Harrison Horizontal/Vertical Mill Restoration

[Carl Wilson]

Is it worth a five-minute investigation to determine if the skinny bit at the top (I think it works out as 5mm from dimensions given) could be made bigger? If you poke a 5mm drill into the hole, it should clear. What of a 5.5mm or 6mm? Sometimes the manufacturer's made parts generously-sized for ease of assembly or speed of production whereas an artisan-fettled item can be made to tighter specs.

A lot of the cause of the bending is the use of a nut (and hence a spanner) to lock it. It is like a split cotter; it needs minimal force as the clamping action is greatly magnified by the pitch of the thread (work out how much angular rotation of the nut is needed to get one thou' movement of the clamp). So on the new one, maybe dispense with the nut and make a dedicated locking handle with no more than a 1 1/2" long stem on it.

Yes Argo I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. Especially the fact that the nut is one of the causes of the bending. I agree with the idea of making a handle that will limit the torque that can be applied.

I think when Harrison designed the lock they assumed that users would be imbued with a modicum of engineering "feel" and would tighten it sympathetically. Clearly that has not been the case throughout the life of the machine.

I'm going to be looking to see if there is scope for the dimensions to be subtly increased to make the part stronger, too.

Thanks for a very useful and thought provoking post.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Got back going with the project today. I started making the adaptors for the lubrication nipple repair on the saddle.

Here is the first one off the lathe.

Here's how they will fit. Pressed and Loctited into the saddle where the old nipples came out. I've yet to cross drill and tap on one face, but when I do a nipple will be threaded in.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Three peas in a pod.

 

[Carl Wilson]

I drilled and tapped the adaptors to accept the nipples today. The nipple thread was 27 tpi which on a 1/4 inch diameter means gas thread.

I don't have anything that can cut this so after careful consideration I used 1/4-28 UNF. The nipples threaded in nicely and I secured them with Loctite.

I centre found the first one using the wiggler then I used my clock stand as a stop for the other two parts.

Here is one of the finished items.

And how they will look fitted to the saddle.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Well after a week at home I have only gone and volunteered to go back on the ship. Like the tit I so clearly am.

So all you're going to get here now for the next few weeks is idle speculation and guff about vfd's. So actually not that much different.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Tons of mind numbing cleaning and wire wheeling on the table and saddle. Don't really want to talk about it. Will to live slipping away. Two pictures of the solvent because I couldn't believe how filthy it was.

 

[Mark Davison]

What's in the second picture? I dont recall seeing one of those on mine?

 

[Carl Wilson]

The second picture is the table coolant drain fitting. Under several layers of God awful hammerite and Christ only knows what else, it turned out to be a very nice brass casting.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Some reassembly of the saddle done. Put the leadscrew nut on. I also fitted the three lubrication nipples I made. I Loctited these in with AA403. This comes in three parts - a pre-cleaner (acetone) an activator and the adhesive itself.

The three nipples are now in and solid. I'm also pleased to report that after pulling through all the lubrication runs with pipe cleaners and rifle brushes, I've finally got all of the old grease out of everything. That has enabled me to refit all the BSP plugs that were used to blank off the oil drillings.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I have only gone and volunteered

I'd have thought your time in the RAF would have taught you never to do that.

 

[Carl Wilson]

I made a mistake in post 249 above and it's now too late to edit. The Loctite I used us called AA307. The procedure for using it is as I described.

 

[Seadog]

I made a mistake in post 249 above and it's now too late to edit.

A mod could do it for you.

 

[Dieselman 63]

A mod could do it for you.

But a rocker couldn’t

 

[Carl Wilson]

Very good!

 

[Carl Wilson]

There's one of these in there. I just have to get it out.

 

[Mark Davison]

What material did you opt for in the end?

 

[Carl Wilson]

It is 316 stainless steel.

 

[Guzzi Fuzzi]

Hi Carl,


I saw you have different lubrication nipples installed. Yours are looking like grease nipple. Are they good for Oil as well?

I have attached my kind of greas nipple.

 

[Carl Wilson]

That must be a later version. Mine look like grease nipples but are actually designed for use with an oil gun.

 

[HughF]

Hi Carl,


I saw you have different lubrication nipples installed. Yours are looking like grease nipple. Are they good for Oil as well?

I have attached my kind of greas nipple.

Mine look like this type, I have a very late harrison mill.