Elektra Beckum 260HC-M

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Farm Labourer

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New boy here, first post - so please be gentle!

It may be a little long & boring but someday somebody may find it useful.

I joined this forum a couple of weeks ago to learn as much as I could about the EB260HC. I bought mine second hand 20 years ago and to be honest after building a kitchen and various other things, it hasn't been used too much. I have lent it to family & friends over the years and frankly it owes me nothing.

As I have a new project, an ash frame for an old car that I plan to rebody and decided that I need a new bench. I found plans on line (Third Coast Craftsman), went to the sawmill and bought ash for the car and hardwood lumber for the bench.

Having ripped the boards as per plans and having changed blades on the P/T, planed a face and an edge on each board then put them through the thicknesser. About halfway through the 19 lengths for the bench-top, I realised that the faces were anything but parallel. So I did an internet search and found some interesting advice on this forum - some post shad pics that were only available to subscribers - so I subscribed.

I took the P/T apart to determine what the issue with the thicknesser was and in doing so discovered that the outfeed roller and both drive belts required replacing. Spares were sources through Powertoolspares in Lincolnshire and arrived earlier this week.

With the outfeed roller out and the chip guard removed, I used a length of extruded aluminium angle about 2" tall to act as a rough guide. I locked the cutter block in the three o'clock/nine o'clock position with a 19mm spanner mole-gripped to a box section I clamped to the body of the P/T, then raised the table until the angle was an interference fit against the cutter block on one side. I then slid the angle out and offered it up to the other side. It fitted with about 4 mm clearance.

Obviously sometime in the past, something has gone awry. Mindful of all of the comments on here about how difficult levelling the table could be, I decided to do it!

I seperated the P/T from the stand and rolled the P/T onto its side. Having released the tensioner, I removed the chain. With the angle extrusion, I rotated both screws on the low side until I had an interference fit across the entire width. I then lifted the P/T back onto the stand but stood it on blocks so I could get to the sprockets underneath.

Using a dial test indicator (DTI) - I made minor adjustments to the sprockets on one side only until I could slide the DTI across the table, using one of the cross bars to ensure perpendicularity and was delighted when after about 2 mins I had less than a one thou (0.001") discrepancy. I have a digital level and that showed that both front and back of the table were at the same height.

Obviously putting the chain back on might have affected the final outcome but to my surprise and delight, when I'd rolled it onto its side, replaced chain, re-tensioned and lubed the chain, a final check showed it to be about half a thou out. I think I can live with

So, not such a scary job at all and the spares all fitted without incident. I'm rather pleased!!
 
Nice job! Sounded like it could be a right pig of a job to sort out. It's kind of curious how it managed to get that far out in the first place?

Please post about your bench build and car re-bodying (Morris?), I'm sure most on here would love to see them :D
 
We need clarification on "frame" :shock:
I was thinking "chassis" hence the Morgan. :D 8)
Was the traveller all wood? I thought it had a metal chassis and just the back half was wood.
 
sunnybob":acm34xvf said:
We need clarification on "frame" :shock:
I was thinking "chassis" hence the Morgan. :D 8)
Was the traveller all wood? I thought it had a metal chassis and just the back half was wood.

I'm not sure where you'd stand on making your own wooden chassis, surely there are loads of regulations on it even if the car is MOT exempt.
 
Yup. Only the rear frame Bob, rest was monocoque pressed steel.
Brake master cylinder was a complete twunt to get to and replace seals on. AND McPherson struts had a nasty habit of folding inwards...at speed...or what passed for speed in the moggy,unless you dropped the 1275cc spitfire engine into it...
Sam
 
I'm old enough to have seen many three wheeled minors stranded on roundabouts
:roll: :roll:
 
sunnybob":59afukzy said:
We're not talking about MAKING, we're talking about rebuilding existing

I imagine even if you’re rebuilding the existing chassis you have to take many things into account, I suspect they don’t want cars on the road that could snap into two pieces because there were pieces of short grained ash in there 8)

I might be wrong and you can do whatever you like with it but surely there’s massive safety concerns for yourself and everyone on the road if someone’s made their own chassis out of wood, there’s just too many variables that could make it go seriously wrong and life threatening.
 
Many early cars were made from wood. I believe the Morgan was the last to stop.

Any repair of course has to be roadworthy, and an MoT inspection should show up any wet rot or woodworm ( :shock: :lol: )

But in this case it turns out its only the outside back end of a Morris traveller :roll:
 
sunnybob":1momwpmz said:
Any repair of course has to be roadworthy, and an MoT inspection should show up any wet rot or woodworm ( :shock: :lol: )

But in this case it turns out its only the outside back end of a Morris traveller :roll:

If it was an old Morgan it’s probably MOT exempt, even if it went in for MOT I doubt the mechanic would have much of a clue about its structural integrity unless it was totally rotten :lol:. I wonder if there are any garages that specialise in MOT, service and repair of wood frame vehicles like the Morgan, except for Morgan themselves of course.

I think Sammy was just suggesting it was a Traveller, not confirming that it was :) That’s up to Farm Labourer to tell us :D
 
In the capital Nicosia, theres a motorcycle museum. First exhibit as you walk in is a 1940/50's Morgan.
It has a Ford flat head 4 cylinder engine (I think its an E95?)
Hard to imagine that engine in a sports car :roll: :shock:
 
My first car was a 1937 Morgan 4/4 even a bit older than I was. Unfortunately the original Coventry Climax engine had been swapped out for a Ford 10 which tarnished the glamour a little!
 
Good grief, had I realised the amount of speculation that my ash -frame was going to create, I'd have responded earlier.

The car is a post-war British classic but the steel bodies that were pressed back then were not very well protected against corrosion, so the bodies were already suffering from rust as early the 1960's. Many of these cars then had the body removed, the chassis shortened, the engine moved backwards and the four door body replaced with a two door/two seat sportser body redolent of the marque's sporting prowess of the twenties and thirties.

This practice is still happening and I've shortened the steel chassis, moved the engine back, shortened the prop-shaft and am now planning the ash frame that will take the hand-formed aluminium body.

The car is MOT exempt and is a Bentley Mk VI metamorphosising into a Bentley Special. I chose this car because Bentley are one of the few car marques that support this sort of project.

The bench is coming along, too. Just need to finish the vice installation and cut tenons into the bench to take the legs, find someone to help me flip the top over, drop it on the legs and it's pretty much done.
 
Now thats what I call a project! =D> =D>
I claim closer with the morgan than Sammy with a moggy :roll: 8) 8)

Can we have pictures please? pretty please?
 
Cool! Sam is not in the least put out at being wrong!

Sam, ex moggy owner, but very glad to leave it in the past.

EDIT: Also 260C owner and all too glad to have THAT.
 
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