Trav-a-Dial

[Black Forest]

There is a Trav-a-Dial on my lathe.

I did not see a way to zero the dials. Do I turn the faces as in an indicator? Or do you have to take notice of where it is and where you want to go?

The lathe is not here yet but I did go and inspect the machines. They are in better shape than the seller told me. Very clean and smooth running.

The lathe was made in Bulgaria and is very stout.
It has a button on the apron(green)that is a rapid traverse. So what ever direction you have the feed in and you press this button it moves very fast!

The electric motor runs constantly and uses a gearing and clutch. If I push down on the lever the spindle turns towards me. Pull up and the spindle goes the other direction. Brake in the middle.

I wonder if I use a swing threading tool if I will be able to just engage the spindle for the thread cut. Reach the end of the cut pull the lever up and press the green button at the same time to rapid back to the beginning. I did not pay attention if the lead screw reverses when I reverse the spindle. If not it would not be a big deal to reverse just the lead screw. The gear shift looking lever is the feed. Pull it left and right for travel parralel to the spindle. Push if forward and back for the cross slide. Quite simple to operate.

I hope the machines arrive next week.

[PixMan]

You do re-zero the Trav-A-Dials by simply rotating the bezel.

You're description of the spindle forward/off/reverse strikes me a backward. Every other lathe I've used had the handle arranged so you lift up for forward (clockwise) rotation toward you,, push down for reverse. There's a chance that the Bulgarians prefer it the other way around though.

I notice that there's no crank handle on the carriage handwheel. They must really want you to be using the green button a lot. Does the feed rod (which appears to be a hexagonal road just below the lead screw) rotate all the time? I don't necessarily understand the mechanism behind the "rapid traverse".

That is a very sturdy-looking machine. Congrats.

[Black Forest]

There is a selector knob over on the headstock. If you want to thread you locate it on the leadscrew. If turning it goes on the hexagonal shaft. I won't swear to it but I think only one or the other turns. I found it also strange that there was no handle on the wheel.

[SDL]

I found it also strange that there was no handle on the wheel.

Probably thought no handle required as you have fast power traverse, could be a knuckle breaker as well.

Steve Larner

[SVS]

First Trav a dial I've seen with two dials...Or did they mount one for the cross slide?

On edit:Must be english/metric or coarse fine. Don't see any way one can read the cross slide the way it's mounted.

[lane]

First Trav a dial I've seen with two dials...Or did they mount one for the cross slide?

On edit:Must be english/metric or coarse fine. Don't see any way one can read the cross slide the way it's mounted.

Just goes to show you don`t know every thing yet.

[oldtiffie]

There is a Trav-a-Dial on my lathe.

I did not see a way to zero the dials. Do I turn the faces as in an indicator? Or do you have to take notice of where it is and where you want to go?

.................................................. .....................................

I hope the machines arrive next week.

That "Trava-dial" seems to be an "after market" or shop-made friction-driven "pedometer" arrangement with a coarse and fine dials.

The bolts through the saddle are standard hex bolts and not hex headed socket screws in counter-bored holes as is the case with rest of the screws/bolts in the top of the saddle.

In the first pic it seems that there has been something rubbing and/or being driven by a friction (tyred?) wheel - similar to a Surveyors Pedometer aka "measuring wheel".

The bracket that is bolted to the underside of the saddle and which supports/locates the "Trava-dial" looks to be a shop-made and not a commercial item at all.

If the diameter of the "tyre" is very accurate it could easily be made or calibrated to be say:

Distance traveled per revolution of the wheel = wheel circumference = 3.1416 x Diameter

If the distance traveled per rev of the wheel was say 200mm the diameter of the wheel will be:
200 = 3.1416 x Diam

200/3.1416 = 63.662mm = distance per rev of the wheel.

For 100mm/rev the diameter woul be: 63.662/2 = 31.831mm

[SVS]

Just goes to show you don`t know every thing yet.

When did I claim to?


Tiffie,
Don't know how many Trav a Dials made it to OZ, but yes, it's a U.S. based aftermarket product with a measuring wheel.

One clever feature:The wheel is crowned, and the mount can be rocked to change effective diameter for calibration.

[gnm109]

TravaDials are really rather nice. My friend has one on his Monarch 10EE on the carriage. They are quite expensive new and usually go for $250 or more on eBay used. I bid on a few of them but the other bidders wanted them more than I did. I finally went with a DRO.

That looks like a nice, stout lathe. We tend to forget that there are many good machines built in Europe that we never hear about.

.

[oldtiffie]

When did I claim to?


Tiffie,
Don't know how many Trav a Dials made it to OZ, but yes, it's a U.S. based aftermarket product with a measuring wheel.

One clever feature:The wheel is crowned, and the mount can be rocked to change effective diameter for calibration.

That "rub" mark and the "rubber-looking" wheel were the "give-aways". It was only a matter of working backward from there.

The only problems were that "pressure" and "tilt" to get and keep the wheel effective diameter, as well as to stop "slip" needed a lot of attention. They had to be re-tested and re-set occasionally. If a bit of swarf or grit got between the wheel and its path on the lathe bed the wheel would "stop" and/or "skip" - just like a small item under the castor/wheel on a super-market trolley.

On a normal "inch" lead-screw the dial gear travels 4" along the lathe bed each revolution. Used with care and discretion it can be a pretty good "trav-a-dial". To "set zero" just leave the half-nuts "out" and the threading dial gear in mesh with the lead-screw and use the top-slide to have the lathe tool contact the job "zero" and there you have a "trav-a-dial" that was there all the time.

I have a similar arrangement on my metric lathe.