Cutting Helical Gears on the Horizontal Mill 5 :Making Adjustments and Working on some Problems 

A comment about those who think this is going a bit slow. What Keith is showing is what goes into making a specific part. In a real shop, not everything goes smoothly and repetitive happens. It's not all spraying big blue chips. We're getting a glimpse of this and I enjoy watching it. It reminds me that the bumps and do-overs in my shop are not mine alone but part (perhaps most) of life in a noisy and smelly lifestyle.

Keith is so lucky, he even has the rare "lathe attachment" for his K&T!

When I was first in the Navy I was assigned to a submarine's Deck Division. The first day in Deck the guy who was teaching me told me to get ten Zerks from the Machinery Space. I was thinking "Zerks, yeah right, they're putting on the new guy." But I'd let them have their fun. I hunted up a Machinist's Mate and told him I needed ten Zerks. He took me to a cabinet, opened a drawer, and said: "Hold out your grubby paw." I figured this is went I get the handful of yuck but instead he counted out ten little fittings into my hand. I looked and said: "These are grease nipples." He replied: "Yeah, but they're made by the Zerk Company so they're called Zerk fittings. I brought them topside and the sailor I was working with said: "Good, let me show you how to swap them out." I was so sure I was being messed with but it was quite legitimate.

Came across one of your early vids that I had watched. 7 years I've been looking forward to the next Rucker Release. Thank You for all the good times & education you have provided. 🖖Live Long & Prosper 🖖

Phew! Finally chased all the bugs. I really admire your skill, perseverance and communication abilities.

I really appreciate how you explain each of the operations you are doing, and especially, the WHY of what you are doing. I'm a fairly new hobby machinist, and I've learned so much of what I know from watching just a few machinists on RU-vid. You make things clear in a way that, for me anyway, is just the right blend of showing and telling. There have been so many times when I've thought, 'Oh, that's why that thing I tried didn't work right!' And, happily, times when I've thought, 'Cool! I did figure out the right way, or at least one right way' to do something on my own. I just retired, and in the last few years bought both a lathe (a 1954 10x24 inch Logan/Montgomery Wards) and a milling machine (a 1960 Clausing 8520). I'm thrilled with the results I've been able to get with just my ham-handed skills and knowledge, and every time I use one or the other, I improve, and can watch the results right as they're happening. So satisfying! Knowing I'm doing something with so much history is also fascinating to me.

I love how James was preternting that he could work on a car in the beginning.

Great series! I don't know how many times I've had to make a tool to make a tool to make a tool, in order to create or fix something. Sometimes the simplest project drags on and on...

Your a smart man Keith. Thank you

I am amazed at how involved this process is. Thanks for showing it all, Mr. Keith.

I think this is going to be the most expensive gear ever! But enjoying the drama, we are learning right along side you.

Projects breed projects!

Excellent series. Gear making is so interesting. Maybe some day a gear hobbing machine for the shop? Excellent work. Thanks for sharing.

One challenge after another. Good to find problems and solve them even before the first gear cutting job begins. After that, cutting gears, in the future, will be easy.

You welcome. Enjoy your videos Thanks

Thanks for sharing

Good morning Keith time for a coffee ☕ and an update ☺️

I’m loving this series

It has probably been doing that for sixty years, and you are the first person to do anything about it. That scoring didn't get that deep in a minute. That was a resourceful and clever way of solving that problem.

Thanks Keith. Overcoming is where the fortitude shines. Great job!

The first run is always the hardest. I’ve seen a palm oiler , never seen a full sized one before. Thanks for sharing.

Good morning Keith thanks for another video

Brilliant solution to the rubbing problem. Machinist and tool makers, as practical engineers, are great problem solvers. Problems are often stacked like pancakes. You can’t see the next one until you solve the one on top. Often there’s several that patiently need to be addressed. I’m hooked now. Can’t wait until I see how that gear is cut.

It IS a lathe, or whatever machine you want it to be. This is the coolest thing about Mr. Rucker's, and so many such channels... Using machines to repair / improve *themselves*. So cool to see these machines running true. That perfect taper (with all the sapcers no less!) was a major score.

Brilliant as always

yes its time consuming to go through all this work to make a gear but thats what this channel is all about and i dont mind it at all thanks keith!

It would seem that it is the solution to problems that brings the smile to your face. Mine too.

Great job, Lots to overcome and learn as you go. Thank you

Piecing equipment together and going through this setup takes time and attention to detail. Thanks very much for sharing Keith.

Been watching you for a long time and I know this has been a dream of yours to accomplish.

Thank you Keith. It is nice to learn how it was done before CNC machines

Good morning Keith. Hope you have a good week.

I still excited to see the Final Cut, thank you for time review the Horizontal Mill, I've been around them just never have operated, so Thanks :)

I admire your Patience working every quirk Out!

