wadkin pk restoration

[Trevanion]

I reckon those FAG bearings should be fine once cleaned and regreased, it's not like they're in a heavy load situation or under power so they should run smoothly enough for the table.

I think you're about to have a parquet avalanche by the way! :lol:

 

[wallace]

I think you're about to have a parquet avalanche by the way! :lol:

That's the flooring from the wadkin factory, my workshop is half concrete and half raised wooden floor which is sinking because of all the machines in their. The floor has a good 6" slope over 4m :shock:

 

[Trevanion]

That's the flooring from the wadkin factory

Just like you to have the FLOORING from Wadkin! :lol: Is it from Green Lane works?

I picked up a Wadkin catalogue the other day for the princely sum of £15 off Amazon, Catalogue no.790/1. Some lovely photos there from the old factory and of all the machines. Something I noticed though is that the PK could come with a separate extension table and rollers, I've never seen one of those in the wild, have you? There's some other great stuff in there too like a 52" wide thicknesser, must be for planing sequoias! :lol:

The floor has a good 6" slope over 4m :shock:

That can't be good, perhaps the solution is to put more machines in the other side so it evens out? :wink:

 

[wallace]

yeah its from green lane, I've got a cool photo of them being laid in 1922 somewhere. They were 5" thick but I cut them in half to make them go further. I've got about 5K so should have enough to do my whole workshop. They were laid in bitumen on the end grain so they have wicked up loads.
I've got the big oak front doors off the main façade also

£15 for that is so cheap they usually got for £5O. I picked up a really cool one a while back from around 191O a couple of years after 2 of the 3 founders left to do there own thing, wadkin & king made a line of pattern millers. Weirdly wadkin & co bought the company in 1921 after wadkins death.
Sorry I get all nerdy when I get going

My flooring problem is made worse because one end is attached to block work of the main building and the other is raised on blocks sat on paving slabs. It was never intended to have loads of machines in their. It doesn't help that a couple of times a year I get rats appearing, they are attracted by the food I give my koi. They do look cute belly flopping into the water to get the pellets. I found a rat hole going under my shed so it might be like swiss cheese under their.

PK's came in lots of variants they even had a PKF, the F standing for fixed table no slider. The last one I had was a real oddball and I think a one off because I've never seen it in any literature. It had an extended slider so could cross cut 48" and you could get 48" between the fence. You could even get one with an extended main table and an extension side ways for the slider. It was about 4m wide.

 

[wallace]

A bit more done, the column for the crown guard was a bit crusty and took a good 4 hrs to get to bits

I think this is the first time a stud extractor has actually worked

Everything got a coat of zinc primer followed by a coat of filler primer

Then topcoat

This is for the slider carriage, its supposed to be brass coloured

But it looks a bit West Coast Customs

I picked up a nice catalogue recently which had this nice lump in it, 36" blade

 

[wallace]

The crown guard has suffered a bit

Used silicon bronze wire in the mig

This is part of the fence and just for the wadkin geeks, they were still using the fence of the PJ which was a 2O's machine on this 1941 machine.

On the base it has a strip machined in it that slots into the dovetail slot in the table. On later versions these strips are removeable to change when worn.
The strips on mine are quite worn and theirs a bit missing so I'm going to get them machined off and a slot put in to receive a strip that matches the table slot.

 

[screwpainting]

Bliss! =D>

 

[pollys13]

Amazing seeing these machines restored, they really are something.

 

[wallace]

This is the wire I use in the mig. It costs 4 times the normal stuff, I think its for welding dissimilar metals.

The sliding table is pretty crusty

But clean underneath

It has hardened strips set into the casting where it rolls on the bearings

To clean the rust off I removed the thick with scotchbrite and degreaser

Then laid kitchen roll and soaked it with that magic deruster.

Time to make stuff shiny

Sanded to 1OOO grit then polished

 

[Yojevol]

We will need the full photo montage of Wadkin puns, please.

Wadkin on sunshine.
Wadkin dead (I think you may done that already)
These boots were made for Wadkins
...and many more.

Then, of course, there is that lovely route up Snowdon:-

 

[wallace]

The evaporust didn't work very well. The solution has maybe been used too much or it was too rusty.
I reverted back to razor method

 

[wallace]

More shiny stuff.

I remembered I'd got this nice little Brittool socket set from a car boot a few years ago, I always meant to clean it up a bit. So whilst I was chucking paint around.

I took the base of the fence to that doubleboost guy. he lives quite close to me and he does some cracking work.

https://youtu.be/H3K_p5f5axw

 

[wallace]

More progress

I got the fence back from Mr Boost

Heres the next part of the machine work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5flkfTXmMg

Lots of high build primer to level out the crown guard

I've had some brass knurled nuts made, I think there pretty good for £6 each. I also found some new button oilers and flip top oilers and got some nice brass bar

I picked up this britool socket set at a car boot for £5, 6 years ago, whilst I was painting I thought I would give it a spruce up wadkin styly

 

[wallace]

Lettering turned out ok

Did a bit fettling on the fence

If you've ever used normal masking tape on a project and then frog tape you will never go back normal. It doesn't matter how long you leave it, it comes off really easily with no residue or having to scrape.

I think the lens on my phone must of been smeared with schmoo, the picture looks a bit weird

This is the locating pin for the motor, its a bit wonky so I will need to replace it

Heres that Britool set cleaned up, I might get a wadkin logo for the lid

 

[wallace]

I got some new pins and made them pointy to help in guiding them into the holes in the motor. I still couldn't get the motor on its base, the side of the motor foot is machined and goes against a machined lip. The tolerances are really tight so I ended up bending another pin. Luckily I bought extra rod. In the end I got one pin in and put the other pin in from underneath.

I got the frame that the sliding table runs on back together. not sure about the colour

I got that nice Mr Boost bloke to plasma cut some washers which just needed cleaning up and a chamfer putting

I got the crown guard finished

I've been keeping this riving knife bracket which was made by Matt in Canada some time ago

Also this brass nut he very kindly sent me

I thought it would be easier setting up the riving knife brass of coarse whilst the table was off

I got asked if I had any cool images that could be lazered onto a book cover. This image dates from 191O

 

[Trevanion]

BRASS riving knife! Now I have truly seen it all! :lol:

 

[wallace]

Wait till you see the bronze double mitre :shock:

 

[Trevanion]

Wait till you see the bronze double mitre :shock:

:shock:

What's next? Diamond encrusted Wadkin plaque?

 

[stuartpaul]

I might be sad but that crown guard is a thing of beauty!

 

[MikeG.]

Mesmerising stuff, Wallace.