Beaver milling machine

[Darren]

Thanks Kirk & Bernd.....

I guess you have a J2 head then Bernd?

So with Kirks solid info I decided to take spanner in hand and open her up.......

First job was to remove the motor.....he says oh so casually...

For some reason I assumed that the casting that the motor is housed in was made of alloy like the rest of the top section oh the head.....

Wrong, it's cast iron.....a heavy casting at that, coupled with the motor inside which also had a cast iron frame this thing is extremely heavy.
I'm not a small bloke and I really struggled on my own taking this off.......so my advice is, get a friend in to help....

Here it is on the bed, no way am I putting in on the floor, I'd surely do myself an injury



To give an idea of the size note the rule to the left



Inside the outer casing



I've got it down to this point, but I'm stuck as the back gear refuses to release itself from the shaft. The gear is alloy and the shaft is steel, so at this age it's well fused together. My one and only puller is not big enough either which doesn't help.



Another view



Well that's as far as I've got tonight, left it soaking in some WD40. I have a wedding tomorrow, thankfully not my own, so no playtime tomorrow at all......
But it should give it some time to soak. I don't have much faith in the WD40 helping much so was thinking of heating the gear?
Would that be a good idea or not?

[John Stevenson]

Thanks Kirk & Bernd.....

I
Wrong, it's cast iron.....a heavy casting at that, coupled with the motor inside which also had a cast iron frame this thing is extremely heavy.
I'm not a small bloke and I really struggled on my own taking this off.......so my advice is, get a friend in to help....

Here it is on the bed, no way am I putting in on the floor, I'd surely do myself an injury


To give an idea of the size note the rule to the left

That's not a motor.


THIS is a motor.



.

[Darren]

Please correct me but that only looks like half a motor.....

So in effect it's not a motor at all.................

[bogstandard]

 

We got a piddling contest lads!!

Who's got the biggest?

Come on, all of you get yours out, and let's show the world.

This is the one off my lathe, the one on my mill is twice this size. I couldn't get far enough back to take a pic of it.



When I turn either on, half of the country's light go dim.


Bogs

[John Stevenson]

The other bit was in the lathe 

No seriously my customers have this tendency to send bits round on the 'offchance' I can do something with them even though they know the size of the machinery.

The actual job was the brushring.



One of the blocks securing the brushes got snapped off, you can see the broken one in the middle on the bench so a new one had to be fabricated to hold the brush wand.

John S.

[bogstandard]

You know I am only joking John, and you have shown me some of the problems you have with customers and their big ideas.

BTW, did you get the pictures and drawing I sent to you by email?, and if so, were they any good to you?

John

[Darren]

One of the blocks securing the brushes got snapped off, you can see the broken one in the middle on the bench so a new one had to be fabricated to hold the brush wand.

John S.

That must have saved them a fortune, nice fix John...

[Darren]

Nice to see the flood of suggestions coming in.....

[bogstandard]

Very difficult to see Darren, you have the main spindle right in the area we should be looking at.

From the drawings, I can't make out which part is the spindle it sits on. I suspect it is part number 60.

I am sure with a little flat bar and some threaded rod, you could make a puller that sat underneath the pulley, you don't want to be trying to get it off using those thin screw on flanges as pulling points.


John

[Darren]

Thanks John, that looks like it might well work....should be enough room..

I don't seem to have part 51 and 59 the top bearing....??? I don't know if they are missing or if they were never there?

There seems to be only the bottom bearing which is some distance away from the pulley. If it was originally made like this then it's a very poor design. I shall be looking to see if I can make a plate and add a second bearing. At the moment I can't see why not, but I need to get the pulley off before I can really see what is there.


I'm having a rest at the mo, wedding this morning and a do tonight, though not being a drinker I'm going in a bit later. So can't really go and have another look. Maybe tomorrow.

[Darren]

Just had another look at this bearing issue and I'm convinced the top bearing and holder is missing. There are empty threaded holes to secure the plate in place. Not only that someone has modified the remaining parts to allow it to work without them..

This comes as a relief, cos I couldn't imagine the manufactures deliberately designed it this way. Fortunately the parts required should be a simple job to make.

I'll take some pictures later.....

[Darren]

I'd just like to make a statement....just in case I'm giving out the wrong signals.

I want to state that I am in no way disappointed with any issues that I have found or may find on this machine. I say this because at least one member here knows the seller personally and I wouldn't want to give out the wrong message. 

I'm chuffed to bits with this mill as all the major parts are in very good condition. It seems that at some time it has been dismantled, prob for moving and some parts may have been misplaced. But they are minor and easily fixed, even by me.....

As it is, it cuts very nicely with no fuss. All I am doing is fine tuning it...nothing more.....

[Darren]

Back to removing the pulley wheel.....

It occurred to me that once I removed the pulley I might have a bit of a job to remove the bearing as it was fitted to a blind hole.
So I decided to remove the whole lot in one go complete. This was done quite simply using two jacking screws.



And it worked.....



See where the spacer is in the middle, that's where the bearing should be...

Once the pulley was removed (easy now it was off the machine) and the spacer pulled off you can see the stepped shoulder for the bearing.



