Hendey 12x30 gear train noise

I cut my first chips on my Hendey today after a 10 month long restoration. My lathe is a 12 speed model but has the two speed motor option. Top speed is 1195. The headstock sounds very quite in all ranges. When I engage the intermediate gear to drive the QCGB the lathe has a lot of gear noise. I played with the backlash some and reduced the noise a little by increasing backlash a little. I cleaned out all the teeth on the gears during the restoration and I have oiled them. The open gears all spin freely. The noise isn’t to bad below 600 rpms. The QCGB has a range level 1,2,3 and then all the change gears. Based on how the lathe sounds I assume you aren’t supposed to use ranges 2 and 3 except for threading at low spindle speeds. I barely engaged the spindle clutch and wow was it loud in range 3 at 600 rpm. Is there any info on what spindle speeds are acceptable to have the feed system engaged? Say I wanted to turn a 1” round spinning 1000 rpms, am I limited to hand feeding? Any general guidelines regarding this? I’m coming from an import 12x36 Birmingham lathe.

I'll guess the two speed 12 speed was a wartime stop gap and you had to use your ear plugs. All 12 speeds were LESS than 600 RPM before the two speed 12 speed came along

Everything from the spindle down was essentially the same as old cone heads - not speedy lathes ever (with the exception of the High Speed #1)

That this was likely the case is the nice REDESIGN of all this on the 18 speed - to include the QC gearbox's own oiling system - with sight glass

Way underneath (and totally out-of-sight) you have these three howling - who knows the last time they got a drop of oil. The magic of Hendey's lead screw reverse system. They are going anytime the feed train and lead screw is going

I have to agree that maybe you are just expecting too much speed. To find out exactly which gears are noisy squirt each meshing pair with grease. This will tell you fast which ones are guilty. Then you can inspect them carefully. Maybe they are worn and you can replace/make them? All the lathes in the Lodge and Shipley catalog reprint I have from a few years earlier, both cone head and gear head, don't run much faster than about 450 rpm no matter the size from 14" up. And some are less than that.

Spray all the gears with wire rope lube. It's really sticky and stays in place for a long time. Might help if the problem is dry gears

Did you have the chance to run the machine before rebuilding it? You could try removing a couple gears and see if it's just one cluster that's making the noise, or accumulation of all the gears.

I'm not familiar with the newer Hendey's (past the old 8 speed), but just in general, I think as long as you know nothing is binding or seizing and the gears all have enough contact to reduce back-lash, keep it well oiled and maybe let it run for a few minutes. And by well oiled, I mean let it run out and keep pumping it in. If there is a problem, you'll see lots of grey color (time to stop and inspect) in the oil if not glittery flecks (major problems). That's one nice think about the old open bath lub systems is that your lube is also a good indicator of problems. Check to see if anything is getting hot, otherwise I think it would be safe to run. I've worked on other machines that needed to be broke in to help the gears mesh together before more inspection and fine adjustment, and that helped quiet them down. Gears often develop a fine wear pattern together that can change after a major tear-down, cleaning, and snug assembly. I've seen machines that were run with loose parts for years, and after being properly assembled it took a little patience to get them running quiet and smooth again.

With low RPM open gear systems, the difference between function and failure can be a mile, but good tooth contact can be down in the tenths.

I think it’s just my expectation of the machine. I went through every inch of this machine including the dog clutch mechanism. I’m going to limit the feed mechanism operation to 600 and below and try some grease on the open gears. Thanks all

greggv said:

Spray all the gears with wire rope lube. It's really sticky and stays in place for a long time. Might help if the problem is dry gears

Click to expand...

Second vote for this, it's better than grease, doesn't fling off all over, quiets the mesh quite a bit, good stuff.

But they are going to be pretty noisy anyhow, it's old and they weren't quiet to begin with. And they didn't run lathes very fast back in carbon-steel toolbit days ...