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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on Today at 06:53:12 AM »
Thanks for your thoughts chaps.

I have a feeling that the tool disk currently on the lathe will be easier to dismantle than the broken spare one but I'd still like to get that apart first to see what's what. Latest plan is to lug out my rather heavy magnetic drill (it's old school not Temu!) and drill out the broken off bit and tap those outer holes for a strong 'push off bolt'.

Need to do some careful measurements to stop the drilling before breaking through into the main casting and either create a flat bottomed tap, or push off bolts with reduced ends to pass through the inevitably tapered end of the tapping.

Why does everything get so complicated !
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by pycoed on Today at 04:46:47 AM »
Re the forks:- how about welding  loops to each C channel to fit over the forks? More secure than clamps - probably (have you SEEN my welding?)
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by AdeV on November 03, 2026, 09:12:42 PM »
Quote from: awemawson on November 03, 2026, 07:11:06 AM
OK last resort - what does the drawing say ? Well the only drawing that I have is from the Patent Application so may not be 'as built' but here it is:

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Now to me that is clear as mud. I can see the large bolts screwing into the outer half of the front curvic coupling allowing for a bit of rotational adjustment (as I have previously done). But the ten smaller bolts from the way that I'm reading the drawing don't seem to do anything.

I've retreated for more head scratching.

As best I can tell, and I'm not much cop at interpreting those kind of drawings either...

The smaller bolts look exactly like the pattern that typically holds a car flywheel to the crankshaft. My best guess would be that if you undo and remove them all, you then screw bolts into the two holes top & bottom & use them to push the whole front piece off. Or maybe just the middle comes out, since the drawing shows all the bolts flush with the same surface, but neither physical unit matches that (the centre bolts being further in). Best guess, the big outer bolts are holding the coupling together (with,as you say, enough play to make minor radial adjustments), the inner bolts are what's holding it together. Probably gravity isn't strong enough to overcome the sticktion between the two parts, hence the push-it-out bolt holes in the centre portion.

Should be easy enough to test the theory - loosen the inner bolts, screw a bolt into one of the things you suggested might be for a slide hammer, and see if a) it bottoms out and b) if so, that it does indeed dislodge the coupling.
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on November 03, 2026, 10:17:11 AM »
OK the plot thickens!

Looking at the photo of the tool disk on the lathe there appears to be two location dowels 180 degrees apart threaded for a slide hammer, and an adjacent threaded hole possibly to screw in an extractor bolt.

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Looking at the spare disk it seems someone has been here before me. I suspect that they broke off an extractor bolt and tried to drill it out on one side, and there are extra holes drilled at a further offset from the axis. Was this an attempt in the past to make new threaded holes for an extractor.

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Not quite sure where to go from here !
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on November 03, 2026, 07:11:06 AM »
Today's task - remove the tool disk from the spindle. How hard can it be, I've previously several years ago been able to rotate the disk to align the tool pockets to the curvic coupling so I kow that the eight large cap screws lock them together but what actually fixes them. There is a row of ten smaller cap screws that I feel MUST be involved but are they?

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As eventually I will need to set the alignment of tool pockets to curvic coupling to cam features on the spindle I wanted to resolve this before yanking on the original disk in the lathe.

I dragged out my spare (but busted) tool turret to experiment with to have a look see. Plan was to sit it on it's rear flat casting face with the tool disk upwards and pull it apart. Absolutely no way I could get it in the attitude so I roped in a passing friend. We also failed :( what is this thing made of, solid uranium to judge by it's weight.

So out comes the engine hoist again and we managed to get it sitting as I wanted it.

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First I slackened the eight big bolts a long way out and did a tentative lift, no the whole turret came up. Then I did the same with the ten slightly smaller bolts with exactly the same null result. So glad that I'm working on the spare and not the one in the lathe!

OK last resort - what does the drawing say ? Well the only drawing that I have is from the Patent Application so may not be 'as built' but here it is:

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Now to me that is clear as mud. I can see the large bolts screwing into the outer half of the front curvic coupling allowing for a bit of rotational adjustment (as I have previously done). But the ten smaller bolts from the way that I'm reading the drawing don't seem to do anything.

