Thread: Hercus 260 Running in Reverse

Dunno why it hasn't got a Rev switch. Maybe it was originally single phase? Or that may not be the original cabinet.

It was made in 1983.

Have you got the Hercus Maintenance Manual and the Spare Parts manual? If not, PM me your email address and I'll send them to you. I also have a PDF of the Textbook of Turning too.

Chris

Could be it was supplied to the school with no reverse capabiltiy, to prevent the chuck unthreading off inadvertantly?
3 phase motors can change direction almost instantaneously, Single phase motors with starter windings have to stop spinning before changing direction, which is a bit safer.

Jordan

My 260 never had reverse when I purchased it. Early 80's model. Ex school machine. I know this because BAZA carved his name into the back of it in 88. Finally found a cabinet which had the reversing switch gear that I could use on flea bay.

You need reverse. Dont know how I lasted so long without it.

Thanks for the PDF's jack620, very much appreciated. For now I have switched 2 phases to get it running forward. I suspect you guys might be right about schools not having reverse fitted for safety reasons.

Other than threading are there many other operations that require reverse?

There could be depending on the machining operations you may wish to perform.

That's not a very helpful answer pipeclay.

Turbo,
You don't even need reverse for threading. My 3 phase 260 has a reverse switch, but I've only ever used it once to 'run in' a model engine I built.

Chris

It is no good me telling someone what I use reverse on a lathe for as it may not have any relevance to what they do.
If they may not already have some idea of when they may require reverse may they don't need it.

His question was unambiguous: "Are there many other operations that require reverse?". I can't think of any, but then I don't know much about machining. Maybe you could just list the operations you use reverse for. Would be more useful than your previous two posts.

You sometimes need it when threading, and for left handed threads. I used reverse on mine for the first time about a week ago when doing a 30mm x 3.5mm thread on stainless, no matter what setting on the dial I tried it would always be out by about 1-1.5mm so after stuffing up 3 inserts and ruining the thread I decided to leave the carriage engaged, when the insert reached the end of the thread I wound out the cross feed a bit till it cleared the thread and then reversed the motor to the start, wound in the cross feed a little bit more than the previous pass to increase the depth of cut and continued the same way till it was all finished. That way the half nuts are always in the same position. You also use it for cutting right to left. I should also point out that my machine has 2 reverse levers. One of them will also reverse the direction of the work piece as well as moving the carriage from left to right. Not sure what your lathe will do but probably a good idea to find out if your chuck is still spinning anti-clockwise whilst the carriage is going from left to right. If it is going clockwise then you won't be able to cut in that direction. Hope this helps.

Cheers

Ed.

Turning.Boring,Parting,Taper Cutting, Chamfering, removing Dies or Die Nuts Drilling, Tapping, Reaming hope this helps, and Milling.

I read that you should never run a reamer in reverse?

That would be correct, even a Hand Reamer when removing.