New tools in the shop!

[dkamp]

Well,the radial-drill/mill/rotary grinding center is halfway operational (as a mill/drill, anyway), with a 1hp 3450rpm motor driving the Bridgeport M-head through a reduction shaft, and it does a nice job of cutting, considering the Morse #2 spindle. I even knocked the old chipped paint off the head, and repainted it spiffy-like... did the same for the (homemade) reduction shaft housing. Now I need to take a needle-scaler and strip the rest of the machine column, and give it same paint-job.

Just arrived on Friday- A Brown & Sharpe #2 Surface Grinder. Darned near free-to-good-home, grinding head all works, looks like all the mechanicals that operate the traversal features are there, but the traversal motor is missing. Soon as I gather more intel on this machine... if all goes well, it should be operational by oh... late April or so...

Made some indexable-carbide end-mills, face-mills, boring bars, and fly-cutters. Next up- slitting-saw arbors, and a few special bearing and seal drivers for marine drives... boating season cometh!

 

[dfrisk]

DAVE - Had the owner of a machine shop give Me a B&S #2 grinder couple years ago. Mag. chuck, etc.... The works. I decided it was too big, took up too much room, took 3-phase power I didn't have, too much weight..... and it was almost 100 miles from home. Not even sure if the loader on the Super H would have picked it off a trailer. On the Other hand..... someone offers Me a nice little Bridgeport in decent shape they won't have to ask twice.

 

[dkamp]

Hee hee... well, that mag-chuck was probably worth a couple-hundred bucks by itself! Should'a taken it, and worried about the details later!

Here's a big carbide end-mill I made yesterday...

And the grinder, half disassembled, getting diagnosed, determined, and destiny'd...

 

[dfrisk]

DAVE - The "Details" would have been getting it off Wyatt's trailer and slid into the shop. I'm sure I could have moved it once I had it off the trailer.... but bouncing it down 100 miles of rough ole I-94 might have been the end of Wyatt's trailer.... His trailer is aluminum..... and even semi trailers made from alum. don't have a real good track record. #2 grinder This Guy was going to give Me had the taller colume on it also..... more room under the stone... BIG amount of floor space required for a little bit of grinding surface... When I was at the Machine Tool Co. in Fond Du Lac they had surface grinders I could have parked My pickup on the beds....

 

[dkamp]

Hmmm... well, could be a little hard on the trailer. My estimate is that my B&S#2 weighs about 1100lbs, and the floor-space requirement is 30"x30", with bed hanging an extra 10 off each side when operational. My machine-moving trailer is a 5000lb tandem-axle car-hauler with electric brakes, so it doesn't balk at any loads unless the center-of-gravity is really high... I was able to lay this grinder on it's back with no problem, so it towed like a champ.

I lifted mine off the car-hauler by hooking the engine-crane to lift straps, with trailer straddling the crane legs, lifting just-far-enough to get light between machine and trailer-deck... then I lifted and pushed the trailer SIDEWAYS with Loader-Mutt... just enough to get the machine down to ground-level, then I set it on a 1-ton dolly and rolled it (with crane still attached and bearing a little of the top-load) the last few feet up the apron to the garage door. Tricky part was leaning the machine enough to get the top leadscrew to clear the (low) overhead door.

The right-left drive mechanism on the bed works, but there's some mechanical components missing from the fore-aft feed, so I'll probably pull the machine down, remove all the old remaining mechanical stuff, and install a servomotor on the right-left feed sprocket, and a linear-actuator on the front-rear, and make up a little PIC circuit to run the cut sequence. While it's torn down, I'll strip all the old paint layers, give it a nice bath, repaint, and reassemble. With most of the mechanicals removed, about 2/3 of all the oiling caps become unused (which I'll plug), and the rest, I'll probably pipe to a Bijur-type oiling system. I've been told that with the right wheel, I should be able grind surfaces with cuts to tolerances tighter than my measuring equipment can detect. Dunno why I'll need that precision, but it'll be nice to know that I can grind something flat.

