Carriage sticking

[PaulR]

After suffering from crunchy chuck jaws over the last few days I'm now finding that the carriage is getting stuck occasionally when trying to move it left or right. I think it's probably something gumming up the half nut area. I vaguely recall having this problem on my Clarke mini lathe years ago and undoing the two screws on top to drop the casting down to clean it but I think I had a real game getting it back in place afterwards.

I've looked at the parts diagram but it's not very clear (small!) and there are lots of little screws in that casting. The pic shows the two screws on the current lathe, will undoing these and maybe removing the carriage lock handle give enough room to clean things up? I'll try blasting some air through it first either way.

Sorry about the decorative tinsel!

EDIT: Sorry, should have said it's a SEIG SC2

[ShopShoe]

As a 7x Mini-Lathe owner, I have fought problems like you describe many times, and there have been many sources of those problems.

If your lathe is similar to mine, I would like to suggest that the easiest way to get access to several of the areas you may want to check, clean, or adjust is to remove the carriage.

Remove the tailstock. Then take off the bracket that supports the tailstock end of the lead screw and crank the carriage toward the tailstock end of the bed and carefully slide it off the end of the lathe. Be careful to support the lead screw so as not to bend it.

You'll then have access to the whole lead screw and all of the parts of the carriage.

The advantage of doing it this way is that you won't alter any of the settings of the parts of the carriage. You can just clean things up and reassemble, or you can move on to attempting to adjust or modify whatever you find.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

ShopShoe

[PaulR]

As a 7x Mini-Lathe owner, I have fought problems like you describe many times, and there have been many sources of those problems.

If your lathe is similar to mine, I would like to suggest that the easiest way to get access to several of the areas you may want to check, clean, or adjust is to remove the carriage.

Remove the tailstock. Then take off the bracket that supports the tailstock end of the lead screw and crank the carriage toward the tailstock end of the bed and carefully slide it off the end of the lathe. Be careful to support the lead screw so as not to bend it.

You'll then have access to the whole lead screw and all of the parts of the carriage.

The advantage of doing it this way is that you won't alter any of the settings of the parts of the carriage. You can just clean things up and reassemble, or you can move on to attempting to adjust or modify whatever you find.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

ShopShoe

Thank you, that's a great idea compared to blindly undoing stuff! I won't quite have access to the entire lead-screw as it's fitted with a cover to prevent things like this happening so that should be ok. I'll have a go at this later and report back. 

[PaulR]

Couldn't resist looking at this straight away and happy to say it seems to have solved the issue. The teeth in the larger of the two wheels were full of oily swarf and there was a larger piece of metal stuck in the half nut which was probably the problem. Cleaned up all the other nooks and crannies then blew some air through it for good measure. The whole thing is moving more smoothly and locking/unlocking cleanly again with the added bonus of cleaning up the underside of the tailstock

Thanks again ShopShoe!

[Charles Lamont]

Using an air gun to clean a machine tool is generally regarded as a bad idea. There is a tendency to drive fine particles of swarf into places where they can do damage. There is also a risk of injury.

[Sanjay F]

Hi Paul

Having cut my teeth on one of these lathes, I did several modifications to mine including adding a cover to the apron to prevent what you have described. Check out this video for several mods, but the one for this particular issue is at 12:50

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVkWQLbPo60" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVkWQLbPo60</a>

[55fairlane]

Get some things sheet stock and make a cover to keep the crap out of those gears....that is probably in the top 3 mods to must do.....

[PaulR]

Thanks both, will do when I get time 

[leete]

A plastic CD case is/was the material of choice to make that cover. 

[PaulR]

A plastic CD case is/was the material of choice to make that cover.

Good idea... if only I still have one around these days, will check.

[PaulR]

Took another look at this today and realized that fitting a cover would be tricky as they put a lead-screw cover on these lathes now which leaves almost no clearance to the saddle casting, certainly not enough for screw heads and there would be too little sheet material to use countersunk screws. So I decided to make a thin plastic cover and glue it in place - if swarf does find its way inside it'll be easy enough to peel it off for cleaning. I didn't remove the gears or the half nut, I just worked round them, cutting a slot for the shaft. Not exactly a professional job but it should keep most of the crud out. 

[Sanjay F]

Looks like it'll do the job  - easy enough to replace too if needed