Hercus 9" bed worn

[glenn k]

Hi I have a Hercus 9" model "A". I have a choice either have the tool holding bit near the chuck tight or allow it to move the length of the bed and be sloppy near the chuck.
Is it expensive to have the bed re-machined? Who does it? Is it a major job to strip it down?
Sorry but I ownly did fitting and turning in 3rd form in 1970

[.RC.]

Not sure what you are describing..A worn bed is characterised by the inability to turn anything parallel..

Beds can be reground and there are several companies in Melbourne who operate slideway grinders...Better start saving up though because it will cost more then the machine is worth to grind the bed and machine and build the saddle back up to original height and then regrind the cross slide back to square and all the other work ..Probably $2000+ just to grind and refit the saddle..

No one rebuilds small manual machines these days because it is cheaper to buy a new Chinese machine and there are very few tradesman left who would know what they are doing.. In fact machinery rebuilding businesses are getting less and less..One company who did this type of work in Sydney shut down last year that being Grout and Darlington.

[glenn k]

I will try and explain a bit better.
I can lift the saddle up and down when it is near the chuck and I can't wind it more than 1/2 way to the tail stock end. If I loosen the bolts on the saddle I can use the full length but it is very slopy near the chuck. I can see and feel the wear on the top 45 degree outside edges of the bed.
The bit that slides in and out wobbles from side to side a bit aswell but there is nothing to tighten this up.
It is very hard to turn accurately like when shafts have to fit bearings etc,

[pipeclay]

Can you lift the Saddle (UP) when it is near the Tail Stock as well,this is quite normal.
I dont think the bed would be giving you this problem.
You may have a worn Rack or Spur Gear,
I say movement of the Saddle in the Vertical position is Normal as apart from the Carriage Clamp and Rear Retaining plate theres nothing to stop it moving.
The piece you refer to as Slides in and out,I take it your are meaning the Cross Slide and NOT the Compound Slide.
There should be a Gib on the Tailstock side of the Cross Slide with 4 adjusting screws.
If these have been adjusted and you still have movement you may have to look at getting or making a new gib.This sort of problem is not really a common wear part,it is usually the Cross Slide Screw,that wears and gives to much Backlash.

[blackfrancis]

Hi Glen

I'm a bit puzzled by the advise you are getting. I've had a 9" bed reground and fixed the rest up myself years back, so my thoughts may be worth something. Here's a different take, the way I see it.

1) Yes the carriage being tight at one end is a classic sign of a worn bed and more particularly it is one that the hercus shows.

2) While the number of people who recondition small lathes are thin on the ground these days I think it is still possible; you should be able to get it done for a great deal less than $2000. For one, Hercus will regrind it, and here's some relevant info from another post in this forum somewhere


Australian machinery reconditioners seem to be a bit light on the ground - a Google search did not provide anything useful at all. However, I then remembered seeing an ad. in Australian Model Engineering magazine for machine tool reconditioning including slideway grinding. There is no website or e-mail address, but contact information given in the ad. is:

"Discuss repair options with Harry at the MTA factory,
No 2 By the Sea Road,
MONA VALE , NSW 2013
Phone 02 99794866 Fax 02 99794856"

3) you most definitely wouldn't get the carriage built up or the cross slide ways reground. What you would do is hand scrape, or have someone else hand scrape the bottom of the carriage, such that the machine faces square. You can do this your self. I very much doubt that it will be absolutely necessary to re-scrape the crosslide ways, although not a bad idea if you have the necessary skills. You will have to remachine, then handscrape the bottom of the tailstock base and shim it up. People say you have to shim the rack, but I wouldn't bother because with a rack the pressure angle is independent of the depth of engagment. If alot comes off the outer ways on the bed you should probably shim the leadsrew down a bit.

4) How much it will cost will depend upon how much you do yourself. If you just want the bed reground you may be able to get it done for $300 or less.

5) The hercus in good condition is a much better and more capable lathe than any of the chinese or tiwanese machines with similar weight, about 150kg. Not everyone is in a positon where owning a heavier machine is feasible.

If you get a price for a bed regrind let us know

Cheers
Steve

[.RC.]

I got a quote to grind and refit the saddle on a lathe with a bed 1.6m long and it was quoted $10 000.

[blackfrancis]

Wow that's steep RC.

I believe Hercus may still grind the hercus beds at reasonable prices. I know they charged a little more than $100 for just a bed grind 20 years back and, much more recently, someone claimed here that they'll do a bed grind and a saddle plus tailstock refit for $600.

