My "new" Clausing 5904

djb25

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Picked this up last week.

Clausing 5904. Mostly surface rust, ways look to be in great shape. No actual chuck, just some weird disc that I suppose may be some kind of collet holder. No drawbar with it, so I have no idea.

Serial number is 505738, which I believe means it was produced around 1966.

I took a bit of a risk, since I wasn't able to run it (seller didn't have 3 phase). Was said to have been running fine when it was removed from the machine shop that it spent most of its life in.

I was planning on pulling the variable speed assembly from the machine, but after cleaning it up, it actually looks to be in good shape. The plastic bushings were replaced with bronze, for example, and the green coating looks to be intact. I do have a Teco vfd on the way, but I'm going to try and keep the variable speed if possible.

I'm giving it a quick repaint using Benjamin Moore Super Spec in platinum gray. Not the original color, but I'm not going all out refinishing the thing. I hope to put it to good use shortly.

Oh, and I paid $500. Seemed like a pretty good deal!


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Looks like a good score. Any tooling that's not shown? How hard are tailstocks for that unit to find?
 
It does have the tailstock, micrometer stop for the carriage, and threading dial. I had to pull the motor, intermediate shaft, and tailstock to lift it with my tractor. Even then my 1026r barely lifted it.

It's heavy!


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Even better! Keep the pics coming while you make it pretty!
 
Deal like that you can't pass up. She's a beauty. Oh, and really like your moving equipment.

:thumbzup3:
 
Anyone know of a good (cheap) source for the belt that runs from the intermediary shaft to the spindle?
 
Okay, I did a search and found the info on the belts.

This came from a thread on a 5914, but as far as I can tell, the belts are the same.

The timing belt (from countershaft to spindle), Clausing part no. 051-047, is a 630H150 timing belt, 1/2" Pitch, 1-1/2" Width, 126 Teeth, 63.00" Pitch Length.

The variable speed belt is a 1930v400 belt, 30 Degree Angle Pulley, Cogged, 1.2" Top Width, 0.47" Height, 40" Pitch Length.

Both are actually available from Amazon. $56.90 for the timing belt and $60.10 for the variable speed belt.

Unless someone advises me otherwise, I'm going to order one of each. My timing belt is in pretty rough shape.
 
It's alive!

The Teco VFD showed up today, so I finally got the chance to test the variable speed system.

I temporarily wired up the VFD, and after messing around for a while trying to figure out how to bleed the system, the sheaves moved!

Unfortunately, it wouldn't hold the speed.

At first I thought it was more air in the system, but it turned out that the spring inside the speed adjuster had broken off, so there was no spring tension. Apparently the spring works against the hydraulic pressure to hold the adjustment.

I imagine I could just bend the end of the spring and reinstall it, but I can't figure out a way to bend the end of the spring so that it will fit into the shaft.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Pretty exciting discovery today!

I cleaned up the backplate that came with the lathe and discovered it is a bison 6 1/4" backplate.

And I just happen to have a new bison 6 1/4" 3 jaw chuck just waiting for the lathe!

Pretty lucky, really. The cheapest I've seen that backplate is $179.

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Now, a question.

The backplate was attached to this:

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I have no idea what it is. It is nicely machined, but it has no internal taper and no apparent function. It is machined with a recess to fit the bison backplate.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1408900941.080773.jpg

The seller told me that the lathe was used with collets exclusively, so perhaps this was a sort of protector for the spindle cone?

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ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1408900813.880033.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1408900857.660241.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1408900941.080773.jpg
 
I should also mention that I've gotten the variable speed working. Using a large assortment of vise grips and pliers, I got the spring bent and reinstalled. It holds speed very nicely now.

The variable speed is kind of loud, but seems to run smoothly. No issues changing speeds. It works so well that the VFD speed control really isn't necessary.
 
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