Another Feeler FTL 618

[Graham Stabler]

Next the idler gear can go in. This gear can actually be removed without taking the gearbox apart if you ever need to, remove the spindle hand wheel and screw grubscrew in the shaft in which ejects the shaft and bearing. I found it hard to get out because it seems they assembled it from the other side and there was paint etc. As I intend to repaint in the future I ground it away a little. Don't make the same mistake I did, I put the circlip that retains the bearing back in place afterwards for safe keeping, I then forgot it should be on the outside of the gear and wondered why the bearing stuck out so much!



At this point I tested everything out turning the idler by hand and operating the clutch dog manually. Then I engaged some of the gears. You really need the output shaft in place for this. If you are really confident and don't feel the need to test (because you did not just file most of your gears) you can skip testing, in which case don't install the larger metric conversion gear, that needs to be removed so you can use the super long allen key to bolt the gearbox back on to the lathe. I used three 1/4" extension bars and an an allen bit to put the screws back. Note it is worth taping them together else they fall apart (don't ask.)

With the gearbox back in place it is time to add the feed/threading selector. On the Feeler the flat is on the left and I put the knob in the thread position. Then align the idler so that it runs on the gear on the spindle.



Now just put insert, screw in place and test. Put the metric conversion gear back in place, add the handwheel to the spindle and it's done. [note the bearing is on the wrong side of the circlip in this picture, not sure what I was thinking.]

All back together