(Message edited by Dkamp on March 25, 2005)

 

[kmcconaughey]

When I sold my Capri to Wyatt, he hauled it home on his aluminum trailer and the Capri weighs a lot more than 1100lbs.

 

[digger]

Trailer loads!
I can beat that, LOL
6 Cubs, 4 front blades,2 tillers, 1 QA42A thrower,7 decks,12 engines, 8 sets of tires and wheels,3 sets of JD wheels weights, 4 setf os Cub Cadet weights, 4 sets of fenders, 10-5 gallon buckets of Misc. parts. and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeee!

 

[digger]

Forgot the dang pic!

 

[dfrisk]

Kraig - But it's Wyatt's trailer....I sure didn't want to tear it up. Weights I was given for the grinder were more like 1600-1800#, and all that weight in a two foot square area.... I was thinking I'd have to put planks on the floor to distribute the weight. And that 1600-1800# is right at the max. lift for My loader. CHARLIE - I think You need a BIGGER TRAILER..... 53 ft long, 8-1/2 ft wide.... Nice walk-in sleeper... You can run around and pickup & delivery Cubs all over. Dad's got one that needs to go to Ohio.... after it's paid for.

 

[rkaroses]

Does anyone have a enclosed sand blaster for small parts? If so, how big of a compressor do you need to keep up. Also, how big of a compressor do you need to keep up to a regular sandblaster? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[dfrisk]

Most blasters I've heard need a FULL 5 HP two-stage compressor.... 15 CFM @ 90 PSI. I got a 7-1/2HP 24 CFM compressor.... Have to watch Duty Cycle.... My compressor is only rated 50% D-C, 5 minutes running out of every ten.
Depending on Your blast media You may be able to regulate the PSI down. Things like ceramic coated plastic pellets, walnut shells, glass beads, all take less PSI. But if You use Playground sand 90 PSI and three trips thru the blaster is about the most reuses I've heard of.... Dust gets to be a BIG problem.

 

[dkamp]

Well, I'm makin' slow progress, but still progress, on the grinder. Got a pair of 46-frame MAE servos, lookin' for some CompuMotor C6 servomotor drivers, but just might save the servos and use a stepper for front-back and a DC brush-type motor for side-to-side... and as an immediate-gratification-alternative to getting digital controls, I might just set it up with an electrical version of the mechanical system with which it was originally fitted... at least, for now...

 

[jgeorg]

Does anyone use one of those auto darkening welding helmets? Any comments, good or bad?

 

[digger]

John G.
I've got a Hornell Speedglas 9002X and really like it.

 

[jgeorg]

Thanks for the info Charlie. I only know 2 people that use em, one loves it, the other says it drives his eyes crazy and can't use one. Nice helmet you got BTW.

 

[sblunier]

John G.

I have a a Miller XLi, I wouldn't be without it, very nice!!!!!

They are especially usefull for tack work with the a MIG.

 

[jgeorg]

Thanks for the comments Steve. Looks like thats where my Christmas gift cards are going.

 

[hsimon]

John- Save your money the Speedglass helmets ain't worth a damn IMHO. Go to a welding supply store and get yourself a good Jackson or Sellstorm helmet with the 4.5"x5" window, a #10 gold lens and call it good. Should only run ya around $30. I've tried speedlenses at work and they don't work worth a **** for me for all the hype that everyone gives them. Call me old fashioned if ya want but I'll take a flip helmet any day over a speedlens.

 

[jgeorg]

Well, this is interesting. I see Hugh is welder according to his profile. The other guy that couldn't use one was a full time ironworker-welder.
Hugh, is your preference based on how it operates or did you also have problems with your eyes using it?

 

[digger]

John G,
Hugh is a SLAG WELDER! And Brain Dead to boot!
Smart folks weld standing on the ground in a heated/AC shop.
Unlike Hugh! that welds hangin from a rope or his belt loop, up 200 feet in the wind,rain and cold, thinkin he had more brains than to do that kinda crap for a livin! snicker!!!!!!!!