new old dividing head

[willofiam]

Hey guys, just got in my new old dividing head today, it is a ellis with all the stuff. my question is what kind of oil and grease is used in these, it has oil cups but the housing is dry, I was thinking about 90 weight gear lube, also appears to have a grease in there, how do I know this????because I just HAD to tear it down and give it a good cleaning, I have searched the web high and low, several guys have asked this very question but everyone seems to get side tracked and it never gets answered. I did find the parts list, instruction manual but no info on type of oil to use or how much to put in, thank you and stay warm! William

[david pierce]

William,
Do the oil cups go into the main body housing or are they there to lubricate the crank and spindle bushings. A motorized speed reducer would use 90 weight oil but all of the rotary tables and dividing heads I saw used bearing grease packed around the worm and worm wheel. Send some pictures.
david

[willofiam]

thanks David, here are some photos

[david pierce]

William,
The oil cups are for the bearings not the gears. It looks like the head was operated without any grease on the gears for a long time. The worm gear appears to be worn but I can’t really tell from the picture. Take a good close look at the gear. Pack the gears up with some good nasty bearing grease before using the unit. When you put everything back together check for excessive backlash in the gears. The mechanism in these heads is similar to the mechanism that raises a table saw blade up and down. I am certain you have adjusted and lubricated many table saws in your day. You can use some good sticky grease on the dividing head gears because you don’t have to worry about sawdust sticking to it.
david

[willofiam]

Howdy, after cleaning the gunk off the gears look to be in great shape, If I am correct this unit is adjustable for backlash via the set screws that would adjust the meshing. Mostly wondering about the 2 push-in ball bearings, one is over the crank handle sleeve?, the other poses itself over the gears, I guess thats why the confusion and the question, if the gears are packed with grease then are these spots for grease? the one over the crank handle sleeve looks like oil should go in there, pictures 3 and 4. William

[david pierce]

William,
Since this unit is made to turn slow there will be not heat build up under normal operation. Grease will stick on the parts better than oil and is less likely to evaporate and dry out. The only drawback to grease is it is more viscous than oil and requires more power to push through it. Since you are operating the head with a hand crank this won’t even be noticed. In other words grease that puppy up!
david

[willofiam]

all cleaned and greased up, ready for operation, soon I hope, thank you, William

[david pierce]

William,
The oil cups are for oil to lubricate the spindle bearings. The grease is for the gear teeth. If grease from the inside of the housing pushes against the bearings it will not hurt a thing. As far as the cups go make sure the channels going to the bearings are clear so the oil can flow from the cups to the bearings.
david

[chris mabbott]

I can only agree with David’s suggestions that RPM, load, gear type & material play a major part in lubrication selection. Whereas grease will suffice for this gear box, do not overfill as the heavy lube will carry and fall. You might also consider an EP grease or heavy synth gear oil.

Nice find William, enjoy it because a couple of us are moving to your tool paradise LOL

[david pierce]

William,
Do you own a slide rule?
david

[willofiam]

David, No I do not

[david pierce]

William,
You can pick one up off of Ebay for less than $20.00. Make sure it has a “C” and “D” scale. In the meantime post the hole numbers from your dividing plates. When your slide rule comes in I will show you how to set the number of divisions for your dividing head.
david

[willofiam]

You mean one like this? 😆

[willofiam]

here they are David.

[david pierce]

William,
You made a wise choice for your slide rule selection. You won’t even have to put on your reading glasses to see the numbers. Ok, here is the david pierce method for setting a dividing head. First find out the number of turns it takes the sector handle to produce one revolution of the dividing head spindle. The normal number of turns for your type of head is 40 but check and make sure. For the example I will assume that your head is 40.
1) Divide the number of divisions you want into 40. If you want 7 divisions the problem will read 40/7 = 5 5/7. Notice that I did not use a decimal for the remainder.
2) Set the number 5 on the C scale over the number 7 on the D scale.
3) Your hole patterns read 15,16,17,18,19,20,21,23,27,29,31,33,37,39,41,43,47,49. Look through the numbers on your D scale until you see an integer over one of the numbers. In this case you will see 15 on the C scale lined up over 21 on the D scale and 35 on the C scale lined up over 49 on the D scale.
4) You now have two solutions to the problem 5 15/21 and 5 35/49. This means that you will have 5 complete turns of the sector arm crank plus 15 holes on the 21 hole plate or 5 turns of the sector arm crank plus 35 holes on the 49 hole plate.
5) Set the sector arms for the selected number of holes so you won’t have to count the holes on every index.
david

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