Barbour_Colman Type A Gear Hobber Help

I am looking for anyone who can help me understand how the gear change chart on these old hobbers is read and understood. I "think" i got it but i want some for sure knowledge. We got an old TYPE A but know one here really knows how to setup the machine and we dont have the original manual.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

So what do you want to know? FYI there are tons of type A op manuals on e-bay for not that much money, and it really does not matter which one you get as they all setup pretty much the same way.

1)mount the index change gears.
2) set the hob swivel angle and mount the hob and check it for runout.
3) Mount the feed change gears for the feed desired- .030 is usually a good start point.
4) mount your work arbor and indicate it.
5) set hob speed with speed change gears- on front of machine left side- chart on door- speed change gears on fixed centers, so only pairs.

RH gear and RH hob, no idlers in either index or feed trains. All the variations are in the op manual.
There are charts on the machine for the index gears for given # of teeth and a chart on the feed box cover for feed gears. This should get you at least scratching your head.

I ordered a manual from ebay Friday.
What confuses me is the spots on the chart that say "idler" im not sure what that indicates goes on the machine.

jigman586 said:

I ordered a manual from ebay Friday.
What confuses me is the spots on the chart that say "idler" im not sure what that indicates goes on the machine.

View attachment 256851

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Thay pic of the chart someone sent i dont have the whole book yet.

jigman586 said:

I ordered a manual from ebay Friday.
What confuses me is the spots on the chart that say "idler" im not sure what that indicates goes on the machine.

Click to expand...

You've an arduous & self abusive road looming if you seek to properly manufacture gears without immediately realizing what an idler is in the context of a gear train.

An Idler is a gear in the train that is not part of the ratio sought, but rather used to span a gap and/or reverse rotation. As in, "Idler Gear".

Zahnrad Kopf said:

An Idler is a gear in the train that is not part of the ratio sought, but rather used to span a gap and/or reverse rotation. As in, "Idler Gear".

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And no, it doesn't matter how many teeth an idler has. Choose whatever number will fit. (Although if you want to get picky you can try for a number that isn't divisible by the number of teeth the idler is running against. That's called "hunting tooth" but doesn't require foxes or horns.)

When all else fails, rtfm

EmanuelGoldstein said:

And no, it doesn't matter how many teeth an idler has. Choose whatever number will fit. (Although if you want to get picky you can try for a number that isn't divisible by the number of teeth the idler is running against. That's called "hunting tooth" but doesn't require foxes or horns.)

When all else fails, rtfm

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Thats what i was thinking. Any tooth count would work as an idler in between.
Thanks

BTW i did order a manual off ebay for it! Tired of guessing at this thing! LOL

There is a site called Meshing With Gears, a post on there may give you more help,if you need it.