New Member

[campervan]

Hi Guys (And Gals)!
Not long retired and bought a C3.
Been great so far, but I did the unthinkable yesterday and carelessly stopped the chuck with the cutting tool!
I moved the tool post out of the way to give me a bit more room whilst drilling. The result is lots of banging sounds coming
from the gubbins whilst in LOW. High seems to be OK.
I am not sure how to get inside the headstock to have a look so any help and guidance would be appreciated!
Thankyou,

[saw]

Hi and welcome to us 
The first thing that come to my mind is to put a peace of silversteel in the chuck and measure the performance with a dial indicator, then you know how bad it is. 

[campervan]

Hi Saw.
Thanks for the very quick reply! Do you mean to check for non concentricity? It seems fine in High ratio. I am thinking that I have stripped some teeth from the drive gear?
Chris

[Brass_Machine]

Hi Chris 

Welcome to the collective

It sounds like you stripped some gears. I have done this before... It does require a tear down to replace. You might be lucky and it is just the intermediate gear, which is easier to replace. What I did was replace the spindle gear with a METAL one and left the intermediate as plastic. Having a plastic gear is sorta like having an extra safety. Better a gear strip than something else break. The metal spindle gear guarantees it will be the intermediate gear that breaks.

Since you will be doing this, maybe you might want to consider replacing the bearings with tapered bearings...

Instructions on how to do this HERE. You can also see what you need to do to replace the gears...

I have been there, so if you need any questions answered, feel free to ask. Good luck!

Eric

[campervan]

Eric.
Thankyou. Gotta take the plunge and strip it, will let you know how I get on. Wont be foe a few weeks but I will let you know how I get on.
chris

[John Swift]

Hi Chris ,

first remove the headstock to see whats been damaged      (4 bolts fasten it to the bed)

you will find a large plastic double gear on the main spindle ,with  spacers to keep it in position between the main bearings

another smaller double gear is on the driven spindle , the hi/low selector slides it into position to give you approx 1 :1 or 2: 1 drive

with luck ,its the smaller driven gear that's failed , otherwise you will need to remove the main spindle
that's not easy as the main bearings are a very tight fit

if at some time  you  replace the original bearings with taper roller bearing to these lathes ,
 you need to polish the spindle, to ease the fit of spindle in the new bearings
note - you will need new spacers as the roller bearings are about 1.25mm wider

the side effect is its easier to remove the spindle a second time
 
   John

[doubleboost]

Hi
Welcome to mad modders
John

[PeterE]

Hi and very welcome in! 

BR

/Peter

[spuddevans]

Hi and welcome to Madmodders Chris


Tim