Cleaning up an old milling machine

[ml_woy]

           

(09-17-2012, 11:06 AM)ml_woy Wrote: Well Saturday was the red letter day in that I finally took delivery of my first vertical milling machine. It had been six months in coming and finally I got to experience all of the excitement of loading and unloading a 2,800# piece of equipment. But after two hectic days the job was completed.

Now comes the big chore of cleaning up an old piece of equipment and getting it functioning. Over the past months I have read many accounts of some fantastic restoration projects of old equipment. Many returned to condition better than the day they left the factory. Now I am looking for some advice on how to accomplish this with my old piece of iron in the easiest way possible. No need to reinvent the wheel when so many others have gone down the same road before.

My goal is to have a functioning mill that looks respectable. I am not planning on tearing it down to the last nut and bolt and rebuilding from the ground up. Just get it functioning properly and looking respectable. With that said, the machine has been fairly well cared for over the years, no rust, a few worn out parts and some expedited quick fixes. There is a lot of old way oil caked on it, some nicks and signs of end mills and drills tapping the milling table. All the dials are dull and coated with old way oil so you cannot read the numbers, some have been pinned so they do not rotate without removing a set screw because the tension has gone out of whatever was to hold them in place.

What is the best way to try and clean this up. I had thought about using the power washer on it before taking it into the shop but than had second thoughts about rust forming on surfaces which I could not get completely dry. Any advice from you old hands who have done this before is appreciated.

Well thanks for all of the help on getting this beast cleaned up. I am attaching some pictures of the project to prove it really exists. The first picture is it arriving on the trailer ready to be unloaded yesterday. Second picture is what it looked like close up. Third picture is what a little elbow work did to get through some of the grime.

So far I have found that the felt in the wipers for all surfaces need to be replaced. In the coolant tank in the bottom I found a ton of cuttings and a tie down block. The cranks on the end of the table had been fixed as pertinently engaged, but was able to free them up. The dials for moving the table in the x axis have been pined and need to be repaired. Have to figure out why they have no tension.