Apron and Carriage adjustment

I just rebuild my apron and install new bearing and lubrication system. I installed the carriage, no problem. Now I just installed the apron and when I tight the two assemblies together with the 8 bolts on top of the carriage the cross slide screw get lock by the two gear meshing together (the gear from the apron to feed the cross slide with the gear from the cross slide dial small gear). I checked the distance and it is perfect, I thought maybe I installed the gear backwards, I double checked that already. It seems like if would need a gasket but I don't remember taking off a gasket. I checked the parts manual and it does not show a gasket either. If I loss the bolts it works okay but now I developed a gap in between the apron and carriage, also if I remember correctly those were very tight when I took them apart. Please let me know if you have any experience with it.
Thanks.

As I remember, I just used a simple liquid gasket compound between the two, (Gasgacinch comes to mind). There are questions to be asked.1) have you ground or scraped any of the crosslide way surfaces? 2) was it free and good before you took it apart? 3) does it still bind up if the crosslide is removed and crosslide nut is unattached? Thats all I can think of, unless a similar looking gear from another part of the carriage was accidentally swapped?

mantemec said:

now I developed a gap in between the apron and carriage

Click to expand...

Tell us how wide you find that gap needs to be.

Could be hanging up on the cross slide felt washers instead of meshing with the gear.

I did scrape anything. Just clean up and put back together.


I don't see anything but when tighting the bolts I can see how the gear moves up. Very little but enough to jam the gears.

I figured it out. The shaft that holds the gear on the apron side is on a cam system to adjust the mesh between the two gears. I assume that as they wear out you can adjust it. For some reason my had two position. The right one not very noticeable. I took the shaft out and I mounted on the lathe and indicated the section were the gear rides and it has a good amount of adjustment. So thank you all for helping me out. Everyday you learn something new.

Interesting. Mine did not have that feature. Seems like a good idea.