I’m Tim’s scut worker! It’s coming along really well. Machine is cleaning up really well. Talked with Bob @BobKarnaugh today updated him where we are. He may be contacting the Lathe Team to revise the training deck and those folks will need to familiarize themselves with the settings on this machine. All the other basic rules apply. Here’s where I think we are:
I’ll start to turn down the piece for the idler arm for the belt tensioner Tim is referring to today.
Tim will get the arm dimensioned for the plasma cam
We’ll need get the idler pulley and a spring
Once that is assembled and installed (this assembly is missing and it drives the oil pump)
Tim will wire the machine so we can test it out and hopefully all is well.
Then it’s a matter of the Lathe Team playing with it, verifying all is in good order, so they can teach the classes. It’ll only take a couple of hours to move the machine and get the old Colchester out of the way.
Then start the classes. Initially they will be familiarization classes for those that have already had the lathe class.
So progress is being made. Thanks to all that are helping, the machine has cleaned up really well.
Tim, Bob and I got the the hardest part of the assembly we need to replace done today. I was difficult only because we couldn’t get a starter hole big enough for the boring bar. So we had to cold saw that off, then take the piece over on the Bridgeport, counter bore a hole big enough to use the Bridgeport boring bar. Much much slower than it would have been on the lathe.
Tim is working on the the next piece, the arm, to be plasma cam cut, then welded, then we need the idler pulley put on.
If you see Tim or Bob you may ask them. Not sure I’ll be here Thursday.
Fun stuff. I’m hoping to find an idler wheel & spring tomorrow. I’m also kinda torn on if I want to put some break bends into the idler arm. Guess it really depends on what offset we will need to run. This started as a piece of 3.5" solid bar stock. @Photomancer & @BobKarnaugh both put quite a bit into it before I arrived.
Looks good. The 3.5" will make it easier for the spring attachment to have an angle to pull from. If longer it gets to where it is pulling 90 degrees to angle needed. Looks good!
I’m here tonight sitting in as train-the-trainer in Zack’s plasma class. Could cut something out later if that’s helpful. The lathe is looking so great!
Great! That’s the next very important with getting this going, someone learning how to use all the levers, etc. are used, speed settings, etc. That is every bit as important a task as building the repair parts.
There were a number of people out there tonight: Tim, Adam, Jay, and someone’s name I’m afraid I’ve forgot - but he helped a lot.
They got it rewired fro 460V 3 phase to 208V 3 phase. This machine has a number of safety interlocks and the magnetic brake stop it super fast and there’s two ways to E-Stop it.
We actually took the top of the gear case/transmission used an acrylic cover so we could see how well the lubrication system was spraying the gears. The oil in it looked to be in excellent condition - nothing floating around, etc. Gears looked in good shape also. Shifted through ranges nice, threading gears worked fine.
The 110V coolant pump (not original equipment) will be wired in so it doesn’t need a separate plug. Some odds and ends plus training materials need to be developed, but I think all of us agree this is going to make working on a lathe a whole new experience and capabilities.
The plate I cut & bent was 7 gauge. It will cut 3/8" pretty good. The max is suggested to be 1/2". I have some 1/2" we can test cut to see how clean it is.
I bent it in my home made press brake for my hydraulic press. It’s very rudimentary made out of scrap but it works.
The tools we used for making that tensioner were:
Cold saw
Lathe
Bridgeport with boring bar.
PlasmaCam
My homemade brake,would have used at the space but ran out of time.
Miller 255
Horizontal bandsaw
