Bridgeport for Beginners!

Forgot about it. Not much open here on Easter and went with evaporust from oreillys.

 

thoughts aloud to make my missing gears..

50tooth gear 40/50 =4/5 so 20holes on 25 hole scale, (20 is 4/5ths of 25)
35tooth gear 40/35 =8/7 so 1 turn plus 13holes on 91 hole scale. (13 is 1/7ths of 91)
28tooth gear 40/28 =1 3/7 so 1 turn plus 39holes on 91 hole scale. (39 is 3/7ths of 91)
36tooth gear 40/36 =1 1/9 so 1 turn plus 9 on a hole scale divisible by 9 (not available on my current plate of 25,61,71,83,91,93)

What I haven't sorted out yet is which plates to buy that make the most sense and cover the most ground.
I don't see the logic yet in their selections of numbers on these things. Kinda seems haphazard to this guy.

A) 15,16,17,18,19,20
B) 21,23,27,29,31,33 (on order)
C) 37,39,41,43,47,49 (on order)

 

Looks like all the primes plus a few extra to even out the spacing.

 

YES !!! I finally got this bastard to turn. Soaked the bottom half in a tank of avgas. Must have soaked something loose.

 

It looks like a totally different piece now, does it have oil inside it, one photo looked like it showed a drain bung.

 

No drain bung. I think I have identified everything on this and I can't see a way to drain it. I'm guessing this is grease inside this and is it N A S T Y!
I kinda think this isn't an oil divider, but wtf do I know?




I unlocked the lock on the bottom and started unscrewing the shaft. Then I stopped. I was afraid to proceed without some guidance.
It spins freely so I have to ask is it worth fking with it?? Then I think about the sludge and know this needs a full clean job..
How would you clean this nasty old grease out? Dump the entire thing a 5gallons of varsol??




Now this little jewel is held on by just two bolts. This is what the handle and holed plate mounts to. It has jack screws on it to set the mesh. But I have to be king kong to turn this.
I cleaned it up, oiled it and it still was a mother to try to turn. I had it chucked up in the mill vise with very little squeeze on it... So I gently pressed the shaft out of it.
I chucked the shaft up in the lathe and checked to see if it was bent. It's not and there is no taper to it either. It spun very true. So I used some 1000grit paper and shined it up and then checked the bore. It looks pretty clean too with no scoring. What gives? With no sign of corrosion, I don't know why it's so friggen tight? And this was with the lock down screw REMOVED!
Very weird.



SO I'm kinda stuck I think. There just is no tech data on this divider and I'm in no mans land.

 

Looks like some super thick oil like Vactra No.3 or 4. The handle should turn the worm fairly freely and there should be a locking lever or knob to stop it spinning during a cut (disastrous) . If the lubricant has a tackifier additive, you can get some on your thumb and forefinger while touching and bring them apart to see if a string of oil forms between the two across the gap. If it does form strings of oil then it has a tackifier in it like lathe way oils have. A worm drive could probably use differential oil with no problems apart from potential leaking as it would have the right additives for such a wiping tooth action that worm drives have.

 

Part of me thinks it could use oil because it has those little ball injectors on the worm. That's the only I see them. I'll give it the finger test tomorrow.

 

That also looks like it could be an NLGI 00 viscosity grease (steering box grease). My mill's right angle spindle uses a few squirts of it through the ball oilers before use, for the helical gears......once it warms a bit there's a vent at the bottom that spits out the excess like a diarrhetic baboon all over the table.

Edit: actually steering box grease would be ideal as some of the non power steering boxes are a worm driving a sector of a worm gear.

 

I think Mark is on the money, you just need a grease that will take the pressure against the worm. As long as the box is full of it I'd be happy (It's not like your doing reciprocatting cycles all day long)

As for washing it out, be cautious what you use can't upset the seals/packers. Some materials don't like some solvents and all that.

Just my un-educated 2p for what it's worth.

 

What gets me is the side that says carroll? It has 3 nuts on it and I would bet my left nut that comes off some how. I think under it holds the secret to getting it off its frame. Most of these have some kind of top down clamping setup, but not this one. I think it's attached to the frame on the carroll side and the other side just rides it's way on the way. When it was stuck and wouldn't pivot, one thing that did seem to loosen it was I had the 3 nuts removed and I took a dead blow and tapped that cover. Tapping it and with the solvent probably helped breakup withever shit was on the mating surfaces and allows it to now move. (just wish I could clean that part right) At least this is how it works in my mind. I've been conversing with a guy on line that also has one. He sent me the online doc found anywhere on it and it's just and advertisement piece with some specs. His suggestion was to run 80/90w oil in it. To which I say F-THAT! I abhor the smell of that stinky shit. I'll stick with vactra! He ran into a problem finding a chuck for his. He said it's 6tpi and he only has one plate for it, so he bought a chinese precision matthews. Speaking of chucks, how the hell do you get those off? More importantly, I have to wonder if I can keep it from spinning with the knob locked enough to be able to back the chuck off the shaft! When I cleaned the chuck, I had to leave the backing plate on.

I did get the worm to spin finally spin good. It took another round on the lathe. So far I've pulled a thou off it and it's working much better.

 

Not being a dividing head expert, don't know if you have or not but I searched the practical machinst forum and they have activity about the Carroll dividing head - Search Results - Practical Machinist - Largest Manufacturing Technology Forum on the Web

 

Been there, done that. That's where I found the advertisement. I have a 10" and it's 116lbs before adding the chuck. It should make a great gear cutter when it's done.

I did learn the big cinnci's use vactra #2 so that makes sense.

 

I had to almost do the exact same process about two years ago with my wife's Lock nut on her tire on her vehicle. The vehicle had aluminum rims. I lathered up the aluminum with grease. Put the ground clamp on a 5/8" threaded socket head cap screw with a Allen socket head. i started welding away attaching the socket head cap screw threads to the top of the locking nut. I put in the half inch Allen key with a 3 foot pipe and snap it was loose.

I am embarrassed that this only took 20 minutes. But, this was after stripping apart the first lock the key, ordering a second one for $30 and wrecking it too. After this fiasco, there are no more locknuts on a $25,000 Dodge minivan. If some thief thinks it is worth their while to steal aluminum rims off a Dodge minivan, have at-her.

 

Yeah, wheel lock nuts suck! They have always sucked and always will. The only thing worse was back in the 1980's some cars needed a stupid key to get the wire wheel HUBCAPS off. Oldsmobile and chevy did this nonsense quite a bit. I found out many times in the used car business the previous owner thought they should keep that Mother$*%ing key! Usually on a rainy summer afternoon pissing down rain on the side of I75.

I was just happy to have that broken off bolt come out so I didn't have to get medieval on it's ass.

 

I've never used that method before. That's something else to add to the old box of tricks. I bet it would work on a broken tap.

 

I got a link off that video. But it didn't show in the comments. YT is playing games again, SCUMBAGS!
Anyways, I got led to this photo. From where I stand, I think this will help a lot! This is some poor guys Carroll in pieces!
Not as horrendous as I envisioned!



This is the Ellis exploded and it's apparently a dead ringer of the Carroll

 

That's really great trick, it's saved my bacon a few times. Immediately after welding on the washer (using a mig not a tig), I'll first try backing out the stud with a prick punch and hammer usually that works, if not, then I'll weld on a bolt.