Gingery mill project.

[steamin10]

Gadget: I have put more AL on the cieling than I want to admit. Nuff said about simple gloves, facesheild, and hat. The damage over being brave, or fast isnt worth it.

When it comes to found and recycle scrap, make your recycle yard your friend. I dont use window frames or storm doors, or pop cans. I remove all the steel screws and corner stuff of steel and turn it into the salvage yard. In return I get to go pick through the gaylords on hand, an find some nifty stuff at times. ( A gaylord is the standard shipping container, that is a heavy cardboard box, nailed to a pallet, about 48" cube). I always pick the bronze, copper, and Aluminum. Cored bearing shorts, large copper pipe and heavy aluminum plate and bar stock usually appear. I found two blocks of 2 x 6 x 6 , that I bought for $1 per lb, about 2x scap at the time. They are making journal boxes.

I rycycle all my lathe scrap, but keeping steel cuttings and brass fines separate is hard to accomplish. Pistons will yeild a tougher, hard Aluminum, storm doors being drawn will be softer and gummy to machine. It will have a tendancy to build up on the tool and push stock off the surface, leaving it rough. Castings are best made from cast material, engine heads, trans cases, Old bumper units and reinforcers. Teh scapper give me a buffet to choose from, so its the best for me if they co-operate.

[Gadget]

I needed a pattern that was 3/8ths thick for the spindle slide. Since I don't have a planer and have no idea where I can get wood in 3/8th in dimension I used my CNC plasma/router table to cut the pattern to the proper thickness. Here is a link to a 3 minute video of the process.

http://www.youtube.com/v/wTwEFZCTVbE&hl=en_US&fs=1&

[dly31]

Leaving the holding tabs seems like an idea to file away for future use! You can sometimes get odd thicknesses in plywood, paneling, and hardboard and you can laminate several layers. Not as much fun though. Good job.

[Gadget]

I recast the spindle slide today. Made two of them, one for me and one for a friend. They both turned out quite well this time. I will cast the bearing caps next and then the hand scraping and fitting begins again.
Dan

[Gadget]

The Gingery book had a misprint in the dimensions of the spindle slide. I had to modify the patterns and recast them.
Rather than hand scrape the bearing cap faces and box slides I tried milling them with my homebuilt CNC router. It turned out very well saving me tons of work.

[Gadget]

I made good progress today. I got the spindle slide mounted and fitted today. Nice and tight with no play in any direction with smooth travel up and down.
Time to make some more castings now.
Dan

[Harold_V]

Looking good, but it sure would be nice to get an idea what the completed machine looks like. Any chance you can post a picture (assuming you have one)?

Harold

[Gadget]

Looking good, but it sure would be nice to get an idea what the completed machine looks like. Any chance you can post a picture (assuming you have one)?

Harold

Here are a couple of shots of a completed mill Harold. (not mine)

[Harold_V]

Thanks for the pics. They helped a great deal.

Keep posting your progress.

Harold

[Gadget]

I finished the feed for the spindle slide today. Kind of a major milestone since I will now start working on the table. Everything fits nice and tight and the feed screw moves the spindle slide without any binding.

[kf4tap]

your mill project is looking good!!! years ago, maybe 20? i built the Gingery Blast furnace, and then the electric furnace. I built the lathe. I was casting stuff like pistons for a 1923 Dodge Brothers business coupe and some other old odd stuff. Then I got married and everything sat. My current project is to rebuild the blast furnace and build a Hit Miss engine from salvage mower parts and castings made from scrap I pick up. I will also start another lathe.

[Harold_V]

Welcome to the forum, kf4tap! It's especially nice to see you have an interest in foundry work. There's not many of us here.

Be certain to share some of your projects with us.

Harold