- Joined
- Mar 23, 2018
- Messages
- 3
I bought an 1127 recently and have very slowly been getting familiar with it. I recently had my first attempt at threading, which was semi-successful. However, I'm not sure I'm changing the gears correctly. In particular, I don't understand exactly what I should be doing with the retaining nut that threads onto the axle. They're little round slotted nuts with a grub screw. None of the tools that shipped with the lathe seem to work with them (although the lathe did come with two hook spanners that I've yet to figure out a use for).
When I put the gear couples on the rail I first tightened the axles into the T-nuts. Then I threaded the retaining nuts on to the axles. You can't tighten the nuts down fully or the gear won't turn, so I tightened them until they were barely tight, backed them off a little, and then tightened the grub screw down (a rather awkward operation). Am I doing this correctly? The grub screw is quite little and it's tightening onto the threads of the axle, so I can't believe it has much power to prevent the nut from turning. And why is this such an odd nut? Why not simply use a hex nut with a grub screw or even just two jam nuts?
I have to be missing something here, but honestly I don't have a particularly strong mechanical background. My google skills have lead me to discover that this kind of nut seems to be used for gear retaining, but I don't understand what's special about it.
As a side note, how long does swapping gears usually take you? The thought of having to deal with changing belts and swapping gears every time I want to do threading is a little daunting.
When I put the gear couples on the rail I first tightened the axles into the T-nuts. Then I threaded the retaining nuts on to the axles. You can't tighten the nuts down fully or the gear won't turn, so I tightened them until they were barely tight, backed them off a little, and then tightened the grub screw down (a rather awkward operation). Am I doing this correctly? The grub screw is quite little and it's tightening onto the threads of the axle, so I can't believe it has much power to prevent the nut from turning. And why is this such an odd nut? Why not simply use a hex nut with a grub screw or even just two jam nuts?
I have to be missing something here, but honestly I don't have a particularly strong mechanical background. My google skills have lead me to discover that this kind of nut seems to be used for gear retaining, but I don't understand what's special about it.
As a side note, how long does swapping gears usually take you? The thought of having to deal with changing belts and swapping gears every time I want to do threading is a little daunting.