Thread: Change gears for BS-2 dividing head

I'm embarrassed to even post this. I found a really nice BS-2 dividing head and tailstock at an estate sale for 100.00 with 48 cutters. In the rush of the opening of the sale I paid for my pile of stuff and left without getting the change gears! They were gone by the time I went back this morning. I can't believe that I was so stupid (a), and that somebody else got them (b). Before I start making them all up from scratch, I thought I would ask if anybody has a set or partial set they want to sell. The arbor is 1".

Idiot at large,
Michael

I found a really nice BS-2 dividing head and tailstock

Made first in 1859 and likely last in the 1980s. They are not all the same I expect. Like going in the auto parts house and telling them you need some Chevy parts.

Well, I'm an absolute beginner here, so I'm on a pretty steep learning curve! I don't want to ask a stupid question, but here goes. As far as I have explored it, the BS-2's seem to all be 40:1. If that is true, and I replace the gears with ones that fit the banjos I have, and have the same number of teeth as the normal set, would it not operate as per the Machinery Handbook's charts?
I just can't believe I left them.....they will probably end up as a sculpture project or some such.

The gears are for differential indexing. The head is internally geared 40:1 so it will still work fine without the external gears if you just want to do standard dividing. Here's a write up;
http://www.neme-s.org/images/MTO Ind...nformation.pdf

The gears are for differential indexing

And/or helical milling. These dividing heads came as standard equipment with Universal Milling machines.

I'm a furniture maker, and one of the first things I wanted to use the gears for was to rig up my little Fray All-Angle mill so that I could make a new barley twist leg for my mother's desk that I have been promising to her for the last three years! Also I wanted to make metric transposing gears for my lathes (and Mike C. wanted a set), so I needed gearing for that. I guess I see a learning/practice opportunity in my future in making a set of gears.

Michael

i have this little guy



no 2 brown and sharp

it has a set of gears that i see no use for as far as what is with machine
what say john? maybe what he's after?

maybe what he's after?

You never know Kevin since we have no clue of vintage or application (there were three sizes - "Heavy", "regular" and "Light type" of #2 B&S). I suppose if you had time you could describe them in detail and send that info along to him. Your machine, being a Universal, came with a DH that used those gears.

Nice mill! I wish my Fray was the vert./hor. combo like that. Will post pics this afternoon of the dividing head. John, reading many of your posts, you seem to be able to identify an unbelievable amount of stuff from just a photo. It's an older model. Came out of an estate sale of an older guy who had retired but still did some freelance grinding for some businesses around B'ham. Serious freelance if the mountain of new and used wheels were an indication. They had already sold the grinder before Mike C. and I ever got there.
At any rate, thank you guys very much for your knowledgeable input and help.
Michael

OK, I pull out the tailstock from the box of stuff I bought and see that the DH is a Japanese version. The only number I can find on the head is 7605 stamped on top. The worm gear shaft and the banjos are 1" shafts. The allowance for gear thickness is .650. Here are the photos:
Michael

i'll go look
there at the "other" house so it will take a few days

Thank you Kevin. No hurry at all. I appreciate your looking in on it.
Michael

Found an unused boxed set of gears for the DH on eBay! I was gearing myself up to make a set (pardon the pun), but I was happy to fork over the 149.00 for the set...course, the free ones that I left at the estate sale would have been nice too. Wish I could say that was the first stupid thing I'd ever done! Probably more like the fifth or sixth...
Michael