Feeler FTL 618

Shiney :) (all looks strangely familiar)

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followed by a number of coats of high build primer to fill in the chips.

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I have to do the same now to the [ame="http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1231"]Haighton Major[/ame] (Hardinge UM copy) horizontal mill that I've just acquired. I've just scraped all the old paint off of the tub. The main casting has been stripped and hand-painted straight over the fettling - it'll need several coat to cover the mess.

BTW What's that little machine in the background of pic 4?

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Originally Posted by BillTodd

Shiney :) (all looks strangely familiar)


I have to do the same now to the Haighton Major (Hardinge UM copy) horizontal mill that I've just acquired. I've just scraped all the old paint off of the tub. The main casting has been stripped and hand-painted straight over the fettling - it'll need several coat to cover the mess.

BTW What's that little machine in the background of pic 4?

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It's a Clarkson tool and cutter grinder I've had for some time now. I've acquired an Herbert hand operated surface grinder which I'll get around to eventually and I hope that I'll be able to let the Clarkson go to reclaim space.
I'll have a look at your Haighton Major thread, as my next task is to get away from my Myford Mill and maybe get a Bridgeport.

I've got the bed and headstock painted so it's time to get the saddle back on. Having received my bits from Hardinge I've compared them with the Feeler originals and all likes good to me. Seems like Hardinge have managed a perfect copy Ha Ha. btw have a look at the rack gear itself, it's now induction hardenned so I guess Hardinge has recognised it's weakness!

Measuring the rack gear it seems like it has had more reworking than I thought, as well as the rack gear itself being remade, both bearing faces had been recut so I've got to bore out the existing bearings in the saddle. The cover plate bearing is fine, see picks but getting the saddle onto the mill is a real pain in the arse. Looks like I'll have to get some jacks so that I can get it square. Unfortunately I dropped my Myford on it's head moving it to get the feeler in so now lathe for the time being, other wise I'd knock out the bearing and bore it close befoer replacing.

I also looked at removing the clutches, but I am concerned that the springs may be a challenge to get back on.
"Did you do this Bill? and if so how did it go"

Hmm 'Looks like Hardinge have changed the gear and the apron cover bearing to suit; Mine, like yours, has a small (5/8"?) apron cover bearing.

http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/attach...6&d=1236984035

The clutches come apart and reassemble easily; there is enough thread on the centre nut to be able to start it with a light push.

It's well worth taking them apart just to check them, and it will allow you to make sure the threading/power feed interlock bar (which slides in a slot in the apron cover under the clutches) is free to move (it is spring loaded towards the threading lever so, if it sticks, the power feed lever will not move after you've closed/openned the half-nuts)

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Originally Posted by BillTodd

Hmm 'Looks like Hardinge have changed the gear and the apron cover bearing to suit; Mine, like yours, has a small (5/8"?) apron cover bearing.

http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/attach...6&d=1236984035

The clutches come apart and reassemble easily; there is enough thread on the centre nut to be able to start it with a light push.

It's well worth taking them apart just to check them, and it will allow you to make sure the threading/power feed interlock bar (which slides in a slot in the apron cover under the clutches) is free to move (it is spring loaded towards the threading lever so, if it sticks, the power feed lever will not move after you've closed/openned the half-nuts)

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That's interesting, both bearing faces are now 20mm. My oringinal is 5/8 and 19.83mm.

I'll whip the clutches apart now, I was worried that they'd fire the spring across the workshop.
btw the saddle is an absolute bugger to get onto the mill table, it weighs a ton and does'n seem to have good faces to mount it on square. I'm going to get some solid jacks to set this up, just to bore out 0.17mm. Oh well, better get it done. I'll post picks when it's set up.

hold on Pete, I nay have given you a bum steer about the clutch springs...

The manual shows the use of a plate across the spring as a compressor prior to undoing the nut. I don't recall doing that, but I now have a vague memory that I used a Valve spring compressor to put them back together - I'm sure it was no great drama.

