Milling Machine for Steam Engines

[Rhyolith]

That was a while ago, have since finished most of the external cleaning an put the bed back together.

Henry Milnes Milling Machine by Rhyolith, on Flickr

This brought up another problem. The bed feels stiff (equally along its whole run), so need to figure out why that is. In all likelyhood its the wheels on each end, the dialled one especially felt stiff when assembling it... so will give those a dismantle, clean and re-lube defiantly. The other thing is that I have not set that tensioner thing right (the thing the allows adjustment for wear), it moved during dismantling and i kinda guess where to set it (by sliding the bed back and forth till it felt right). Is there a method for setting these?

The last known issue at the moment is the suds tank, which is part of the casting so cannot be opened up. Its full of whats basically mud with metal shavings in it (though, no rust amazing). I have opened the plug draining it and shovelled as much of the ***** out I can out as i can get at with a trowel through those two holes in the base (either side of pillar that supports the table). However I have no idea how to get at the rest, theres still a lot in there...

 

[Farmer Giles]

I used an airline to clear out the oil journals on my tom senior mill, they were full of old solidified grease as a previous owner had incorrectly assumed they were grease nipples not oilers. It was very satisfying, a bit like squeezing a huge blackhead I didn't have those tubes though, mine were drilled into the casting. If they are delicate then I would be careful with the air, paraffin shouldn't hurt it.

 

[DTR]

I wonder if the little pipes are wick oilers, maybe? They use a wick (like a candle) to draw the oil by capillary action. If so the wicks might need replacing.

I think the power downfeed works like the change gears on a lathe, where the appropriate gears have to be arranged manually rather than by lever. Hopefully there's some indication of where the gears have to go! Presumably there must be some kind of engagement clutch or half-nut though?

If the table is stiff, you could try backing off the gib strip(s) to rule that out. Without the screw installed you should be able to slide the table up and down by hand.

 

[Rhyolith]

I only have a manual compressor kismet-trolly-restoration-round-2-t106281.html The threads on the oilers look like 1/8" BSP so might be able to hook it up to them using a hosetail.

How do I properly set up the "gib" strip? Is it just a case of guessing?

I have started taking the table apart again. One of the drive cranks its defiantly stiff so going to start with that. However it needs some special type of spanner I think.

Table Drive Nuts by Rhyolith, on Flickr

 

[Rhyolith]

Have found out that the nipples are 1/8 BSP threads, which is the same as the hosetails etc on my pumps. So I have been able to apply a fair bit of pressure using the Kismet trolley to flush out the oil pipes (it is satifying ). Doing this I have been able to work out where they come from, the three copper pipes under the bed all come from one nipple on the front for example (cannot see any evidence of any wicks).

I am waiting on some parts to patch up some leaks in my Kismet compressor and the will continue to clean them out.

One little mystery is the two nipples on the left side under the table, they both lead to the exact same place, air came out under the depth slider and the table slider for both. Is this just a subtle of saying these need twice as much oil?