I couldn't see the bearing number on the exposed side so it had to come off. I've had this puller for over 20yrs and this is the first time it's actually been of any use...



Out of interest I tried the bearing on the other end to see if it fitted. Yep, perfect.....that really puts the tin lid on the issue. It is supposed to have a bearing here, otherwise why the machined step which it fits perfectly.....



And the top bearing holding plate is fixed by three bolts here...




For anyone who's got the same machine the bearing number is 6205, turns out to be metric and a very common bearing. Plenty on Ebay for £1.50 inc postage. Cheap for a change !!


Now all I need is to order a couple of bearings, the old one seems fine but I'll replace it anyway to be on the safe side.
Then machine up a plate and such.

I would like to fit a new toothed belt at the same time. But I have no idea what or where to start looking for a replacement.
John Stevenson, can I ask where you would start looking for a replacement ?
Thanks 

[John Stevenson]

Darren,
In my case i just ring the local bearing distributer up and order one.

Does it have a number on it ?

If not then it goes by pitch, starts start of one tooth to the start of the other , probably 3/8" in your case, width and number of teeth.

Oh BTW don't worry I won't grass you up to John .............honest.............

John S.

[Darren]

Thanks John,

I can barely see some numbers and tapped them into Google which came up with this

http://www.kvalinc.com/catalog/belt-gearbelt-1-wide-56-teeth-210l100.htm

Perfect, that is the one.....wasn't that easy.....I'll ring the bearing supplier tomorrow.

BTW, thanks, Johns a nice chap and me whittling on here could be taken the wrong way.....

[John Stevenson]

Yup,
 210 L 100

210 means 21.0" long
L means light pitch so 3/8"
100 means it's 1.00" wide

HPC are listing them at £7.54 to give you an idea but then it doubles up by the time they have added postage and VAT

John S.

[Darren]

Thanks John, good to have a measuring stick.....

Good site to know about too, some of the gears seem too cheap to be worth making your own?

[Darren]

For the record "The Bearing Man" sells this belt for £5.50......



Some more progress today...started on the upper bearing housing from some scrap I picked up a while ago....

Machined to the basic dimensions, center to fit the bearing, marked off the PCD for the 3 mounting hole positions using the lathe toolbit and chuck.





Drilled the 3 mounting holes and fitted the bearing....so far so good....





First test fit and it just slotted on, didn't even have to enlarge the mounting holes for a jiggle fit.......
The front needs chopping off for clearance. (see next pic) This was done on the band saw. I was going to tidy the cut by milling but it came out so neat there was no need....



Slapped the other bits on just to make sure nothing was where it shouldn't be.....



And finally the upper casting to check clearances of the bearing housing.....plenty of room....



Well that was easy enough. Just waiting for the new bearings to come in the post and then I can trim the height of the bearing housing perfectly.

[rleete]

Excellent.  You'll be making chips in no time.

I really like it when someone takes the time to repair something right.

[Stilldrillin]

VERY nicely done Darren! 

As usual......

David D

[CrewCab]

Nice going Darren  hope your up and running for the weekend

CC

[Darren]

Thanks chaps, shouldn't be long now and we'll see what difference it makes....

[Darren]

New bits arrived and I've got it all back together now...

Wasn't really much to show picture wise as you've all seen the parts and know what I was up to.....if you're still awake that is....

The bull wheel is now rock solid and no longer a cause for concern or vibration.

I fitted the bearings with this stuff...talk about overkill, but why not.....



One point to note that may not be obvious and may also apply to the Bridgeport. When re-fitting the top head casting, the one with the pulleys in it, you need to hold the spindle pulley up the shaft as far as you can. I used some square steel but whatever you have will do. Otherwise you can't get the High/Low speed changing fork past the spindle pulley. It's not that obvious so I though it was worth mentioning.
It will apply equally if you are changing a belt.


Anyway, the results.....erm, well, not a lot of difference to the machining. Vibration is down a touch but the machined surface looks the same.
Here's an example, not that obvious in the picture but you can see machining marks from both the leading and trailing edge of the cutter. (I know that's not a problem btw..)




I have one more source of vibration in the head, but that's for another day and another post. Should be a very simple fix this time though.....

[CrewCab]

Good to hear you've fitted the new bearings and all is well ............... it should be quite a nice machine to use, what's the other problem then 

CC

[Darren]

Hi Dave,

The very top of the spindle, not shown in this picture, slides up and down part No' 20 which is the pulley shaft and part of the top bearing assembly (two bearings 4 inches apart)

The clearance between these two parts is on the large side and the top of the spindle flaps about a little. I'm sure the spindle is held firmly further down but this very top area definitely vibrates. You can even hear it above all the other noise going on.

I propose to make a new drawbar whose top section will be a close sliding fit, so no room to rattle. Really just the top of the drawbar that will thread onto some 12mm threaded bar as my lathe can't machine the whole length required.

Quite a simple fix if you can get a grasp of what I'm trying to explain?




Edit, I don't have part 2 or 3, I wonder if that's all required. I need to do some thinking......