Sometimes You Just Have to Stop and Fix Things.... Repairing My Monarch Lathe 

Those old engineers who decided to put both pins on the outside should be saluted! Nice work, Keith!

I’d suggest simply doubling up the roll pin by inserting a smaller one inside the larger one. This is common practice for locking the pin and increasing shear strength. Cheers

That clamp pushing the pin out was really clever!

The pros and cons of “they don’t make em like they used to” 😂

I am so impressed with your endless patience while solving these problems.

That you can do this without swearing shows your excellent upbringing, discipline, or fine editing.

Good job you know someone who is good at fixing old machines! Love seeing the problem solving...

Good Job Keith. Congratulations on Retiring and I hope you get to do all the times you want in the shop.

Love the idea of turning the failed drill thru hole to a set screw feature. Great Job!!

Awesome content - I love this channel. Thank you Tally Ho for bringing me here I am totally hooked 👍

Your machine was like I came here to retire, and do some fun little projects. I ain’t turning a truck engine. So it was playing dead, hopping you go away 😂

Thank you for tripling your work load so I can sip coffee and watch you work.

You know things are going bad when you hear him say, "Dadgummit!" But it's all good now...interesting fix, and thanks for sharing.

My big old Chez Lathe when I was still working it had a roll (spring) pin in the travel shaft no one could see untill a small screw was removed from inside the guard. Small one ment to shear off. Caused me a full day to get it figured out. Your in luck having that parts manual my friend. We have to switch trades by being a mechanic from a machinist. Sometimes not that easy, LOL. At the end of the day this lathe is a bit tougher to get that pin replaced. Some days life treats us well and your having one of those days Mr Mechanic, LOL. So, my Grandad always said. "Get it fixed and make it better when you can" and that is just what you have acomplished here today. Well done fella ! It is things like this that keep me coming back.

I felt that "ha ha!" success call at the end there. Love that feeling.

One of the reasons why i've never liked tapered pins. When they work, awesome, but when they break, they can become an absolute chore and a half to remove. Over the years, where possible, i've been swapping them with roll pins. For most applications, the humble roll pin will do. In some cases, i also use piano wire through the roll pin which eliminates (or at the very least reduces) stress and cracking down the line. Of course, you have to have quality roll pins in the first place, which does take some time to ident and get in quantities. Old stuff work is never easy.

Keith: You said when Monarch fitted those tapered pins they never intended for them to be taken apart, you hit my “way-back” button. In the late 1980s I was a Product Engineer for Ford in the engine engineering area. I had the good luck to attend three lectures given by the legendary quality guru W. Edwards Demming. (Look him up.) He is credited with teaching the Japanese his process control quality system, as they rebuilt their destroyed industrial capacity after WWII, that put Japanese cars at the top of the quality charts. He was modest about what he accomplished - said he was just a second rate statistician. Demming was in his late 80s when I saw him, mentally still sharp, but big & slow moving. Instead of making our heads spin with statistical grimble, he began by giving us examples of dumb things that could have been done way better with just a moment of thought. Each example ended with a plaintive “What’d they do that for?” Examples: When he checked into the new hotel down the road from Ford’s WHQ building, he found the doors to the guest rooms were in alcoves. There were ceiling lights along the hallway, but they didn’t align with the alcoves. Result was Demming couldn’t see the damn keyhole to fit his room key. “What’d they do that for? Another example: Demming visited a bottling plant that was suffering a high breakage rate of the bottled product. The conveyor line took a right angle turn at a corner of the building. Just filled bottles of soda would tip, some fell off the conveyor, hit the concrete floor and shattered, dumping sugary pop and broken glass all over that corner of the plant. Being a corner, that conveyor line was hard to clean up. You had to take it apart to clean behind it. And the Health Department inspectors were frequently shutting down the plant because of the mess and the bugs in that inaccessible corner. All together now,”What’d do that for?” Lookin at that wonderful old Monarch lathe’s vertical tapered pin orientation, I had to wonder, What’d they do that for?!” Machine manufacturers know that eventually everything needs servicing. If they had drilled that shaft and handle horizontally instead of vertically, they would have the Keith Ruckers of the world several hours of aggravation. “What’d do that for?!”

Your presentations are excellent. This one reminds me how many times I have found parts manual diagrams indispensable, when shop/repair/service manuals are not available.

Keith: I was an Army Machinist and in training all of our lathes had those pins replaced with brass ones. The reason for it is if or more like when an appron travels into a moving chuck it instantly shears and keeps the lathe from excessive damage.

