South Bend Lathe Restoration, Part 16, Repairing Cross Slide Nut With A Modern Nut; New Tool Post 

When I was a young Bloke and a student I bought a 1954 South Bend clone which had wear in the cross slide screw and nut. I took the bits to TAFE with me to do a repair as a “foreign order” The teacher asked “what’s your plan” and where is your list of the order of operations?? Doooohhhhh, says I!! He said” Do this ……He made a new cutting tool with narrower tooth form to cater for the wear and cleaned up the thread and in 10 minutes set up yo cut a new matching cross sled nut. “Thanks heaps “, says I……….Says he “ that’s saved you a bit of money” You can’t beat experience, and I Learned that there’s more than one way to skin a cat!! Stavros

I did this on my 1913 vintage Lodge and Shipley lathe except with a twist. I mounted the newer style nuts on both sides of the adapter. One side fixed and locked in. The other side threaded in and held in place with a couple set screws. I adjust the side with set screws in or out to take all the backlash out. Using 2 nuts like this i can manage under .001" backlash. And then adjust it as it wears.

Nice work! If I was doing it, (and I will on my 9" SB,) I will get two bronze ACME nuts, center the adapter thread shoulder to the attachment screw hole, trim the ACME nuts to shorter length, locktite one ACME nut in one end, and grub screw the second ACME nut into the other end. This way, I can adjust the second ACME nut to take up end play. I would drill the grub screw into the adapter at 90° to the lead screw, probably at a 45° angle to the top of the adapter, and knock off enough of the mounting shoulder to provide a flat to start the grub screw hole.

Well that has to feel satisfying to be finished. I hope you don’t have too much withdrawal after finishing such a big project~Or~ maybe it’s more like “haha - never again!!!” Well done, Sir, now go have several naps! 😁

Bravo! Potential game changer here, for many other machines, as well…

Nice job, Kevin.

Grats Kevin! What a journey! It looks great and it was awesome to watch your process. Gotta admit, I wish I had an MPA tee like yours.

Good for you. Well done.

I did something probably pretty stupid which is why I've never seen anyone else do, but it worked perfectly. I degreased my original cast iron nut and brased the internal threads then ran a 7/16X10 left hand tap through. It's a little tight but I can't feel any backlash whatsoever.

I enjoy your editing style.....well done.....Paul

you can solder the two parts together. with soft solder tin. that fills everything and that never goes out.

Hello Kevin, first time here, new subscriber and proud owner of a 1942 South Bend 13 inch x 6 foot tool room lathe, taper attachment , 3 and 4 jaw, but sadly no collet closer...looking forward to more of your channel.....Paul in Central Florida

Well thanks for making a cool video! my cross slide nut is pretty bad on my very similar 1935 15" southbend that I just got. I made a cool tiny little boring bar tool a while ago that takes a hss jewelry graver for the bit.

If you have backlash, be it 1 thousandth or 1 millimetre, you still have to allow for it in your work plan. Once you master the technique you can forge ahead………….remember to always move the slide in the same direction…………you can’t back off and reverse the travel! Turning the graduation wheel and panicking only causes you stress, a few degrees of backlash ain’t a problem if you keep your wits about you. Stavros

Hello Kevin, i enjou the serie. And with a last name that seems to be dutch you have the aditude to go on even there is a mistake. I'm curius when you con on with the Bridge Port, I have to from 1996 in metric and renovate this machine without new painting because a machine with that age me been seen as she is with all here outside wear. It was a nice project but cost a lot off money. Good luck with your renovation, i'm following you.

👍🏻

I thought I saw a thread dial on your table in the build process...I also have a half finished one started for my logan

Kevin, great videos! I have the EXACT same model. Could you help me out and tell me where you purchased your drive belt and what size? Again, great videos! Thanks!

Hello Kevin, I watched this video on my phone and I might have missed something but I'm thinking you said the threads were 8 TPI. I was wondering how your dials work with that. Are your dials .125" per turn and not .100"?

It looks like you have the compound set at the wrong 30 degrees.

Can you measure your results? Interesting, thanks.

Olá amigo qual macho vc usou pra fazer essa rosca

That nut not going on makes no sense to me... A tap should have the cutting profile as to not allow a deeper thread height than the screw shall accommodate... Just as dies do cut the major diameter if you leave the initial material at 100% engagement(not pleasant to do so and make any size screw in anything but aluminum or brass as it can break dies and requires so much more force than say 90% engagement)... So it makes me wonder how did your tap manage to result in a nut that had minor diameter larger than minor of the factory made screw... By any modern standard, it should not have happened... Also, consider getting two of those nutserts rather than one, make a longer housing, modify them a bit, key them inside the housing and make a backlash eliminating nut... Two such pieces would make an elimination nut that would last for ages and allow for cool oiling methods to be done, aswell as a longer travel, as the locating boss can be places anywhere atop the housing for the nutserts, allowing you to pull the crosslide towards you at least a bit more, heck, you could even put a thread wiper in there on each side and lube injection from the inside, as to have the crosslide screw and nuts always be as clean as possible and well lubed... Such a system could go on for what, over 15 years of constant duty work in two shifts, let alone what little hours you or me would put a lathe like that through... I know that after 4 hours at a lathe, tho i love every second of it, i am ridden into dirt like a rally car... Same with milling, even tho it is a powerfeed system, just the observation and focus demanded are enough to warrant some oxygen therapy from my oxy,acetilene bottles... Aint nothing like it... People drink coffee to increase heart rate to get more oxygen and seem more rested, others do cocaine, which does the same, but harder... I just snort oxygen and then go for some hookers, it much more professional, i`ve been told... jk, but it is much nicer to breathe more oxygen than to chemically induce high heart rate to achieve the same effect... Just crack open the bottle and vent it into a closed room for a few seconds, as unregulated oxygen therapy can be dangerous, but adding a bit to air will do no harm whatsoever... Dont sniff it directly or rig up an inhalation method, just release a bit for a few seconds...

12:57 It's made in China and xi jingping buys nukes from the money.

thats funny. people thinkin they are gettin a lil better becuse of the name. yet its the same junk from china. with a diff label. sad they pay more for it to. hahhahahahha