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Newbie seeking advice

rotciV

Plastic
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Hello there. This is my first post but I have been lurking on this site for years. I am currently a grad student in a small design program. There is a decent metal shop with a Bridgeport and a Wilton lathe (think its Taiwanese rebrand?). Anywhoo, right before I started the program they lost their only shop manager who knows ANYTHING about these machines. There is literally not one person at this school qualified to teach or maintain the machines at this point. I have taught myself quite a bit but I am an amateur with no formal training, so I apologize if I use terms incorrectly. This summer the mill and lathe took quite a bit of abuse from someone, tons of broken tools, broken rotary table, broken pin in the quill, everything misaligned... etc. I tried to get the school to do something about a tune up or something but i don't expect much because most students are not interested in the metal shop.

Its driving me crazy to watch these machines be run into the ground, and the inaccuracy on the lathe has made it useless except for non-critical parts. So I am going to start performing the maintenance even though that is technically against school policy. I have trammed the mill head and squared the vice. I have been following the oiling schedule written on the side. The mill is in OK shape but I'm sure there is room for improvement.


TLDR

I'm looking for a list/order of operations of things I can do to get the most out of these machines.


so far the problems i have identified with the Wilton lathe are;
headstock misaligned
tailstock misaligned
X & Y cranks do not hold position when auto-feed is engaged, they wander
quite a bit of backlash in both the x and y

The remaining problems I have identified with the Bridgeport are;
the ways locks don't lock very well anymore.
there is fair bit of backlash (.045") in the X and Y
the lever for the auto-feed on the quill is sticky and won't disengage once it hits the depth stop.

is there a guide to a general tune up procedure? It seems a bit overwhelming at this moment.
thanks
-Vic


IMG_0028.jpgIMG_0029.jpg
 
Start with one machine at a time, one problem at a time. As far as what you mentioned...

I can't see the head stock/tail stock being too far misaligned from a summer of abuse, how did you measure and qualify misalignment? Tailstock alighnment is pretty easy to adjust, head stock, not so much
Are you talking about the graduated dials moving during auto feed? Make sure the set/thumb screw are tight
Backlash on a manual machine tool never bothered me, but thats just my opinion... But you can adjust that, just look it up

You can try taking out the way locks and putting a little slug of brass, the diameter of the tap drill size, about 1/4 or so thick in the hole, and put the locks back. See if they work better after that
Bridgeport quill auto feeds are tempermental to begin with. You can try taking the engagement assembly apart, cleaning and oiling and see if it frees things up.

There's should be parts lists/diagrams on the internet to help you. You could also probably find general maintenance procedures too.

Just keep things lubricated, clean, and gibbs adjusted and you should be fine. Nothing ever kept good machinists from making good parts on bad machines except the machinist him/herself.

Corey
 
This should be a similar enough lathe for you to get the idea of head stock alignment. The manual recommends measuring points A and b with presumably a micrometer then blindly adjusting the head to better alignment before repeating until the machine no longer cuts a tapper. What I found makes the process a little easier is to place an indicator on both the 3 and 9 o'clock position of the freshly machined test bar and traversing the saddle back and forth. Re-position the head stock until both indicators have the same amount of sweep over the taper, then repeat a test cut and measure.
IMG_3150.jpg
 
After reading Alex's post. I Googled Wilton Lathe and found this link. Look at page 20 on aligning the head.

Another way to do it and its a bit easier is to use the test bar like they show but relieve the center section of the bar about .030" and have 2 pads about 1/2 wide. Undercut (UC) the a relief near the chuck about 1/2" too. That way you can stop the feed there. UC ___III_______UC________III_ like this...

Before loosening the head cut the 2 lips or pad so they mic the same size but turning off the bigger one, get it as close to the same size as you can. Be sure to use a sharp tool. Then loosen the head and move the head until you can run a dial indicator from one pad and get zero zero. Then tighten the head down. This saves time because many times you have to remove gears on the back side of the head-stock. Be sure to use a level to align the bed first.

Thanks for asking the question. Rich

http://www.wttool.com/common/manuals/3001-0015_c127.pdf
 
Thanks so much for the responses guys.

The model lathe I'm using is marked as TL-1236-1 which I cant seem to find mention of anywhere, but the lathe in the manual you posted Rich looks very similar so I will use that. I also now have a Bridgeport manual so I will perform all the maintenance they have in it and call it good. I'm feeling much more confident about tackling this after doing some research and reading the manuals so I will try to tackle the lathe this weekend.
-Vic
 








 
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