1020s lathe question

I a putting this question out in hopes someone may have had this problem on their 1020 S lathe. the lever to put the lathe in open belt doesn't stay in the foreword position. The lever creeps back to natural. Back gear position stays fine.
Also the knob that selects the lead screw R, or L doesn't turn in either direction. I have no history on this lathe. The previous owner took it to his grave. Thanks for any information. Stan

What make of lathe is that - some of aren't that psychic.

And these are needed

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...res-south-bend-forum-372508/?highlight=photos

have fun

Limy Sami said:

What make of lathe is that - some of aren't that psychic.

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My crystal ball says, "Rivett."

Rivett 1020S & 1030 Lathes

One of America's great lathes, Rivett's answer to Monarch's 10EE. I saw one at an auction about 40 years ago. It was too big to haul home, whatever it sold for.

Larry

It's a Rivett 1020s lathe.

The open belt problem is an issue with the clutch in the drive; there are two separate clutches; one for open belt one for backgear. Likely the clutch needs to be tightened. You can download a manual from vintagemachinery.org that includes instructions for adjusting the clutch. I can't provide more details as I removed the clutch from my machine to drive it with a VFD.

I assume you know the knobs for shifting the gearbox need to be pulled out before rotating, and that sometimes the leadscrew or feedrod or chuck need to be jogged a bit in order to get it into gear.

One of the shifter knobs for the gearbox (I don't remember which, but you can tell form the manual on vintagemachinery.org) has some idler gears between it and the actual shaft it controls in the gearbox. If someone removed the gearbox cover plate and didn't properly time these gears to the knob, the gearbox will not shift properly. It's possible this is your issue here. Someone did this on my lathe and I had to pull the entire gearbox in order to fix it. It's not worth trying to writeup instructions for that disassembly/reassembly, but you can go through the assembly drawings in the manual to figure out whether this is your problem.

There is also a possibility the rubber isolators that support the drive plate are shot and the gear shift is dragging on the casting and won't properly go into gear. As of about 15 years ago, the isolaters were still available from the manufacturer. They were made by Lord Corporation and iirc called chan-l-mounts. Lord has been bought out since then, so you will have to research it. In a long previous post I may have posted the actual part number.

Thanks for the answer. All I had to do is manually turn the lead screw a little by hand. I guess the gears were not meshing. After putting the lever in open belt so many times it finally stays. Another problem solved. Now trying to figure out all the gearing. Stan

gbent said:

There is also a possibility the rubber isolators that support the drive plate are shot and the gear shift is dragging on the casting and won't properly go into gear. As of about 15 years ago, the isolaters were still available from the manufacturer. They were made by Lord Corporation and iirc called chan-l-mounts. Lord has been bought out since then, so you will have to research it. In a long previous post I may have posted the actual part number.

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Most if not all of the extensive line of Lord mounts are still in the supply chain.

Lord.com has a .pdf catalog:

https://www.lord.com/sites/default/files/Machinery_Mounts.pdf

ISTR MMC carry them?

stan martin said:

Thanks for the answer. All I had to do is manually turn the lead screw a little by hand. I guess the gears were not meshing. After putting the lever in open belt so many times it finally stays. Another problem solved. Now trying to figure out all the gearing. Stan

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I second what Halcohead wrote. One additional thought is crack open the back and side inspection plate to look at the clutch. The gearbox is notorious for leaking oil because they were designed to be removed every so often to have the seals replaced. Nobody did that, so they all leak onto the clutch. Check to see if the clutch needs a good cleaning. Since you mentioned using it helped, then I definitely recommend checking it out.

When you are trying to go from L to R feeds, make sure to pull back as Halcohead mentioned. If you have to move the lead screw a bit to get it to mesh, pull back a little further on the L-R selector knob or try putting the spindle in neutral instead of open belt or back gear. If you still have a problem, then check the clocking of the gear as Halcohead mentioned.

IF the deceased owner was from Reno NV, there might be history to be had.