Thread: Kerosene to clean taper attachment

I have a 1955 Mod 60, and plan to remove the taper attachment and soak it in kerosene before I disassemble it. Will kerosene damage the scale magnifying lens ?

The lens on my 64 is plastic. You can easily remove it by pulling out the wire retaining ring that holds it in the mount.

Tim in D

I'll have to check it out.

Thanks

My Ser.60 doesn't have wire rings. It looks like it has a cylindrical ring, but I couldn't unscrew it. It doesn't have any notches, etc., so I'm not even positive if it's screwed in.

Tim, is your wire ring on top of the lens or underneath it (between the lens and the scale)?

Empireweld, please keep us informed of your success. I tried to clean underneath the lens with kerosene, but wasn't successful. So I was stupid enough to use a brake cleaner. It worked, but damaged the lense surface (made it cloudy). I wish I could remove the lense to repolish it.

Kerosene, Stoddart solvent, mineral spirits and similar petro products won't harm your lens. Many common cleaning products and solvents will however. Don't experiment.

For those pesky remnants of crud a common water based cleanser can work wonders. Purple Power is my favorite, it's cheap and works as well as the promoted more expensive brands. A soak and brushing followed by water rinse will clean even the crannys you can't get to.

Look for a set screw holding the lens assembly in, on the back side of the swivel. I've found that Simichrome polish works wonders on the lens. Gets most, if not all the staining, but not the scratches.
Harry

Stupid me! Thank you, Harry. I removed the set screw, but still couldn't move/remove the cylinder that encompasses the lens and, presumably, is held by the set screw. Soaked it in PB, but still no luck.

Then I desided to gently push the lens from underneath in one of the extreme positions of the slider. To my surprise, the lens came out quite easily. Looks like as if it was just press fitted rather than held down by the cylinder. Go figure!

The lens is severely scratched underneath (on the flat side) by swarf and somewhat cloudy on the upper convex surface. What procedure would you suggest to restore both surfaces?

Also, the marker (center line) is quite a bit off center.

I don't see any options for re-calibration of the taper attachment scale. Am I missing something or the use of the reticle and scale with the attachment is supposed to serve as a very rough estimate only?

I'll let others detail the restoration of the lens, as I haven't been faced with severe scratching problem.
As for the recalibration of the taper attachment, I set the cross hair on 0 and lock the swivel. I then mount an DTI on the tailstock, and indicate the inside face of the slide, by cranking the carriage back and forth, making adjustments to the end horizontal ball bearings. After I get 0-0 readings, I work on the inside bearings. There should be pictures of this in "Another New Toy". The real problem is getting all 16 ball bearings bearing at the same time.
I've got DRO's on my lathes, so setting the TA is much less of a guessing game, making the fine adjustments can be a PITA.
Here's a link, post #123
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...-163406p4.html
Harry

Great! Thanks, Harry. I read the thread, at least, five times in the past and still don't remember all the details. Need to recalibrate myself, first.

I've never done a lens from a Mod 60 taper attachment but this will work if the lens surface is flat. This simple process has woked well for me.

The flat side of the lens can be restored by sanding it with progressive grades of Wet-or_Dry papers through at least 600 grit, preferably through 2000 grit. Do the first pass with 220 or 320 grit to remove the defects and then progress through the finer grits. Use water with a few drops of dish detergent and a flat surface to keep the lens flat. Finish by polishing with Flitz, Simichrome, Mequiar's Plastic Polish or a similar product to restore the transparent surface.

Use the same polish on the convex surface of the lens, it will remove or at least reduce the cloudy surface.

Thank you, Dave!