took a chance....

[wheresmejumper]

this came up for sale a couple of hours drive away,didnt have a clue what it was,but it was cheap.very cheap.curiosity took over
had to google it,but it seems to have a fairly good reputation,and versatility.
the more i read about it,seems like it could get a bit of use in the future.
its an Astra ar5e tool and cutter grinder.thats a 5,not s.
has anyone used one?

 

[Robotstar5]

Are you going to start a rebuild thread?, the bar's been set quite high with some of the recent ones

 

[chunkolini]

Was somebody taking the mickey with the name of this contraption?

 

[MattF]

Never used one, but judging by the type of money any tool grinder tends to attract on the likes of Ebay, you'd be pretty much guaranteed to make a profit if you flogged it on at anytime, if you got it cheap.

Looks a tidy bit of kit. Agree with Chunko' on the model designation though.

Are you going to start a rebuild thread?, the bar's been set quite high with some of the recent ones

Brewdexta's pretty much beggared it for the lot of us now.

 

[brewdexta]

Brewdexta's pretty much beggared it for the lot of us now.

If wheresmyjumper polished up his ar5e tool then he would take the trophy hand down

 

[mr_splatter]

Nice bit of kit. I just dream of getting a tool and cutter grinder. I guess you have already seen this http://www.lathes.co.uk/astraar5e/ I see you can still get the manual and maintenance guide for it too!

 

[scott0031]

I'm pretty familiar with cutter grinders being a Toolmaker by trade. I have not used that particular model before but the majority of them work on the same principle and set ups, with exception to some very special cutter grinders out there that have different configurations.

Most of that style use linear ball races for the slides on the main table in the x axis. This can be a problem on older machines that have not been in a good environment. These races are critical to the finish of on the tool and if they are a slight rusty or pitted you pretty much grind ploughed fields in grinding terms. The best thing to do is not to shove the table too and fro for fun if it is balls, this will only make the problem worse. If it is the style i mention the first thing to do is take the table off and take a look and see how bad it is and at least clean and de-rust before playing.


Hope this is of help.


Kind regards,


Scott

 

[wheresmejumper]

'Project Bidet' it will be known as!
im okay with before and after photos,but my hands are always too dirty during the renovation to pick up a camera?
as for comparing to some of the other projects on here,id have to get quite good at photoshop to compete


thanks splatter,and Scott,i should have my hands on a service manual soon hopefully,i will resist the urge to tinker with it until i get a look at whats under the table.I will put up some pics of it when i do.

 

[scott0031]

The other thing is did you get a box of bits with it? If you look at the lathes.co.uk image it shows the universal head on the left of the table. Do you have something that looks similar?................. If you don't its very bad news indeed as cutter grinders are pretty mute without it for doing milling cutters.


Kind regards,


Scott

 

[wheresmejumper]

theres a few more bits with it,but i dont think that part is there

 

[normspanners]

Was somebody taking the mickey with the name of this contraption?

HA HA AR5E GRINDER and polishing tool,
I think it was the same guy that named all the plumbing fittings in the world!!

 

[wheresmejumper]

stripped down as much as i could today,till i got to a 25mm nut.socket vanished again
wiring was a little bit worse for wear to say the least



but a faint heart never ...etc
i stood well back and cautiously plugged it into the running converter....bang.
renewed what i could and have found that the forward reverse switched is knackered.one ordered for next week.connected the motor direct to converter and she's spinning fine.3/4 hp and can easily be rewired for delta as you can see,the 3 black wires come down to the panel from the motor

theres a handy little transformer inside the cabinet.it used to at one point run the light.the light was rewired externally so im sceptical as to whether its still working.wont find out till that switch comes next week.if it doesnt work ill replace it,as i like the idea of no neutral in the mains


here it sits for now,a little lighter

 

[wheresmejumper]

lathes.co.uk want more for the manual than i paid for the machine,so i found a mouse chewed version in english,typical page is like this

same place had the german version almost intact,so google translate is helping me out



both free,i might add!