Adventures in metalwork and machine restoration!

[TFrench]

Thanks guys. Let's be honest, I dont have space either, but I've wanted one of these for ages! Realistically I think the metal spinning lathe will find a home at work once I get it running - makes much more sense for it to live there with all the other metalwork gear. I just find it easier to have projects at home as I can work on them whenever I get a spare moment instead of having to make the effort to drive to the workshop. I recently got started on the deckel FP2 tart-up/recommission as well - got the toolmakers table stripped, oiled and moving freely (plus a paintjob):
Fp2 table
Articulates in pretty much every direction! Phenomenal piece of engineering, really looking forward to having it running and looking like the quality machine it is, not a scabby old knacker.

 

[MusicMan]

Very nice work!
Keith

 

[Gremmy]

An absolutely thrilling read! Just spent 35 mins going through this thread and should have been making sandwiches for work...
Keep it up and keep posting, this is giving me ideas that the lady will not be happy with

 

[TFrench]

An absolutely thrilling read! Just spent 35 mins going through this thread and should have been making sandwiches for work...
Keep it up and keep posting, this is giving me ideas that the lady will not be happy with

You're welcome :lol: First child is expected any day now so I fully expect to have to rein in my addiction...

 

[TFrench]

Massive thanks to Wallace - we did a trade on some parts and the new switch he sent works perfectly. Sander is up and running! Still need to sort the extraction (got most of the parts for that) and the platen for the belt but its getting there. I ordered a couple of 400kg machine skates from axminster and got them ready for the morticer and sander. I had to cut extra steel out of the morticer one and add riv-nuts to make it narrow enough but it fits a treat now. With the skates prepared I bought the morticer home and used the engine crane to unload it and place it and the sander on their respective skates.
sander finished
morticer home
The morticer location was always a problem in the past as I couldn't get anything long into it without "walking" it out into the middle of the workshop, which was brutal. Since the wadkin is a tad heavier I've opted for wheels :lol:
And just to prove I can actually use my kit and don't just mess around with machines I made this fella. Disgustingly early I know but I think shop time is about to become even scarcer...
Snowman

 

[AES]

Great, GREAT stuff "TF"!

 

[MusicMan]

Very nice restorations! Well done.

Keith

 

[TFrench]

As predicted, having children turns out to be quite time consuming... :lol: I can't believe how long its been since my last update on this! I've managed to get a bit of time in the last week to crack on with the big wadkin planer. The cast iron support arms were cracked and the roller had gone missing. I turned a new roller from solid bar to match the original:
Turning roller
(First time indicating in something with the 4 jaw chuck. Not as easy as people make it look on youtube!)
Then turned 2 matching bosses for the ends:
Wadkin RM roller
(original on the left)
Milled the arms square and true:
20191220_152106
And a matching slot on the eyes:
eyes
Clamped square and true to the bed
clamped up
And welded:


Quite pleased with that. Just need to sell it now! Next update should be a bit sooner, I've had a bit of a run on vices recently - just waiting for paint to dry to assemble the last one and I'll get some pictures up. Here's a teaser pic though. :wink:
Money shot

 

[Trevanion]

It makes you wonder how it broke in the first place since the casting even at the ends was fairly substantial.

Where there's a farmer, there's a way! :lol:

 

[TFrench]

The originals were U shaped - the roller just drops in. I couldn't see the advantage to that so left them whole for strength. This came from a proper joinery shop - the old fella said it was the first machine he'd bought when he started up. Someone had had a go at fixing it with some dowel pins and lots of araldite but it obviously hadn't worked. I was going to switch them to the outfeed side so there wasn't as much chance of them gettting shock loaded, but in typical wadkin fashion all the arms are numbered and matched to location. Felt wrong to swap them around!

 

[toolsntat]

If you're gonna have a clamp, have a Carver =D>
Made in Nuneaton apparently 8)
Nice repair (hammer)
Cheers Andy

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Quite pleased with that. Just need to sell it now

You actually release them into the wild? I assumed you just have a collection. A really big collection. A huge sea of cast iron and shiny stainless steel, all buffed and polished and gleaming.

Catch and release is so much more humane.

 

[TFrench]

You actually release them into the wild? I assumed you just have a collection. A really big collection. A huge sea of cast iron and shiny stainless steel, all buffed and polished and gleaming.

Catch and release is so much more humane.

Oh, believe me, I wish I had a workshop big enough to fill with this sort of stuff :lol: . I just aim to get the best I can fit in my home workshop and doing the odd machine up helps fund it. Great machining practice as well - I'd never have had a go at turning a shaft that big without having a need for it - does that make sense?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

You actually release them into the wild? I assumed you just have a collection. A really big collection. A huge sea of cast iron and shiny stainless steel, all buffed and polished and gleaming.

Catch and release is so much more humane.

Oh, believe me, I wish I had a workshop big enough to fill with this sort of stuff :lol: . I just aim to get the best I can fit in my home workshop and doing the odd machine up helps fund it. Great machining practice as well - I'd never have had a go at turning a shaft that big without having a need for it - does that make sense?

