Considering Turcite on underside of lathe saddle to increase contact area. Is there a reason not to do it this way?

[Ken226]

The bed on my lathe has minimal wear, and I recently scraped the underside of the saddle to improve the amout of contact area. While I had it apart, I noticed that the V under the saddle doesn't fully contact the beds V way. There is an about 3/16" wide where the saddle doesn't contact the ways because the milled notch in the top of the V is too wide.

Like this:



I was considering milling the surfaces, adding some Turcite and scraping it in, to correct this. I was thinking about using the Turcite epoxy/cement to partially infill the milled notch, in order to get full contact across the ways.

Something like this:



Then afterward, scraping in the Turcite.

Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Should I leave it alone, or is this worth addressing with Turcite?

 

[Firebrick43]

Is there wear on the v way itself because of the lower point of contact?

While turcite is an excellent product, to me this would be a good application for moglice. Set up some shims on the top of the v way made of UHMW and some clay dams. Then inject the moglice into the way area.

 

[Ken226]

Is there wear on the v way itself because of the lower point of contact?

While turcite is an excellent product, to me this would be a good application for moglice. Set up some shims on the top of the v way made of UHMW and some clay dams. Then inject the moglice into the way area.

Before I scraped the saddle in a couple years ago the contact area was pretty poor. Even so, the wear on that V way isn't much (induction hardened ways).

The wear is about .0005" deep in a small area about 5/16" wide, centered on the frontside and backside of that specific v way. That narrow wear strip gets progressively shallower towards the tailstock, tapering down to zero, about 8 inches from the tailstock.

the other 3 ways are practically pristine.

After I scraped in the saddle, it basically is straddling that little wear strip, so there isn't really an actual problem. The lathe works great.

I guess I was just looking for a project.


Ill do some Google-fu on Moglice and educate myself on it.

 

[RJSakowski]

Adding Turcite to the V ways will tilt the saddle. You will have to compensate on the opposite flat. For every .010" in thickness added, to the V, compensation on the flat would be .014".

 

[Richard King 2]

Many Manufacturers make it that way to distribute oil along the top. It has a way wiper covering the gap doesn't it? If not having any issues now, why not leave it alone and scrape the cross-slide, compound and tail stock if you need a project. If you haven't, you'll need a dovetail straight-edge, another project. What brand lathe is it and how big? There is a guy named Gary Martin of Martin models that sells straight edge and other "projects". if you need something to do. https://www.martinmodel.com/

PS: I used to be use and was the MN distributor for Devitt Machinery that is now Moglice.com It is a great product. I would like to here more about the machine and photo's before recommending it or Turcite. Or nothing at all.

 

[Ken226]

A

Adding Turcite to the V ways will tilt the saddle. You will have to compensate on the opposite flat. For every .010" in thickness added, to the V, compensation on the flat would be .014".

If I do this, I intend to mill the V on the saddle down to an amount equal to the thickness of the turcite.

I was thinking I'd use a 1" diameter 90° countersink/chamfer cutter, and take depths of cut on Y, equal to the thickness of the turcite \cos(45°)

For turcite that is ..0314" thick, a 90 degree chamfer mill taking a .0444" depth of cut should be right.

I'm not sure how much additional I should take to account for the thickness of the epoxy under the turcite though. Might have to experiment with some scraps.

 

[Ken226]

Many Manufacturers make it that way to distribute oil along the top. It has a way wiper covering the gap doesn't it?

Yes, the way wipes cover the gap. I didn't even consider that this could have been intentional in the design.

Now that I think about it, that makes sense as the oiling ball inserts open into that space, and the angled upper portion of the ways would funnel oil.

I'm glad I asked here before I started milling. I think I'll leave it alone.


The lathe is a run of the mill Chinese 13x40 made around the year 2000. Mine is the Birmingham branded version, but they were imported and sold under various names by pretty much every importer that ever imported lathes. The Grizzly G4016 is the most common version out there.

I bought it used for 1200$ back in 2013. The previous owner found it in a house he had just purchased and wanted it gone

I've done a bit of work to polish it up, things like a Siemens motor, VFD, better pulleys, upgraded to quality bearings from Timken and FAG, etc.

I've already scraped in the saddle, (not Richard King good, but it is way better than it was) and I'm not having any problems. I just happened to be putting some new 3d printed way wipers a few days ago, saw that gap and my OCD nature kicked in.


This is the lathe:




I'll take a few more pics of the wear areas of the ways, and the area under the way wipes later today when I get home.

 

[Firstram]

Your lathe is waaay too clean, makes me feel very self-conscious!

 

[Ken226]

Your lathe is waaay too clean, makes me feel very self-conscious!

Yea, I obsessively clean, organize and fix things that aren't broken. The lathe and my PM mill do get used, quite a bit actually, though it may not look like it.

 

[Firstram]

I do keep the most important parts clean but the surrounding areas always have a protective coating of experience! Certainly not knocking your cleanliness, I gave up trying years ago!