Thread: Wadkin RS6 restoration

I got the parts back off Mr Doubleboost and am very pleased. He subbed the gibs to a pro shop and they are ground perfectly. You cant grumble at £2O each.


What break

Wadkin always painted inside their enclosures

It took 4Omins to mask the letters and 4O secs to spray them


The flatbelts for these are silly money, so me being thrifty I had a wide conveyor belt made up then I just cut a 1.5" strip off for a new drive belt.

You do have to remember to install it when youre putting the spindle in.

Time taken 1O2hrs

Hi Wallace. I really enjoy reading about your restorations and the pictures show how thourough you are. But what happens to all of the machines? I don't see any in the background of your photos. Please tell me you get to play with them once you're finished.

I sell a lot of them to feed my wadkin habit. There are 7 machines that ive done buried in the clutter of my workshop and a few more outside waiting to be done. I have everything on my holy grail list apart from a nice early bandsaw. After the lathe I have an MF to do then I'm going to do the RU I got for myself.

Living the dream ... I think my dream list would look like this:

Wadkin PK 4th Generation or Oliver no. 80 + AGS (For smaller stuff)
Wadkin SO or BLY
Wadkin MF (Could be tempted with a Robinson SLE or Thomas White NJ)
or
Wadkin DM or BMA
Wadkin LM
Wadkin RS
Wadkin DN (Currently have one I am restoring)
Wadkin BGY (Awaiting delivery)
Wadkin JTA or JY
Wadkin BRA or CK or CC orThomas White ED
Wadkin EKA or ECAHmmm what am I missing? Oh and I'll need a 4 car size workshop at a minimum too

Buried within my junk I have PK, EQ, RS, JY, MJ, CK, LP, CQ, JQ, MS, Oh and a whitehead moricer and Holroyd grinder. Then outside theres the RU, CC, SO, GW, NH, MF.

Yikes! Faire to say you have your time cut out for yourself! You've certainly carved out a dream collection there, very jealous!

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...Wadkin BRA or CK or CC orThomas White ED...

Or, if you want a REAL sexy radial arm saw, get a Thomas White SO

aWhiteSO1.jpg This example at the New Zealand Timber Museum, Putaruru.

aWhiteSO3.jpg aWhiteSO2.jpg aWhite SO 2.jpg

aWhiteSO4.jpg

These things have a fascinating motion, with the motor rocking as the arms work a motion that gives a perfectly even depth of cut.

Cheers, Vann.

A bit more done, the best way to clean up your knobs is stick it in a drill and spin in your hand with sand paper. Then finish of with t cut.


The same goes for the horn handles

The handle on the banjo is not original and is wobbly

The solution put a bushing in

Its so nice having the wadkin recessor I did at the beginning of the year. It works a treat with the vfd



The dealers tag came out quite nice, I think I'll be keeping it

Now to see if the bit doubleboost made fits.

Time taken 119hrs

A few little job and then its done, the handle for the cross slide needed tarting up a bit.


Then I needed a pin to centre the tail stock, the only stuff I could find was an old stair rod

Took me a couple of attempts to get the taper correct, its only 1mm



In our town we have one of those hardware shops that reminds me of the two ronnies sketch, '4 candles', it has an owner in brown overcoat that finds your stuff. The town is dying but this place is still surviving. Anyway whilst he was getting my order I noticed some rolls of rope for wood burners I think. I thought it would be perfect for the electrical door gasket. £1.5O

I then had the bright idea to make something for the spindle locking pin to go


I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and stood back to look at my work, I then realised I'd messed up. This lathe didn't come with a banjo so I pinched the one off my lathe. Only problem is its a 1O" version.

Look how high the tool rest is

It took me a while to find the correct size, I had to buy another lathe.


Finito








Time taken 129hrs

Beautiful job. You have great patience.
Would like to have seen some pics of how you assembled the spindle and the bearing adjustment.
Phil

Outstanding - how did you mount the VFD in behind the controls cover?

The vfd just say fits in sideways, its not secured but cant rattle around