Have you got a large angle plate that you could mount the top of the saddle to?

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Originally Posted by BillTodd

hold on Pete, I nay have given you a bum steer about the clutch springs...

The manual shows the use of a plate across the spring as a compressor prior to undoing the nut. I don't recall doing that, but I now have a vague memory that I used a Valve spring compressor to put them back together - I'm sure it was no great drama.

Have you got a large angle plate that you could mount the top of the saddle to?

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I've got a large angle plate and I had originally thought of doing that. However it seemed easy just to mount the saddle the other way on blocks with the top of the saddle hanging over the mill table. Having done that the angle plate seems to have gone from my mind. This getting old thing is a bummer. I'll have a go at that as it will save me from scrounging uo the jacks. Thanks Bill.

By the way I was looking at your thread and noticed that you had modified the saddle bearing to take an oil seal. The feeler has an oil seal fitted to the outer side of the saddle bearing and I got one from Hardinge who have obviously added that also as a modification. The Feeler was manufactured in 1987 so is somewhat younger than your Hardinge.

I'll take some pics and post them next time.

As for the clutches, I've got a manual so should have looked it up. I'll check on the method for compressing the springs and get them off. I should have a valve spring compressor somewhere, if not I guess I'll have to make a fixture, if I can do it withour a lathe!!

After a lot of messing about, I finally ditched the angle plate idea and the jacks and went back to the parallels. I measured various area of land between the saddle front plate mounting and the back of the casting and sorted out a set of parallels that gave me and end to end variation of .002" and back to front of .0025; good enough for me. Set it true and reamed it to 20mm. Fours hours of messing about and four minutes to do it.

I then set out to get the clutches off. Taking Bills advice I used a valve spring compressor. 15 quid from Halfords buys some flimsy thing that just about did it. Not like the simple G cramp type from 30 years ago. They're all stripped down and ready for cleaning. God knows if the clamp will re-compress them to get the clutches back on.

I've changed all the bearings in the casting now and find I'm two short for the front plate. They should be easy enough to source from the local bearing supplier so I'm shooting for completion by next weekend before a trip to Florida.

The saddle's now back on and having readjusted the gibs there is some wear to the bed; when I get it right for the headstock end it's tight at the tail stock. I'll leave it that way as most of the work will be done at the headstock end.

I've now assembled the saddle drive. All bearings replaced and trhe clutches reassmbled. It all seems to have gone back together smoothly so after a trial run I've sealed it with gasket sealer.

So for a test I assmbled and fitted the saddle handwheel assembly. This again turned out to be a performance. Because the hand wheel is dual metric/imperial there is a 32 tooth idler gear that drives the metric dial at a different speed than the imperial dial, quite clever really. The idler sits on a 5mm dowel pin and both were so worn that they no longer worked. I sourced a new gear from Hardinge, not bad for 32 bucks (1 buck per tooth) along with the dowel, now wouldn't you guess is, the new dowel is 3/16 where the old one was 5mm. I guess at some point there was an upgrade and they still stock the old size. So the five mintue job of knocking out the old pin changed to soucing new pins, grinding to size and reaming out the centre of the new gear. It fits fine now.

Having assembled everything I find that manually driving the saddle is not a clean smooth operation. I'm hoping that this is because both clutches are engaged. I have to finish the clutch controls to find out and that may not get done before I go on hols.

Bill, if your out there is it likely that the clutches are making the drive feel tight??

It's coming on nicely :)

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Bill, if your out there is it likely that the clutches are making the drive feel tight??

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Do you have the covers and levers in place? If not you'll be feeling the cross-slide gears spinning as you move the carriage. [one nice Hardinge feature is the ability to cut a perfect 30' taper by engaging both cross-feed and carriage feed at the same time]

I can only just feel the clutch drag on the cross slide if I wind the handle fast. Otherwise, the clutches are free.

The clutches should be adjusted to "...engage and disengage when the ball lever is between 10' and 20' above horizontal."