Tos FN22 milling machine (Deckel clone)

[Pete.]

Getting ready to mask and paint the z slide today but I have some scraping and flaking still to do. First I put 3 good scraping passes over one side of the Z slide flat ways. This is to try to correct the very small deviation in the table sweep test. I know that the test was already within spec but I figured since I'm working on it anyway it wouldn't do any harm. It had a good contact pattern and slightly lighter in the middle which it should be. Then I ran the flaker over those ways to increase oil bearing capacity.



After that I took the Biax flaker and flaked the flat ways of the console table. I went only in one direction, so that I didn't remove too much bearing.



It leaves quite a pleasing pattern but it's not easy to get a good uniform pattern. I'm fairly satisfied with this. Some people are very good at it though usually it will never be seen.



I blued up my 30" straight edge to check the working dovetail on the z slide.



It was pretty healthy in terms of contact and required only minor scraping to get full length contact. I was quite pleased with this as these inside dovetails are a real pain to scrape.



After a hanful of rounds of very awkward scraping I got the contact pattern to a satisfactory level. I wanted to flake this way as it does a lot of work so needs good oil retention. No way the flaker was getting in there so I had to be satisfied with putting 2 rows of very heavy short scrapes down it to create some oil pockets.




So that should be the scraping all done on this machine unless it needs further alignment fettling later. I know that the tee slot sides on the console table are 3 thou out of line with the table travel, but rather than try to scrape that out I will make the adjustments to the keyways on the table as it's a lot of work otherwise for very little gain. I don't envisage fixing parts directly to the console table and if I do I would have to tram them anyway.

 

[Pete.]

I spent all day yesterday getting the complicated system assembled that supplies power feeds to the Z and X axes on the machine. Here's a pic of it all together so you can get an idea what Im dealing with

It's all driven from a single gear that pokes through the front right off the feeds gearbox output.

This drives a gear that the feed rod slides up and down through and supplied drive to a system of reversing gears, bevel gears and dog clutches within the Z slide.

When I took this apart a couple of years ago I knew that it was going to be a job putting it all back together so I kept all of the parts together in one parts tray so I at least knew I had all the relevant bits. I also didn't know what proper order to take it all apart was so just had to keep un-doing bits until the slide came off, which resulted is sevral bruised keys and dropped-out spacers floating around, and sorting it all out and assembling it took the whole day yesterday. I built it all up on a bundle of folder dust sheets on my bench trolley to try to save the paintwork but I will have some touching-up to do I expect.

It was a frustrating operation, I stripped off the support block and loaded the screw and feed rod onto it then fitted the bottom housing for the slide, then stripped it all off again, loaded the reversing gears on behind the shoulder and re-fitted it. Then took it off again because you have to fit the bottom drive gear on the z screw as it won't pass the drive dog, and that's how the whole of the day went. Two steps forward, one back.

Here's the gearing for the Z axis feed. The red thing at the front is the gear change fork which slides the dog clutch. Note that the clutch has ramps so it can only be driven one way, and it also allows you to stop the power feed by flicking the handwheel in the direction it's going.

The gear at the rear right doesn't go past the handwheel bevel so that had to be have the bush loosened and knocked back into housing for the gear to pass by, because it's impossible to get at if you just left it in there loose and tried to plug the keyed shaft into it. After it was all assembled I drifted the bush forwards to re-engage the power feed however I over-did it and made the handwheel notchy when it's under load so today I have to reduce the negagement a bit.

Here's the reverser for the x-axis screw. It's simple enough but took me ages to get together. You can't fit the drive gear on the left before the two driven gears because they are on stub shafts that plug into bronze bushes. However, the gear sits on the end of the main feed rod which is already assembled along with the z feed gears on the bottom housing so the only way to get this gear onto the shaft is lay the whole lot out, pop this gear into place and push the feed rod through it (lining up a key you cannot see). Then I had too much clearance in the gears which meant loosening the grub screw in that little hole to the left and tappig the bush forwards from the other side, which meant removing the entire finished bottom assembly to get a drift into the hole to move that bush. If I had known this I would have made this the very first job, so I could have made my adjustments with just the bare feed rod in my hand so if you are reading this because you've come looking for guidance on rebuilding your own machine - DO THIS BIT FIRST.

Once that was assembled I fitted the hardened sleeve that carries the drive dog and contains the drive key for the x-axis screw. This dog is first secured by a taper-point grub screw.

Then the internal key pokes through a slot in the sleeve and is secured to the other side of the drive dog by a countersunk screw.

 

[Pete.]

Here's the lot assembled. Note I used a modern torx screw to fix the key. When I got the machine the motion was a bit lumpy and when I stripped the lot down I found that the slotted mild stee screw had sheared. The torx screw is much stronger plus I used low strength loctite to secure it.

