Hafco AL900A lathe, is anyone able to identify what it really is?

[dgrev]

Terry

I will get to the thread chart issue in due course. Need to do some more learning first!

Pierre

I have just got back home from doing some turning and with a 6" long 2 1/4 inch hollow bar which I was boring, the taper is 10 thou in 50mm
which is consistent with the 35 thou taper I saw yesterday on the external side over 150mm!!!!
Makes it effectively impossible (for me) to get any accuracy. A Fitter and Turner could cope with it, but beyond my talents at this time.

So my highest priority is getting this thing to cut to a reasonable parallel.

I don't have a machinist's level, so carpenter's levels will have to do until I can either buy a machinist's level or set up a truing bar and adjust in from that. Went into town and tried to buy some aluminium bar to do so, but largest diameter I could get was 25mm which from the Youtube videos I have watched is way too narrow. However, thinking about it, it would be a starting point and may help until such time as I next get to Adelaide and can buy
some 1 1/2" aluminium bar.

The taper is reducing towards the tailstock, so unless there are other factors at play, it really does point to the tailstock end as being out. As you have said, I may just have to give it some time and see if it will settle if the jacking bolts result in one of them not contacting the floor and the taper still
being there.
Am I correct in that it is the rear RHS bolt that I should be screwing downwards ie. increasing the height of that side?
(Which is what I was doing before and the RHS front bolt was lifting clear of the floor.)
Regards
Doug

 

[tjb]

Terry

I will get to the thread chart issue in due course. Need to do some more learning first!

Pierre

I have just got back home from doing some turning and with a 6" long 2 1/4 inch hollow bar which I was boring, the taper is 10 thou in 50mm
which is consistent with the 35 thou taper I saw yesterday on the external side over 150mm!!!!
Makes it effectively impossible (for me) to get any accuracy. A Fitter and Turner could cope with it, but beyond my talents at this time.

So my highest priority is getting this thing to cut to a reasonable parallel.

I don't have a machinist's level, so carpenter's levels will have to do until I can either buy a machinist's level or set up a truing bar and adjust in from that. Went into town and tried to buy some aluminium bar to do so, but largest diameter I could get was 25mm which from the Youtube videos I have watched is way too narrow. However, thinking about it, it would be a starting point and may help until such time as I next get to Adelaide and can buy
some 1 1/2" aluminium bar.

The taper is reducing towards the tailstock, so unless there are other factors at play, it really does point to the tailstock end as being out. As you have said, I may just have to give it some time and see if it will settle if the jacking bolts result in one of them not contacting the floor and the taper still
being there.
Am I correct in that it is the rear RHS bolt that I should be screwing downwards ie. increasing the height of that side?
(Which is what I was doing before and the RHS front bolt was lifting clear of the floor.)
Regards
Doug

Doug,

I don't if it's feasible where you live, but I've been able to acquire quite a few pieces of metal - including inch and a half solid rounds - for very reasonable prices on e-bay. I'm sure you'd need to locate an Australian vendor, but here in the US, there are a handful that sell end cuts and other salvageable pieces for very reasonable prices.

Regards,
Terry

 

[dgrev]

Terry

I have seen similar on the Oz site. The biggest issue here is parcel cost. Ever since email hit the regular letter service the post office has focused on parcels as their bread and butter. It isn't cheap anymore and it really suppresses what is sold online.
I bought a .50cal ammo box recently - empty. Cost was $19.95, postage was $13.50. I regularly see items that the postage cost if 75% or more of the item price until that price exceeds roughly $50.
Truck freight is only affordable if you are a business and have an account with them that guarantees you will spend $XXXX per month. One off despatches are roughly 3x postage cost outside of the capital cities.

As to buying things out of the USA, US Post has all but killed off international parcels, they killed the thriving 2nd hand book industry stone dead.
The items I have priced in the last couple of years usually have the postage cost exceed the item cost by a factor of 2.
The fact that almost nothing seems to fit in those weird sized "fixed price international boxes"
forces you to use the L x W x D by Weight option which is what drives the postage cost into the ridiculous category.

I just did a search for aluminium bar or rod and got zero hits from Aussie sellers, and just this one from England
<https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/6082-Al...hash=item361e773a60:m:mHzM1Aj21DL1ND3PkMZxkEw>
1 off 41.3mm x 108mm bar for or a total of $38.56!

So will finish lunch and then go to the metal place and get that 25mm rod and have a play this arvo.

Since you were asking about Oz. Some photos for you.
- First is an open road shot. We are on the trans-Oz highway, so it is not unusual to have to dodge large items of machinery. Think of all the good steel for our projects going by to disappear into mines and never come out.
- A dust storm rolling in, usually happen in drought years. Which is why I am going to have to get a good cover for the lathe as I don't fancy having to take it apart to clean the very fine dust out of everything.
- 2 legged road hazards a block from my place. I have never seen Emus wandering the streets before, the tourists who think we are the wild west may just be correct. We are in drought and they are coming into town for food. Which tends to suggest that it will be dust storms starting probably in September, so I had better have a really good cover for that lathe (Bob misses out on all this).
Any suggestions, I was wondering if they make BBQ covers that big?

