New Toy

[Old Dog]

After years thinking about it, gone ahead and bought it Don't know what made me more faint, the cost of the lathe or picking it up and placing it where I wanted it.

 

[MattF]

Even the small ones aren't exactly lightweight, are they. You should have many an enjoyable hour with that. It's devilishly easy to completely lose track of time when you start turning.

 

[Old Dog]

Hours lost, will be more like days The main reason for getting the lathe is I have a couple of Grandfather clocks to repair, should prove testing to say the least, after making a few gears by hand and having some cut on a CNC machine and still making a hash of the gears I now understand why clock makers charge so much to repair them. Might start on some thing simple first, like space travel!! or even a Indexing machine to make a copy of the gears, Why oh Why at my age haven't I learnt not to get involved????????
PS If I ever post that I'm going to start another stupid project, will some one please stop me before it's to late!!!!!!!

 

[MattF]

Well, you definitely know how to jump in with both feet. Gear cutting is akin to a black art. There is quite a bit of info on various horological sites on the subject though, both from amateurs and professionals. I was recently looking around for ideas regarding making an indexing attachment for the lathe, and found quite a bit of useful info on the subject.

 

[Old Dog]

There is a load of information on the web and in books, a lot of it very good, I've been reading a good few items over the last few months, the bit I'm finding difficult is the tiny, itsy-bitsy little problem converting the written word to some thing that with a good stretch of the imagination, might resemble, a gear

 

[MattF]

Which part of the process is causing you the problem. Machining the teeth or blank, indexing etc.?

 

[Old Dog]

Not even started the lathe yet, Just got it cleaned and almost rebuilt/set up when I ended up with a ear infection so playing came to a end before it had even started. I've tried making the gears before with limited equipment the problem is it's a double gear, with a 15mm drive gear combined with a larger 55mm outer gear(approx.). Doing that job with out some form of index machine is almost impossible, so when I get the lathe set up and my eyes back in focus the fun shall commence .

 

[MattF]

Using changewheels is a nice, simple solution for indexing, with readily available parts. Even better if that lathe you have uses gears, as you'll have some already? Sparey's book has info on a compound arrangement device for getting a broader range of divisions if you don't have the division you require from any single gear.