Help with an old Teknatool TL1000

[Avery]

I hope this is the correct forum.

At the Hills Mens Shed, we have been given this really good old Teknatool lathe. As part of the procedure to make it a part of our shed, we decided to replace the drive belt and the headstock bearings.

This is where we went wrong.

We have not been able to get the headstock spindle or the bearings to move from their place in the headstock casting.

We have lots of talent at the shed, toolmakers, machinists, boiler makers, fitters, electricians, colourful racing identities, painters, accountants, barristers, various electronic engineering bods, and we have all applied our combined knowledge to absolutely no avail. I calculate that we have about 900 years of combined knowledge about these things - and that is just a few of the younger protagonists, but we have not come up with a solution.

We have pushed, pulled, drifted, hit, pummeled and cajoled, we have heated the thing, we have even shouted at it, the spindle has not moved.

The pulley slides along the shaft within the casting, there are no circlips or any other retaining devices that we can see.

The spindle will not move in either direction and the bearings will not come out of the housing.

The Teknatool manual tells us to return it to the manufacturer if we don't know how to remove the spindle. An email to Teknatool brought the reply that noone there is old enough to know how to do it, they are attempting to find someone.

Our next step will be to remove the headstock, sure up the alloy casting and put the thing in a hydraulic press.

I can't believe that this was the correct procedure to change the drive belt.

Now, I just know that there are at least a dozen people on this forum that have one of these things and have each done this job a dozen times.


PLEASE HELP US!!! PLEASE, PLEASE , PLEASE.

... photos attached to hopefully help.

[powderpost]

I have an old TL1000 lathe and needed to replace the bearings. Teknatool advice then was to remove the headstock, cut a spacer to fit accurately in the headstock and press the spindle out in a hydraulic press. Refitting was also done in the press, just remember to insert the belt while replacing the spindle. The bearings were a standard SKF bearing.

The operation was a complete success and the lathe is still working.
Jim

[Scribbly Gum]

Not sure if this is any help, but I have a similar lathe and it is slightly different. I think yours might have already been modified but I am happy to be corrected on this.
For a start the switch on yours is a two part switch, where mine is a simple red rocker switch with a light that comes on when active. Yours doesn't look original to me.
Also the pulleys on mine are not of the V belt type but of the ribbed type with a ribbed belt.
Perhaps your lathe has already had some modifications and this is the problem.
It will be interesting to see if others have a lathe like yours. BTW I bought mine in the early 1990's.
Cheers
SG

[wheelinround]

Avery you'd thing the shaft would just slide out after undoing all the pulley locking screws etc


Edited Avery I think I have just noticed one bearing is sealed the other older type roller am I correct?

PP Jim in cutting a spacer is this placed between the pulley ends? (as you know young Dave has one)

[Avery]

Powderpost,

You have confirmed our theory. Bracing the casting will be a primary concern. I can't believe that this was standard procedure to replace the belt.

Thanks for your help.

Scribbly Gum

The power switch was replaced by our "in house" sparky as part of the refurb. of the machine. Anything else was done before we got to it. I don't know how old this beast is , but I would guess it is more like '70s than '90s

Wheelinround

That is what we all though too, until I suggested that under normal use of the lathe, with pressure from the tailstock over time, it would just push the headstock shaft through the bearings. There are no physical barriers to the lateral movement of the shaft. A more experienced man than me (an aircraft engineer, we let anyone into our shed) has suggested that the shaft might even be a "freeze fit" into the bearings.

It all seems just too hard to replace the damn drive belt.

A look at the Vicmarc site shows a similar setup, but they just suggest the tapered roller bearings tap out from the inside and the shaft slides out..

Thank you all for your advice.

[powderpost]

I sold plenty of the TL1000 in the early 80's. I can't remember which way the shaft was pushed from the tailstock end or from the outer side. Your machine is one of the early models. Mine also has a "V" type belt.
Ray, the spacer is accurately cut to fit between the castings. I found it easier to cut the spacer a tad short and use a wedge to firm it up.
Jim

[wheelinround]

I sold plenty of the TL1000 in the early 80's.
Jim

If Pat had known that at your GtG and or Dave I know who'd have been assembling it pity Pat decided he'd get there early.:U

[RETIRED]

Jim is absolutely right.

A spacer is fitted and the shaft pressed out from the outboard end towards the t/stock end if I remember rightly.

To confirm this email, or phone John Ewart here: woodturninglessons.com.au (http://woodturninglessons.com.au/)

Remember when assembling to put an extra belt in, although I never had to replace mine but had to repair a few others that I sold.

[powderpost]

Avery, just went down to the shed and found an old spindle and one of the old bearings. Attached is a photo of the shaft and bearing. It would appear it doesn't matter which way you press the shaft out. As you can see the centre part of the shaft is stepped up in diameter. The number of the bearing is written on the paper.
Hope this helps you.

Jim

[Avery]

Avery you'd thing the shaft would just slide out after undoing all the pulley locking screws etc


Edited Avery I think I have just noticed one bearing is sealed the other older type roller am I correct?

PP Jim in cutting a spacer is this placed between the pulley ends? (as you know young Dave has one)


The bearing on the inboard side had the seal ripped out of it - one of the reasons we decided to replace the bearings. Both bearings appear to be the same , both ball bearings, not rollers,but of we have not , as yet, been able to measure them.

[Avery]

Jim is absolutely right.

A spacer is fitted and the shaft pressed out from the outboard end towards the t/stock end if I remember rightly.