The mob in the quote above advertises that they'll do bed regrinds, hand rescraping and more in Australian model engineer. Surely they can't be charging huge money if they're looking for customers in that demographic.

I'd be interested to hear what sort of money they charge if anyone contacts them.

Cheers
Steve

[.RC.]

The chap I was talking to in Mackay may not have wanted the job so just threw a silly figure out there to scare me off...It seemed excessive to me, grinding the bed should take no more then a few hours to do, setting it up would take the longest although there are 10 surfaces to grind on a Hercus bed since it is a double V design...

[Greg Q]

FWIW, I spoke to a machinery rebuilder here in Melbourne a few months ago about my toolroom lathe (500 bed length). He mentioned that to grind properly they have to go very slowly so as to control the temperature rise. He mentioned that a proper job would take several hours per surface as a result.

As a result of some complicating factors I have opted to hand scrape my machine back to original spec, but this itself is an expensive road to take owing to all the tooling and instruction and time needed.

The modern remedy for saddle wear (which will typically be greater than a lathe's bed) is to machine true then apply turcite strips or moglice (a kind of metalized epoxy) which is then scraped true to the lathe slide ways. Oil retention flaking is (optionally) performed on the underside of the saddle.
This is a good time to retrofit oiler fittings so that way oil can be pumped into the saddle in the future, delaying further wear. (Search the South Bend forum on www.practicalmachinist.com for an outstanding rebuild of a nearly identical machine to your Hercus for details of this modification)

The compound should also be scraped true and the gib strips trued to the assembly. Feed screws/nuts can be renewed also which will go a long way to recapturing the precision which the machine originally enjoyed.

I plan to start a thread soon on the assessment of machine tools followed by a (long, and slow) thread on the restoration of my small lathe. (assuming much more free time during the coming slowdown)


Good luck.

Greg

[.RC.]

Ok Greg my curiosity has finally got to me...What sort of lathe are you rebuilding..I am guessing a CVA, Rivett or Monarch. Also interesting about the temperature rise when grinding....The couple of pictures I have seen of way grinding, coolant was used in very copious amounts, you would think that would stop any heat input into the bed... I look forward to your thread on machine assesment and rebuilding... Good thread here http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php?t=146913

[Greg Q]

Oh, not one of those, but any of them would have been very cool.

Mine is a Dutch made AI Hembrug in the handy 11" X 20" size. At 990 kg it is lighter than a Monarch, but seems to be as well made. It has the same spindle as a Schaublin in terms of bearing part numbers and general size, but it's bore is only 26mm.

It'll do the complete range of threads via change gears or the gearbox and has collets and chucks.

The project has been stalled as I amassed the bits and pieces to replace its rare and obsolete motor drive with something more modern which is almost complete.

I still need to get some other things out of the way and a few more (unique)tools then I'll get into it. The unique tools because the headstock is cast in one piece with the beds which greatly complicates the restoration because the geometry has to be kept accurately co-linear with the spindle...no opportunity to correct later or to use shims.

Greg

(The lathe is ex-Telecom from an R & D facility and was purchased in 1965. It comes from that era of no-expense-spared quality and refinement.

added on edit: On the cooling: that's what I thought too. The guy mentioned some reason for it that made sense at the time. Perhaps it was because my entire machine needed to be mounted in the fixture and ground with reference to an extended shaft specially made to be mounted in the spindle bearings in order to assure coaxial grinding. It got complicated, and since cranes would have been required four times it just got crazy money, hence me not following up on it. Also my machine's ways are hardened tool steel, not cast iron, which may have been the reason for the no cooling.

As they are hardened tool steel I will be unable to scrape them with conventional means, so I am pondering chemical milling, diamond tool scraping, and any other thing that allows controlled, methodical removal of hard steel.

[.RC.]

Being hardened tool steel ways are they are like the American Pacemaker lathes and are made removeable??

One explanation on way grinding was that it is time consuming because as the ways are ground it relieves stresses in the cast iron and they will warp ever so slightly over an hour or so..

[Greg Q]

Well, in theory I guess. They are mounted to the cast iron bed with cap screws, but most of the heads are ground off when the ways are ground at the factory. You can just see them, that's how tight they are in their bores.

The other problem is that they too will warp when ground if you do them off the machine, and it is very difficult to index them so that they remain true when re-mounted. The experts in Holland say that you can't take short cuts with it.

