Bullard Cut Master 75 VTL issues

Hoping someone out there might have an idea about the following intermittent problem that reared its head yesterday.
I was taking a 1/16" cut in CI at 67 RPM with a feed of .015, finished the cut stopped the table and it immediately sounded like some chap dumped a hand full of gravel into a gear box. Jogged it couple of times; same heinous sound. Stopped grabbed a coffee, manual and a cigarette. The manual after a looking through proved utterly un helpful. Ordered a proper manual from the usual scumbags, should be in my mitts Tuesday or so. Then the OCD kicked in and I decided to have kick at the cat myself to see if I could glean some info so as not sound as dumb as I am. Found the following the gear rattl'in correlated with stable speed.
Tried the following:
Set the speed at 11 RPM no noise, continued upping the speed, got up to 54 rpm with no problems.
Any one had similar problems?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Also put in a call to Bourn and Koch who supports the Bullard line, never heard back so far.
One last fun fact the machine does the same running at 44 RPM more often than not (till now just never run 44.) IS the cancer spreading?

Cheers

doug8cat said:

Also put in a call to Bourn and Koch who supports the Bullard line

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By 'supports', do you mean they set it on a stack of turtles 12 deep ? Cuz that's their version of support ... that and $12,000 quotes for a print of the clutch lever.

never heard back so far.

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And you never will, so don't waste your time hanging out by the phone ....

Shop I frequented used a rebuilder from Kentucky, I think across from CinnCinnati.

There is a fiber gear that drives the rapids and hydro pump in the rear of the machine, right be hide the drive pulley. Remove the side cover and see if it is toothless. I hope not it fills the transmission with crap.I would not run the lathe until you find the problem, Bullard parts are outrages and hard to find..Phil

Might try these guys. O'Connell Machinery Co, Inc. | Bullard Parts & Vertical Lathe Machinery

Mebfab said:

Might try these guys. O'Connell Machinery Co, Inc. | Bullard Parts & Vertical Lathe Machinery

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They used to rebuild and sell Sykes machines. It's been years, but they were good to me way back when. Pretty nice guys.

Thanks so much I now have a starting(s) point. I have fairly stead drip from behind the main drive pulley, which add more credence that is where the problem is.
Any other thoughts I happy to hear.

Much appreciated

Called O'Connell and they were very helpful. So thank you to you all for your suggestions and help.
Much appreciated,
D

What did you find wrong?...Phil