A Few Machines from my Workshop

[EdK]

Nice restoration job on that universal woodworker!

Ed

[sasquatch]

Great intro, and great pics, very interesting, thanks for posting this.

[TomG]

Wow! When we ask for pics we never get this kind of response. You are the man!

I have some time on a Colchester just like the one you have and it's a very capable machine. I'm also amazed at how similar your Edwards box a pan brake is to the Pexto or Chicago brakes.

Thanks for posting the pics.

Tom

[DaveH]

Great stuff you really have some nice machines, enough to set up a factory.
Thanks for sharing.

DaveH

[awemawson]

Another total rebuild was this EPCO 60 ton press. It had been through a very severe fire, the previous owner had a total wipe out in his workshop poor chap. The raise and lower motor and the hydraulic pump motor had both melted. Hardest part was unscrewing the large bronze nuts that support the platen. Several weeks soaking in citric acid did the job eventually, but it was quite a job

[awemawson]

My Beaver Partsmaster was actually a consolation prize I gave to myself after suffering the loss of my poor old Bridgeport Interact. The Interact literally 'fell off a lorry' when moving here and was a total write off. The Partsmaster was in excellent condition apart from the 'Y' ballscrew, which had been damaged when they moved the machine out of Bristol University where it had had very little use. With a 15 tool tool changer and a Heidenhain TNC355 control it's a very capable machine.

[awemawson]

My Richmond 3 foot radial drill and my 18" shaper I've done little to restore as they were basically ok when I got them apart from sorting out damp in the motors and some dodgy wiring

[awemawson]

At the rear of my 'dirty workshop' where my welding equipment is, I have built a 'fireproof' addition that is destined to be my foundy. However at the moment it is packed with projects awaiting 'roundtuits'.

In there you will see my casting equipment comprising a 100 kVA induction furnace driver, two furnace 'bodies' - one tilting for pouing, the other inverting for investment casting. Also a 15kW cooling unit to chill the furnace driver electronics. There is also a pottery kiln that I use for burning out wax lost wax investments, and also a full size Fanuc Robotic Arm that came with my Partsmaster and had been used for automation demonstrations.

[awemawson]

My current project is a Traub TND350G CNC lathe. Weighing in at over four tons it's no lightweight. Main spindle motor is 18.5 kW (25 HP) the opposing spindle is 12kW, it has a twelve station tool turret using 30 VDI tooling which can be powered by a 2 kW motor.

The previous owner had suffered a failure on one of the axis servo units and trying the fix it had dug himself deeper and deeper into the mire, blowing up more and more. Eventually he managed to destroy the Traub TX 8F controller which is a re-programmed Mitsubishi one. When I arrived on the scene it was destined for the scrap yard as beyond economic repair, but I'm glad to say I've brought it back from the dead and it is now in full working order. I'm currently spending some time learning to program it. It's not the sort of thing that you want a tool crash on as it has rather a lot of oomph behind it :)

This rebuild has been fully documented on the Madmodder forum, so I'll not go into too many details as that thread is currently up to 18 pages!

There is a little video here of my experimenting with a bar puller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lx5ETYsBHg

And here is a link to the thread in 'Madmodder' - it's called "Oh Blimey I bought a CNC lathe !!!" I think that you have to be registered there to see the pictures, otherwise you just get the text

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,8261.0.html

Enjoy :)

[LJP]

Well awemawson, that is quite a beautiful set-up you have there. Very impressive indeed!
Larry