The initial survey that I did indicated that the worst way surface wear that I have is around 0.003" (0.07mm). I wouldn't worry about it normally, but the machine is capable of some tight tolerances* (sub micron) when in spec, so its probably worth doing.

*Not that I have a metre of aged concrete under it, nor climate control or diamond tooling. Yet.

[blackfrancis]

Interesting stuff Greg. So what will you use for a straight edge if you go the scraping root? Can you buy such a thing or will you make it? I imagine it would be pretty expensive to buy. Also I guess you need to get a proper level?

Maybe it's possible, with much care and tedious checking, to hand lap the hardened bed. Anyway I look forward to seeing the thread on you restoration.

Steve

[Greg Q]

I bought a couple of straightedges via ebay last year, and one from a guy who was having them made (on the practical machinist site)(when the dollar was close to par). My problem remains finding the time to re-scrape the scraping tools so that they themselves are true. To do this I have to take my 30" straightedge to a shop who will let me use their large surface plate for a day and get stuck into it. Then use it to reference the shorter tools.

If I had three large cast square plates and a crane I suppose I could devote a month or so to hand scraping in a reference plate (3!) using the automatic generation of standards technique. I do have some pieces that would be good but they are rectangular and so unsuitable. Same goes for scraping a straightedge using a shorter ref surface...not reliable

I scored a Starrett 199 last year that was badly listed for an affordable price and also a French made precision level. To do this properly I need two levels...one on the mock up spindle and one to check the ways. The other option is to fabricate a King way alignment tool, but on a short bed machine I imagine that it would get pretty cramped.

I still need to make a reference tool for the dovetails on the compound and cross slide. More complications here because the saddle features raised islands with tee slots close to the dovetails, hence the need to custom fab a narrow 50 degree tool.

When this is done I'll do a mill project then maybe a grinder then probably sell off most of the restoration tools.


I am using Schlesinger's "Testing Machine Tools" (kindly sent by a forum member) and Connelly's "Machine Tool Reconditioning" as texts, and scraping videos by Rich King and Michael Moore as references. I also hope to attend a scraping class next month, but that's another story.

If anyone here has a copy of Moore's "The foundations of mechanical accuracy" I'd love to have a look at it. (It's still available, but costs $250 US shipped)

Greg

[jmk89]

If anyone here has a copy of Moore's "The foundations of mechanical accuracy" I'd love to have a look at it. (It's still available, but costs $250 US shipped)

Greg


Greg

Curtin and Deakin University Libraries seem to have it, so you may be able to get it on Inter-Library Loan:
http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss?action=Display&mode=fulldisplay&target=freenbd&queryid=2&startPos=1

[Greg Q]

Thanks for reminding me. I asked my local branch to get in on loan six months ago. Nothing so far- I may have to try again, harder.

Does inter-library loan always work with universities?

Greg

[jmk89]

Should do unless it has been put on special reserve (ie set aside for student use in the library without the right to borrow).

[glenn k]

Has anyone used Moglice? I read it can be mixed as a putty applied then scraped in an hour.
My Hercus bed has wear on the front and back ^ sections that take the saddle but the inside ^ that takes the tail stock is fine. I was reading about scraping but sounded hard work and could change heights and angles.
The ^'s are only worn in the middle there is a ridge on the top and the bottom so I was thinking if this was filled with Moglice putty (perhaps the saddle aswell) then scraped it would be back to original. This way the head stock and tail stock would not need to be realined as it would if the whole bed was reground.
I wanted to know if this was possible or am I talking crap?

Thanks for help everyone its a big learning curve for me, as I didn't even know the names for most bits of a lathe so it was difficult to follow advice. Now I have a manual from Bitza500 and have seen how to strip bits off. My cross slide is fine after a clean and tighten.

[Greg Q]

In a word: No.

I'm sorry to dash your hopes, but there are no short cuts (and I have been looking for them all of my life) in this. The ways themselves are not suitable for moglice, which is pretty soft (relatively). It would not be durable, nor would it resist chips and it would probably peel off.

The proper way is to grind the beds, then scrape for bearing if desired (it is better than a freshly ground surface). The saddle needs to be ground then scraped to fit the ways again. Moglice or turcite (or garlock if you can find any) is used to raise the level of the saddle to where it was originally, thus preserving the relationship of the rack and leadscrew to the apron.

If the grind job is done well the headstock and tailstock alignment shouldn't change vertically. You will need to re-establish perfect co-axial positioning when you put it all back together anyway.

Oilers in the saddle and good way wipers would be a modification that I'd do to a Hercus saddle to delay wear from developing next time. Plus it's a better repair to improve things whenever you can.

