Trident milling machine restoration....

[Covert]

On my quest to find a vertical milling machine i will hopefully be having this delivered on saturday .

this is what it should look like...( or as close as a version as i can find)






struggled to get her from Coventry to Northampton but with the help of a mate , an engine crane , and a citroen xantia she is home !

she must weigh about a ton



this cast cover is about 20mm thick , two person lift is a must !



the knee and table



the vertical head



more soon folks !

 

[Covert]

sorry for the huge pics !

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Looks a very capable machine, what does the long lever do on the left hand side?

 

[Covert]

That's the clutch. Allows you to knock it out of drive for any adjustments needed

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I assume it was a Xantia estate?

 

[Covert]

ha yes matey an estate , back end was on the floor then we turned it on and it came up as if nothing was in it !

 

[Covert]

so i started with stripping the vertical head down ...

here are some pics

















at this point all the paint had been stripped from the head it was about 5-7mm thick in some places.

and found some damage to one of the cast iron spacers



both bottom taper bearings were replaced like for like so timkin bearings back in and replaced the top support bearing too.

some completed pics

 

[Covert]

onto the knee and gearbox......

this is what was under the table .



black 50 year old grease is not fun to shift , even petrol struggled!

 

[Covert]

not complete yet as im awaiting some bolts turning up but its looks better than it did.

again paint is a huge problem on this machine its so thick ive resorted to chipping it off with a hammer!

















need to sort out a new nut for the left hand wheel and a handle of some description

 

[Covert]

the eagle eyed folks will have spotted everything , even nuts and bolts , washers etc have a number 6 or 9 stamped on them , no idea what it means but i like it !

 

[Covert]

and this is the bed , its about 30" long , thats a 12mm drill bit on it gives you an idea of the scale .

doesnt look like too much damage although there is a large chunk of cast missing from one corner.




these grub screws you remove to get at the oil holes for the feeds on the gearbox underneth.





been cleaning the bed up this morning , you are now up to date folks .......

 

[ronan]

Those old machines were really built heavy and to last. Any idea how old it is ?

 

[Covert]

its hard to guess but id say 1960's looking at this

http://www.lathes.co.uk/pallas/page2.html

its very much like the machine on page 3 but there is no date on it .

been trying to find out any information on them but not alot of luck so far.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Covert That's coming along nicely , keep up the good work [and reports/updates ].

 

[Screwdriver]

Really nice job there. Heavy duty painting!

Back in the day, all rough castings were filled with a putty prior to painting to hide any flaws, that's probably what's coming off so thickly.

 

[MattH]

I'm confused, that's a lot of work you've done considering you don't collect it until tomorrow?

Nice mill btw, what taper is the spindle?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I'm confused, that's a lot of work you've done considering you don't collect it until tomorrow?

struggled to get her from Coventry to Northampton but with the help of a mate , an engine crane , and a citroen xantia she is home !

From the above he couldn't wait to get stuck in and collected it himself in advance of the arrange Courier jobbie?

 

[Covert]

Been ongoing for a few months now so copied from another forum

Spindle taper is mt3

 

[MattH]

Spindle taper is mt3

Are you sure about that? It looks to have spots for drive dogs which are missing which would suggest it's INT (30 maybe 40).

 

[Covert]

Only going on what is on the lathes website, I could be wrong