To confirm this email, or phone John Ewart here: woodturninglessons.com.au (http://woodturninglessons.com.au/)

Remember when assembling to put an extra belt in, although I never had to replace mine but had to repair a few others that I sold.


Thank you ,

I will take your advice and that of Powderpost as definitive.

Thanks for the help.

Gees this place is good!

[Avery]

Avery, just went down to the shed and found an old spindle and one of the old bearings. Attached is a photo of the shaft and bearing. It would appear it doesn't matter which way you press the shaft out. As you can see the centre part of the shaft is stepped up in diameter. The number of the bearing is written on the paper.
Hope this helps you.

Jim


Hmmm,

we measured the shaft inside the headstock to be about 1mm less than the outer shaft. We could be wrong of course.

Nevertheless , it seems that bracing up the casting and pressing it out is the only way to go.

Thanks again for your help.

Gee this place solves some problems!

[wheelinround]

Thanks Jim I know Pat had work done on it before passing it onto young Dave we can hope it lasts.

[mad max]

HI Jim, I noticed that you have a head stock shaft for a Teknatool 1000. Am wondering if you will part with it and if you will how much would you want for it. If you can contact me on 0448 733 357 it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Max

[powderpost]

Hi Max,
Would you believe I sold the old TL1000 and all the bits that go with it only yesterday. Sorry mate.
Jim

[mad max]

K not a drama Jim. Thanks for your time.

[ThadSwarfburn]

This may be a bit late for the original poster, but thought I'd weigh in here in case anyone popped by later via Google (like I did).

First remove headstock from lathe. Undo setscrew(s) from pulley. I was warned by an oldtimer that you always take setscrews fully out to make sure some clever sod hasn't done the old "setscrew on setscrew" trick on you - he says that has bit him more than once.

I used the hydraulic press at work, and a lightly-modified pipe socket under the bearing. I didn't brace the inside, but it may not be a bad idea, especially if the spindle is quite rusty. Can't recall what size the pipe socket was (they're imperial measurements) but the ID was 72mm and the OD was 85. The bearing will just fit through the socket without modifying it, but I bored it out a bit anyway as then I wouldn't have to worry so much about getting the pipe socket perfectly on centre with the bearing. For those that don't know what a pipe socket is, it's a short tube with threads all the way through used to join two pipes of the same diameter end-to-end.

The order of operations was:
1: Press inboard (IB) end of spindle toward outboard (OB) bearing, removing OB bearing and shaft together.
2: Press OB bearing off shaft.
3: Put shaft back in headstock from OB end and use to push out IB bearing.
4: Press IB bearing off shaft.

Total time once I had everything to hand was less than five minutes. Bearings came out pretty easy; if I'd had to (ie, no workshop access and nobody watching), I could have used a soft-face hammer. Wouldn't put new bearings in that way, though!

Haven't put mine back together yet (other projects...) but it'll be the reverse, with the caveat that you want to try to avoid pressing force going through the bearings whenever you can. I don't see a way to do this completely without putting some load through the bearings - this is just the way it's designed. A bolt-in bearing retainer for one end of the spindle would have been a better design, but would have increased costs. Bear in mind my instructions are assuming replacement of bearings.

And of course, don't forget to put the pulley AND THE BELT on before you press it all together. Not that I've ever done anything like that before!

Save the old bearings, or at least the races. Always handy to have a precision-ground round packing piece about. Especially if you ever have to press out a smaller bearing!

[issatree]

Hi all,
I looked really hard at that belt. & it seemed to be in fairly good nick.
So why change it. I have done Demo's on 1 of those Lathes. A good thing with them was Low Speed was 178 RPM. Good for doing big stuff on the Outboard.
I bought My Tough Wood Lathe in 1990, & it mainly sits on 3000 RPM. Has done many 100's of hours work, & the " V " belt is still good, but I do grease the Bearings when I think of it with Molykote. I have no problems.
I don't like fixing something that isn't broken.

[Andyh77777]

I picked up one of the LS1000 the other day and am in the process of tuning it up. I was disappointed :C to discover something that could be relevant to others who are doing work on these units. On mine the headstock casting is developing a crack through a poorly placed bolt-hole through the casting. This has almost certainly been made worse by over-tightening of the two bolts that secure the headstock to the square section rail. Judging by the effort needed to undo these two bolts I’d say they had been torqued to over 80 Ft Lbs. The LS1000 manual raises a warning when tightening these bolts: “torque to a maximum of 15 Ft Lbs”. I interpret this warning for low level of torquing to be an admission by Teknatool that they became aware of the poor placement of the offending bolt-hole. On the inboard side of the cracked casting I can see that the crack is propagating into the part of the casting that bears on the rail, so there would be a total failure soon if left unattended.

So be warned if you are refitting the headstock to the rail not to over-torque these bolts. Additionally, if you have one of these lathes it would be advisable to check the torque that some previous owner / repairer might have applied to these two bolts without having read the manual.

If anyone has ideas on how to repair the crack seen in the photo I’d appreciate suggestions. (The casting at that section is approx 7 mm of aluminium).

[Avery]

Thanks for that Andyh7s. I am sur when we put it back together we just tightened it up till it felt right, as one does. I will check it tomorrow and see if we have done any damage.

[Andyh77777]

I trust you found your TL1000 intact and that you checked the tightness of those lock bolts.
My headstock is currently sitting in the engineering workshop awaiting for a weld attempt.