Definitely weird.
I like my tool post top to sometimes be even lower than what your photos as showing.
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I purchased another 1250mm of 1 1/2" tube, providing me with a pair of probably more practical length rails for the Universal when it is finally shoehorned into the shed. If I do any wood turning I imagine it would be restricted to file handles, knobs and the like. ( Should I ever get serious I do have a Tough lathe stored away in bits.)
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Back when I acquired the Tough, I purchased a small Durden toolrest and that rest along with a reduction in height of the banjo's mounting boss have provided the clearance I probably need. I turned up a spacer to ensure that the banjo clears the casting.
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The tailstock in its original guise had, to me, some real shortcomings. Its ability to both rotate and slide vertically with no provision for repeatable centreline alignment made no sense. Maybe some parts were missing?
Anyway, the tailstock needed to raised to centre height and prevented from rotating once aligned. So I made a pinned spacer.
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I used the lathe to drill the hole in the casting because there was insufficient clearance on the mill. Settting it up took about an hour and a half, driiling the hole, no more than ten seconds. More often than not the way.
BT
During the process of further rust removal and rebluing of some of the thicknesser's fixings I noticed that the handle had slight mushrooming where the aluminium was in contact with the cast iron cap. Not a particularly flash design feature IMHO. Neither was the method of handle attachment and endplay adjustment. I could do little about the attachment and adjustment but I could improve on the contact surfaces betwween the handle and cap.
The handle is held in place by means of an expanding mandrel.
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I also made a new slide locking lever from 316.
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BT
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I was tempted to buy a Durden stop currently listed on eBay but it only had a single clamp, not the pair Woodfast supplied with their original stop, so I went the DIY route.
The original rods were probably 5/16" and would have been a loose fit in the holes in the gauge body. 8mm turned out to be a good fit and the rods I used are 316 stainless steel. The two piece clamps lock solidly on the rods with minimal effort using the Kipp levers which in my mind are an improvement on the wing nuts used by Woodfast.
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The end plate on the rod is a deviation from the original's 90 degree bent end. I will probably use the Universal's sanding disc on metal, some of which will undoubtedly be small in section and the bent bar would not be up to the task.
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The lack of Woodfast progress is due to a need to work on a Tough drill that if I didn't reacquaint myself with I would forget what I had been doing. It was the project I had been working on before Bob gave me the Universal.
The bandsaw needed and still needs some work. The blade tensioning/centring mechanism was worn and the original diecast knob absent.
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My major concern was the potential breakthrough of the centring adjuster socket in the aluminium casting. To facilitate access for a repair of the socket and also replacement of the tensioner's worn cross dowel I resorted to a hacksaw. Woodfast must have intended replacement of the entire mechanism when they welded the dowel in place. I had intended to replace the flat plate but decided against it when it became apparent the nothing was symmetrical. I made three cross dowels before striking a combination of chamfers and offsets that worked with the worn cast housing.
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I made a steel insert that incorporated a hemispherical bottomed and taper sided socket to accommodate a radius nosed adjusting rod and bored and counterbored the casting to suit. Cheap carbide router bits work on some steel.
Then I made a steel handle to replace the missing original. I used 4140 and treated it with Rust Off to give it a 'phosphate' finish. The tensioner's knob received the same treatment.
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Tyres next.
After numerous distractions I thought it was about time I moved the Woodfast from under the back verandah and up into the shed. For me to move the machine by myself I needed to remove the table.
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With the table removed I discovered a crack in the table support / Z axis slide casting.
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Then to further my disappointment, turning the casting over revealed another crack in the same lug. With the counterbored holes it was a bit like 'break along the dotted line' !! The casting is expected to do a difficult job supporting the table with one fairly dainty outboard stay. Winding the table up or down with the stay locked would probably be the cause of the cracked casting.
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The prospect of distortion if the cracks were welded or brazed, along with the inability to perform either necessitated a mechanical solution. Initially I thought I could install one M10, one M8 and an M5 socket head cap screw in the casting but their was insufficient room for the M10. A fear I had during the drilling and tapping was that the forces involved might cause the lug to break away. I was careful and lucky.
