Fig. 668.
[Figs. 667] and [668] represent a pump centre head for watch manufactories, being a device for so chucking a piece of work that a hole may be chucked true and enlarged or otherwise operated upon, with the assurance that the work will be chucked true with the hole. Suppose two discs be secured together at their edges, their centres being a certain distance apart, as, for example, a top and bottom plate of a watch movement, and that the holes of one plate require to be transferred to the other, then by means of this head they may be transferred with the assurance that they shall be axially in line one with the other, and at a right angle to the faces of the plates, as is necessary in setting jewels in a watch movement.
In holes of such small diameters as are used in watch work, it is manifestly very difficult to set them true by the ordinary methods of chucking and it is tedious to test if they are true, and it is to obviate these difficulties that the pump centre head is designed. Its operation is as follows.
There are in this case three spindles a, b, and c, in [Fig. 667]; a corresponds to spindle a in [Fig. 651], driving the chuck d which screws on a as shown; b simply holds the work against the face d of d, and c holds the work true by means of the centre e, which enters the hole or centre in the work and is withdrawn when the work is secured by spindle b.
The chuck d is open on two sides as shown at e e in [Fig. 668], which is an end face view of the chuck, and through these openings the work is admitted to the chuck. The rod or spindle c is then pushed, by hand, endwise, its centre e entering the hole or centre in the work (so as to hold the same axially true) and forcing the work against the inside faces d, spindle b is then operated, the face p forcing the work against face d, and between these two faces d p the work is held and driven by friction. The spindle c and its centre e is then withdrawn by hand, leaving the hole in the work free to be operated upon.
The journal bearings for spindle a are constructed as described for a in [Fig. 666]; spindle b is operated endways within a as follows. a is threaded at g to receive the hub h of wheel i, at the end of b is a collar which is held to and prevented from end motion within the hub h: hence when wheel i is rotated and a is held stationary (by means of the band pulley), h traverses on g and carries b with it. Operating i in one direction, therefore moves p against the work, while operating it in the other direction releases face p from contact with the work.
It is obviously of the first importance that the spindle c be held and maintained axially true, notwithstanding any wear, and that it be a close fit within b so as to remain in any position when the lathe is running, and thus obviate requiring to remove it. To maintain this closeness of fit the following construction is designed. Between spindle a and spindle b, at the chuck end of the two, is a steel bush which can be replaced by a new one when any appreciable wear has taken place. Between b and c are two inverted conical steel bushes, which can also be replaced by new ones, to take up any wear that may have taken place.
Fig. 669.