Deckel FP-1, 1968-ish, Y axis issues suddenly

Suddenly, my Y axis has started to have a lot of backlash. It feels like the nut has loosened up and is sliding axially when the screw is turned. At least that is what it appears to be. I will have time this Friday and Saturday to dig into it, but just wanted to get a heads up before I start disassembly. Any ideas?

laminar-flow said:

Suddenly, my Y axis has started to have a lot of backlash. It feels like the nut has loosened up and is sliding axially when the screw is turned. At least that is what it appears to be. I will have time this Friday and Saturday to dig into it, but just wanted to get a heads up before I start disassembly. Any ideas?

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Could be something as simple as the taper pin that holds the screw to the head stock or something deeper? Only way to know is to take the rear bellows out and start looking. It's pretty basic, the hand wheel turns a gear train that turns the nut on the screw and any of those parts could be the culprit also.
Dan

I was in there long long ago, early 90's, when I bought my FP-1. I just have not had a chance to look as I have even been using it for a few jobs. Any images?

Assuming the handwheel and woodruff key are tight, take the bellows off and see if the lead screw retaining plate or lead screw pin has come loose, as previously suggested by Danny, item 2100-010-307 on the enclosed photos.

If the handwheel shaft is moving in and out this will give slack on the worm drive.
If so try looking at the locating pin 6001-822

Good luck Adrian.

When I got my FP2 it had a lot of backlash. Turned out that the taper pin which held the lead screw to the headstock bracket flange had a lot of play, probably from a crash in the past. In the end I had to ream the hole larger (with a 1:50 taper reamer) and use a slightly larger taper pin to get a tight fit that was free of play.

After a later crash (my fault this time!) I ended up making a new flange and fitting yet another taper pin to it. Here's what it looks like, you can see the taper pin flush with the flange. This was before I fitted the flange to the angle bracket on the back of the headstock, which is obvious because the flange doesn't yet have the screw holes or holes for the fiduciary locating taper pins.



Cheers,
Bruce

All fixed. As mentioned, it was the end of the leadscrew cap that came loose. Both taper pins were in the bellows and the screws were loose. I don't remember the backlash increasing, one day it was fine, next day loose. I guess the taper pins were in then fell out. In 1992 when I bought the machine and cleaned the chips out of the Y slide, I must have not tightened the four cap screws enough. Thanks.!!!