Adventures in metalwork and machine restoration!

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Can't wait to see that come together mate! What happened with the morticer they dropped?

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
 
Been making lots of progress on lots of different workshop projects recently. Had a big shuffle round and got the hardinge moved into it's forever home up the "machining end". It's not finished yet, but I shouldn't need to do anything major to it (famous last words) that will require the forklift.... Didn't get a pic as nothings really changed apart from the background. Main reason for the big shuffle was getting a new press brake. It replaces a 4ft manual folder and will let us work much thicker material - 3mm aluminium was really pushing it with the old one - this one doesn't even notice it.
promecam
I just need to work out the archaic control system so I can move the backstop!

Ages ago when I plasma cut the big sawblade I mentioned a plan for dealing with fumes and smoke - finally got around to doing it. I got this plymovent extraction fan and arm in an auction last year. Bit of scrapyard engineering for the motor bracket and we're nearly there. Needs power and a duct punching out through the end wall and thats finished.
plymovent

Finally, the horizontal bandsaw was looking really sad and it wasn't cutting remotely near 90°. The coolant system was gross and silted up, the guide bearings were knackered and the blade had less teeth than the queen mother. Basically it looked exactly like we'd rescued it from a skip 20 years ago... which is exactly what happened.
Bandsaw before
All new guide bearings, new coolant line, rewired most of it, good clean, fresh blade and its awesome! I really should have done it a long time ago.
Bandsaw finished
 
TFrench":2gzc573g said:
Can't wait to see that come together mate! What happened with the morticer they dropped?

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

They've offered my purchase cost back and I get to keep the machine which sounds good but it was worth way more than I payed. It might be salvageable
 
At least you won't lose money on it! Still infuriating.

This weeks addition to the workshop:
linisher
Not sure why people put stuff on ebay with terrible pictures and descriptions, but I'm glad they do :lol: I think its the newest thing I've ever bought machine-wise. All I've done is cleaned it and added the castors.
Pretty much all the work I do with my pedestal grinder is wire wheeling rusty tat. This should make much less mess, with the added benefit of giving me a linishing belt. I think I'm going to add a platen to it as well, just to give a little more verstility. The motor is mounted very far forward on the extractor, which made it a bit unstable on the wheels. I butchered up some bits of box section to mount my old bench grinder to the big open space at the back, which not only makes me bench space, but adds ballast! I'll hopefully even be able to connect the dust ports into the extraction. Fancy.

linisher grinder
 
Finished another part of the hardinge restoration - the original storage in the cabinet was awful. You could fit about 20 collets in two little semi circle holders that swung out. I felt a little bad cutting them off, but the new ones are much more practical! Inspired by Chris Vesper of Vespertools and his immaculate Hardinge clone I made these phenolic ply trays and fabricated brackets for the full extension drawer runners. I have one more to fit at the bottom that'll hold the chucks and changegears.
5 C collet storage

And another cool little machine has joined the restoration queue:
Die Filing Machine
An excel no.2 Die filing machine. Most of the filing machines I've seen are benchtop sized. The guy had an even bigger one but they'd lost the table for it. Farmers.... (hammer) The rust isn't as bad as it looks - it moves freely so I'm hoping it will mainly be a clean up job...
 
TFrench":265vrgfv said:
And another cool little machine has joined the restoration queue:

An excel no.2 Die filing machine. Most of the filing machines I've seen are benchtop sized. The guy had an even bigger one but they'd lost the table for it. Farmers.... (hammer) The rust isn't as bad as it looks - it moves freely so I'm hoping it will mainly be a clean up job...

Ooo! You don't see many die filers about! Can it take hacksaw blades with the overarm? I've seen a couple that could be used as a saw as well as a filer which would make it a pretty precise cutting tool in steady hands I would imagine.
 
Making steady progress on the Hardinge, nothing really photo worthy yet - but its getting there. I did do a small job for a forum member the other week which turned out pretty well. First up was turning this pin:
adapter pin
I've no idea what metal it was - an old shaft of some kind that was the perfect size. Couldn't get a chip to break no matter what I did - fast, slow, deep and shallow cuts and every combination in between. Whatever I did it came off in horrendous long springy chips.

Next was rescuing the original stock:
original hole
The hole was very irregular so I plunged a long endmill through it to bring it back into line, then drilled and reamed to final size. Also drilled and tapped for the lock screws.

Finished article:
finished job
 
In the mid 60's i was doing my apprenticeship and City & Guilds. Part of it included setting up a lathe to make sure the bed was true and it turned to perfection, we were on that for about a total of one day in total........................you blew that to dung ( i didn't write dung i used the right word) :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
Been a while since an update... Little while ago a good mate rang me and told me there was a really nice wadkin sander on eBay at a "can't turn it down" price. It was listed as having electrical problems but there's not really much to be wrong with one. Collected it - turned out to be single phase and someone had fitted a DC brake to it. Disconnected all the nonsense and it worked. My old one I repainted was missing the platen on the belt side and all the dust extraction hoods, so I ebayed it off and now have a near perfect single phase one. I've added stop/start buttons to the front as well to make it more usable. Winner!
 

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Another new machine day! 300 mile round trip and was back at work for 11 this morning. Veeeery early start!
It's a deckel LK jig boring and grinding machine. Obscenely heavy, and most of the weight is high and at the back so unloading was a bit of a pig, especially with the rain today. The machine itself is in quite poor condition, but the accessories it came with will fit my milling machines, so if it's beyond saving I won't be too fussed. If I do try to get it running I'll need to have a doctorate in vintage electromechanical systems - there are a LOT of wires that have been disconnected. It's got 2 full panels of electrical switchgear! It came with the fine boring head that's on the machine and a planetary grinding head that is an absolute work of art. I also talked him into selling me the original tooling cabinet (pic 2) which is a great starting point for seeing how deckel did it so I can get most of my other accessories stored better. 3rd pic is the centering microscope - you put it in the spindle, centre up on whatever your mark is, then swap to your cutter and you know it's on centre. Last pic is an original deckel sensitive drilling attachment - very rare thing! Seriously cool stuff. /nerd
 

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Cheers Keith. It's more like an orphanage! :ROFLMAO:
Here's a short video on some of the functions of an LK. The planetary grinding head is such an amazing piece of engineering. Happy to have saved it all from the scrap man/export. Doing some more research, one of the power cabinets is purely the high frequency power source for the grinding head. Not sure if it could be swapped to a VFD - hopefully it'll all work as is and save me the headache.
 
Lots of little jobs happening in the shop, nothing really worth a post of it's own. I've fitted a new 16a circuit for the welders which has made a big difference to how smooth the mig machine welds. The big arc welder shouldn't trip things out now either! Wish I'd done it a long time ago. I've got a new tig welder - a jasic 200p single phase machine. Tig is something I've wanted to be able to do for a long time, and with all the brackets and fabrications we do at work it should pay for itself in no time. I've started out with some basic bits and bobs and I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for it. Don't dip the tungsten quite as often anyway...
Which brings me onto this - quick change toolholder storage on the hardinge. 3mm sheet stainless, punched 5mm holes in it and welded 5mm stainless pins in - one to hang the tools on, the short one stops them rotating.
Plan is to finish the hardinge before I start any other projects, I've got too much half finished at the moment...
 

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