Hello everyone. I have made some time in the shop recently and thought I would catch everyone up.
This mechanism consist of two systems. One is the control ie FWD/OFF/REV and the other controls the speed of the spindle. The speed control rod handle/lever, rod and arm came with the lathe, when I got it. The control rod, handle/lever and arm were missing via the PO.
The problem I was having with the control rod interfering with a screw, behind the apron, I have sorted out. I removed the corner of the rod for the entire travel the apron makes. The other issue that I needed to sort out was the bushings on each end, where the rod passes through the apron. On the existing speed system, the handle is the bushing on the right and there is a plastic bushing on the left and they are captured to the apron via C clips on the inside of the apron. There is no way for me to get at these C clips or the ones for the control system. So I came up with the idea of creating a tube the both the right and left bushing would be press fit into, capturing them to the apron. I just so happens that, the outside diameter of a piece of 1/2" EMT electrical conduit is the same size as the holes in the apron. I created a relief in the tubing, where it would also interfere with protruding screw behind the apron.
This is how I made all the bushing for where the square rods pass through the lathe. There are five bushings for each rod. Starting on the right end of the lathe, where the end of the rod is supported in the lathe casting, there is one bushing. The two, going left, are one in each end of the apron, one of those being the handle to operate that rod. Then there are two more both on the far left end of the rod. The two bushing on a rod set the spacing of the arms in relation to the arm on the other rod, so one is set to the left and the other to the right so they operate on two separate planes and are able to pass each other. If that is confusing, please refer to the video on page 36.
Here are some pictures of that, after all this is the Photo Album.
I bought the square sleeves from McMaster Carr and made the brass bushing to fit the bores in the machine. This is an example of it.
This is the control lever, tube and bushing. The bushing and the control lever are not press in yet.
How I "turned" the lever's end to the size of the EMT on the mill.
A short video of the boring head in action, for fun.
https://youtu.be/UELxM06Q-lM
Next page!