I've retreated for more head scratching.
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on November 02, 2026, 09:32:44 AM »
Oh yes - some shifting. That's today's task.

Clear the way from the roller shutter (external access) to the lathe and prove that the electric roller shutter still works. I ended up earlier in the year with a massive wasp's nest in / on / and about the roller shutter and the pest controller fellow wasn't sure at the time how much debris had gone inside. I couldn't open it then as the 3D printer and it's gubbins had cables too close to risk moving it.

A late start as this morning I had an interesting talk on Concord(e) at the local U3A but after that cracked on before the next two sets of cottage guests arrive (due 15:00).

The Versatool cabinet with the communications receiver on top was massively heavy as full of tooling and the castors are too small a diameter, but using levers I moved it out of the way along with various other bits of clobber.

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Then moving the desk with the 3D printer on it let me shift the cables so I could try the roller shutter. Apart from getting tangled in the 'Chuck Crane' it amazingly worked fine (not been lifted in perhaps two years) shedding detritus all over the place.

Just need to find a temporary home for two pressure washers.

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Now at least the dog can see the rabbit and I can start rigging the fork lift. Approaching like this leaves full access to the bits that I need to unbolt to remove the heavy bits.

I suppose that I should load up the extended forks and see what droop I get over their considerable length with a heavy lump on the far end!

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So not huge progress but with a little bit each day I should get there. (How do you eat an elephant - one bit at a time!!)

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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by vtsteam on November 01, 2026, 12:55:18 PM »
Quote from: modeng200023 on November 01, 2026, 09:45:12 AM
Lots of lateral thinking going on  :clap:

Plus lateral some shifting!
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by John Rudd on November 01, 2026, 10:43:46 AM »
 :lol:  looks like you got your work cut out there Andrew..........Carry on!... :thumbup:
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by modeng200023 on November 01, 2026, 09:45:12 AM »
Lots of lateral thinking going on  :clap:
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New from Old / Re: The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
« Last post by awemawson on November 01, 2026, 09:06:13 AM »
Thanks chaps - I really do appreciate the encouragement as enthusiasm declines with lack of success (as well as age!)

Today's task is to find a suitable skyhook.There are several heavy chunks that are filled with an excess of gravity and are not man manoeuvrable in their current positions.

A/ The Tool disk.

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B/ The Tool Disk Servo Motor.

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C/ The X-Axis Turret Assembly

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Yesterday I tried to get my Engine Crane into position. The tape measure said no-go but I wanted to prove it as it would have been ideal. The man on the ground agreed with the tape measure - it would be ok if its legs would go under the lathe but they need 7" and the clearance is only about 2"

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My next thought was the crane I made a few years back  to lift big chucks onto the spindle. Another no-go as it only gives 39 inches of clearance and I need considerably more than that.

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Now I have two knocked down scaffold towers outside the workshop but despite much cogitation there is no room to erect them in suitable places.

OK I thought - what we need is a counter-balanced boom coming in from the chuck end dangling a hoist in the right place. It needs to be movable to lower all this gravity in the right places. Pallet load of sand bags and a pallet jack maybe with a construction mounted on top.

Then I thought - you daft fool, you have a fork lift truck that is a nice heavy counter balance and easily can lift the weights we talking about, it 'just' needs its forks extending to 10 foot. What have I got that's 10+a fork length and likely not to bend too much in this dodgy configuration.

A quick inspection of the  welding shop 'stock pile' (sadly rather rusty from my inaction) revealed not one but TWO possible solutions:

A/ A full stick of about 100 mm heavy box section - so probably 20 foot long

B/ 10 foot length of 3" channel section

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The 4" box isn't quite big enough to slip over the forks so would have to be clamped above them as would the 3" channel so for a first try it's the channel.

A fair amount of clobber will have to be shifted before the fork lift can get up close and personal with the lathe - but do-able as I think most of it is on castors.

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