New to me machine coming soon!

[PixMan]

Steve,

Reading your post from above I do wish I could put it on leveling feet. The problem is the limited height I have available in the shop. I have a set of 4 leverlers, but they are (I think) an M20 thread and too tall.

Russ and his son are coming over this afternoon with his big crowbar to help me get it in place. Powering it up will only take a few minutes as I've got the lead from the old machine ready to hook up.

More pictures when we get going on it and have it running!

[PixMan]

Well with HUGE thanks to Russ (Wrustle) and his son Andrew, the machine is now sitting on the floor! My older son Steven also helped, but it was Russ using his experience, his long steel pry bar and some aluminum blocks he gifted me that made all the difference in the world.

I've just got to get some of those dense rubber/fiber pads or simple shims to get a little rocking stopped as it's apparently not a perfectly flat concrete floor.



I went back later and got all the big pieces of stuff moved back into position, including the 24"x36"x4" surface plate/junk collection table. That thing must weigh about 300 pounds, so it took all I could do to drag it back into the middle of the floor. In it's base is a 125 pound 10" Yuasa rotary table with footstock that I will likely never use again now that I have a machine that can mill circles. It's a struggle getting that thing out of the wooden box and up onto the machine table.

One impediment to progress was that as I started rotating the head to it's normal upright position, I realized I don't have a drawbar for it. I sent a text over to the seller and he replied immediately that a friend of his who used it last broke the drawbar and that "I thought I mentioned that." I suffer from age-related CRS (Can't Remember Sh*t), so if he did tell me it slipped my mind. Another $40 or so and I should be able to cut metal. In the meantime, I'll lube it up and give it a long-overdue bath.

[f350ca]

Well done and looking good. But just how do you break a draw bar, inquiring minds need to know.

[PixMan]

I didn't ask and I don't know how you break one. The seller told me that his friend "broke it off right in the collet and I had to throw away both pieces." Sounds like he over tightened like CRAZY.

I did some looking and it appears that the drawbars from these machines has the extra long hex. I seem to recall that from when I was working at Norton Company and our department bought one of these new (no Prototrak.) Along with the smoothly rotating handles, you could change a tool without retracting the quill all the way to the top. Old habits die hard, I doubt I'll change tools that way.

[Mayhem]

No dent on the motor from the long handle wrench he left on the draw bar and turned on the power?

[f350ca]

Yep, hitting the start button would do it.

[wrustle]

(06-07-2013, 06:42 AM)PixMan Wrote: I didn't ask and I don't know how you break one.

Hi, my name is Russ....and...ummm.......ahhh......I've broken a few drawbars on my Lagun.


Yeah, it's not too difficult to do actually. I believe the threads on drawbars are 7/16-20.

You know when you've got a half inch end mill in that there R8 collet and you're going to be slotting some steel plates, and you don't want the cutter pulling out so you give it just that liiiiiittttlllleeeee bit extra UMPH......on the wrench???.......well, that's the just the start..........


Then a after a few months......you got that same job again, or something similar, so again.....just a little more UMPH.....but this time the "UMPH" turns into, "HUH"?......and you realize that CRAP......I'm turning it in the right direction but it's NOT getting any tighter......soon after that, "CRAP" turns in to "SH!T"!!!!!

I just stripped my drawbar!!!


I've bought two kinds before. The cheap ones, where the long rod is fit into the hex and pinned there.........right where they break!!

And the expensive kind, (just north of $100) for a one piece construction. Those I find work very well, because if you do strip the end, a quick trip to the lathe with a proper cutoff and chamfer tool and you're back in business a few minutes later.......ummm......with a little shorter drawbar that is.......

Best Regards,
Russ

[wrustle]

(06-07-2013, 07:24 AM)Mayhem Wrote: No dent on the motor from the long handle wrench he left on the draw bar and turned on the power?

The secret to that is.......using an open end wrench!

That way, when you hit the start button.....it flies off, and knocks you upside the head reminding you......HEY STUPID.....YOU FORGOT THE WRENCH!

Saving you from damaging your precious machine!

[EdK]

(06-07-2013, 02:14 PM)wrustle Wrote: The secret to that is.......using an open end wrench!

That way, when you hit the start button.....it flies off, and knocks you upside the head reminding you......HEY STUPID.....YOU FORGOT THE WRENCH!

Saving you from damaging your precious machine!

[PixMan]

I bought a new drawbar from a local distributor, a Dorian one made in Texas. It cost me $46.70 including shipping, while the same thing from MSC was almost $53.00 PLUS shipping. They are thieves.

It should be here by Wednesday.

I'm going to take a ride on my bike up to the seller (about 65 miles from me) on Sunday to get the books, micro cassette tape recorder (how programs are stored and uploaded to the machine) and a PILE of expensive quick change tool holders. Pix of the haul when I collect it.

My fondest dream for this machine right now is not for me to use it, but for my dad to get well enough to spend some time paying with it. He's in a rehab hospital right now, trying to regain some weight and lung capacity. He'll be there at least a few more days, I'm hoping he sees enough dramatic improvement that he stays a little longer and gets strong enough to walk out of there without the oxygen he's been on for the past few months.

BTW, in all my years of using step pulley and variable speed types of Bridgeports and their clones, I've never once left the 3/4" box wrench on the drawbar and started it. Nor have I ever left a ley in the chuck of a lathe, and I'm not about to start doing that.