Union Jubilee Clutch.

[Joe]

I saw you'd swooped on the veneers; well worth having.

It's been a dull day here too but I've had a good pottering session and even finally cut the front grass.

- Joe

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Joe; yes the veneers will be added to my stock once they arrive but as yet I haven't a clue when I'll get around to using some of them because of jobs lined up. Summers here at last with just rain and hail today instead of snow; at the moment it's a beautiful sunny afternoon. I too have managed to cut the grass; I did it yesterday and the bitterly cold wind cut through me.

I'm finally making good progress with the Clarke upgrade and have spent some quality time in the garage today. Now the counter-shaft assembly is completed it looks such an easy job but in fact it took quite a bit of working out due to the limited space available. I took my time cutting 1/8" BMS plate to size ensuring both ends of the new cradle were in perfect alignment regarding the hole centers and laying on plenty of weld.

It's possible using square housed bearings that the job proved more difficult than using pillow block bearings but the end result is much neater. Given the small size of this lathe I've gone well over the top with the counter-shaft dimensions; I want the lathe to run for many trouble free years once I've upgraded it so I'm ensuring it will be much more robust than original. The original toothed pulley; key and circlip fitted perfectly onto the new counter-shaft much to my relief and I now have a spare new counter-shaft. Next Saturday at Rufforth Auto Jumble I'll be on the look out for more bar stock and hopefully I'll find some 3mm square steel which will be handy for making future keys.

Next job will be to sort out how to and to fit the new Servo motor. It's been a most enjoyable day.

Kind regards, Col.

                   

[Retired]

Hi,

I've had a good session in the garage today designing and making the new servo motor mounting. I've just sprayed in grey primer before knocking off for the day. It's amazing just how much time these jobs take to accomplish.

Kind regards, Col.

       

[camallison]

WOW - that looks a really professional job Col. You don't do house calls in North Yorkshire do you?

Colin

[Yorkie]

It's amazing just how much time these jobs take to accomplish.

Kind regards, Col.

True enough Colin, but isn't it nice to be master of your own destiny, and to not have a boss breathing down your neck telling you that 'time's money' and that you're making too good a job of it?

[Refugee]

The motor looks like a low inertia type for use on equipment that has to stop and start or change speed rapidly.
That would fit in well with it being bought from an industrial sewing machine service agent.
It looks like it is going to be slightly more powerful than the original so it should be all right for you.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Colin for your kind comments. The only house calls I'm doing is to call our bungalow names because it always wants work doing on it after a winter and by the time the work is done it's winter again; this means the things I want to do like interesting projects are always done in a cold black hole. Today I've started to access the foundations of our bungalow as I need to install flood defenses.

Thanks David and how true. It's nice to knock off for a pot of tea when I want one. A huge bonus is that I can get stuck into a job now without a pager driving me mad as it used to do at work. The only pressure is as stated above; I try to get so many jobs done during our brief warmer weather and end up tiring myself out.

Excellent news on the Clarke lathe front though; the lathe is up and running like a good un. This morning I ordered a pair of SPZ 512 drive belts; these are cheap enough so I bought a spare both only costing £7.20 inc. I collected them after dinner.

Assembly and alignment was easy enough and without drama; it was wonderful to put the lathe in motion knowing if anything blew up it wouldn't be another cheap flimsy Clarke circuit board.

As you rightly say Refugee this new servo motor is more powerful than the original it is also very much larger having it's controls attached. At 400W it is quite a lot more powerful than the 300W original motor. I need to sort out a starting mechanism to operate the starting lever on the new motor allowing the motor to be locked "on" but compared to the amount of work already carried out I'm confident this won't trouble me too much.

The lathe sounds sweet enough and I'm hopeful this new modification will give years of trouble free running? I was careful not to start messing around with the original lathe which has not been altered in any way; I've used original mounting points or convenient holes in the casting to mount both the counter-shaft assembly and the new motor mounting framework. The counter-shaft assembly is attached using four 6mm set screws; washers and nuts making a very neat job but I confess it took quite a lot of initial sorting out; as with most things once completed they look so easy.

I didn't expect this lathe to let me down the way it did but I've now arranged it so that even if the servo motor fails I can attach a 3 phase motor and VFD so this Clarke can now behave or it is in trouble because I'm on its case.

A new OEM Clarke circuit board costs around £130 but I must have spent around £200 on the upgrade; it's possible had I bought a new circuit board other items would also require replacing and I know however many circuit boards I would install it would only be a matter of time before I destroyed each one. I didn't expect having to go to all this time trouble in order to do a bit of metal turning but Bron kindly bought me this lathe as a present so I want to keep and use it; I don't normally break my toys but it's been an interesting diversion.

Kind regards, Col.


           

[Refugee]

It the start leaver the black bit between the fan cover and the control unit?
Do you think a cupboard door magnet be strong enough to hold it on?
I would be tempted to add something fitted with a longer screw onto the fan housing screw hole.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Refugee for your suggestions. Yes the black lever is the operating lever to start/stop the motor but unfortunately it is fitted with a powerful spring so I'm thinking more on the lines of mechanical linkage with some kind of spring loaded indent. I can easily sort this out once I get rid of more pressing jobs like having a rest after installing the flood defences which tired me out.

I can now give an update regarding the original 300W DC motor. Our friend and previous owner of this Clarke Lathe recently visited us and kindly took the motor home with him to inspect it. He has now replied saying one coil has a 50% short and the other coil is open circuit.

What a good decision I made in upgrading this lathe. I knew the circuit board had failed and I also suspected the motor and other electrical items like the switches to have been affected. I could so easily have spent £130 for a new circuit board which wouldn't have got the lathe working; then I would have had to buy a new motor at cost unknown but not cheap then with these two installed there would still be no guarantee of success.

I accept these Clarke lathes are not industrial rated but even for hobby use the electrical components leave a great deal to be desired. I never expected to dial in a half inch cut as I used to whilst using my Colchester Triumph but I was applying 60 thou cuts which ultimately brought about the demise of both circuit board and motor. Reading the instructions after rather than before I was amazed a lathe manufacturer would supply an engineering lathe recommending limiting cuts to ten thou (twenty thou on diameter). I never gave this a thought because ten thou to me is scratching metal?

Anyway I destroyed the electricals and now I've upgraded; I hope to resume work on the prototype Jubilee clutch in due course and hope the new servo motor is up to taking 60 thou cuts otherwise a more powerful motor will be added?

Kind regards, Col.

[Refugee]

Has the gearbox got plastic cogs in it?
It looked like it did have in a photo way back and I would not hold out much hope for plastic gears with the new motor.