Denford Software & Machines

Hello All - I am a bit confused about the direction of my power crossfeed on my 280 VS. If I set the tumbler reverse gear cluster to move the carriage towards the headstock then operating the power crossfeed moves the crossslide out (away from the work piece). I can move the PCF in by changing the tumbler cluster but then of course the carriage moves to the tailstock end. What I want to happen is to be able to turn (right to left) and face (out to in) a piece without changing the tumbler reverse direction - doesnt seem possible on my machine.

My question is: Is this normal behaviour or am i missing somthing - i havent used PCF on a lathe before.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Andy

Andy,

Your combination of directions is normal, I believe - certainly the same as on mine.
However, I have a selector wheel on the left of the apron that enables the feeds to be reversed - but I think I remember seeing somewhere recently about a 280 that didn't have that feature.

Does yours?

Andy B

Thanks for replying Andy - much appreciated. I have a knurled wheel on the left hand edge of the apron to swap between power cross-feed (turn anticlockwise) and longitudanal feed (turn clockwise) - nothing else like that though or is that what you are refering to? The apron matches with the user manual and looks identical to photos of other machines on the internet. Nothing in the manual about changing feed direction - in fact the whole subject is glossed over.

I have 3 'controls' on the apron, the wheel to move between PC and longitudanal feeds, the lever in the middle front to engage power feed (lift to engage) and a similar lever to the right front to engage the half-nuts for screwcutting only (lift to engage).

Its probably correct but it seems odd because the most common lathe operations would be turning (right to left feed) and surfacing (inwards feed) - but this cannot be achieved without stopping the lathe, opening the gear cluster cover, swapping the tumbler gears over and restarting the lathe.

Cheers Andy

Hi Andy.

My lathe is the same. It seemed odd to me until someone suggested that it was done so that you could use slide to turn towards a shoulder them disengage that, and use facing to turn outwards to finish the shoulder without using the tumbler. I don't know how much truth there was in it but it kinda made sense. I am going to modify my lathe so that the tumbler controls extend out through a hole I will cut in the door, because I dislike having to keep opening the door to use it.