I am just in awe of what you can do - I wouldn't know where to begin. As for owning some of these fabulous machines (not that I could ever do them justice), I couldn't possibly justify the cost of your endless hours of labour to bring them to life. I have a sneaking suspicion that your finished items look better than the day they left the factory. Apologies if I take the Mickey - but you do have an cast-iron case of addiction. =D>

 

[TFrench]

I think you're mistaking me for Wallace! My standards are lower than his, I don't have the patience for fillering and polishing that he does. I just enjoy getting them working again.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[TFrench]

Ok, as I said - there's been a bit of a run on vices in the shop recently. Mainly because they're a nice quick project and I can get bits done between nappy changes... :lol:
First up was this record 94 1/2 pipe vice. We needed to thread some pipe at work recently and realised we hadn't got a decent pipe vice to hold it in. Got this at a car boot and it was pretty gross so I stripped it down and gave it a splash of paint.
94 1/2 pipe vice
94 1/2 pipe vice
Dad picked up this little euro sliding rear jaw in Holland in the summer. I don't think it had seen any use from new as the casting was binding, making it really tight to move. Much engineers blue and filing later, its nice and free. I did some research and the DRGM casting is a German trademark thing that was used up to 1952, which makes it older than I'd expected.
Small german vise
Next up was this Fortis. I don't think its particularly rare but I just really like the shape of the fixed jaw. It just flows beautifully - incredible patternmaking!
Ajax/Fortis
It's slightly interesting as behind the Fortis nameplates, the Ajax Steel name that was cast in was ground off. I assume Fortis had their castings done by Ajax?
Ajax/ Fortis vice
(Bear with me, finished pics are coming...)

 

[TFrench]

The next patient in the surgery was this (as far as I can tell) really rare Alfred Herbert vice. Herbert were a machine tool manufacturing company in coventry who made very high quality kit. The chap I bought it from had got it from the auction when Herberts closed, still on a bench. He thinks they had them cast specifically for the factory. Not sure if thats true, but if they did sell them there don't seem to be many about now. It also has the Ajax brand cast into it, which is a coincidence! The designs are very similar, but there are a few differences.
Herbert Vice
Restoration was mainly a case of clean up, degrease and paint. The handle hole in the boss had been worn horrendously - years of extreme neglect by the previous owner I think! I bored it in the mill to get it back concentric with the boss and bored a brass bushing to fit. Pressed together with threadlock, I reckon its good for another 70 odd years. You can see in the above pic the lower end of the bar had a nut on it - I turned it round to match the other end and assembled with threadlock.
The finished articles:
Ajax
Ajax

Only thing left to do is mill some jaws for the Herbert. I'm thinking I might make some solid ally ones with vee ways in them so I've always got soft jaws set up...

 

[Bm101]

Brilliant as always. Thanks for posting.
Think you might just have tipped the balance on my 74 paint up! There I said it ...paint.. aghh. I'll finish the shelves on the stairs first! I have another little vice I picked up that's interesting. It's in the rust bucket with some citric at the moment but I'll post some pics.

 

[Bm101]

Very brief but got this off eBay for about a tenner. Rusty but not pitted really. Pics after because I forgot before pics. Just in a citric bath for a few ish days. Stove black wiped on then buffed with a small cloth wheel in a 18 volt makita drill.
Wasn't happy with the black. It was cold so I had An Idea and got the mapp torch out. Give it a gentle warm coat and applied a smidgen more and smears buffed out like a car polish. Neat.

Nice little vice. Apprentice piece? Maybe.

I do like that stove black finish. Have to say.
Just for interest. Sorry to interrupt your proper thread. Hope all is well with mum and baby. And also Dad. Dad gets forgot sometimes. :wink: might as well get used to it now mind it only gets more desperate Lol.
Best regards
Chris

 

[TFrench]

Just for interest. Sorry to interrupt your proper thread. Hope all is well with mum and baby. And also Dad. Dad gets forgot sometimes. :wink: might as well get used to it now mind it only gets more desperate Lol.
Best regards
Chris

Thanks Chris. It was a desperately "sheet" first couple of weeks - Mrs F was suffering with serious "baby blues"/PND. Million times better now, makes you realise how horrendous life must be for people with "proper" depression. Certainly changed my outlook on it. Once I'd convinced the relevent people there was actually a problem though, I couldn't fault the NHS. We're lucky to have it.
Nice vice. I reckon you're right with apprentice piece -I thought at first it could be for a surface grinder, buy that sort of precision vice (in my experience) is milled from a solid block for rigidity and squareness. Handy size though.
I got another cool one in the post today - a brockhaus heuer forged steel. If the ebay seller had seen what they're worth (still available new) he'd still be kicking himself for accepting my offer! I'll stick some pics up when I've cleaned it. Early start in the morning to go get the next project - the sort of lathe machine guys have accidents in their grundies over. :lol: