The Home Machinist!

Yes, the feed lever needs to be engaged but the rotating lever that engages the feed to the spindle drive needs to be disengaged in order to use the hand wheel. Another thing to check is 3 speed gearbox handle on the left side of the spindle housing for the quill feed. Make sure the handle is set in one of the detents. If not, niether the manual feed nor the quill feed will operate.

BTW, My feed reversing knob is missing and I inserted a screw in it's place. Now I'm on the lookout for the original knob. I know I have it somewhere...

_________________
Bruce Mowbray
Springville & Southern RR
TMB Manufacturing & Locomotive Works

Having been unable to pull off the clutch on the quil shaft, I tapped it with a brass rod which casued it to engage and now the wheel will crank the spindle up and down. Of course you can now not use the lever.

I will keep spaying WD 40 on it trying to break it free from the shaft. Looks LIke I may need to tear the head down more than I wanted to do.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

It truned out to be the clutch was in fact frozen to the shaft. I managed to make a puller and remove it. I had to take it into pieces to get it out. You can tell it has been disassemble prior to this and I am not sure it is in the right order. I put it back on after cleaning up the shaft and it appears to be a ninty percent solution. It still drops out at times and does not disengage consistantly. I will be tinkering for a few more days before I give up and buy a new clutch.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

In the effort to make this more than a repaint rebuild I have started looking into what it will take to tighten up the table, saddle and knee.

The table will be reground in Tenn. The saddle may go too. The knee is a scraping issue.

I found information on Richard King having done different seminars around the states and started looking for one to attend. I found there was to be one in the Huntsville Alabama Area in December of 2011 but it appears to have died out due to no area to teach it in.

I have just been talking with Richard King on the subject attending a class he is planning on holding in Oklahoma when the subject of his teaching one here in my shop if I would host it came up.

The lovely woman I married has consented to let us hold one in the shop here if we find enough interest

I live north west of Huntsville (just the other side of Athens for the locals).

My shop is in my Basement and is 30 by 30 with a 20 by 30 man cave next to it where we could view training material and it has a restroom. It is aircondidtioned/heated with a garage door we could bring projects in through. He says my shop is fine for a class. His classes are

Having had odds and end tools for years I have started adding machinery for my retirement project of building a model steam locomotive.

This effort would require me to clean out the center area and put together a couple of heavy tables for us to work on. I would also need to find a surface plate for us to use. I am sure Mr. King can give advice on what I need to drag up. I can also provide a two ton lift projects.

We have local hotels about 15 miles from the house. It is looking like Richard will teach a group of 8 to 10 people only

Needless to say this offer is based on the fact we would have to have enough interest to bring Mr. King here for the class. The date to do it is also a problem as I travel with my work and will have to work it into my schedule.

Please send a PM if you are interested in this type of training. I am also in the Athens Alabama Phone book if you are local.

I will work out the details of what this would cost us and post it when I can.

You can see comments and photos of a class held by Mr. King in Texas recently at

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/ge ... vy-230333/

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

The scraping class is off until some details are worked out over in Huntsville. More later.

In the mean time tonight I put the sadle back in place and rigged the lead screw. Bottom line until I get the knee scraped and the saddle/table reground I will be making do with the wear I have. I placed a thin copper shim in the gib for the saddle to knee area and this gives ma about a ten inch in and out place that I can adjust out the slop with the gib. Any farther out or in it gets too tight.

Hope to put the cleaned up table on this week.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

Table is on, Oneshot oiler cleaned and back on, Testing the oiler over the next few days to ensure all the lines are clear and getting oil to the right places, Wiring run, Tested motor and head (needs lube and have to figure out if the motor is turning the right direction)

Odds and ends left and a clean up of that end of the shop.

I have made the decision to put it all together and run it prior to redoing the ways. First I want to see how bad it really is before I sink a lot more time and effort into it.

I have a few frame parts drawn up enough to try it out and also the side rod waterjet cut rough blanks.

Photos later.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

Found a few items that needed quick repair. One was that the spindle became very hot very quick when running. Turned out the nose piece set screw was really cranked down. Got out the book and readjusted everything and it cooled right down.

Mounted the vice that came with it to cut on a piece of scrap to see if it heated up again. no problems with heat.

Took our the oil cup wicks and pumped a good bit of oil into the spindle area till it ran out the end. It flushed a lot of trash out.



Enough of tinkering. I am goint to make a few parts for the Pacific Locomotive I bought this thing for to see how I can deal with its wear.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

Thx for the update. I'm impressed at how much you have done to this mill and now it is a different machine. In a good way Dang, that last thing you corrected may have been missed by some. I think you were wise to get it together first and use it.

Tramed with a dial indicator today and ran a fly cutter across some brass and steal blocks to see how it cut.

_________________
Charlie Pipes
USMC Retired

Project:

2.5 Baldwin 2-4-4 Conversion
1.6 Southern Railway PS-4

I found this thread and have just read through it with great interest. I too recently bought the same model mill. I got mine for $800.



I also found the renovation manual, bought it, and have mill stripped down except for the head. figured I needed to clean it and it would be easier to get it in the basement in pieces.



The base is painted and in the photo is in the garage. It is now in the basement. The elevating screw housing has also been removed since this picture. Knee, saddle, and elevating screw housing have one coat of paint. Hopefully a second coat tonight.

My biggest problem to date has been getting the dial and other components off of the knee elevating shaft. I am now waiting on a pin spanner to get the dial holder off. I destroyed the clutch piece, bummer. It is missing the elevating handle and a dial, 2 dial lock nuts and a dial holder. I did score a dial this past weekend from a friend that had replaced a couple of his dials with what he termed frosted.

My friend who also has a bridgeport told me not to use leveling feet and that the holes were meant for bolting the machine down. The manual also says to grout the base in which leads me to believe that the entire outside edge of the base should be supported. I was thinking about building a square base out of 4" box tubing (left over from another project) and shimming that to level the machine. Thoughts?

Also, what should be used to clean the surface rust off the ways?

Thanks,

Dale

Welcome Dale you hijacker! No it's all good and you got a deal there. What I mentioned to Pipescs about the worm and wheel of the head tilt is something to be checked now. I think abrasive by steel is wrong and elements like carbon, silica have no place in ways. So I scrape most crud off with equiv to razor blades after soaked with a solvent. Then its brass pad which is aggressive enough to remove the rust yet not leave off rusty abrasive fibers. Rinse and repeat Now that was me in the shower once. I sorta miss it.

Is there any info for using an "active gib" I am thinking this is something I could us on my American machine tools lathe. Don't mean to thread jack but would really like to know. You can PM me if you don't want to jack the thread any more.