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Cincinnati 2MI drive gears are misaligned. Help?

Neverin

Plastic
Joined
Sep 30, 2021
I got an old Cincinnati (horizontal?) Mill with speed traverse. I have never used a mill before, but the guy I got it from showed me the basics (this lever, up. This lever, down. Dial change speed..... You get the idea). After a painstaking adventure getting the beast home, and figuring out how the hell I was going to get it operational on my little chunk of single-phase nowhere, USA, I filled all the reservoirs, greased the **it out of every moving part, and fired her up. Everything was looking (and sounding) good. Moved the table around a bit. Tested all the speeds. Everything checked out.... Until I tried the speed traverse..... There was a soft "clunk" from inside somewhere, and the spindle "disengaged" for lack of a better term. It didn't just stop, but gradually slowed to a halt. The motor was still running. The drive still engaged. Just no spin. Upon further investigation I found it would engage on some speeds, but not all. So I opened up the 9,000,000lbs door to have a look (mind you, I am pretty mechanically inclined, and an excellent problem solver/troubleshooter, but this is new territory. I used an old winch to hold the weight of the door so I could crack it open and look inside). Best I can tell, the little arm were not lined up properly to rest in the recesses of the shifting gears. I have managed to get it back together, about six times..... The trouble is I don't know what speed to have the dial on in correlation with the position of the gears when I get the door closed. Moreover, it seems more often than not when I do close the door one of the arms and or gears moves ever so slightly because I'm literally holding the door up with a winch and trying to finagle it in, thus putting me right back to square one where when I adjust the speed the spindle only engages about 1/3 of those speeds and it never changes speed it just goes the same one or two speeds. So is there a tool or a trick, something to make sure that the arms and the gears stay put when I go to close the door? And what speed should the dial be set to? And what position should all the mechanisms be resting in when I go to close her up?


Any and all help, ideas, suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm about to open it up so I can post some pictures of just exactly what I'm looking at.

~ Neverin
 
Have you checked the oil pressure? Checked the direction of the motor? I think the motor pully has a direction tag riveted to it. or cast into it. See page 20 of Johns manual. Also I recall having to time the speed bracket by finding the lowest speed and the fastest as they are next to each other. Set it on the slow speed and then turn the handle and adjust the cover with the speeds on it so it's set on the low speed. I used to put a C-Clamp on the top of the door, lift it and remove the door hinges and when testing the machine I jumped the safety switch or taped it down. My brother had the door shut down on his arm once. It was sore for weeks. It's dangerous. I do recall pulling out the pully transmission assembly to access the gear pump in the column when it didn't pump enough pressure. Those machines are finicky. You may want to ask this question in the American made Heavy Metal forum as more Cinc. Owners read that forum.
 
Have you checked the oil pressure? Checked the direction of the motor? I think the motor pully has a direction tag riveted to it. or cast into it. See page 20 of Johns manual. Also I recall having to time the speed bracket by finding the lowest speed and the fastest as they are next to each other. Set it on the slow speed and then turn the handle and adjust the cover with the speeds on it so it's set on the low speed. I used to put a C-Clamp on the top of the door, lift it and remove the door hinges and when testing the machine I jumped the safety switch or taped it down. My brother had the door shut down on his arm once. It was sore for weeks. It's dangerous. I do recall pulling out the pully transmission assembly to access the gear pump in the column when it didn't pump enough pressure. Those machines are finicky. You may want to ask this question in the American made Heavy Metal forum as more Cinc. Owners read that forum.
I already jumped the safety switch, I had totally forgot! I had just been pushing the gears around and the rotating the drive motor by hand. Kinda hard to tell the subtle difference in speeds that way lol. I didn't even think to just let the motor run. Worry not, I am super cautious around this beast (and all dangerous eq for that matter!) I won't lose any appendages. And if I do, you have proof here that "this is all at my own risk. I hold no one accountable for any failures, damage or injury except myself." Lol.

On that note, I did wind up dropping the door today. Smashed my angle grinder to hell and unfortunately, snapped off the lever that adjusts the speed 🤦. So that's awesome. But I'm pretty sure I can weld it back together.

I'm gonna hit the books and I'll post any questions/progress made soon.


Thanx guys! You've been a huge help!
 








 
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