Creative problem solving at its best

GREAT SET-UP

Captivating videos of the setup …

The way you figured out to turn that piece was really cool

My very limited experience in a plastic mold shop taught me that tool and die makers spend a lot time making tools so they can make the final product. Everybody walking through the door had the next big thing and wanted a quote. EZ, Mr customer I can manufacture you part for $.23 each in quantities of 20,000. The mold will cost $45,000 and take 8 weeks to complete. I'll need half down before I can start. It was a tough sell but every once in a while the customer would believe enough in their idea that they would follow through. Thanks for the videos, keep them coming.

So hard to do something new for the first time. Never mind when there's all these other issues you never new your machine had until you started down this path. I am getting there in mentally imaging how this will look when the helical cutter goes. Whats grinding my gears "pardon the pun", is how you align that cutter with the very top of the gear blank disk.

Very clever solution to fixing the shaft!!

Love the new lathe! :)

Love it you Rednecked the shaft turning saving work Brian Block would be proud Nice job for Ga BullDog hope yall take championship.

Giving up is not an option for Keith. His patience is admirable. Advaced work ahead so no surprise extra work is needed, especially on an old machine being assembled part by part in some aspects. Adding a motor to the X travel and advanced electronics synchronizing the rotating table it's close to be able to do the same work. Thrilling thought...

great work

Hey good job. First shop I ever worked in was a pump rebuild shop, mainly water pumps, lots of relic machines, and that was 44 years ago. They had an old Cincinnati horizontal with expanding collets and a lathe chuck, tool block for lathe cutters, was used mainly for recutting seal seats. They used that old machine for years. Then there was the Lodge and Shipley tee lathe.

Phew. Those vee way clamps/slides look like they could do with a drop of grease too Keith. It's looking good. Xx

Great video Keith, keep'um coming..

The drama..... This is just to real. Thanks for not giving up.

Love the videos/series. Please keep them coming. I am starting a channel soon on a totally unrelated topic and I know how much work is involved. Tony

For a number of vintage cars, just like on the K&T universal milling head, particularly Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars, there are a number of locations that call for grease but some that call for oil (SAE90 Gear Oil). In order to avoid gettting it wrong, I put either Zerk or screw down cups for locations that call for grease and only keep grease in my grease guns with Zerk fittings. For oil I have a Tecalemit Oil Gun with a head for button fittings only, so as all the oiling locations have button heads. Just can't then make a mistake.

This spring I bought me a 6Р82Ш soviet milling machine from 1978. Vertical head on this machine has never been used (no marks on spindle bore, just pure clean factory grind) but head was pumped full of grease. Looks like grease was diligently added whenever general maintenance/oiling was due.

Keith, As always a superb video. You bring back fond memories of working ashore helping with the engineers on the tankers to solve problems. You have an inherent ability to diagnose and solve problems. There were a couple of things I noticed. First, you are still using your engine hoist to move the milling head around. I assume you are still looking for the K&T hoist attachment. Adam Booth in one of his videos showed a hoist he fabricated for his K&T milling machine. It seemed like a good solution to the hunt for the elusive OEM hoist. Second, I noticed that you ground the contact area on the milling head without protecting the gear just above the damaged area. I assume this was just an oversight. Bob

Yet another excellent video.

One part or a hundred, the set up is the same. Years ago when I took a machining class and was more ore less doing my thing, the instructor said that I really didn't do a lot of projects. He was right! Every one that I did was fraught with problems that had to be solved, I learned a whole bunch in that class.

The detail in your series is great. A brand new arbor easily available solve the problem well, but would also like to see the diagnosis of the ill fitting end mill arbor. I would blue it up to find the interference points. I am learning all I can in case easily available parts are not quickly available off the shelf.

Turning a milling machine into a late that's the kind of cameplan Keith come,s up whit to get her done. And he reps tings up while your still in marvel. You cant go wrong whit this guy.

Keith, I have the same universal head on my K&T 2HL. I always check the gear clearance/backlash between the drive gear in the spindle taper and the gear in the drive section of the head. There is some give between the drive and the main rotating spindle sections of the head. You should check this runout and NOT depend on the slop in spline shaft to correctly align the gear runout. I always mount the drive section first by it's self so it is easy to feel the gear backlash by turning the spline shaft and move the clamps up or down a few thousandths. Then mount the main part of the head on the over arm supports and into the spline shaft. At first when you said it was getting hot I was thinking of these gears binding with no backlash and high pressure on the teeth.

Arrrgghh. Still got to wait for the gear cutting. Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

I watched the video when that attachment was first installed and now that the shaft isn't grinding the cover its running a lot quieter 👍

Good catch on the interference, Keith, and a novel setup to correct it. From the other marks on the housing, it looks like there have been some problems in that area in a previous existence. These machines have a lot of history. If only they could talk. Looking forward to the next step in the journey. Mart in England.