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The dimension of the casting meant that the drilling of the 6.75mm ( 17/64" ) tapping hole, the 8mm clearance hole and the 12mm counterbore were done on the 'front' side and the tapping done from the rear because none of my standard length 8mm taps were long enough to tap from the face. I used a 17/54" transfer punch mounted in a collet chuck to ensure alignment of the holes.
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I reduced the diameter of the cap screws head to suit the 12mm counterbores. I will probably add a skewed M5 screw on the inboard side of the casting between the counterbored mounting hole and the edge.
All the screws will be locked in place with Loctite RC635 retaining compound. Hopefully good for a few more years !!
BT
Big effort there Bob. Any regrets for taking on the machine
I was wondering how this project was going. Lucky you've got the skills & equipment to do the repairs & make the new parts.
Mike,
This was one repair that could have been done with only a drill press. Not much skill involved other than drilling and tapping. Progress had halted because it was approaching the painting stage and I'm not a big fan of painting. Procrastination is easy.
Bob.
I'm not a fan of painting either, that's why I did mine with hammertone, covers a multitude of sins.
To reinforce the casting between the inner mounting hole and the edge which has a minimum thickness of 8mm, I used a 1/4" BSW cap screw. My M6 taps all have shanks larger than the thread whereas some of my old 1/4" P&N taps have reduced shanks allowing them to be used in deepish holes. Ensuring that the capscrew was located 4mm from and parallel with the edge required some careful measurement and clamping.
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I applied Loctite RC/635 retaining compound to the threads, shanks and heads of the three screws and after the appropriate curing time used JB Weld steel epoxy to conceal them. First time I've used JB Weld and I'm impressed. Previously I have used Devcon Steel Putty which is wonderful stuff but considerably more expensive. After some additional touching up with automotive body filler and priming I airbrushed on some colour matched spraying enamel. The undulations in the surface are existing, not my handiwork.
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I included a location map so that any future owner of the machine doesn't reach for their welder if they ever see those cracks.
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Bob.
Nice repair Bob.
I contrast your "precision" repair, with the repairs I'm attempting on the bandsaw mill at the timber yard. The mill is a complete kludge, nothing is effing square on this thing, I keep finding half stripped adjustment bolts and nuts, and imperial and metrics appear to have been used in the wrong bloody holes. There are limited tools and materials to fix things with on site so I end up bringing things home to fix. On Tuesday I needed to tilt the outboard blade guide by 1mm so I looked around for a shimming material and found a couple of beer cans. I looked up up the thickness of cans and found they are about 0.1mm so I cut up a can and folded it over 9 times and used that. BINGO
This morning I have to tidy up the very sloppy length adjustment of the inboard blade guide arm. Its a ~500mm long 50mm SHS that slides inside a 200mm length 5 x 65 mm SHS with only one 3/8" bolt on the outside to lock the undersized 50mm SHS in place.
The 65mm SHS is welded onto the mill so it would be a major job to replace that so I'm going to mill a piece of 50 mm angle to slide inside the 65mm SHS to act as a packer/shim for the 50mm.
Thanks Bob.
I am very fortunate that no one fiddled with the Universal prior to your hand over. No stripped bolts. No nasty welds. Nothing overly knackered. Dealing with the mess created by others holds no appeal, even less so off site !!
I removed the motor to facilitate moving the Universal up to the shed and so with the motor out I thought it would be a good time to have a close look at the variable pitch pulley setup. It functioned as intended when I connected the three phase Cadet to a VFD a year ago so I wasn't expecting any surprises. I did however find a couple of features that had me wondering.
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A pair of socket set screws lock the Varispeed drive onto the motor's shaft which is spot drilled to locate one of the screws with the other screw locking the key into the keyway.
Two 1/4" BSW socket set screws lock the end cap of the drive onto the drive's spigot which is an integral part of the fixed pulley sheave. The set screws have deformed the thread.
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I expected some serious galling beween the spigot and the sliding sheave's bore but apart from number of small gouges and marks it wasn't too bad.
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The sleeve has been 'phosphated' with Rust Off and overcoated with Rustoleum satin clear spray in an attempt to keep rust at bay.
Next the motor and a search for Delta.
BT