Recommendations - hobby mills

[slim_boy_fat]

Extremely nice looking machine. Look forward to posts about the restoration.

What Carl said, x 2. It must feel a little like Christmas has come early for you this year!

 

[DennisCA]

Well it sure felt that way but right now I am running into difficulties. The X-axis is still stuck, the problem is that the tapered gib is really, really stuck, the gib screw looked like this:

The bit on the tapered gib that retains the screw has sheared off, the screw is bent and the gib has gotten stuck. Currently trying to get it loose.

And a closer look at the scale head... Don't think a repair is possible of this.

I went through some of the boxes with accessories, photo'ed a few:

Reminds me of some kind of collet holder

Looks like an adjustable boring head.

Frankensteins milling attachment

Horizontal milling arbors and support, there is a 4th arbor off photo.

Also some collets and more holders in a smaller box, and lots of very dirty stuff that doesn't look very useful, lots of homemade strange stuff.

 

[DennisCA]

Oh! And of course the earlier owners have put grease in the oil fittings. It must have been one of the worst design decisions ever to make oil fittings that look ljust like grease fittings. They should have made them incompatible. I have removed some and started blasting kerosene and compressed air through the lines.

 

[Carl Wilson]

It seems to be a common thread that runs through all machine restorations - that of finding oil nipples that have been pumped full of grease. My Harrison Mill is exactly like that. It must have upwards of 40 oil nipples, all of which have been dutifully greased over many years. A conscientious and well meaning though misguided attempt at regular maintenance.

That said, the amount of grease on it has kept everything free, if nothing else.

My coolant sump is also a filthy horrible place that no sane person would willingly go.

Is all the tooling Int. 30? That big face mill looks like it could do some damage.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Could some of the round cutters be fly cutters?

 

[Hood]

Could some of the round cutters be fly cutters?

They are face mills that take indexable lathe style tools. Seems they have been welded in place, possibly the clamping screws are rounded or damaged in some other way or possibly they were just never that secure without being welded.

To be honest I don't think I would fancy using the face mills, heck of a long shank they are screwed on to and I don't think they would be too rigid or for that matter very healthy for the spindle and no way will they be balanced now with the welding.


The other is a boring head.

 

[DennisCA]

No it does not look very inviting. The tooling is SK40 by the way.

 

[DennisCA]

Taking off the side casting so I can get at the gib and give a good whack from a better angle with a suitable punch (preferrably one identical in profile to the gib) . The hand wheel has been a tricky design to get my head around.

 

[Carl Wilson]

It took me a while to realise you were using a lathe chuck in combination with a puller. Must remember that one.

 

[DennisCA]

Finally, success with getting this part off. Despite drilling out the pin it was still stuck, 4 jaw trick didn't work this time, I tried a bunch of other ideas but eventually I cut this "puller" from a piece of 12mm steel on the bandsaw and made some holes and threaded it. I was getting annoyed at this point in time and did not care about pretty, so I just got some drill bits of the right size and put them in a bit through the holes, so they contacted the part but not the shaft, then I applied force and it let go.

I wonder if I need to make a tool for every part of the disassembly.

 

[DennisCA]

This thread is about recommendations for hobby mills. So I think I will make a dedicated thread for the deckel and move the relevant posts there and let this sink into the archives. Maybe it will help somebody in the future.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Good idea Dennis. Maybe one day I will post something on the thread I created for my mill restoration.

 

[fizzy]

Also for fizzy, here's the tail lift:

It actually went pretty smoothly and the machine was very stable fortunately.

Big relief!!!
Lovely mill would love one!

 

[rtbcomp]

This thread is about recommendations for hobby mills. So I think I will make a dedicated thread for the deckel and move the relevant posts there and let this sink into the archives. Maybe it will help somebody in the future.

Give me a shout when you start the new thread and I'll move the posts you want moving into it.

Links will be helpful.

 

[DennisCA]

Oh that, I already did that, new thread is in this forum

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ OK got it https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/1958-deckel-fp2.86770/