Last job was to drift in the bronze bush on the left to re-engage the bever gear for the Z axis handhwheel.

 

[Seadog]

My brain hurts

 

[Pete.]

My brain hurts

Mine did too after a long day yesterday. Heaven forbid I have to do it again but if I do, at least I'll know the best order to assemble it all.

 

[roofman]

That's just insane the complexity of parts that need to be in order as you build it...type of job that's on your mind going to sleep and there again when you wake up. Well done Pete its a credit to your skills and knowledge in these machines including the gear cutter too.

 

[Pete.]

Slow day today. Adjusting the feeds clutch, fitting covers, re-fitting the Y-axis feed gear (again). I've been working on the x-axis nut and found that whomever made it and fitted it used imperial threads and fasteners. The screws, dials and feeds on this machine are all in inches which is highly unusual so I am thinking that it might have come over as a metric machine and been converted to order by the importer or something. I'm sure that if it was done in Czechoslovakia the grub screws would still be metric.

 

[Pete.]

I had done some more work Wednesday and yesterday but didn't post an update because of an emergency indoors, a burst pipe under the floor, so here is the progress to date.

I'd previously re-built the lube pump for the slides, so fitted that and the x-axis nut too.



I also drilled out the x-axis nut so that the wick oiler actually lubed the screw instead of just dribbling oil around the outside of the nut. My guess is that the nut is a re-made item and they just didn't drill the hole. I fitted the wick oiler afterwards.





Next I had to re-make the oil level sight glass. The old one was very brittle and busted out when I tried to push it out of the sealant. Not that you could have seen through it , it's the yellow bit here

I just cut a square out of a welding lens protector and fixed it to the back of the plate with RTV



Once it was cured I trimmed it round to fit in the hole and drilled the 3 screw holes, then fitted it in place again with a thin bead of RTV sealant.

 

[Pete.]

I built up the gear shift system which took quite some time. It's all rods and cranks secured with taper pins and clevis bolts. The gear change rod mounts to a housing on the back of the z slide



There's supposed to be a gaiter to keep crud out of the ball joint. The cover was there but the gaiter long gone. Someone had put a large flat washer over the rod and it did a pretty good job, but I have my new K1 printer and a spool of TPU so I thought I would have a go at printing a gaiter. I drew this up with 2mm wall thickness.







It printed well and came out great, but it was miles too stiff and made the rod spring back to the middle. Time for Mk2. I reduced the wall thickness and the diameter of the dome by half and it works a lot better. It now stays in gear but I'm still not happy with it and I think I will re-design it again. For ow this is on there.





Another job I did was gun black the locking handles for the x slide and fit the locks up. There are two of these one each side of the table and they clamp on the gib. You can also see the gate plate for the gear shift in the foreground but it';s coming off again for cleaning and finishing.

 

[Pete.]

A job to do later on will require removal of the spindle. I had noticed that the Y axis would stick when wound all the way back. On inspection I found that the slide was not getting all the way back to the stop but the power drive gear was sticking in the spline and causing the holding fork to bend (as well as making the axis stick). You can see the shiny ridge on the end of the spline machining (where it starts to rise out of the cut), well this is jamming inside the gear.



This is where the slide stops with the gear fitted.



And this is where is stops with the fork removed and the gear slid back a little, there is a8-10mm more travel in the slide which might not sound like much but don't forget, despite being 800+kg this is a small machine and only has about 150mm of Y travel as it is so every little extra counts.



Another job to do is remove the Z-axis gib and scrape about a thou off the wear strip. The reason is this Here is the gib abd adjuster right now. I deliberately kept it as close to minimum adjustment as possible to allow for plenty of adjustment as the machine is used



However I have dug out the tray that holds all of the way scraper bit and there's a protector plate that has to sit flat on the top edge of this slide. I have to scrape that gib to bring it down below flush to allow this.



And it should be obvious in the above pics that the table is now fitted, which it is. Here is how the machine currently stands:

 

[RichardM]

"However I have dug out the tray that holds all of the way scraper bit and there's a protector plate that has to sit flat on the top edge of this slide. I have to scrape that gib to bring it down below flush to allow this."
How about an aluminium spacer under the protector plate to allow the gib to bed in and then evaluate how much needs to come off?

 

[Pete.]

"However I have dug out the tray that holds all of the way scraper bit and there's a protector plate that has to sit flat on the top edge of this slide. I have to scrape that gib to bring it down below flush to allow this."
How about an aluminium spacer under the protector plate to allow the gib to bed in and then evaluate how much needs to come off?

It's a good thought Richard but the plate has to sit down on top of the way scrapers which also fix to the top edge of the slide. It's only half an hour's work to scrape the gib so easier than fabricating a plate anyway.

 

[Pete.]

I spent the day doing a pile of little time-consuming jobs which are necessary but don't make it look like much is going on.