The photos of the accessories that came with the lathe are on either page 1 or 2 of this thread.

Regards
Doug

 

[dgrev]

Everyone

Went and got that aluminium bar and set it up against the live centre as I could not get it to sit true in the chuck no matter how much I reset it.
Which seemed odd.

Best I could align lathe was 12 thou out over the 11" of the lathe. So call it 1 thou per inch.

When it came time to back off the tailstock, the bar sprang still. No matter how many times I reset it in the chuck, still the identical spring. See photos.

So I then eased off the chuck, rotated the bar 180 deg, and tightened everything back up.
Then again backed off the tail stock.

Same result. So this time I turned the chuck 180 deg and then eased the tail stock. Double
the deflection.

Please don't tell me the headstock is out of alignment?

Screw on chuck by the way. I have not noticed any run out on the chuck, but I haven't had it slower than 650 rpm, so that may hide any wobble?

I take it next step is put the dial indicator against the chuck?

Regards
Doug

 

[Downunder Bob]

Doug before you get too excited, have you checked for parallel on a shorter bar say six inches without the tailstock. just set up the bar in the chuck with about 6 inches sticking out, take a light cut and measure, should be near perfect parallel. That test confirms your headstock is square to the lathe bed, If it isn't you have to fix that first..

While your there put a centre hole into end of bar. then extend bar out as far as practicable say a foot to 18 inches. and bring tailstock up to bar and see how it looks. Looking down from the top you should see that amount of misalignment. Now look at the tail stock, you'll see it's made in two parts, with a rectangular slide going across. There should also be 2 maybe 4 grub screws in top part closed own to the joint. Should be one at the front and one at they back plus maybe two on the right hand end. The front and back ones are for adjustment. the two on the end, if they exist, are for locking.

Loosen the hold down locking lever or bolt whichever you have, then loosen the two locking screws, now carefully adjust the front and back screws, until the tilstock looks to be lined up. Then set your dial indicator up and measure for parallel from chuck to tailstock. with the clock near to the tailstock end of bar slowly engage center into hole and see which way it move adjust tailstock until you get teh clock to show parallel from chuck to tail stock , then tighten the locking screws,and hold down clamp check again you may need to make further adjustment. depends how accurate you want it.

 

[dgrev]

Bob

Yes I have, the 2 3/8" hollow bar I bored yesterday. When I turned it down, it lost 30 thou from chuck to end of piece over 150mm. So today's observations are agreeing with that, in that there is a taper happening irrespective of the tailstock.

Is it a chicken and egg thing? Which do I do first, twist or headstock?

Regards
Doug

 

[tjb]

Doug,

I will be out of commission almost all day but will follow the posts. Bob's suggestions should help you zero in on the necessary adjustments.

Will try to post a photo or two of the tail stock on the Kin Shin. Can't promise it will be today, though.

Thanks for the pix. It's a different world out there!

Regards,
Terry

6:50 AM. Sunny. A little cooler today than yesterday.

 

[Downunder Bob]

fur

Ok, I thought you had said something like that. So to start with you have to address that, to start with ignore the tail stock. what you have is a misalignment from the headstock spindle to the bed. They should be parallel in both the vertical and horizontal planes. and I mean parallel.

The specs for my lathe say max. .02mm out of parallel. That's pretty tight.

Have a look at your lathe where the headstock is attached to the bed, there should be 4? large bolts holding it together, also there maybe some adjusting screws If you slacken those screws you should be able to pivot the headstock around a central pin.

Before you loosen anything put your test bar in the chuck and take a light cut and measure at both ends, then when you try to adjust it with your dial indicator on the distant end try to adjust out the error. now take another light cut and measure

It may take a few goes to get it right. A long bar set into the outer end of the head spindle might help to nudge the headstock around. Once you have the headstock square you can start on the tailstock. One can only wonder how it got to be that far out?

 

[dgrev]

Bob.

Indeed, it does make you wonder just what has gone on in this lathe's past. Somebody fiddling where they shouldn't have been I suspect.

Do you think I should buy a machinist's level before going any further?

I have seen 4 cap screws (allen) and noticed one snubber cap screw next to the motor, so there should be one tucked under the belt cover on the far LHS rear of the headstock. So looking good as far as adjusting the head stock. I am very wary of playing in this area, seems to me it is a bit of a Pandaora's Box that I am hesitant to open. But, you say I need to start there, so that is where I will start.

Regards
Doug

 

[Downunder Bob]

Doug, do you know what sort of work the previous owner did on the lathe. He may have had a reason for wanting a long slow atper.

I think you said you had squared it up with a carpenters level, that should be good enough to start with. It is better than nothing. I would still follow it up with a good machine level. It's a bit like oils. Sure there is correct oil for every application, but surely the wrong oil is better than no oil at all.

So having squared it up as best you can and it's still turning with same taper, then squaring it more won't make it any better. And you probably don't need to go to a surveyor's or toolmakers level, 1 mm per meter should be good enough, some modern builders levels can get that at least until they are dropped.

Then the next step is to get the headstock square with the bed. once you've got that done, you can proceed with the rest of it.

If you wish we can talk by phone if it helps, give me your number I can call anywhere in Aus free.24/7