Thread: Shoulda known

HI,
Yeah I have been thinking that I should pull My finger out and getaroundto pulling My DM-45 Mill/Drill apart that I got of Standaco as I do know that the Oil got dirty quicker than it should have. You would think that the Chinamen would have come up with a bath to put the casting through to get rid of the Sand or perhaps they do already but just don't change the bath water often enough.

If you go to the arc eurotrade web site (Engineering Tools | Lathe | Milling Machine | Model Engineering | arceurotrade.co.uk) , it's interesting to see that they offer a preparation service for their machines. At least they are prepared to admit that the machines are coming out semi-finished. Will H&F ever do that?

Michael

Hi Phil,
I am glad you got to it before it did any damage, it's unbelievable they would let these expensive machines out the door like that.
Even though the dollar is down the prices have sky rocketed up, but the quality stays the same? If they don't want to pay the Chinese guys to do it, whats wrong with hiring young guys here to flush head stocks etc as a pre delivery check over.
I was lucky to find a grain of sand in mine from Gasweld and it came strait out of the crate from china full of oil, so they must pay for this service or just a better quality supplier than what H&F is using.

I was having a close look at the inside of your gear box and was surprised to see all the ribs instead of solid cast.

Here are some pictures of mine I took about a month back when measuring the spindle outside diameter for Lather.
I know yours is the next size up, but you can see there are no ribs to save weight.







Dave

It is astonishing knowing the amount of sand etc. in these machines that a service isn't available. Am real glad I did it now. The ribbing has two purposes from H&F. One is for strength, the other is as a shelf for the casting sand to sit on lol.

Phil

I am not knocking your machine, so please don't think that. I am just amazed they are cutting cast iron that way, I wonder if this is a new thing they are doing on this model? It would be interesting for someone with an older 340 to put up pictures or have a look at there headstock casting to see if it was always done this way.

I noticed with the different manufactured mills I got that there where places where you could see one had cut corners to save cast iron, so it does happen.


Dave

Originally Posted by Dave J

I am not knocking your machine, so please don't think that. I am just amazed they are cutting cast iron that way, I wonder if this is a new thing they are doing on this model? It would be interesting for someone with an older 340 to put up pictures or have a look at there headstock casting to see if it was always done this way.

I noticed with the different manufactured mills I got that there where places where you could see one had cut corners to save cast iron, so it does happen.


Dave

No worries Dave,
I don't mind taking a 'ribbing' now and again. Get it...'ribbing'....ahh come on fellas, this is champagne comedy. Gees, where did those crickets come from.

Phil

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

No worries Dave,
I don't mind taking a 'ribbing' now and again. Get it...'ribbing'....ahh come on fellas, this is champagne comedy. Gees, where did those crickets come from.

Phil

Crickets??? all i heard was a baby crying......The boilers your used to working with would probably be chortling away by now though!

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

No worries Dave,
I don't mind taking a 'ribbing' now and again. Get it...'ribbing'....ahh come on fellas, this is champagne comedy. Gees, where did those crickets come from.

Phil

LOL,

Dave

Hi all,

Some time back after taking possession of mt Dad's lathe I took the headstock apart too.I never intended to but after removing the top to look at the oil (to see what state it was in) I saw all the sand, metal and grit. So one thing lead to another. I ended up completely striping it until it was a bare cast iron box. After cleaning it with a heavy duty degreaser, some of the paint started coming off. So I totally striped it of paint inside and out, jet washed it and repainted the inside with POR15 machinery paint. The POR15 paint is a pain in the butt as it requires meticulas preparation for it to work but the results are great.

Glad I did. It's as clean as a whistle!

Oops. Last pic should be the first. Yes all the stuff in the bottom is sand and grit. Imagine this being passed through the "precision bearings" over and over again!

The pics taken where for my own benefit as I was not a member when I took them. I have pics at various stages of disassembly so that I knew how it all went back together.

Good work Phil. At least you know it's right now!

Simon

That was a knee slapper phil!

Simon,
Are you sure that's sand? It looks like gold dust to me. Probably worth more than the lathe.
Russell

The ghost in the machine?

Glad I read this!!!!

When and if I get a machine guess what will happen first?

Greetings Chaps all this talk of gear boxes reminded me of my first lathe it was called a Shenwah. It was a belt driven beastie. One night I needed to engage a back gear screw. Do you think I could get it to go in. Finally I blew a fuse and dismantled it. All it needed was a champher on then hole and there was no more trouble after that but when I looked at the front pulley I discovered the cuttings from when the bronze bushes for the back gearn were still in the pulley. This meant that the bloke who machined it had carefully placed it in a crate for shipment to a bloke who was equally careful when he assembled the machine no to disturb the cuttings. No wonder we model engineers called the Taiwanese Terrors. I eventually started to covert it into a Pattern making lathe but discovered the underside of the head had been machined by an angry mouse and had been finished with an Angle grinder. You live and hopefully learn, Yours 4-6-4