Another Feeler FTL 618

[Graham Stabler]

Hi,

As I have found the other logs on this forum handy so far I thought I would document my rebuild here. I'm not doing a full renovation right off the bat I just want to get it functional and make sure I'm not doing it any harm when I use it, later I might think about a more complete job.

I got the lathe a few days ago, of course I wanted a Hardinge but funds don't allow and I want metric as I'm a youngun (ish). I found this Feeler and the price was right.

Problems include:

1. *Extremely* noisy gearbox
2. No half nut lever
3. Missing cross-slide scales
4. Stiff carriage

Here she is:



On the day I got her I had to find out exactly what was wrong with the gearbox. If you take off the collet closer cover it reveals an access hole and there is another beneath it.

Lots more fiddling and I find there is no special reason the selector should not work, very careful use of a slide hammer and it moves, so the gear train engages OK but there is something making a lot of noise.

I work out which gears it must be, The spindle drives two gears on parallel shafts in the same direction, one on the clutch shaft and one on a secondary shaft. The one on the clutch shaft free wheels. The secondary shaft has another gear that engages with a further freewheeling gear on the clutch shaft which now rotates in the opposite direction. There is a dog between them, keyed to the shaft which can engage with either gear depending on the threading direction desired. That shaft drives the rest of the gubbins. Or in other words:


[The two gears on the left do not mesh but are powered by a gear that connects to the spindle when threading is engaged]

The problem was the second gear on the secondary shaft, I could see damage to the teeth.

I have the feeler service manual but it is just drawings, I have the Hardinge service manual and that has descriptions too. What I did find though was that this Feeler is not an exact copy of the Hardinge in my manual at least, there were a few differences when dismantling.