Colchester Tornado 300 with misaligned turret

**Andreas_H** · 02-21-2011, 01:24 AM

Hi. I have a Colchester Totnado 300 with Duplomatic BSA 200 turret. I had a crash last week and now i cant get the tools to the center. It´s about 2mm misaligned. I have loosened the bolts to the turret disc and tried to insert a indexing pin in a hole as the manual suggests, but it doesnt help. We also disassembled the whole turret to try to find any bent dowel pins or something else but we cant see anything wrong. Its a pretty simple and rigid construction so i dont know what may be wrong.
The turret disc is bolted to another disc, and that disc is bolted to the main shaft and has four dowel pins that is ok.
On the main shaft there is a radial gear wheel that locks to the housing with another gear wheel. The thing that is seated in the housing has dowel pins that looks ok. Can anyone suggest what to look for? I need to get this machine going this week.

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**RBrandes** · 02-21-2011, 05:14 AM

Angular or axial misalignment?
Sounds like axial to me. The thing you are calling a radial gear is called the cervic coupling. When the turret indexes it moves out a little and then pulls back and the coupling engages and that is what locks the final alignment.

If you have angular misalignment, fix that first.

My Nakamura had taper pull pins for alignment. The idea is the pin holes are reamed when the machine is built, but the pins are removed after the screws are tightened. Then after a crash, loosen the screws, drive in the pins restoring the alignment, tighten the screws and remove the pins.

All too often after a crash, the pins are left in and the next crash wallows the pin holes rendering them useless.

All I can suggest is to remove the pins from one or both rings, snug the screws enough to hold the couplings, assemble the thing and bump the turret until aligned. Then take it apart and tighten the screws. Reassemble and inspect. This will be a trial and error and it may take all day. Good Luck!

Regards, Ray

**Andreas_H** · 02-21-2011, 05:57 AM

Thank you for your input. I´ll try that. I dont understand what you mean with angular or axial misalignment. Im not so familiar with these terms, but if i put a drill in a holder, its about 2 mm above center (not on the x-axis).
But i have aligned the turret disc with a dial on the flat surface and thats is ok.

**RBrandes** · 02-21-2011, 08:29 AM

Angular alignment is if the axis of a drill is not parallel to the axis of the spindle.
Axial alignment is if the line on the X axis that the center of the tool travels along does not intersect the centerline of the spindle. For example, if tool #1 is in battery, tool #2 will be out of axial alignment. So, if your coupling slipped, a drill axis of the tool station in battery could not be brought coincident with the axis of the spindle. I hope this helps.
Regards, Ray