Greg

BTW...proper scraping tools cost much more than a Hercus bed grind job.

I have come to learn that hand scraping is not a trivial skill, nor a quick process. Good luck with your restoration.

[.RC.]

The topic of Moglice and Turcite is probably worth a bit of a discussion..

Moglice is a putty epoxy, You mix it up then apply it as a liquid form onto milled ways...You mill the ways to make them rough to the Moglice sticks..Of course you need a releasing agent on the opposite way so it does not stick to it.

Once cured it does not need scraping to fit but instead needs scraping to lower the amount of contact..As when initially done the saddle will have 100% bearing surface on the way..This needs to be broken up to about 60% to reduce slip stick...Slip stick is when you try to move a stationery saddle but frictional forces oppose movement making initial movement jerky.. scraping also creates small pockets in the moglice to hold minute amounts of lubricant to help movement.

Turcite on the other hand comes in strips of solid material...You machine the slide needing building up and then you buy i the appropriate thickness of Turcite...You glue it on then fit and scrape the way...

Another material that can be used to build up a worn way is metal spraying..This is by far the best way, but the most expensive way to do it...

[blackfrancis]

Is Turcite expensive? Greg, when you say good way wipers, are these a commercial item?

[glenn k]

Australian machinery reconditioners seem to be a bit light on the ground - a Google search did not provide anything useful at all. However, I then remembered seeing an ad. in Australian Model Engineering magazine for machine tool reconditioning including slideway grinding. There is no website or e-mail address, but contact information given in the ad. is:

"Discuss repair options with Harry at the MTA factory,
No 2 By the Sea Road,
MONA VALE , NSW 2013
Phone 02 99794866 Fax 02 99794856"

The above quote was put in by Steve (Blackfrancis). I rang them he seemed very helpful to grind bed and saddle and pack saddle shim rack in the $300 range. He said they do hobby jobs between proper jobs. He said the tail stock will need shimming aswell.

[blackfrancis]

Sounds like a good deal to me Glenn :)

[Greg Q]

That sounds like an incredible deal to me. Thanks for reporting back.

Re: Turcite costs. I don't know. I found a local machinery rebuilder who told me he'd help me out when I'm ready to re-do my saddle but we didn't discuss price. Last year I attempted to buy some moglice from a US dealer but my enquiry got kicked to the German head office. Shipping becomes a big deal because being epoxy its a hazardous material and air freight goes up dramatically. I think it was a couple hundred shipping for their smallest package.

I am going to a scraping class in Seattle soon, I plan to investigate further. I have a dangerous goods shipper certificate, so maybe I can ship it back to myself cheaply. We'll see. If so I'll get enough to share.

Greg

[blackfrancis]

The course sounds great Greg. How long will you spend over there?

Any thoughts on way wipers? That's something I'd like to improve on my lathe, but not sure how to go about it.

Cheers
Steve

[Greg Q]

Sorry Steve, that's the question that I meant to answer. For guidance on that I think I'd be haunting the South Bend forums. I'll look for a link for you. Basically it's just a piece of felt held in place with a sheet metal cover. Heavy felt is around at the fabric discounters, but you may have some luck finding the real machine stuff.

The idea is of course to exclude the swarf from getting caught between the saddle and ways. Some industrial machines also have a miniature section of windshield wiper blade, but to my thinking that would tend to also clean the oil from the ways...not a great thing.

I'll try to post some photos when time permits...I do a hit and run on the computer every few hours between chores.

The course is two days, a basics only thing, but enough to correct any technique errors that I've taught myself. Since I had some "use it or lose it" tickets I thought I'd jump at the chance. Kind of a bizarre way to spend days off, and a long way to go to do it, but then again I used to commute from California to Toronto years ago. I wish I didn't hate flying so much.

Greg


Stop press! I just found this felt on ebay...it's what I use. Good stuff ebay item 320335826966

...and this: 300246828076

[blackfrancis]

Thanks Greg. I have the original felt wipers on my machine but the felt definitely needs replacing. I made wipers for the tailstock, just using hat felt. This looks like a much better option.

I think the scraping course sounds like a great thing. There can't be many people around that can hand recondition a machine tool these days. One of the things I like about my lathe is that when I bought it, it had just been reconditioned by an old expert. Having a completely hand scraped machine that is still very accurate is a bit out of the ordinary these days. I like the historical connection of how without hand scraping we wouldn't have accurate machine tools.

