stuck tailstock on SL-10!

One of my friends called today asking how to free up the stuck tailstock on his SL-10. The friction lock handle is siezed, as is the tailstock on the guideways. He managed to rotate the handle a few degrees in each direction with a small bottle jack , but can't get the housing to budge. He's hosed it down pretty well with PB-Blaster, but no dice. Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks!

Mike

Thanks Ken! I'll forward the assembly drawing to my friend so he knows how to approach the problem. I really appreciate you taking the time to post this!

Mike

I've had it happen a few times. I just kept spraying some type of lubrication in there through any nook and cranny I could find, just hoping it would find itself to where the seizing is going on. I just kept spraying, then working the handle back and forth, spray some more, work the handle, etc...

Once I got it loose, I tend to spray wd40, or LPS on it every night before I go home.
But, the proper thing to do in my opinion, is once you get it free, disassemble that whole mechanism and pull that tailstock off. Do a little machining on the parts and install grease fittings where the grease will reach the workings of that handle and clamp. Put it back together, and grease it regularly. I think that should help a ton.

By the way, we broke our clamping handle doing this also. After breaking it, we found that it is cast. We made our own new one out of 4140 Heat treat. Been fine ever since.

How many SL-10s have experienced this problem? Has anyone seen this problem on an ST-10?

KenFoulks said:

How many SL-10s have experienced this problem? Has anyone seen this problem on an ST-10?

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Not sure how common this problem is. It may not be a fault of Haas. My thoughts are if you're using coolant, the clamping mechanism just gets a little corroded (if that's the right word) and just seizes up. If a person uses the right coolant, it probably would never happen.
When it happened to mine, Haas factory outlet came out and fixed it. I had other problems too,so they took it off the machine and took it to their plant. Had it back the next day, and never had the problem again. I doubt that it's a big issue.
The ST10 is quite a stronger design as far as the ways for the tailstock go, but the clamping mech. remains unchanged. It's such a minor issue, I wouldn't let it sway my decision on the purchase of one. But, that's me, not others.