The Home Shop Machinist

So last night we made a trip to Harbor Freight and picked up a 3-jaw gear puller set. Once we got home, I was able to disassemble the synchronizer pulley set. Once I got it apart, I started looking at it to see why it froze up, and you could still see casting marks on the shaft. Since this pulley set is used for lower speed applications, I was able to get the lathe running on the high speed pulley set. Then I chucked the shaft in the lathe and clean up the casting marks with a bit of emery cloth. I tested the fit a few times, and lubed the shaft up and got everything put back together. It runs really smooth now, and there is a great reduction in noise when doing low speed. I’m not sure if white lithium was the best grease for it, but it works for now. When I get a chance, I may pull the other pulley set apart and clean that shaft up also. It's not an accuracy issue, it's mainly a noise thing.

8" x 12" PRECISION MINI LATHE



Mini-Mill



Miller Tig Welder

So last night I was tinkering around with my lathe and I think I spun a bearing in my Sync. counter-pulley over shaft. I was taking a light finishing cut and all the sudden the lathe locked up and it started squealing really loud. I hit the stop button and then started moving stuff by hand. I disengaged the cross feed, and backed the cutter out. Then I tried to move the chuck by hand. Once I was unable to move that, I moved to the gear train. I opened up the gear train cover, and noticed that one of the belts was off. I then tried to move the different pulley's by hand, and narrowed it down to the counter-pulley assembly. I disassembled it and got the pulley set out. Now I am going to be ordering a puller set from Harbor Freight, to see if I can get it apart. I don't have enough stock around to make a puller set, and it's cheaper to get a complete set.