Real work life experience here Keith.

The pile of iron bits at the bottom of that recess (7:50) speaks volumes.

You certainly have patience endurance with solving these cascading problems on this gear teeth milling project.

With that shaft heating up, it annealed a little bit, it was a little softer and you could cut it down. Mr. Pete turned his lathe into a mill, you turned your mill into lathe. Oh the irony of it all. Some say machines can't talk. But if one is listening the squeaks, chatters, and vibrations they can be understood.

I've read many horizontal mills were in fact based off lathe headstocks... so you're using it as intended!

Thank you for sharing. 👍👀

Machine ready now hope you are will be fun to watch

KInd of the inverse of line boring: There you switch from stationary tool & moving part to moving tool & stationary part. Here the part changes from stationary to moving.

Like you need another project but cleaning and inspecting the universal head would be good video. Have a great day.

Keith has the patience of Job!!! :)

In a funny way, I'm glad to see you suffer will all the same setbacks that us mortals do. One of the things you rarely do (at least on camera) is also have to go searching for those parts/tools you know you've got but they aren't where you last remember with that organised shop you have. For me I'll probably spend as much time searching for stuff, then have to repair/fix things like you have been doing, then I can start whatever it was I was doing. Glad you show real life warts and all.

I saw helical gears getting cut on the Vintage Machinery insta... Tease!!!

Hiya Keith

Looks like time to find or fabricate the integral crane for the old Model H!

I read an interesting book recently that said most of the standard techniques--for hand--machining were developed in the 1840's-1870's for working on railway engine construction. At leat this was the case in England. Perhaps parallel evolution happened in other countries or techniques and knowledge were exported in written form. Either way it is an amusing thing to think all those standard methods to producing parts that Keith shows us are actually meant to be making steam locomotives!!!

Man you did it again!!! I though you were going to cut gears!!.. nope

I have a grease gun filled with oil that i use on my mill🤔nice job as usual!

Hope you’re going to make a few of them gears to get some time and part money back, they’re must be a few people out there who need one and can’t acquire them. Just a thought. Thanks for sharing and regards from across the pond.

I thought today was gona be the day, but wasn’t meant to be 😁. Creative fix tho 👍

Good job troubleshooting! Heat is never good in a gear train.

Holy smokes I’m ready to see this thing. Cut some gears already. You should use some power tools on some of those nuts enjoying the content, though

The set up has me more interested than the actually cutting of the gear LOL. I wondered if you was going to make a test blank out of wood but then I figured wood my splinter so...

I love the preposition soup: Lock these down by snugging these up, etc. Way to bring this project in by working it out.

"the next lathe" you kid, but there is at least one person out there who mounted a lathe chuck in of of these by modifying one of the heads. It's online. Every once in a while i come across the image whenever i look for parts.

could you support the head on the over arms to prevent the need to fully dismount the head completely.

Facing off the protruding shaft while still in the mill was pure genius and made me LOL. However, a machinist in the Middle East would probably have used a right angle grinder to accomplish the same thing , buttoned it up again and slept very well that night. :-)

"F it, we'll do it live!" - Keith Rucker.

Keith, this video made me wonder, do you use any type of preventative maintenance schedule for all your machines?

With mu busy life, the new format of a lot of shorter vid’s works out good for me. Where did you get that oil gun?

Here is a prime example of the third extension of Murphy's law. What can go wrong will, inevitably, go wrong just when you thought you had the job licked. Well done on the diagnosis and relatively quick fix Keith. Once again you've shown us a way to solve what could have turned into a major problem. Thanks for the videos. Looking forward to what should be an anticlimactic finish. Regards from Canada's banana belt. 🤞🇨🇦🍌🥋🕊️🇺🇦🌞🇺🇲👍

maybe the angle of the gear teeth is pulling the large gear into the case face? would a thrust bearing help maybe?

I'm looking into a mini lathe for my restorations, and I was wondering what brand and specifications should I look for/at to choose the best options for the jobs. Just simple turning.

GREAT JOB, I WILL TRY TO BE READY, GREAT VIDEO, TELL EVERYBODY HELLO P S DON'T FORGET THE CATS AND DOGS...

Did you identify the actual interference with the tool holder? Is it salvageable or scrap?

You should clean the face of the gear and the surface you hit with the flap wheel, then apply a coat of sharpie marker to one of the two sides, then put it all together run it then disassemble and see if any of the sharpie is worn off. Buzz the metal off until no sharpie is removed to ensure clearance between the moving parts.

The suspense is killing me ! I can only imagine the frustration Keith goes through when he discovers these problems. Patience and fortitude will get him to the goal.

I'm on Team: Use the Part you made.

Hi Keith why did you take the angle grinder to smooth the inside of the casting? The grinding dust is now inside the upper part with the other gear and bearnings...