Atlas 10F gear replacements

[vNate]

Hi All

Picked up a TH54 in relatively good condition for a decent price. The previous owner was a grease monkey and I guess the bigger the gob, the better the job was his motto. This and 80 years worth of gunk hid a couple of things but all in all I am still ok with my purchase.
My lead screws and castings all look ****, lead screw nuts are worn but that is expected and I woud guess by design. I cannot see much or any wear on the ways but I do have a couple of sharp edges on some of the gibs that I will flatten when reassembling. Travers Gearbox has one ear broken off but I have seen a couple of repairs that look good and I have plans to replace this.

My question is on the gears in the apron and reverse box; many of them are quite worn out so too much backlash for my OCD liking. Were they manufactured 'soft' to wear out agsinst the harder gears rather than hard parts wearing each other out or was it a cost decision to make them out of Zamak? So if I replace them with newly made gears, do I go for Aluminium or harder steel?

Thanks in advanace.

 

[pdentrem]

The halfnuts can be purchased one, and they are soft to reduce the wear to the leadscrew. The remaining gears are mostly made from Zamac, which is a zinc alloy. The travering gears were still Zamac when I bought new ones from Clausing. The gears in the apron I replaced with steel versions, 2 bevel gears and one straight cut for the power cross feed.
I did post a listing of possible replacements many years ago on this site.
Pierre

 

[markba633csi]

AFAIK all Atlas gears were zamak except the ones in the quick change gearbox (if so equipped)

 

[vNate]

Agreed.

The halfnuts can be purchased one, and they are soft to reduce the wear to the leadscrew. The remaining gears are mostly made from Zamac, which is a zinc alloy. The travering gears were still Zamac when I bought new ones from Clausing. The gears in the apron I replaced with steel versions, 2 bevel gears and one straight cut for the power cross feed.
I did post a listing of possible replacements many years ago on this site.
Pierre

Thank you, I will track it down.

Your strategy makes sense; we do not want wear on the leadscrew but most of the gears in the apron only interface with other gears so might not wear each other...

 

[Markbinwi]

I bought brass half nuts and the cross feed nut from “derewa2” on flebay and are excellent He combined them and only 1 shipping charge.