new to-me mill spindle brake

Picked up a clausing 8250 today, seems to be n decent shape, everything seems to work fine except the spindle brake.

It did work perfectly, but I pulled the cover off to change the dried out chunky belt, and when I put it back on the spindle brake sets when power is applied.

Not realy sure how the thing is supposed to be, but operates (apparently) the same as a set of brake shoes, cam spreads the shoes which press against the inside of the pulley.

Is there supposed to be a spring to hold them closed, or are they supposed to be a single piece?

Looking at the shoe,(cast iron with sheet metal ears screwed on for the cam to hit) the 'split' is directly accross from the tabs the cam presses on, and it is very smooth and doesn't look broken at all. (haven't pulled it just looked with a flashlight and screwdriver) Plus I don't see any place that a spring could possibly hook to, but slipping a rubber band over it does make it work correctly, same with leaving the cover off, works fine, shoes shift a little bit the sit in place.

is it adviseable to shoot some lubricant between shoes and 'drum'?

is anyone familiar with these mills able to shed some light? or point me to a manual (on line readable hopefully) or site that deals with them?

Nice little mill, always thought my little HF import was halfway decent, but the Clausing would chew that thing up without grunting.

Thanks
Ken.

I only use the brake to "lock" the spindle when changing spindle tooling. I don't think that a spring was ever used and the manual doesn't show one in the exploded parts diagram. There's no need for any lubricant.

I'm having a hard time visualizing how the brake could lock up when power is applied unless something got misaligned somewhere.

BTW, Clausing will supply a manual for $10 or so plus shipping and they'll take a credit card. It's only 10 pages or so, but worth the modest cost, if only for the assembly diagrams.

Mike

Thank you,

Got ambitious and tore it apart, the brake is supposed to be one peice, no spring, must have been in just the right position so it worked before I pulled the cover, and when I did it must have moved it. plan to braze it and see if it works right, if not I'll remove it and put it in the replace someday pile!

Must have been broken for a while, the ends were nearly perfectly smooth, only hint I had was a small divit, with a counterpart on the other shoe

Also I'll check the clausing site soon

Thanks again
Ken