Well I feel stupid - am I the only one?

[Tomc938]

So my King lathe (1236) is a belt drive with a QCGB. There is a knob that allows you to change the direction of the feed. (in cross and longitudinal feed)

Last night I needed to change the direction of feed and switched to the other position on the knob. I had to turn the chuck a bit to allow the mechanism to sync the gears. I noticed a bit of a catch between the two positions. Just for fun I left it in that position and turned on the lathe. To my surprise it fired right up, and worked great! And absent was the "clatter" of the gears in the box. So I guess there is a neutral position, not mentioned in the manual, where the spindle runs but the gear box does not. I've had the lathe for a year or so, and longed for the sound of a belt drive lathe without the gears running all the time. I'm going to bet everything in the QCGB will last WAY longer if they are not constantly running.

Am I the only one who didn't know about neutral on the gear box direction knob?

 

[DavidR8]

Mine is the same. When the feed gears are engaged they make an awful racket.

 

[lucsimoneau]

My King 1440 lathe was always in neutral because the sound was so loud - most of the times I would feed by hand to avoid the noise. I sold the machine last summer and bought a smaller 10 x 22 Craftex lathe (CX706) and the noise level is now much lower.

 

[Ironman]

Am I the only one who didn't know about neutral on the gear box direction knob?

I think you are out standing in your field....alone, on that one.
Open gears are a bit noisy, but they become much more rackety once they wear, and usually that is exacerbated by people who do not take the time when changing back gears to set up the tooth clearance right. Most always are set up too loose, but too tight, and bottoming out the tooth is bad, too.
The King and Craftex machines are the same and parts interchange. The back gears that drive the QC box on the King can be sourced from Busy Bee, and new gears will be much quieter.

 

[Ironman]

I think you are out standing in your field....alone, on that one.
Open gears are a bit noisy, but they become much more rackety once they wear, and usually that is exacerbated by people who do not take the time when changing back gears to set up the tooth clearance right. Most always are set up too loose, but too tight, and bottoming out the tooth is bad, too.
The King and Craftex machines are the same and parts interchange. The back gears that drive the QC box on the King can be sourced from Busy Bee, and new gears will be much quieter.

edit. I note that the King/Craftex/et al lathes have very narrow gears, usually about 8mm wide. My lathe has gears that are 1/2" wide and so the wear issue is much less the with narrow gears. It would be a big effort to change this and not worth it.

 

[PeterT]

My King 1440 lathe was always in neutral because the sound was so loud

What year is your King 1440? This is mine circa 1997. Are you saying there is a neutral between (A) feed direction or (B) power feed / threading feed selector, or...? If so, guilty as charged. Mind you I power feed all the time. I don't find my gears particularly noisy but I don't have a lot of comparison data. Now my King RF-45 mill of same era - THAT was a clackety-clacker but I think 80% due to splined spindle shaft.

 

[quitereal]

So my King lathe (1236) is a belt drive with a QCGB. There is a knob that allows you to change the direction of the feed. (in cross and longitudinal feed)

Last night I needed to change the direction of feed and switched to the other position on the knob. I had to turn the chuck a bit to allow the mechanism to sync the gears. I noticed a bit of a catch between the two positions. Just for fun I left it in that position and turned on the lathe. To my surprise it fired right up, and worked great! And absent was the "clatter" of the gears in the box. So I guess there is a neutral position, not mentioned in the manual, where the spindle runs but the gear box does not. I've had the lathe for a year or so, and longed for the sound of a belt drive lathe without the gears running all the time. I'm going to bet everything in the QCGB will last WAY longer if they are not constantly running.

Am I the only one who didn't know about neutral on the gear box direction knob?

I had the same epiphany on my colchester, a neutral for feed shaft and one for leadscrew, kinda unspoken but there.

 

[lucsimoneau]

What year is your King 1440? This is mine circa 1997. Are you saying there is a neutral between (A) feed direction or (B) power feed / threading feed selector, or...? If so, guilty as charged. Mind you I power feed all the time. I don't find my gears particularly noisy but I don't have a lot of comparison data. Now my King RF-45 mill of same era - THAT was a clackety-clacker but I think 80% due to splined spindle shaft.

It was an older version, the lever in mid position disengaged the complete gear assembly drive train:

 

[MrWhoopee]

My SB Heavy 10 is similar, neutral between lead-screw forward and reverse. I breathe a sign of relief when I shift into neutral and the clatter stops.

 

[Susquatch]

Am I the only one who didn't know about neutral on the gear box direction knob?

Looks like that might be the case. My Griz has the neutral there too. It also has neutrals between the speed detents.

But it is an oil bath gearbox so it isn't very noisy anyway. I just like the neutral cuz it is easier to turn the spindle by hand whenever I want without also turning a bunch of gears needlessly.

I wouldn't make the mistake of engaging it while the motor is running though. There is no clutch or synchro.

 

[Tomc938]

What year is your King 1440? This is mine circa 1997. Are you saying there is a neutral between (A) feed direction or (B) power feed / threading feed selector, or...? If so, guilty as charged. Mind you I power feed all the time. I don't find my gears particularly noisy but I don't have a lot of comparison data. Now my King RF-45 mill of same era - THAT was a clackety-clacker but I think 80% due to splined spindle shaft.

Mine is a 1236. 1993. In the picture below it is the knob on the top left with the two holes in the face at the 6 and 12 positions. The symbols above it show rotation directions, but no indication that there is anything in the middle.

The thread or power feed lever is just below the picture on the right.

My gear box was quite the clatter. Now I know how to quiet the racket.

PS: My 1440 is still in kit form, although when the weather warms up I will be starting to paint and put it back together. Once iI find the plate I'll know what year it is.

 

[Proxule]

set up the tooth clearance right.

Most always are set up too loose, but too tight, and bottoming out the tooth is bad, too.

I use soft solder to set my backlash, I roll it through my gears and measure the thickness.
If you can mount a dial indicator somehow and arrange the plunger on a tooth, you could wiggle the gear back and forth and arrive at your backlash as well.
I want to say a number to aim for, But in reality any thing in the .005 .007 .010 area is fine, Rather loose then too tight.
Experiment a bit find the quietest combo that works for you.
Heavy sticky grease works to quiet things down, but eventually at higher RPM's it flings it out, Often making a mess!

Real world gears that matter get a clearance of 0.03 - 0.04 (divided ) by DP ( Diametrical Pitch )

Goodluck