Need assisstance with a 3 in1 Central Machinery 5981

[thomsoncat]

Correction: My machine (pictured above) is a 5980, not 5981. Only the lathe has a motor, mill does not. From what I understand, the mill motors in these burn out easily. But I would like to use the lathe and it seems I need at least a tooling post and probably a chuck.

[Torch]

Ok, that's not a faceplate -- it's the flange you would bolt a faceplate or chuck to. And you are missing the compound.

What is the OD of the flange? If it's 4", then this might be the one you need:

https://littlemachineshop.com/products/ ... uctID=1698

If it's 3", then look at this one:
https://littlemachineshop.com/products/ ... uctID=1187
or this one:
https://littlemachineshop.com/products/ ... uctID=1941 (a little more money, but greater capacity)

Pay close attention to the registration diameter and the bolt hole circle diameter. The registration is that protruding land inside the bolt hole circle. The chuck (or adapter) will have a recess that needs to precisely engage the registration to ensure the chuck is centered on the spindle. The bolts just hold things together -- they do not centre them.

As for the compound, that could be a little trickier. Your machine looks very much like the Grizzly 4015Z and I bet the compound/vise from one of those would fit. (So might the chuck, for that matter). Unfortunately, while Grizzly lists all the various parts that make it up on their website, I don't see a complete assembly. But you could call them and ask.

It may also be possible to fabri-cobble a toolpost mount direct to the table. You would not have the ability to move the tool on an angle, but 90% of the time you don't need to. Just left-right and in-out are all you need most of the time.

[thomsoncat]

Thank you Torch.
Yes, I was concerned about that registration on the flange needing to fit the chuck exactly.
I will check out your links, and check out the Grizzly parts for a compound. If I can get the lathe dialed in I can start working on getting a motor for the mill. I am a woodworker and this is new to me (at least since metal shop in Junior High school), but that was 60 years ago!
I appreciate that you are very active in answering newby questions and giving advice on this forum. Folks like you hold forums like this together!

Thanks,
Tom

[Torch]

I was once a newbie too. In many ways, I still am.

[thomsoncat]

Not to get too philosophical, but I think we are all newbies at most things, we don't learn very much of what there is to know in any given lifetime.
Back to this machine. The OD of the flange on the CM 3in1 is 4.25 inches. Little machine shop has one (the one you referred me to) with OD of 4 inches but the registration of the inner diameter looks like an exact fit at 72 mms. Depth, however, of that inner diameter on the chuck is a few mms deeper than my flange. Which means I think it might work.

[Torch]

As long as the bolt hole circle is the same, you should be good to go!

[thomsoncat]

Looks like the chuck will be the easy part! The compound and tool holder ...I have no idea how to tell if anything I'm seeing out there would fit. It has to be the right height to engage the center. I've seen plenty of pics of what I need, the sliding piece on the compound swivel, with a tool post on top of that. Or, per your suggestion, I could find a tool post with the right height and just bolt that directly on to the table. I am scouring ebay and craigslist.

[thomsoncat]

Just an update: I found a chuck, compound, tool post, live center and chuck for tailstock (purchased from neighbor!! ). I overhauled lathe spindle and replaced bearings. I was surprised at how inexpensive the bearings were. Now the lathe works quite well and I'm experimenting with different cutting tools, HSS and carbon. Next thing I will do is try to replace the mill motor with a Leeson 1.75 HP - which is quite a bit larger and will require some structural metal work to place it outside of where the original motor was. From what I've read, seems that the stock motors overheat and burn out because they are enclosed in cast iron shell. Somewhere I saw a pictorial on how to disassemble the mill spindle but now I can't find it. More later.

[kaiDev]

Hi, I know this might be late, but I have found the manual for the 5981, or L-H009.
It's available here:
https://archive.org/details/L-h0009

I have gotten my hands on one of these too, that I'm trying to bring back to decent working condition.
Mine is missing the gear selection charts.
Could someone that has one share some pictures of the chart's so that I can atleast have the chart's on paper or maybe laminate them?

[Torch]

That looks suspiciously like a quick-change gear box on the bottom beside the lead screw. 7 positions? If so, it's the only one of these Chinese 3-in-1 machines I've ever seen with one besides my own.

I wonder if my chart would apply to that machine.

Attached is a pdf of the threading chart that came with my machine together with the parts diagram showing gear sizes of my QCGB.

I also attach an Excel file where I worked out all the thread sizes that are NOT on the chart. I had to make some additional gears to complete the range, the machine did not come with all those listed.

I would try setting up for one of the threads listed on my chart and then lightly turn a piece of stock to see if the resulting pitch matches my chart. If it doesn't, then your ratios are different and my chart is of no use to you.

BTW: I found the "Quick Change Gear Box" to be a bit of marketing hype. As you can see from the chart you still need to swap change gears around for different threads. Here is how I modified my machine to simplify that process (I don't know if any of it would apply to your machine though):
viewtopic.php?p=200811