Watching a master problem solve is amazing, well done!

That is what I call a Ruckerized fix. Lol. Sometimes you just have to be creative and make it work. Well done Mr. RUCKER.

Sharpen a masonry bit to drill hardened material. You could also try putting that dowel back where you tried it previously, then place a wedge tight under the dowel. Then push your handle down, forcing the dowel against the wedge to drive the pin out.

I like your thought process and the different ways you tried to fix this machine. I to can appreciate the way you finally fixed it. Ric

The satisfaction of a successful repair. Taking care of the machine that takes care of our biz.🙂

This is truly a beautiful example of quality engeneering and quality build!!! I was amazed that you could remove that cover withouth having to slack off a bunch of other things. Cudos to Monarch!

And to think about it, if 50 years ago some operator had noticed a tiny bit of give in that handle and just rapped on the taper pin then it would likely have never sheered off. Take care of the little things.

Thanks Keith

My family owns a cabin on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Central Idaho. This is in the middle of the Frank Churck Wilderness Area. Everything, and I mean everything, must be flown in or out. Boise is 55 minutes away by air, and Cascade/McCall is 30 minutes by air. A round trip to town is about $500 with Avgas over $6.00 a gal. The point of all this is necessity makes for some very creative solutions back there. At home, when I encounter a problem like this one, I say to myself, "ok, imagine I'm at the ranch." "What would I do?" It puts me in a more creative solution, like your realizing a roll pin would be fine and solve the problem! Thanks for the lesson. I've encountered many 15 min repairs like this one!

Murphy is always busy. Nice save.

Then again, you ARE retired, so what's the rush? LOL. Fun watching you figure stuff out. You are a great detective.

Every time that drill grabbed my wrists ached in sympathy!

A great title for a video detailing the annoying problem solving an equipment failure. Thanks for sharing Keith.

Good job Keith. I certainly am happy for you that you did not have to totally disassemble the gear box. Sometimes you have to find another path. Thanks for sharing the process. Have a great day.

Well done!

I love seeing those big Monarch’s come back to life!!!

There's nothing a cunning plan can't beat or fix.

You are fortunate you don't have machine OCD, Machine OCD leads to just a heap of disassembled non working machines - small portions of which look very nice - don't ask me how I know. Can't wait to see the big cane roller bearing surfaces turned - gonna be sweet.

Fixing the tools - to fix the tools - to fix the tools - to do the job. Like when you pick up the hammer and the head falls off and rolls under the bench out of sight and beyond reach and your trouble light burns out just then etc.

Keith, I had to deal with a similar issue before with hardened pins and shafts. After I broke a few carbide drill bits I went to an old trick. I went to Lowe's and bought a few carbide tipped masonry bits. Sharpened them real nice for a standard drill angle and they worked like a charm for a fraction of what purpose carbide drill bits cost.

Early to rise . . . keeps a man healthy and wise

One challenge after another, good job.

Nice repair Keith

Be sure to update your technical drawings to indicate your field repairs! That next guy will never know to look for what you did.

Yes, you have a sheared pin. Saw this on another Monarch thirty or so years ago! Drove me nuts, but eventually figured out that was the issue. Except on mine, the pin was broken on the inner bevel gear, not the one you replaced with the spring pin. Had to take out a lot of the gearbox to be able to get to it.

Great analysis and repair. Great problem solving and fully worthy of the Dirty Apron Award.

THE Doctor of Machining and Repair strikes again! Way to Go Professor!

Ay... que frustrante resultan las cosas a veces cuando uno va a encarar un nuevo trabajo y la herramienta principal, por algún motivo no funciona. Me pasó hace un par de días que fui a encender mi sierra de mesa y el interruptor de encendido no funcionaba. Me perdí 2 horas desarmando eso para hacer que funcionara nuevamente. Pero bueno, como se dice por acá, "gajes del oficio". Un abrazo y arriba el ánimo! Gracias por compartir tus trabajos de los que aprendemos mucho! Germán, Lomas de Solymar, Uruguay

I haven't seen any videos from you in a long time. I do like to see the old stuff up and running again.

Thanks Keith the little thing take the longest time. Thanks for the video.

Good morning Keith! Good save. Thanks for the videos.

Work around innovation at its best! That should be a long term repair, thanks for bringing us along on a real workflow issue resolution!

Nice to see these old Monarch machines still working. They were build in the town where I live. We go by the old factory very often. Nice to know they still serve a purpose. Noce repair.

