ID this lathe head?

**erikjgreen** · 12-29-2011, 11:48 AM

Hi, everyone. I hope the end of 2011 is treating you well.

Since it's not enough to be working on a shop space including a tig welder, phase converter, air compressor, and other items plus my milling machine CNC conversion, I'm almost done collecting parts for my to-be-built CNC slant bed lathe.

One of the last parts I just ordered as my xmas present for myself

It's a headstock unit, used, from a chinese 12x36 lathe. I'm aware that it's not going to be as high quality as some better brands, but it should be easy to rebuild and it's a common enough type that I can get bearings for it relatively cheap. It may not need new ones right away, the seller assures me the spindle turns smoothly and freely, although there is a bit of rust on the outside of the head and the one pulley.

I'm wondering if anyone here can identify the particular model and vendor for it.

I'm planning on removing most/all of the gearing and powering the spindle with a 2 or 3 hp three phase motor on a VFD. I'm going to belt drive it with a timing gear setup I think, so I won't need the controls or probably even the outer shell of the head. The whole thing will be hidden inside the enclosure I'll build for the lathe.

It's supposed to be a D1-4 spindle with a 1.5" bore, I'm planning on using either a D1-4 4 jaw 8 inch chuck or (probably most of the time) a standard 5C collet with a quick closer. I'd love to have the ability to auto feed bar through it, but that's not too likely at this point. I might add one of the chinese made powered retrofit heads in the future if I want to do some production on it.

Comments and thoughts as well as identifying information are welcome.

Erik

**erikjgreen** · 12-31-2011, 01:22 PM

Well, this head arrived yesterday via truck freight from lost creek machine. It weighs about 200 lbs... nice and beefy.

It apparently is oil lubricated, as there's a sight glass for checking the level, and it did leak some oil when it got tipped some. I'll plan on flushing the system out and maybe even adding a separate reservoir and sensors for checking the level when in operation.

Next step is to clean it up (literally, it just needs a wipe down for the most part) and remove the surface rust. Then open it up and figure out the basic parts I'll include in the final lathe, and measure those for inclusion in my CAD plan.

Given that it's an oil bath I think I might have to arrange to mount it in a vertical position on the slant bed so the oil lubricates it properly. Probably that means a triangular block to mount it on.

I'm aiming for a final work envelope of about 15x15 inches... the ballscrews I have for this have about that much threaded area on them.

Anyway, if I find out what the exact brand of this head is, I'll post it here.

If anyone can point me at a thread with pics of disassembly of a chinese 12x36 lathe head, I'd appreciate it.

Erik

**nolage** · 01-05-2012, 09:03 PM

Looks alot like a clausing collet headstock.

**erikjgreen** · 01-06-2012, 09:30 AM

Would you happen to have a picture for reference?

The seller said it was from a "chinese lathe" and so far that seems to match what I've seen, down to the parts diagrams (I'm referencing Grizzly's G4003 lathe so far).

Erik

**nolage** · 01-08-2012, 03:57 PM

A much bigger machine, but that slant faced head and such reminds me of Clausing. It could be a chinese attempt at clausing.

**erikjgreen** · 01-09-2012, 10:37 AM

Could be something like that. But the internals, at least the spindle, drive pulley, and their mounting hardware are definitely identical to the Grizzly G4003, which says to me this was made to the same plan, maybe by the same company, in China.

It's an odd looking head, really. The back slants out to a point, then back in as it gets taller, so it's shaped like a lopsided pentagon lying on its side.

Erik

**tc429** · 06-18-2012, 11:04 PM

I'd suggest keeping some gearing- we had a brand new POS longbed chinese lathe, the headstock kept splitting gears, after the third or 4th time in a month, they had me put a 10hp timing belt/direct drive on it- had near 3:1 belt reduction, but the poor thing was still a dog...for turning steel, 10:1 reduction would maybe get you in the ballpark, but a VFD on the tranny might be most versatile...just need to know rpm at motor base speed, let the operator go up/down from there...

**erikjgreen** · 06-19-2012, 09:47 AM

Thanks for the info.

I've kinda decided at this point to use a spare VFD I have... it's oversize though, a 20 hp model. I have a 5 hp motor for it, might get a 10hp just because I can (I'm using it on single phase).

As far as drive, I'll probably go with a jackshaft reduction "gear".. maybe 10:1 if I can arrange it, with a speed sensor on the spindle itself. I'm shooting for about a 30-40 rpm minimum speed, and the vfd should give me constant torque at all rpms, so I should be good there.

I can see how a 3:1 running directly off a motor would be low on torque... the toughest steels you'd need about a 50:1 reduction to get the right surface speed.

Erik

**keebler303** · 06-19-2012, 10:43 AM

We have an Enco with an almost identical headstock. Yours looks a little older than ours. It has the same tray on top, same knobs, same spindle, etc.

I'll try to remember to get a pic, it's in another building.

Matt