin but without the threaded end, so not sure where that bit goes lol

managed to find the handle and boss with slider grooves a bit further on, but cant find the actuall half nuts at all.
im wondering weather there isnt a drawing for them as they were a casting? but then they would have needed finishing so id expect to have some sort of drawing.

ill continue to search, Les T has kindly given me a link to a set at bede, will ask them if they can source the othr bits aswell.
if not i think i can manage to makw up a drawing using what iv got so far

[Andy B]

The half-nut drawing is ML 105/301 - it continued to be used on the 280 series machines too.

Admin - it was in one of the packages of CAD files you sent me ages ago.

Andy

[Denford Admin]

Excellent, glad somebody knows what they're doing

[LesT]

I looked at the PDF of ML105 301 and my eyes were sore afterwards !.
Can anyone tell me how to change the colour of the Text overlay from yellow to
grey or black or anything really ?

[Denford Admin]

I don't know if Acrobat reader has the option, but on my Pro version I can change the background from menu Document > Background > Add/replace
Anyway, I've reprinted it anc change the background to grey...

[LesT]

Thats much better !, I can see it now.
Les.T.

[joncritoph]

ah ha thats a bit clearer!

thanks very much for that Andy that looks similar to what im after.

looks like the design was alterd over the years but the critical dimensions should be the same so i can work out somthing.

im thinking of making a pair of arms out of bar then attaching blocks of delrinto the ends, cant get too fancy as iv not got a fully blown workshop but it should be do-able.

[joncritoph]

a bit more help required chaps!

have slowly been getting this machine up and running, and am still trying to sort these half nuts done but have come across a possible discrepency between the dimensions on my actual lathe

the dimensions on the drawings for the half nuts show the center of threads being 1.055'' from the far edge of the half nut (the edge that runs against the apron casting)

however measuring the position of my feed shaft to the apron, i get its center being 1.161'' from the casting???

so am i mis-reading the drawings?
or is mine a bit different?
or is there supposed to be some washers between the casting and the half nuts?
or am i mis-measuring, ( am converting from metric, but get a measurement of 20mm between shaft and casting + shaft is 19mm diameter, making it 787+374 = 161 )

anyone able to help?

ill take another look at things in the morning, but if anyone's come across this,, or can measure theirs it would be much appreciated

cheers
jon

[Electrickydicky]

On my machine the Apron face to the leadscrew is .750, the screw is .750 therefore face to centre of half-nut is 1.125.
The top and bottom half nuts fitted are .087 spaced away from the Apron face.
However I have an additional half of a half-nut, the top one. I assume that the bottom half was damaged at some time and new ones fitted. When I lay this on the leadcrew it looks as if it would be flush to the apron, and in fact slight wear marks on the face show that is how it was fitted. If it is of any use to you you can have this half for £4 postage The threads do not look worn.

I also have some change wheels as I have fitted an ELS on my unit.

[joncritoph]

thanks for that info, think ill make up a set as best i can then space to fit if required. Going to use delrin for the actual bush so as long as its close it will work. thanks for the offer of the top half though.

what change gears do you have?

[Electrickydicky]

The change wheels I have are as follows

16 x 2
20
28 x 2
32 x 4
40
44 x 2
48
66+18
72+18 x 2
80 x 2
100 x 2 but one has had broken teeth someone tried to repair by brazing

Plus the reversing assembly with idlers

[joncritoph]

thats cetainly a lot of spare gears!

from memory iv only got a 60 and an 80, so could probably do with all of them, do you have a price in mind?

alternativly, whats this ELS thing you've done to yours to not need the change gears, some sort of CNC conversion?

[Electrickydicky]

I have no idea of what they are worth, if you are interested pick a number. The ELS is "An Electronic Leadscrew" The leadscrew is driven by a stepper motor controlled by a "Pic". Screwcutting of just about any pitch metric or imperial is possible together with feeds suitable for Turning. Look at https://www.Autoartisans.com there is also a googlegroup. I went that way because my sliding and facing worm drive was shot. I cut a worm the other day with a 2.513mm pitch what the gear set for that would have been gawd knows. If you look at the google groups photos you can see how I did the drive to the leadscrew. If you add a stepper to the X axis then screwcutting becomes automatic together with the capability to cut tapers. I have just cut an ER32 taper for a stepper driven rotary table I have designed. Also for turning it is a doddle to increment a cut by say .oo5mm not easy on the standard setup unless you set the compound at 6 deg.

I will be interested to hear your comments

[joncritoph]

hmm that ELS looks very interesting, was thinking of something along those lines a while back, will have to do some more research i think, oddly sized threads would be very handy for a future project. though i do prefer to keep things mechanical. hmm decisions decisions.