Thread: Some things do last!

Theres a few things in the shop, some of em are older than me!!

A few of note

1938 Phaff industrial sewing machine. Plate says West Germany. Thing gets me puzzled is wasnt east/west Germany a post WW2 acold war thing? Originally belonged to the service mechs father, serviced by him for much of its life. Was purchased for shop here a few years ago. Good unit.

Ye old steel cased 9 inch B & D grinder. Back when they made good stuff.

Crompton bench grinder. Sold by Forbes. (before became Hare & Forbes). Takes yonks to slow down, so bearings are still fine.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

I have just taken the electric motor out of my 10 CF AirMac Compressor .It was driving a Clisby V twin.

Who else has got tools that just run and run well for years and years?

Grahame

I have a Binks Bullows 7.5 cfm air compressor with a Swedish pump and Aus electric motor that is still going strong, from when my father bought it new in the 1970's.

It gets used a lot, which really determines the lasting ability of these things. Some other old stuff I have like big electric drills etc hardly get used.

My big Royco Taiwanese drill press is also 1970's and never misses a beat. And my Waldown TPG is also 1970's era - it's run a couple of magneto spindle bearings over the years.

I think any power tools of decent quality will last if you don't abuse them.

Rob

Still have a 3 ton lathe, no makers name, best guess is a copy of an English machine from about the turn of the previous century. Probably built in WA around early gold rush days. Was found in Perth in 1950's and used in a Southwest earthmovers workshop for the next 20 years for all their heavy work. When they upgraded in the early '70's I shipped it to the Kimberley and it did another 20 odd years in my earthmoving shop. Took it along with other gear to my hobby shop when I "retired" and it still gets called on for the big rough awkward jobs that no one else wants.
In its early days it was converted from lineshaft drive to electric motor drive, and the motor is by Metropolitan Vickers, England, 5hp, built 1914. Has a manual Star/Delta starter which is very handy to inch big items round in the 20" 4 jaw chuck when aligning them. A bit of research has found several more lathes in WA of different sizes, sharing common parts and features, no names or numbers, but with strong similarities to English "Willson" designs, so it's a fair guess as to what the makers copied. Seems that the earlier migrant British tradesmen who didn't find gold at least found jobs in engineering to supply the mines, and the larger foundries and engineers would have been fully capable of producing their own machine tools quicker than back ordering from England. So yes, some of those old boys built things that were made to last.
My Cincinnati No.2 Universal mill was made in Britain round 1942, has done time with a huge mining company, and is only just run in. Regards,
Combustor.

My oldest power tool is a 1/2" corded Makita hammer drill that would be pushing 30 years. It has drilled a lot of holes over this period and I replaced the brushes a few years ago. It's a heavy old thing with steel gears and an annoying high-low gear selector that can accidentally slide into neutral if you are not careful, but I still love her.

Originally Posted by Blu_Rock

My oldest power tool is a 1/2" corded Makita hammer drill that would be pushing 30 years. It has drilled a lot of holes over this period and I replaced the brushes a few years ago. It's a heavy old thing with steel gears and an annoying high-low gear selector that can accidentally slide into neutral if you are not careful, but I still love her.

Where I started my apprenticeship in 1968, we had to blow holes in 50mm plate before cutting an internal hole with the Oxy acetylene profile. The boss came in with one of the new fangled Makita drills from the the business next door who were dealers for Makita at that time. They drilled a 10mm hole through that plate and the Makita drill just got slightly warm -just able to feel it on our hand.That began a life long respect for Makita tools until just lately when their Makiata quality has become much like all the others. A shame really.

Grahame

Most of my power tools are from the 1970's and without exception have all been worked very hard but are still going strong.
All of them are either AEG or Makita.

Originally Posted by BRADFORD

Most of my power tools are from the 1970's and without exception have all been worked very hard but are still going strong.
All of them are either AEG or Makita.

Of the half dozen drills I have, I always reach for my AEG 500 watt model.

It's just so nice to use. Well into it's second set of brushes and third chuck.

Pity AEG is now owned by Ryobi

Rob

i have a couple of makita power tools that i have had and use a heck of a lot for over 30 years actually thinking on it 36 years i am pretty sure one is a cordless 7.2 volt over worked like i was trying to kill it and it still works and the other is a 750 1/2 drill with hammer 2 speed box , and vary speed trigger and forward and reverse i have had that thing so many times that i could smell it and it still works good as day one . and another is a metoba drill had it for more than 30 years still works fine though i dont use it much now cos i dont seem to need to . angle grinders however i have killed maybe a dozen of em and the worst of the bunch was an atlas copco .
killed 2 heat guns roasting coffee beans the best of them i have found and its still going is my" bosch pgh 630 dce ".
almost forgot 38 years old also and a thousand miles of weld my old wia miniarc stick welder . the wheels broke on it and thats all, i put a bigger set of better wheels on it and its still my only welder and gets used heaps it would probably win the prize for my hardest working still going tool .

johno

Well I got the news on the motor today.The caps were both Ok but the windings in the motor were shorting to earth.Not worth replacing they said.
The replacement motor is nearly $400 a Teco. Anybody heard of them?

No indicator of country of origin but I will guess where it comes from.
Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

............ Anybody heard of them?
No indicator of country of origin but I will guess where it comes from.
Grahame

Teco-Westinghouse is the 3d largest electric motor maker worldwide. They have factories in many countries including Australia. As far as I know, all their low voltage 3-phase motors sold in Australia are made in China. As far as I know, nobody manufactures low voltage 3-phase motors in Australia anymore. The term low voltage refers to 240/420V motors; larger and more powerful motors use higher voltages and are still made here.

Hi Grahame Collins I work for an Australian air compressor company as a electrical tech . the Teco Single Phase is the motor used on 70 % of the Good quality Belt driven unit sold I Australia . just make sure it is a compressor rated motor . By the way only use the lead supplied with the motor never extend the lead in any way including adding more leads to extend the distance to the power point as this will kill your motor very quickly.

We get a lot back from people after we have replaced the motor and the customer has used a 10 meter lead and the motor blows the capacitor in a few days and blame the motor .

I spent today working on a water cooled piston compressor built in 1956 and still running every day in a tyre shop filling truck and tractor tyres . has not missed a beat. Just had to change the valves and copper gaskets . It was made to last

By the way $400 is a good price to

Rodney

Originally Posted by rescuepanda

By the way only use the lead supplied with the motor never extend the lead in any way including adding more leads to extend the distance to the power point as this will kill your motor very quickly.

No extension cords. Seriously.

I have a Clisby compressor that has been runing for more than 30 years was manufactured 10 mins from where I was living when I purchased it, also have a couple of AEG drills an and a Makita jigsaw all still going strong.
On a side note mate purchased Ozito eletric staple gun 4 days ago ( against my advice) to fix his shade cloth, did not even last two rows of staples, had it replaced second one did not work straight out of the box, took it back for a refund. He is now fixing the shade cloth by hand

Originally Posted by Bryan

No extension cords. Seriously.

I agree Bryan. A correctly rated, well maintained, extension cord should be physically no different that a longer run of mains supply line.

The perception that cords are causing problems probably comes from the porkies that some customers are likely to sprout.

Customer statement: "I used a new 10m long 15A cord"

Truth: it was 3 x 20 m long cords made by grandpa half a century ago from cable rated for lighting and being used out the back of Widgemooltha.