Morning Gents.
Andy
Thanks for that description, obviously I am a novice with this, and I don't really want to scrap it.
The collet as I described on the feed shaft, I now totally understand what that is meant to do, I didn't realise that this was an adjustable piece of kit and after reading your description I get the gist now, so maybe that was just loose and obviously why it was moving about.
So to recap the feed shaft is operating freely and the small cog attached to the left hand side of the gearbox is also spinning freely, it is this wheel which stripped the teeth from the larger gear wheel attached to it.
As long as the leadscrew nuts are not engaged, the apron should move. The cross-slide power feed would only be engaged if the relevant lever is engaged. But possibly the interlock (that prevents power feed and screwcutting being selected at the same time) was damaged when the lathe had its accident?
After reading this Andy I am getting more of an idea, so once again I thank you, as I think this is where all my problems lie.
I am assuming that It is this section of the lathe that took the full impact as it hit the floor, as the apron handwheel was completely smashed, so I think the spindle that the hand wheel is attached to has been forced inwards, and in doing so has broken something internally possibly causing the leadscrew nuts to become fully engaged at all times, and if I am right this would make the hand wheel almost impossible to turn. I can turn it but with a lot of force, so I need to get access to the leadscrew nuts to see what damage has been done there.
The cross slide works freely and did energise when I lifted the lever under it to engage the feed, but again that stopped once the gear wheel shedded its teeth.
In answer to Les T, I actually work in Aberdeen through the week and return home to Wigan at the weekend.
I will take a number of photographs and will post them on here.
I will have a go at trying to remove the top slide off the apron, thanks for your photos.
To date I have repaired the tailstock, and that is now locking into position. I need to repair the gear guard door and refit that, as that also took a clout when it hit the floor.
I don't think this was ever attached properly by the previous owner but I have a solution to remedy this.
Also the chuck only spins anti clockwise, irrespective of the selector switch position, I have stripped down the controls unit and disconnected and removed the cumbersome 240/24 transformer and also removed the now broken anglepoise light.
I have checked the wiring against the denford wiring diagram and it appears correct, the selector switch operates correctly and shuts off the power in the central position.
Am I right in thinking that the four wires going to the motor X Y B A where A is the neutral and X Y B are to the poles, and if I try swapping two of them over it should operate forward and reverse? as the way it was wired it just ran counterclockwise.
Finally I will take a shot of the stripped gear wheel and count the number of teeth it originally had as I will need to source a replacement for this, any ideas where I might find one ?
Sorry for the long message, I am not going to give up on it, its lasted 40 years or so and deserves to be sorted
Thanks again in advance chaps