Cleaning up an old milling machine

[ml_woy]

(09-30-2012, 08:37 AM)Mayhem Wrote: I would assume that the gearbox reference would be for a feed box for the x axis, which your's doesn't appear to have. My Kondia has a gear box where more modern mills have motor controlled feeds. Of course, I could be wrong - but that is my guess.

Either way that is a nice looking mill.

The gearbox I was referring to set below the set of pulleys and the main head. Subsequent to writing my post I have found out that the mill does not use gear oil like the other models but uses grease gears in the gearbox which drives the motorized or "geared" quill. We took the two covers off both sides and found sixty year old grease which has now been removed and replaced with fresh product. Like a dummy, I purchased five gallons of gear oil, ($100), that I now have to hope the supplier will take back or I will have it for life.

Everything is progressing to get it up and running, the bolt with gear that controls the rotation of the head in the Y axis has been removed and will be modified to accept a wrench today, all way wipers have been replaced, gears for automated down feed packed with grease, micrometer dial detente springs replaced. If everything progresses as expected it should be running by next week.

[stevec]

(09-30-2012, 09:58 AM)ml_woy Wrote: I have found out that the mill does not use gear oil like the other models but uses grease

Did you find documentation supporting the use of grease or did you assume since that was what was there it's supposed to be?
We've seen a tide of opinion that indicates grease will eventually cease to actually lubricate, as in sit close by and watch.
Just curious.

[ml_woy]

Well group, here is an update on my mill project. I am happy to report the project is finished and the mill is up and running. I sure learned a lot on this project, first I learned there is no such thing as a cheap milling machine. What started out as a $1,200 project ended up closer to $3,000. I found a couple of expensive problems with the mill and I decided to do some upgrades as well.

First after removal of all of he grease and dirt I found many quick repairs had been made over the years. Nothing had been repaired properly, just patched together. These repairs were made by the owner two back from the person I purchased it from. The guy I got it from actually did the most amount of damage by not understanding what the machine needed to run properly and not bothering to get any documentation on it.

I was fortunate to have the help of a retired machinist friend of mine who was able to get a lot of it apart with very little documentation. Some of the work was just taking the gear boxes off of it and cleaning them out and replacing fluids, others required some lathe work to make some missing parts like handles and levers. Drive belts were replaced after a couple of trips to the parts houses for correct sizes.        

The big expense was replacing the static phase converter with a rotary phase converter. Seems two speed, three phase motors, require rotary converters and the prior owner had attempted to run the motor with a static converter and burned up one of the winding's. This required having the motor rebuilt after it filled the garage with smoke when it was started. This was the major expense, coming to over $1,200.00        

One thing that helped with the project cost was I had a can of coins in the garage that I had stored away after I retired. When I was working I used to throw my coins in the can every night after work. When I retired and we moved to the country I had stored the can in the garage and while moving the mill to its' final place I stumbled across the can. I decided it was time to take it to the bank and cash it in for currency and it provided me with $2,200. This paid for the motor and money for a DRO.            

[stevec]

Well done ML, too bad you had to spend $1,200. on the RPC. You could have built one for a fraction of that.
One bonus in now having the RPC is the door is open to other 3 phase machinery.
I've looked for that "change can" many times and never found it ( or I found it too often )

[ml_woy]

(12-31-2012, 08:55 AM)stevec Wrote: Well done ML, too bad you had to spend $1,200. on the RPC. You could have built one for a fraction of that.
One bonus in now having the RPC is the door is open to other 3 phase machinery.
I've looked for that "change can" many times and never found it ( or I found it too often )

Thanks for the comments, the motor rebuild was $800.00 and the RPC was the rest of the $1,200. It is amazing how the change in your pockets adds up over time. I must have accumulated that over fifteen years.

[DaveH]

That is very nicely done ML

DaveH