Thread: Help with an old Teknatool TL1000

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!

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.

I picked up one of the LS1000 the other day and am in the process of tuning it up. I was disappointed 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).

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.

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.