South Bend Heavy 10

[Pete.]

If you think it as an hourly rate $40 per plate is not a lot.

No it's not. If I tried to do it myself I would have been working for £3 an hour.

I've learned (after long hard experience) that it's far better to earn the money doing a job you know, to pay a tradesman to do a job you don't, than doing half as good a job yourself in twice the time for much less than your normal hourly rate. I still trip myself up every now and again but this time it was the right thing to do.

 

[Pete.]

Well, seems like he does make plates for various other machines. Here's the reply I got:

Hi Pete,

I’ve made plates for a lot of other makes of equipment, especially Delta and DeWalt machine. If I don’t already have a pattern I might need to charge a little extra if it looks like I won’t have another order for it. In most cases I would need a good photo and precise spacing for fasteners. I make the patterns using a high-end CAD program. Some very ornate logos take a lot of time to draw. The biggest problem for sending plates to the UK is the cost of the postage.

Tell them to contact me and send a photo if possible and I’d be glad to give a quote.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Rig Pig]

Yes it's Slideway Services. He's definitely retiring in a few weeks he's mullered his thumb pretty badly and battling on to get his work cleared up before shutting up shop.

We had a great chat about his fishing Kayaks. He's fished a lot near where I grew up in N Wales.

There must be someone on here who fancies buying him out and carrying on!

 

[pressbrake1]

There must be someone on here who fancies buying him out and carrying on!

That was my plan to buy him out but I seriously overspent on other stuff.

 

[Rig Pig]

That was my plan to buy him out but I seriously overspent on other stuff.

That's a shame, once this sort of business closes it tends to go for ever.

 

[pressbrake1]

That's a shame, once this sort of business closes it tends to go for ever.

The only one left will be unislide and they wanted £15000 to regrind and turcite/moglice my mastiff

 

[Rig Pig]

The only one left will be unislide and they wanted £15000 to regrind and turcite/moglice my mastiff

That's insane! Makes you realise why companies just buy new import machines.

 

[pressbrake1]

Dsg have got their slideway grinder on ebay, very concerning.
Wish I had a spare £30k to buy it , space to house it and a crane big enough to load it!

 

[Pete.]

I went and collected my stuff from the grinder today. In front is the South Bend bed and behind is the bed for the cataract.

Brian's done a superb job. The photos are quite deceptive, the cup wheel leaves marks in the surface but when you run your hand across it's smooth to the touch. I was wrong when I said he had to grind 24 thou off it - it was only 12 thou total from the bed and the saddle.

Unfortunately some of the digs in the bed were too deep to grind out but that wasn't the object of the exercise. The bed is guaranteed straight and true now, the left-behind marks don't affect how it works, just a reminder of the work it's done in the past.

The saddle ways are also ground and they look perfect. It was a lot of work getting the double-vees perfectly ground in so they had equal weight bearing. I'll be oil-flaking these underside ways.
He also ground 12 thou off the underside where the apron fits up to save me having to shim the gearbox and leadscrew mount. I'm not sure how this is going to affect the cross slide screw gear engagement. I never thought to tell him it was a powered cross-feed model. might have to re-cut the gear on that screw 12 thou smaller. Not the end of the world.

I also collected my Hardinge HLV lathe bed. Only 4-1/2 thou removed from this so it was already pretty good, now it's spot on.

 

[dobbslc]

Beans on toast for a while then?

 

[scottmk1]

My lathe's also had the swirl marks from the cup wheel but as you say you can't feel it with your nail or anything.

 

[Ton-up]

Nice work he's done there Pete. I thought all the HLV beds that I've worked on were chromed?

 

[Pete.]

I had to repair a lug on one of the pedestal covers.I ground the broken bit back to a straight line just below the hole.

First I drilled a chunk of cast iron with a starrett cutter. Stopped half way to drill the hole to the proper size so I didn't have trouble holding it. Then I cut the edge off with my grinder to make a lug shape.

Then I solver soldered the lug onto the broken casing and cleaned it all up with my grinder.

Ready for painting. Hopefully it won't be too obvious a repair once painted but if it is I won't be too upset.

 

[awemawson]

Very neatly done Pete

 

[Pete.]

Thanks Andrew. I was rather pleased with how it came out, given that all I had for a heat source was my TIG welder. I got some dilution but it's only a cover lug I'm sure it will stay on there ok.

 

[Richard.]

Thanks Andrew. I was rather pleased with how it came out, given that all I had for a heat source was my TIG welder. I got some dilution but it's only a cover lug I'm sure it will stay on there ok.

I saw that Pete when I picked up that table and that job you’ve done is perfectly fine. That’s going nowhere. It’s held on in various places so I can’t see any of those lugs undergoing any stress. That’s probably broken in the past from a wally over tightening it.

 

[Pete.]

You'd never know....

 

[Windy Miller]

You'd never know....

View attachment 162732

View attachment 162731

Nice paint job too!

 

[mm289]

Looks really good, especially with the paint

Paul.

 

[Pete.]

I did a bit of work on this yesterday, stripped and rebuilt the under-drive units and fitted a new motor. Someone in the past has had a go at it and broken the belt tensioning adjuster casting so I'll have to cobble something up for that. My more immediate problem is that they also removed the counter shaft end nuts, so I'm looking for at least one, preferably a pair of 3/4" UNF nuts for the end of the countershaft (thread is 3/4" 16tpi).
I'll make some if I have to bit I thought I'd ask here first.
Pete.