07-08-2014, 08:50 PM
I picked up my Fray mill in the West Virginia panhandle. It was not operational as it was missing some parts and it had just been sitting for quite some time.
BTW, even though I have 40 years of metal working experience this was the first time I'd even heard of a Fray, let alone came face to face with one.
I gave it a complete tear down and made several parts, including a graduated dial. Some of the gears were trashed so I bought gear blanks from Boston Gear and modified them as necessary as I did not have the capability to make gears at the time.
Fray was built in Compton, CA from the 1930's until the 1950's. At some point they had Bridgeport make their heads and X axis gear boxes and my mill has both. That made it easier to repair the gear box as I was able to find a BP manual with the exact same gear box in it including a complete exploded view.
Originally the machine was equipped with a 1/2hp 3 phase main motor and a much smaller 3 phase motor for the gear box. I replaced the main motor with a 1 1/2 reversible single phase motor and the gear box motor with a fractional single phase. I took this route as it was much cheaper than a phase converter and increased the horsepower of the mill.
I've also added a 4 axis DRO since the rebuild. I plan on two more major modifications. One will be to broaden the RPM range slowing it down so I can run a 3" carbide insert face mill at 100 SFPM. I'll add a third set of step pulleys, bearings, shaft etc to effect the RPM decrease. Plans have been drawn up and I need to order bearings and pulleys.
The other change will be to turn the head 90 degrees to the left. As of now the orientation of the head makes it awkward to use the quill feed lever. This will require loosing one swivel/angle but it will also increase the rigidity. I hope to also include a worm & worm wheel to make it easier to tram the head. Right now it requires precision tapping with a soft faced mallet.
One of these days I'll actually rearrange the pics in the album so they are in some sort of logical order. So for now the pics are here:
http://s1016.photobucket.com/user/drstan...%20Machine
BTW, even though I have 40 years of metal working experience this was the first time I'd even heard of a Fray, let alone came face to face with one.
I gave it a complete tear down and made several parts, including a graduated dial. Some of the gears were trashed so I bought gear blanks from Boston Gear and modified them as necessary as I did not have the capability to make gears at the time.
Fray was built in Compton, CA from the 1930's until the 1950's. At some point they had Bridgeport make their heads and X axis gear boxes and my mill has both. That made it easier to repair the gear box as I was able to find a BP manual with the exact same gear box in it including a complete exploded view.
Originally the machine was equipped with a 1/2hp 3 phase main motor and a much smaller 3 phase motor for the gear box. I replaced the main motor with a 1 1/2 reversible single phase motor and the gear box motor with a fractional single phase. I took this route as it was much cheaper than a phase converter and increased the horsepower of the mill.
I've also added a 4 axis DRO since the rebuild. I plan on two more major modifications. One will be to broaden the RPM range slowing it down so I can run a 3" carbide insert face mill at 100 SFPM. I'll add a third set of step pulleys, bearings, shaft etc to effect the RPM decrease. Plans have been drawn up and I need to order bearings and pulleys.
The other change will be to turn the head 90 degrees to the left. As of now the orientation of the head makes it awkward to use the quill feed lever. This will require loosing one swivel/angle but it will also increase the rigidity. I hope to also include a worm & worm wheel to make it easier to tram the head. Right now it requires precision tapping with a soft faced mallet.
One of these days I'll actually rearrange the pics in the album so they are in some sort of logical order. So for now the pics are here:
http://s1016.photobucket.com/user/drstan...%20Machine
