Thread: Bueller's shed - a noobs journey through vintage machinery

Played around with the control circuit on the VFD last night, got a working on/off toggle switch and 12v leds to show VFD power and running state. Went and bought all the stuff from Altronics this afternoon to box the switchgear but something arrived that's distracted me! Bought a Vicmarc VM90 from the market place here, very excited to finally have a chuck I can use.







Couldn't for the life of me get the insert out so I decided to leave it in place, probably not necessary to remove anyway as it's the right size for my lathe. Everything else is getting degreased and cleaned before I apply a fresh coat of grease and reassemble. Very happy with it for the price I paid, it's seen a fair bit of use but the scroll and body are both in great shape so it should keep going for quite some time.

Oh and before I forget here's the disassembly. Keep the parts for each jaw location together, these things only go back together one way.

1. Remove the two screws on each jaw and they will then lift right off.

2. Remove the grub screw on the side of the chuck.

3. Close the jaws so you can see the stop pin at position 4. Flip the chuck face down and tap the pin out.

4. Remove the outer circlip on the rear of the chuck.

5. Slide the rear scroll wheel away from the front of the chuck, remove each backing jaw and put aside with their partners.

6. The scroll should then be free to be removed.

seems in better condition than the nova one I cleaned up recently

trouble with these chucks is that you really need three hands to use them ...

Yeah I've got a spindle lock on my lathe, removes the need for the third hand luckily.

All done with the chuck cleanup! Didn't go crazy polishing it, just got it cleaned up and then gave it a quick polish on the buffing wheel.

Cutter block arrived yesterday, unfortunately it arrived moments before my work contract was canned so I kind of forgot about it until now. Looks great, also came with a T-handle Torx key for blade changes and 5 spare blades, thought that was a nice inclusion for the base price. Top marks for Woodcraft/Wizard, they were great throughout the whole process and I'll definitely be using them in future.



Bit unmotivated due to the work news but going to try and get the ute loaded up later on today if I can drag myself off the couch.

That work news is too bad Dan.

Maybe you should look to retrain in IT security? Plenty of work in that are especially after what happened overnight.

Cheers Bob. Luckily there's an extreme shortage of mobile developers in Perth so I should have another job lined up within a week or two hopefully. I just hate the whole interview process and the lack of a Monday to Friday routine, my depression tends to creep in when I'm sitting idle for too long.

Just more reason to crack on with projects I suppose!

Wound up staying home today but I got plenty done. Reassembled the fence, fitted bearings on the cutter head and spent some time at the buffing machine getting things shiny. Also fitted the belt guard and dust port to the cabinet.



Buffing time was cut short by rain so a little bit more to do tomorrow and then I can start packing up for the trip.

Spent last night wiring up a permanent switch solution to control the motor through the 12v control circuit on the VFD.



Green LED is a 12v panel indicator and shows VFD power, switch under the missile switch cover turns the motor on and off. Pretty happy with the way it works, would have liked a more standard on/off setup using individual momentary switches but would be far more complicated to wire up. Next VFD conversion will be the Vicmarc though so I'll do something more complex next time.

The steel backplate wasnt originally planned but I stuffed up two boxes drilling the LED holes and couldn't be bothered buying a third so I made that up to cover the extra hole.

Finally got off my bum and shifted all the jointer parts out to the shed. Super blurry shot of everything laid out ready for assembly below, it was after dark by the time I got it all unloaded so I couldn't get it to focus very well.

Not a huge deal of progress since last weekend, me and my old man decided to wait till next weekend and we're going to clean the whole shed out before I start moving more stuff in. Did take the engine hoist out there this morning though so everything is there and ready for me to assemble the jointer.

Got another project to keep me busy in the meantime, my Dad gave me an old Stihl chainsaw to look at which he was given a few years back. It's all complete but doesn't start, apparently some plonker put fuel in the oil and oil in the fuel so its going to need a fair bit of work. Never tackled a combustion motor before but should be a good learning experience. Made in Germany as well which was nice to see!

Nice find.

Looks like an 08 (50cc) or 08S (56cc) or 08SE (60 cc)
see Model Profile: 08

Being a top handle saw they were quite dangerous because there's not enough leverage to counteract a big kickback and they will pair part the operators hair and scone.
These were near the last of the bigger top handled saws they made.
Don up it could be a collectors item. Had you got the original bar and what about the dogs(spikes at the start of the bar mount)?

I have all the gear to do a cylinder and crank case compression test etc.
The first thing you will need is the workshop manual.
Let me know if you can't find it and I will ask on the arborist site.

Yep the original bar is there (date stamp is 1963, wow) as are the dogs. I've got everything bagged up so nothing gets lost, will get hunting for a manual! Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by bueller

Got another project to keep me busy in the meantime, my Dad gave me an old Stihl chainsaw to look at which he was given a few years back. It's all complete but doesn't start, apparently some plonker put fuel in the oil and oil in the fuel so its going to need a fair bit of work. Never tackled a combustion motor before but should be a good learning experience. Made in Germany as well which was nice to see!

as they are two stroke, you want to hope the plonker put oil in the fuel. Fuel in the oil, not a real good idea to put a solvent in the chain bar lube though
You used to be able to go to a stadium moto X event in Spain and find a whole bunch of nutters with chainsaws like that - bar removed, it's their version of the vuvuzela.