Harrison Horizontal/Vertical Mill Restoration

[Carl Wilson]

So that shows then there are two types. The early ones (mines about 1967-68) with grease nipple type oilers and the later ones. My Harrison M250 lathe, built 1983 also has the flush type oil fittings.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Back on with the mill. I've spent the last while sorting out some alignment issues on my lathe.

I'm back to making the table locking bolt now.

The blank is made. I now have to put a 3/8-16 UNC thread on it and then mill the flat and cut out.

Having a nut to tighten the old bolt encouraged previous users to use a spanner, exerting too much force and bending the lock. My intention is to replace the nut with a fairly chunky knurled handwheel. That should allow only hand tightening to happen.

 

[Carl Wilson]

This evening I made the 3/8-16 UNC thread. Clocked the part in the four jaw then used a die.

Now I need to do some milling to finish this part. Then I'll look into making a knurled handwheel.

 

[Mark Davison]

Mine's got a 3.5" long T bar brazed to the nut, even with that 'nipped' up it is incredibly easy to over power it without even realising it is locked. I have a habit of only remembering its locked when I go to lock it again. Its very weak in comparison to the other 2 axis.

 

[Carl Wilson]

That certainly alters things. Maybe I'll have to have a longer handle.

Maybe your lock is bent like mine was. I think that once mine was bent, it became a self licking lollipop. Being bent, it failed to lock effectively, so people tightened it more, so it bent a bit more...

 

[Mark Davison]

Mine was indeed badly bent when I bought the machine. I straightened it as best as I could. You make a good point, in that if the two faces aren't meeting properly the clamping may be seriously compromised. Im nearing the end of a ball screw and cnc conversion at the moment, so hopefully I won't be as reliant upon it at the end.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Yes I remember your ball screw conversion. I hope it's going well. I remember there was a bit that was going to be a tight squeeze.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Hello and Happy New Year to you all. It is a long time since my last post. The family and I are all well, and I pray that all of you and yours are too.

I apologise for the lack of updates. This has been due to there really not being anything to report. I've been working fairly solidly since October and since I've been home I've just had no inclination to go into the workshop.

Anyway, today I took hold of myself by the scruff of the neck (not an easy thing to do, I assure you) and made some progress on the table lock bolt.

My youngest son did some milling to generate the slot that engages with the table slideway. If you go back to the start of this project you'll see that he helped me de-panel the machine. Looking at him now makes me realise I'm dragging this job out a bit.

So flats machined on and slot generated.

This slot just needs to be widened slightly. I will endeavour to post a picture of the finished article. I will be back at work soon though, so don't get too excited.

 

[Milkybars]

I got to tell ya ..Love it ..the work in progress is kind of a side show to your young fella playing a part

 

[addjunkie]

I got to tell ya ..Love it ..the work in progress is kind of a side show to your young fella playing a part

Home schooling, its all the rage these days!

 

[Carl Wilson]

I agree. He learns a lot in the workshop, numeracy, physical and engineering principles as well as hand skills. It's one thing to learn about a scientific concept and quite another to actually witness it.

Recently I've subscribed to Land Rover Sophie on YouTube. She is a young lady with a high level of skill. I think her Dad must have taught her too.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Carl Wilson Veering fftopic: for a moment , but did you ever get to the bottom of the water problem at the house?

 

[Carl Wilson]

I didn't.

 

[Carl Wilson]

The part is finished now. Here it is next to the old one.

The slot that engages the ways to lock the table doesn't need to be as deep as on the original. I've left the section below the slot a bit thicker which will hopefully give it a bit more strength.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

The part is finished now. Here it is next to the old one.

Nice work, congratulations to Jnr for his part

 

[Carl Wilson]

Thanks Slim. He really enjoyed it. I don't claim to be some kind of precision machinist, but I can usually produce a decent facsimile of the part I want.

 

[Fastdruid]

Excellent efforts.

I too have a Harrison Milling Machine, only the "Universal" model.

Mine had theoretically been converted to single phase by use of a start and run capacitors. I tried it once and the motor half heartily span and let all the magic smoke out.

I feel kind of bad now looking at your efforts as I just binned the old motor (well, binned it after it sat around in the garage for about 4 years) and just swapped in a new 1.5Kw motor with a VFD and a taper lock bush and pulley.

VFD I fitted into the base at the front, plenty of room for it.

Mine too had been treated to the "it's a grease nipple" treatment and much nasty rancid grease was blown out of all the oil ports.

Beyond the grease and the electrics the only issue with mine is that Z was a bit "crunchy" (because the whole handle assembly was loose and had damaged it) and the Y screw was bent.

Long term though I plan to convert mine to CNC so I've not bothered with the small "Gryphon" motor, although in theory mine has already been converted to be usable the plate was unreadable so I'd never known what power it was!

 

[Carl Wilson]

Hi @Fastdruid,

Thank you for your kind comments. I'm doing my best to make a good job of putting my mill back together.

The only thing I'm not doing is scraping the ways in, it being the sort of thing that men with white beards tell you you can't do. Actually I would like to do it, having watched Mathew Look of Look Creations do the same to his Elliott Shaper. However I lack the correct tools and most importantly confidence.

There is a lot more work to be getting on with yet so please continue to follow my small efforts.

Thanks again.

 

[ryan2020]

Hi @Fastdruid,

Thank you for your kind comments. I'm doing my best to make a good job of putting my mill back together.

The only thing I'm not doing is scraping the ways in, it being the sort of thing that men with white beards tell you you can't do. Actually I would like to do it, having watched Mathew Look of Look Creations do the same to his Elliott Shaper. However I lack the correct tools and most importantly confidence.

There is a lot more work to be getting on with yet so please continue to follow my small efforts.

Thanks again.

you don't have to listen to the men with white beards

 

[Fastdruid]

The only thing I'm not doing is scraping the ways in, it being the sort of thing that men with white beards tell you you can't do. Actually I would like to do it, having watched Mathew Look of Look Creations do the same to his Elliott Shaper. However I lack the correct tools and most importantly confidence.

Well that'll depend on if they need doing or not and before you go there you'd want to get them ground so they're flat.

If the wear is enough that they're not flat there is no point in scraping them. If they need grinding then you'll want something like turcite to make it back up (and then it'll be better than it was when new). You can scrape turcite too. Here's a video I was watching the other day on doing it.

The real question is over the Z axis, the big cost in getting the ways machined is getting the machine there in the first place. The knee and rest are however able to be hand carried so as long as the Z is good the Y and X can be worked on _relatively_ cheaply.