I found the rear spindle cover which has a felt oiler inside so I lubed it up and tapped it into it's place







The taper pin hole was a bit wallowed out making the handle feel 'loose' so I reamed it deeper until it was back to shape again. This meant that I had to make a new slightly larger taper pin.



I made it over-length and then marked it for trimming down. I also cleaned and painted the handwheel before fitting it back up and cutting the pin back.



I went to fit up the x-axis but could not find one piece of the thrust bearing. I had cleaned this part the day before and knew tha I would be needing it soon so put it aside but then when I came to fit it up, could not find it anywhere. Spent a very frustrating couple of hours searching under and around things then gave up and decided to make a temporary one from a chunk of bronze.





Then I fitted it all together, and right away found the part I'd been searching for. I had put it on top of the machine ready to use and it got knocked inside.



After I was done installing the feed screw I put the table on for a photo shoot.

It's getting there now, still got loads to do.

I need to make a temporary cover for the top to stop me dropping anything else into the hole.
I need to give the x-axis gib the same treatment as the z-axis one because winding the table all the way left hits the top of the gib.
Need to sort the control electrics out so that I can operate the motor from outside.
Need to wire up the VFD for the high speed head and the control buttos for that.
I have to clean and fit all the axis trips so I don't run any of the power feeds to the end of travel and break something.
Need to buy a bunch of oiling points to replace the ones removed durig the rebuild.
I have to scrape the gibs a little to get them below flush so I can fit the way scrapers.
I need to make a new drive spindle for the milling head as I discovered that the original is slightly bent.

Plus many, many more I'm sure...

 

[Pete.]

I scraped the gibs in a bit more to get them flush today.



This allows the way scrapers to be fitted. They are made from thin brass shim and seem to do a great job of keeping crud off the ways





The plate for the z slide way scrapers doubles up as a protector to run coolant off into the drain well.



I also fitted the power feed stops and gauge block stops. Unlike most of the Deckel copies of this era, the FN22 has power feed on all threee axes, most have just X and Z. Being a toolroom machine it also has a place to stack gauge blocks and settable stops for accurate positioning. I havefitted them for now but I will most likely remove them later as the DRO will make the redundant.








I also fitted a nicer looking handle on the gear lever since the round ball one was only perched on it anyway having no thread.

I also have another mistake to correct. This 16-speed gear selector had a round ball on the end.

I fitted a longer handle on it which was a bit more comfortable for turning the selector dial.

It was only after fitting the gear shift gate bracket that I found out that the cutout in the bracket was made to allow the ball end to pass through when the table is up next to it. I'll have to swap that handle back to a ball end or else I won't be able to select half of the feeds without moving the slide up or down.

 

[Pete.]

Using my home made swing crane to lift off the 40kg table.





Here's the table mount plate that was a missing part when I got the machine. I spent a year and a half looking for one, before deciding to make a pattern and getting one cast. Then after I got the pattern made a very nice guy in Slovakia found one locally and boxed it up for courier collection. He wouldn't even accept anything for driving 80 miles and boxing it up. There's nice people all over the world.



The mount plate fixes in place of the fixed table on the tee slots on the front of the console table.



The stub in the middle is to locate the knuckle. I fitted that up but didn't get a pic sadly. Then I went to fit the swing table onto the knuckle, and couldn't find that stub. I know I have it somewhere but it only took 10 minutes to make one.



Here's the table all fitted up. I have to make some new tee bolts as the ones I got with it were a mix of m10/M12 metric and 3/8" and 1/2" whitworth, some with torn up threads. I will make a set of matching metric ones.



This setup allows for rotation in 3 axes. The table swings in Z



And it rolls in X



And it tilts in Y.




Or any combination of the three, space allowing.

 

[Windy Miller]

That really is quite an amazing machine!

 

[paradipiro]

Once that was assembled I fitted the hardened sleeve that carries the drive dog and contains the drive key for the x-axis screw. This dog is first secured by a taper-point grub screw.

View attachment 430889

Then the internal key pokes through a slot in the sleeve and is secured to the other side of the drive dog by a countersunk screw.

In my machione, this grub screw that locks the outer ring to the sleeve is locked with wire wrapped around the ring in the groove while it sits in the screw's slot also.

 

[Pete.]

In my machione, this grub screw that locks the outer ring to the sleeve is locked with wire wrapped around the ring in the groove while it sits in the screw's slot also.

Thank you I was wondering what that wire ring was for. Now I know

 

[paradipiro]

Thank you I was wondering what that wire ring was for. Now I know

Like this:

 

[Pete.]

The driveshaft bearings arrived for the milling head today so I fitted them and put it all together.

The machine is coming along nicely I need to find some 8mm press-fit oil cups, striaght fitting and 90 degree.

I also need to get that rear guard made, the guy who was going to make one for me has not been able.