1.? ?Find and turn a piece of cast iron to fit the existing thread in the lathe bed. Epoxy or loctite in place and drill and tap a new hole aligned with the rack.
DO NOT try this by filling the thread with epoxy or steel, either one is too different from the cast iron to give a well aligned result.
2.? ?Fill and hammer the hole in the rack shut with a similar material. Drill new hole to line up with thread in bed casting.
3.? ?Leave both holes as they are and drill and tap a new hole 10 mm to one side, into rack and bed. Tap as needed and screw snug.
My lathe had pretty poor mesh between the handwheel gear and the rack. To address the problem I slid the rack about 1/2 inch to one side and moved the rack down. Everything worked out pretty well. However, one hole is a bit too high. I am thinking of a couple of ways to fix the problem.
1. Start over and drill/tap all of the holes again. Hoping not to do this, as its not ? ? clear I will succeed the second time.
2. Elongate the through hole in the rack so that the screw will go in without distorting the ? ? rack. The hole is off by about .030" and I believe there is probably enough metal ? ? above the hole in the rack to fit. I am not sure what the rack is made of. It seems like ? ? steel which I don't think is hardened. But I don't really like the idea of changing the? ? ? rack this way.
3. Fill the hole with JB Weld or some other sort of epoxy-like filler and then re-drill and? ? ? tap. I assume this wouldn't be as strong as drilling the holes in new locations (i.e., #1 above) ? ? but I don't think this will be a concern. I haven't tried moving holes this way before so I am ? ? not sure it will be easy to move the holes a small amount like this.
I would like to get some advice on what is the best way to correct this. Thanks.