Steve

[Greg Q]

I can fly a biplane and drive a steam tractor, but this seems like an old fashioned skill that's actually useful. Of course many modern machines run on linear bearings, but I'm told that there are a few scraping hands still employed here and there.

I know that they used to scrape in mating flanges for high pressure steam. I wonder if they still do that for power stations and the like?

I happen to be a bottom feeder when it comes to machines and cling to the belief that I can afford an old machine and fix it a lot easier than buying new*.

Everything I know about the physical world comes from being a cheapskate and learning how to fix junk cars, airplanes, boats and now machine tools.

Greg.

I'll do a new thread on the class when I return in early March. (I'm only going over for a few days at the end of the month)

[blackfrancis]

Sounds great Greg

I look forward to your thread

Steve

[Brett C]

Moglice is now available in Australia from Dynaref in Dandenong Vic who have become Diamant's Aust agents. I think it is at least a couple of hundred dollars for a small kit. http://www.dynaref.com.au/products_other.htm
No association etc, but I have purchased another Diamant product from Dynaref and found them helpful, but this is a new range for them and as yet they have limited experience with the stuff.
Devcon make a Wear Resistant Putty which I believe is a competitor and cheaper, anyone have any experience of it?

[peter hamilton]

Grout & Darlington are still in business & going strong after almost 60 years.Slideway grinding & machine repair is a major part of the business. Ph:9756-6188

[.RC.]

Grout & Darlington are still in business & going strong after almost 60 years.Slideway grinding & machine repair is a major part of the business. Ph:9756-6188

I was told they had gone out of business at June last year???:?:? Their website used to be here http://www.machinetool.com.au (http://www.machinetool.com.au/)As shown by the archived version of the page here http://web.archive.org/web/20070830105738/http://machinetool.com.au/

[peter hamilton]

The Grout & Darlington website is being reconstructed at present.Our parent company is CNC Engineering Sales & Service www.cnceng.com.au (http://www.cnceng.com.au)

[neksmerj]

Somewhere in a previous thread, I submitted a drawing for the Hercus saddle wipers etc.

Can't find it so here it is again since it is relative to above. The 1/8" felt is cut to fit inside the metal retailers.

Drawing attached.

Ken

[glenn k]

I packed up my bed saddle and base of tail stock and sent it to:
MTA
No 2 By the Sea Rd
Mona Vale 2103
02 99794866
(Steve you got the post code incorrect)
Sent on 16/2/9 back yesterday $350 + freight ~$26 each way.
Bed machined saddle and base of tail stock scaped.
Now tail stock is a bit low do I put shims inbetween base of tail stock and tail stock?
If so is there an easy way to measure how low it is?
There is a bit of slack in the rack (maybe it was there before) should I pack this down? What do you use to shim these things?
PS what do you think of my sugar gum floor?

[blackfrancis]

Nice one Glenn, sorry about any stuff up with postcode

Yep you need to shim up the tailstock just like you say. There's upteen ways you could go about measuring it depending on what you have available. If hard pressed you could just put a centre in head and tailstock and line it up by eye. If you have a lever dial indicator you could put that in the chuck and spin it around the tailstock barrel (or a centre in it) and measure it directly. If you only have an ordinary dial indicator you could put a bit of bar between centres, turn a diameter at each end to the same size (using a micrometer of course) and then attach the dial indicator to the toolpost or cross slide or whatever and run it over the two diameters. A lever dial indicator is extremely useful and well worth buying.

Regarding the rack, I'd put it together and see how it runs. If it's rough shim it down. The depth of engagment for a rack isn't critical as the teath on the rack are straight. But, if the racks got wear it might run smother at the old depth of engment. Anyway you may well get away without shimming the rack. I'd expect the backlash in the carriage handle is what it was like when new. Even with significant amounts of wear and the engagment depth being wrong, the backlash in the carriage handle doesn't change much.

You need to line up the leadscrew. That is shim down the bearing at the tailstock end and the gearbox or bearing (depending on whether it's a model A or a C) at the headstock end. I'd wind the carriage right down to the tailstock end, whip off the leadscrew bearing and close the half nuts. Then put a dial indicator on the top of the leadscrew and lift the leadscrew up and down by hand. This will give you an estimate of the height when it's sitting in the middle of the half nuts. Now undo the halfnuts and put the bearing back on and note where the dial indicator is. You may have to account for where in the bearing, i.e. lift the leadscrew up and down again. Now you shold know how much to shim the leadscrew down, same amount at both ends. The alignment of the leadscrew on the hercus is pretty forgiving, so don't get spooked about getting it perfect. You could use this number for the amount to shim the rack as well.