I think things went wrong when you pushed the broken taper pin up until it engaged with the shaft. Up until that point you could have maybe withdrawn the lever axially and knocked out the pin on the bench.

well, I am a little disappointed. that side cover should have slid to the side along with the lead screw and the other rods. then you could have moved it over the chip pan and knock those pins out. They were not stupid to design stuff meant to go together and not go apart anymore at the time this machine was built. Secondly, when you had the sheared pin in and the saft was turning separate of the handle the only thing you should have done was to pry on it. Once you have disturbed the pin you have ruined the chance to do that. Sometimes you need to step back and think about the problem. You may have already figured out the things I have mentioned yourself.

Great job Keith, you have a better late than yesterday. Great repair video again, and thanks for sharing the process, Keith.

Good video Keith.

Maestro!!

Pretty sure Keith was thinking that shaft may be hardened, so when he started drilling he was thinking "don't be hard, don't be hard... Aargh, it's hard!" I hate it when that happens and I have to start sacrificing hand tools.

It's amazing to see so much expertise. What an incredible craftsman! Wonderful to be able to view his work.

Take a drink on "going on"!!!!! Thank you for your time.

good job

Thank you for what you do, much appreciated!

Thank you Keith!

Thanks for sharing Keith

I just ran into basically the same problem. Chewing up my drill bits and no option but to keep going. Hard steel!!

Thanks for a good troubleshoot video. I really like how you figured that out with the gear assembly picture.

Well done, I have noticed a bit of play in that control before and thought it was supposed to be there. Good fix though.

Good fix Keith. very glad it was as easy as it was. get that roller

I was thinking a piece of plate for a spacer, a small piece of pin held by long nose vice grip and a shallow wedge to drive the pin up into the tapered pin from the bottom to push upwards. But, you know, your way worked too. Orrrrr, maybe some explosives!!!

So nice you didn't have to tear into that gear box.

That ought to last a hundred years, probably more. I could tell right away there was too much slop in that thing, now we know why.

Happy Monday Georgia! 😊

working on my south bend lathe I stamped where I could "B" for big end on those taper pins. Was difficult to tell which end was which on short pins.

Thank you for sharing your experience

Keith. Machine the lrge end of the new taper pin so that it has a thread on it long enough to just get under the depth of the handle boss. You can then use the pin as a self extracting pin if you need to remove it at a later date by tightening a nut and washer down onto itself. Xx

adapt, overcome, improvise, and survive!

I noticed at the beginning when you were doing your initial look-over that the pin stood proud over the handle. It raised my suspicions that there might of been a problem there.

I've successfully used a masonry bit to drill through outer hardened surface on hardened steel. Then you can follow up with regular drill bit depending on drilled part thickness.

thank you Keith

Keith "Master Machinist Detective" Rucker. 🤓

Thank you for another Great video. Cheers

Adapt and overcome!! Great job!

Keith Rucker - ,,,,,,, Lathe Mechanic ! Best Videos are usually the most Unexpected ones ! Congratulations ! Mr. Fixit ! Stay Safe ! Stu xx

The 10EE are infamous for the tapered pins and the fun removing them. Speculation is they were often hand drilled in place.

I wish you would have fixed the constant feed shaft while you were there.

Nicely done Keith

Thank you for sharing.👍

Love this kind of content, problem solving etc.!

Keith and the rest of us who work with our hands.... MD here and hands are not Hammers. The hand will wear out faster if we hit things hard with a hand.

Field expediency! Good on ya!!!

What a fight! Make sure you make a note in your parts book of the extra and old pin still in there.

Good luck with the hurricane and stay safe. ☔

Trabalhoso!!!Importante que deu tudo certo amigo!!! Boa sorte sempre!!!

Thanks, Keith. I love watching mechanical engineers work! You know a lot more than I do about mechanics, but I was wondering - why not drill and tap the hole for the tapered pin and replace it with a Bradley screw (combination set screw and pin) to make it easier to remove next time? Thanks again for making these videos!

Oh so you are retiring! Well congratulations. I certainly remember my last day of my 36 year career. Just you wait you think you work now. You will be busier now than you have ever been. No time for anything but work work work...

Well, I find if it can go wrong it usually does at the most inopportune time! Good fix brither.

Thanks for sharing 👍

Should add a little cutting oil when drilling.

Great job.

Ugh, i have to take my gearbox apart because of an intermittent gremlin and i've been putting it apart for a couple of months now. Kinda kicks my derriere into doing it, so thanks for the motivation Keith. :))