Author Topic: Any old iron (as long as it's British!) (Read 40888 times)

Andrew Wildman · « **on:** August 25, 2013, 04:53:34 PM »

Just thought I would show some pictures of my workshop. I have moved house in the last few months and so after a lot of faffing it is just about usable.

Cromwell and Harrison lathes and ajax drill

Victoria and AEW mills, herbert high speed drill and a chinese band saw

shaper

surface plate

grinding and welding area

assembly area

clean and electronics bench and CNC centec mill

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #1 on:** August 25, 2013, 05:06:24 PM »

Now the workshop is up and running I can carry on with my tool and cutter grinding restoration project

the vertical way was very worn so I lapped in parallel to 0.005mm along its length. Pre lapping errors:

aligning the base using a precision level:

scraping ways flat and parallel

machining top of the table

base complete

scraping bottom of table:

measuring x ways

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2013, 05:08:19 PM »

measured results

showing over 0.5mm wear!

Machining ways

awemawson · « **Reply #3 on:** August 26, 2013, 02:20:42 AM »

I love it! 1 2 3 blocks AND a gardening fork in the same shot.

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #4 on:** August 26, 2013, 03:13:56 AM »

That is British sheds for you!
The oven was in there for a few weeks, although not working

Meldonmech · « **Reply #5 on:** August 26, 2013, 06:32:10 AM »

Hi Andrew
Nice feeling to be functional again after moving house, fine machine shop you have there.

Good luck with Grinder Project Cheers David

angus · « **Reply #6 on:** August 26, 2013, 04:31:16 PM »

the ajax drill looks similar to mine.... how many speed ?

mines 5 speed, and a bit on the fast side..... wonder if they ever did a variant with a center idler pully

micktoon · « **Reply #7 on:** August 26, 2013, 05:35:53 PM »

Hi Andrew , thanks for posting , looks like you have a really nice shop and some good old machines

, not to mention doing some nice restoration work too , looking forward to seeing more .
Cheers Mick.

vtsteam · « **Reply #8 on:** August 26, 2013, 08:16:46 PM »

Wow, admirable shop and work!

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #9 on:** August 27, 2013, 01:27:29 PM »

The ajax drill is a b 16l, 5 speed, min 380 and max 2700. It is a bit fast for large drilling but I tend to do that in the mill (aew goes down to 25 rpm). The lowest speed on the Herbert drill is about 3000 so I usually use that for v small precision drilling. Easy to smoke even modest sized drills with it but it is very perpendicular with the table and more rigid than the ajax.

tekfab · « **Reply #10 on:** August 27, 2013, 02:23:32 PM »

"English" ? Better of with good old accurately engineered GERMAN machinery !

Mike

awemawson · « **Reply #11 on:** August 27, 2013, 04:11:46 PM »

Fighting talk

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #12 on:** August 28, 2013, 02:08:48 PM »

German? If you are going to have to use foreign tools you might as well go all the way and use swiss

The Cromwell lathe I have has tenths verniers on all the dials. I am yet to see another lathe, German or Swiss with that, although in the last 50 years it may have lost some of its original accuracy!

http://www.lathes.co.uk/cromwell/index.html

tekfab · « **Reply #13 on:** August 28, 2013, 03:35:32 PM »

Quote from: Andrew Wildman on August 28, 2013, 02:08:48 PM

German? If you are going to have to use foreign tools you might as well go all the way and use swiss

The Cromwell lathe I have has tenths verniers on all the dials. I am yet to see another lathe, German or Swiss with that, although in the last 50 years it may have lost some of its original accuracy!

Ah well if you paid attention you would have noticed most Toolroom quality lathes, and milling machines, have dials graduated in tenths.

In fact my own Maho SK250 (1950's vintage) mill does in fact have graduated dials enabling readings of 0.0001" on all 3 axis.

Mike

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #14 on:** August 29, 2013, 07:41:17 AM »

good point. Well made.

malbenbut · « **Reply #15 on:** December 19, 2013, 12:32:31 PM »

Hello Andrew I have A AEW mill like yours but with a swivelling table however the horizontal head is quite noisy, In was wondering if you've ever had to dismantled yours and if so was it was very difficult?
MBB

NeoTech · « **Reply #16 on:** December 19, 2013, 02:08:52 PM »

One pictures saids scraping the ways, and you have some sort of slitted piece of tube, two blocks, rod and a dial indicator.. gotta ask how does measuring with that go about.. I have a moment of - "never seen that before."

AussieJimG · « **Reply #17 on:** December 19, 2013, 05:04:49 PM »

Good move to take lots of phots while it is clean and tidy.

Jim

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #18 on:** December 21, 2013, 11:23:46 AM »

Quote from: malbenbut on December 19, 2013, 12:32:31 PM

Hello Andrew I have A AEW mill like yours but with a swivelling table however the horizontal head is quite noisy, In was wondering if you've ever had to dismantled yours and if so was it was very difficult?
MBB

Sorry I have had no need to dismantle the horizontal spindle. The horizontal spindle on these machines are generally daily loud. There are a lot of gears in the various gearboxes. It may help if you change the gearbox oil. I use 32 hydraulic oil which is equivalent of the oil stated on the machine.

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #19 on:** December 21, 2013, 11:35:57 AM »

Quote from: NeoTech on December 19, 2013, 02:08:52 PM

One pictures saids scraping the ways, and you have some sort of slitted piece of tube, two blocks, rod and a dial indicator.. gotta ask how does measuring with that go about.. I have a moment of - "never seen that before."

I had already scraped the top of the dovetail so the next step was to ensure the other faces of the dovetail were parallel. The tool I knocked up references two points on the top and side of one dovetail and one point on the top of the other. The indicator measures the face that will have to be scraped parallel. Two points are required on the top and side of one dovetail to ensure the tool does not crab. The tube is a convenient way to do this but it could be done other ways.

When I get back to my laptop I will have to post the progress on the project. I have completed the scraping.

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #20 on:** December 21, 2013, 11:39:54 AM »

Quote from: AussieJimG on December 19, 2013, 05:04:49 PM

Good move to take lots of phots while it is clean and tidy.

Jim

It does not take long for it to get messy!

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #21 on:** January 03, 2014, 05:38:19 PM »

I have finally got around to posting some more of the cutter grinder restoration.

V way machined. Note custom spacers to allow the depth of cut to be taken with the cutter I had:

I produced a straight edge from a section of old cast iron motor mount:

stress relieved in the wood fire overnight:

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #22 on:** January 03, 2014, 05:42:08 PM »

straight edge machining (before stress relief):

Final machining after heat treat:

Scraped flat and square

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #23 on:** January 03, 2014, 05:53:13 PM »

swiveling table top was scraped to mating part:

x ways were scraped parallel to the table top using the new straight edge as a reference. The picture shows a guage block to average out the scraping marks to get a more consistent reading:

The piece with the male v way was scraped to the x ways (no pics of this) and the alignment was corrected approximately my checking with an indicator on the surface plate.

The underside of this part that slides on the knee of the machine were then scraped to the top of the levelled knee. the level was used for final alignment:

Andrew Wildman · « **Reply #24 on:** January 03, 2014, 05:59:18 PM »

The grinding head spindle being replaced and the motor internal insulated wiring and the terminal box replaced. The internal insulation was falling off the wires!

News:

Author Topic: Any old iron (as long as it's British!) (Read 40888 times)