Of course someone else may know a better way to go about this??

You should be able to buy shim steal, of whatever thickness you require, at a good tool merchant. That will do the job nicely.

Nice floor :)

Good luck
Steve

[glenn k]

Well Steve I went out and did an alignment of sorts before reading your post. I turned a point on a bit of steel and put a live centre in the tail stock and tried to measure with a vernier calliper about 1mm. So I cut a bit of 1mm plate from an old sign and rubbed it on emery paper to find the bumps and level with a hammer put it in and too big so cut some thinner gal iron and did the same. It ligns up really well wound the tail stock right out and it still ligns up so it's level.
My lathe is a model A now every thing seems to be working do you think I need to pack the lead screw? Is it likely to do damage if I dont?
Thanks for your help I just turned a toy train axle (wood) it was great to be able to use the full length of the bed.
Glenn

[John Cooper]

Hi Glenn,

I realise it was a few month go when you posted this problem, but it is unlikely to be wear in my opinion. I am a machine tool fitter, or Millwright as we were once known, and generally what you describe is a leveling or alignment problem. If the machine is not sitting level, particularly if it has a twist in the bed, it may have had the saddle gib strip slacked off to give the movement near the chuck but as you move to the tailstock, the saddle being fairly rigid will not conform to the twist and lock up. If it's not too late borrow/hire a precision level and get the bed both level and flat by shimming up the feet. Even a low grade builders level may solve the problem if you go carefully. It could fix the problem and save you the money. Even if you spring for having the bed machined and you plant it again with a twist you will probably still have the same problem.


Cheers,

John.

[billrule]

PS what do you think of my sugar gum floor?

I think it probably got some nasty bruises from the wire ties under the bed:B

Given that this is initially a woody forum, I've got to say it really looks the goods. I wasn't aware Sugar gum was a notable timber from a colour/figure point of view, but I suppose it's where you find it.

Bill

[glenn k]

I think it probably got some nasty bruises from the wire ties under the bed:B

Given that this is initially a woody forum, I've got to say it really looks the goods. I wasn't aware Sugar gum was a notable timber from a colour/figure point of view, but I suppose it's where you find it.

Bill

Sugar Gum doesn't bruise it's nearly are hard as the steel. It isn't always full of fiddle back but this tree was; which made it hard to machine but it was worth the effort. Wife wants 3 more rooms done in the old (1840) part of the house now.

[BobL]

Sugar Gum doesn't bruise it's nearly are hard as the steel. It isn't always full of fiddle back but this tree was; which made it hard to machine but it was worth the effort. Wife wants 3 more rooms done in the old (1840) part of the house now.

The floor looks fantastic, did you mill it?

[glenn k]

Yes Bob milled it about 13 years ago got 1.1 Km of 4" x 1" out of the one log unfortunatly it had a hollow a foot wide in the middle that didn't show at either end and it didn't even run straight.

[BobL]

Yes Bob milled it about 13 years ago got 1.1 Km of 4" x 1" out of the one log unfortunatly it had a hollow a foot wide in the middle that didn't show at either end and it didn't even run straight.

I wish I had started milling 13 years ago! I have milled one small SugarG and I love the stuff wish I could get more. I don't recall it being that hard but I had just been milling some 45" diam Lemon Scented Gum.

[billrule]

I'd say it looks as if it was well worth the trouble!
(did anyone else notice me hijack this thread)

Bill

[glenn k]

Yes I like Sugar Gum too it looks good hard strong and heavy with a very distinctive smell. Great fire wood aswell its about the only wood I bothered to bring home to burn. I have a couple of logs to mill for the floors in the other rooms I just hope they are fiddle back to match the rest.
When I had the boards dried I showed a wood collecter a dressed sample. His comment was one day someone is going to pull up your floors and make some lovely furnature. I don't think he aproved.

[glenn k]

Steve I tried to follow your advice about the lead screw. It was easier once I found out what a lead screw and the half nuts were. I have a dial indicator but could not see how to fit it. I took the screws from the bearing end wound the saddle to the tail stock end and locked the nut on to it then measured the gap beneath the bed and the bearing, with feeler gauges, then lowered the gearbox end the same amount and measured again 55/1000's. Does this method sound reasonable?
You probably think I'm as rough as guts after my galvanised iron shims but I was just using what I had to measure what size shims I needed then when it looked perfect I though why play with perfection.
Glenn