Thread: Hercus

Thanks. I am taking a punt on the leather. I found a friction coefficient table on the web - said that dry cast iron to dry cast iron has half friction of dry cast to leather. Cast iron to leather was about as good as the other materials listed (which I forget). I was going to do metal to metal after reading about line shaft clutches in Joe Whitworth's works in Chappel Lane in Manchester - they accidentally invented a friction clutch when toothed dog clutches wore smooth. But they did not realize for many years that this was much smoother engaging clutch than the toothed dog. I think that Joe died before they realized this.

Dear Yarrdi, I have spoken to Boris about his clutch and you are on the right track. Hen started with a bronze clutch plate but had to resort to leather. He used material from a welding gauntlet glove. He told me that it does tend to slip when you load the machine up. He got his idea for the clutch from a Myford Super 7 lathe. This particular lathe had a hand book which had an exploded view of the clutch. He then adapted it to the Hercus. Hope this is of help. 4-6-4