What's new
What's new

Anybody Know About These?

Webb Wyman

Stainless
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Location
Lewes, DE.
Hi There,

Not too long ago, I picked up a Clausing 5900 lathe
that has a cross feed dial that is calibrated in
both inch and metric. There is come kind of gearing
(I use the term loosely) going on inside that ad-
vances the metirc dial (in relation to the inch
dial) every turn.

Before taking it apart, I wanted a exploded
diagram of it so, I contacted Clausing. They
claim mot to have any information on this ac-
cessory. Anyone seen one of these?


Thanks!
-Blue Chips-
Webb
 
I've heard some real horror stories about a few of those type features. One of the mechanical engineers I once worked under (a real good one who worked his way up from the shop floor was telling me about such a device. I guess there was a cam or such that one could turn on and off the metric mode. Well they had one of the last USA mae Leblond's and he said one day they had a huge oil rig rush job. A huge part weighing a few tons. Well known to the machinist at the time the cam slipped and ruined his finish cut. As he had changed from either metric to english or visa versa I can't remember.

I guess it would seem to me that if one were looking for some sort of feature today it shouldn't be worth much more then a cheap set of inch/metric DRO's
 
Hi There,

Here are a couple of pictures:

DCP_0971.JPG


DCP_0973.JPG


Thanks!
-Blue Chips-
Webb
 
I've seen those before. The one I saw had the dials mounted eccentric to each other, and they rotated at different speeds as you turned the dial. I.E. the one dial would make more rotations than the other for the same rotations of the handcrank. This appeared to be accomplished by mounting one dial centerline lower than the other, and it was spun by a gear mounted to the handcrank shaft inside of the dial. Pretty neat setup, but I'd prefer the DRO myself.
 
That would likely be accomplished by a simple planetary gear set. Not much to go wrong there as long as it has oil.

What you will probably find in there is something like this:

planetary.jpg
 
Hi There,

I took the handcrank off and found a tag that is marked:

SIPCO
MIC


Does that ring any bells?

wyzkydd2358 gets the prize. It uses a dial
that is made with an internal ring gear and a gear
on the cross feed shaft that is set on an ec-
centric. I am still hesitant to pull anymore of it
apart until I figure out how it is held together.
An exploded diagram would be a help.

Thanks!
-Blue chips-
Webb
 
The only SIPCO I know about is Schartow Iron Products Co. I have a toolbox made by or for them, but know nothing further.
 
Yes, Iam familar with Sipco metric transposing dials.
They were made "at least up into the 80s" for most any machine. I have one somwhere that I removed from a Bridgeport.
These were very well made and expensive in thier day.
I cant say for sure, but I think its possible that Sipco made the inch/metric dials for my monarch 10 EE
I saw a Rivett 1020 fitted with Sipco dials also
I would suspect that somone attached this dial to your machine rather than Clausing installing it.
Evan provided a internal picture. Its not somthing full of springs, they should be disasembled and cleaned from time to time
 
I've heard some real horror stories about a few of those type features. One of the mechanical engineers I once worked under (a real good one who worked his way up from the shop floor was telling me about such a device. I guess there was a cam or such that one could turn on and off the metric mode. Well they had one of the last USA mae Leblond's and he said one day they had a huge oil rig rush job. A huge part weighing a few tons. Well known to the machinist at the time the cam slipped and ruined his finish cut. As he had changed from either metric to english or visa versa I can't remember.
Mine is one of the last U.S. Leblonds and has that geared crossfeed dial, was standard equipment. The inch dial is keyed to the screw and measures .250" dia in one rev. The metric dial measures 6mm in one rev i.e. the dial turns slightly faster than the screw. Can't imagine how it could fail.

Nice feature, for using the dial to work in metric beyond the range of one rev.

If something slipped, somebody bumped the inch/metric feed gear selector that sticks out the left end of the headstock. Pushing it in changes the feed range from mm/rev to in/rev.
 
Webb
I have the same dials on my Induma vert mill.
Go ahead and dissasemble them, there is nothing scary or complicated in there. You will be fine as long as your only cleaning the gears.

If buy chance, you need to take the graduated dials off the main housing, be advised that there are a number of springs and small balls in there.
Again nothing scary, but when you slide the dials off, put the assembly in a plastic bag to catch all the springs and balls.

If you need a pic of all the parts, I have pics from the first time I dissassembled mine. If you go at it carefully, you won,t have any problems. The gears inside take grease, and really there is no need to take the dials them selves apart, as they just tak oil.

Cheers Paul
 








 
Back
Top