Freecycle Hauser Mill (small, very, very small mill)

[zx9]

Oh I don't doubt it for a moment, it certainly deserves a fair bit of thought before ripping it apart. I dread to think what spares would cost if they are even still available. Sometimes all too easy to value a thing based on what it has cost.

I remember when I bought an old George mill off a chap and he showed me a watchmakers lathe in a box. Now I may be a bit off here but I swear he said it was worth +£1000's. It was a Schaublin/Lorch/Boley <whatever> and it was a beautiful little jewel of a machine.

Part of me wants to suggest such a task is best left to a professional but I am sure zx9 is as capable as anyone. My guess is the bearing set (bushings??) will be the £££ item to ruin. Seriously better not give it a quick spin to see if it's free

Not until the machine has been cleaned up. Needs a careful thoughtfully managed approach imho and well worth taking time over.

It is missing among other parts the base plate or stand, I know that because it has the counterweight mechanism for the knee in the lower part complete with wire rope but no counterweight or any where for said counterweight to fall.

 

[Screwdriver]

It is missing among other parts the base plate or stand, I know that because it has the counterweight mechanism for the knee in the lower part complete with wire rope but no counterweight or any where for said counterweight to fall.

The lack of the oem badge also makes me suspicious. This may be the remains of a parts robbery. Beautiful little machine though...

 

[zx9]

Though to be fair, the difference between a ZX9 and a ZX10 is mindbending...

And neither of them are any fun in this crowded corner of the world, I am seriously considering outing the very low mileage near mint ZX9 and getting a Z650 or something else you can thrash around on at less than warp speed. By Z650 I am thinking early 1980s, loud exhaust, bikini faring, metallic British racing green paint, the sort of bike I lusted after as a spotty teenager.

 

[Screwdriver]

And neither of them are any fun in this crowded corner of the world, I am seriously considering outing the very low mileage near mint ZX9 and getting a Z650 or something else you can thrash around on at less than warp speed. By Z650 I am thinking early 1980s, loud exhaust, bikini faring, metallic British racing green paint, the sort of bike I lusted after as a spotty teenager.

I am still super happy with my old Gen1 Fazer thou. It just does everything I need and not too much of everything!

I have a brace of XT500s waiting for my mojo to kick back in and one of those will be just the ticket around here (no pun intended).

They just don't make 'em like they used to and while I am quite happy to learn a ferociously complex 3d program to play with plastic printing or cast a roving eye over interesting hobby CAD, there are PLENTY of people who would rather find themselves a decent, non-Chinese, old school quality milling machine - the smaller the better. I think that's where you scored big time with that beauty.

 

[zx9]

I've just clocked the price of 8mm collet sets.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I've just clocked the price of 8mm collet sets.

Come on, save us the Googling/eBay trawling.

 

[MattF]

Come on, save us the Googling/eBay trawling.

You resisted mentioning the terrible pun.

 

[zx9]

It would appear that there were various manufacturers providing near identical machinery to the horological workshops, nothing changes. Here is a similar machine made by Dixi https://gramho.com/media/2283388167063690559 I am still looking for pictures of one of the machines with a knee, Tony's site says that they would be used on a block to accommodate the knee travel but that would not allow room for the counterweight, the search continues.

Here is a Hauser with a knee all stripped down.
https://gramho.com/media/2213459929546148220

Time to try to contact the owner of the Instagram account.

 

[zx9]

I have made some progress on the little mill.

Having managed to free off all the slides and remove the spindle, all not too difficult there was a layer of solidified oil on most of the sliding parts or some very light rust which was preventing movement of the ways. The solidified oil was easy to deal with as it dissolved in WD40, the rust on the ways I removed with an oil soaked rag the exception being the knee which was much worse and needed a well used green scotch bright pad and oil. The spindle is still coated in solid oil where it sits in the bronze bushes but has a thick layer of rust to the exposed surfaces the plan is to run that between centres in the lathe but that is for another day.


Detail of rack and scraping on the knee, still a light surface rust in parts but I don't want to go at this with any thing too abrasive. The surfaces either side of the scraping are non contact so in time with be cleaned with wire wool and oil.


Knee re fitted showing surface that meets the scraped surface in previous picture and the ways on which the across (wrong word I know but I can't think what direction that is x or y ?) slide rests, again with non contact surface nearest us.



The rotary table to take a milling vice, I have not worked out what the damaged item is in the centre.

The milling slide should have an arm similar to the one that moved the spindle slide up and down though obviously it is of a different shape and has a different linkage. I will try to scale off the few photographs I have found of complete machines and draw up the missing parts then have a go at prototyping them just to get the geometry right then make new ones from steel ad aluminium not the cast iron and bronze of the original items.
Other than that I am missing a couple of cheese head screws and the afore mentioned manufacturers badge.
I have not decided what to do about the 'snow cem?' over spray, it needs to go but I don't want to take off the original paint with its admiralty applied stencilled paint. Need to think about that one.

 

[gaz1]

try this place for sizing up

https://www.nielsmachines.com/en/henri-hauser-bienne-swiss-small-milling-machine.html

 

[zx9]

try this place for sizing up

https://www.nielsmachines.com/en/henri-hauser-bienne-swiss-small-milling-machine.html

Thanks @gaz1 the video reminds me that mine has the counterweight on the knee, lead counterweight is also missing plus it would need a plinth or small stand to allow the counterweight to hang down. I suppose a motor mount and counter shaft could be pivoted from the plinth to accommodate both horizontal and vertical mode.

At some point I will need collets and a draw bar too.

 

[zx9]

I should be able to get the dims from this

It is the parts bottom left and third from left.

 

[zx9]

Cleaning up the spindle and pulley, spindle nose fits in a 19mm collet so that must be 3/4" it would appear that the Swiss were still using imperial measurements and fixings in the 1930's. Slight marks on the bearing surfaces but no scores or major damage from the damp unlike the more exposed areas of the spindle.



There is a neat row of digs in the edge of the pulley steps, I suspect it has fallen over at some time, the spindle runs true between collet and tail stock centre so happy with that. ( or as true as can be expected on a seventy odd year old lathe running a set of Bang Good collets on a backplate I machined )

 

[Shox Dr]

That’s a beautiful bit of kit

 

[zx9]

That’s a beautiful bit of kit

Certainly is, and the precision is way beyond anything I have dealt with before. The taper on the right side of my photo is actually a sleeve over the main spindle, if you lubricate them with engine oil they will not fit together unless the film is almost wiped off. Same with the pegs that lock the slides, too much oil and they vacuum themselves together locking solid. I need to get some sewing machine oil because 5W 30 is too thick though I might try LHM power steering fluid I've got some here and it is almost as thin as water so will probably do for the constant trial fits and re fits.

 

[MattF]

Those spray tins of light oil which Lidl occasionally sell would be a good one to use. Smells lovely too.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Those spray tins of light oil which Lidl occasionally sell would be a good one to use. Smells lovely too.

The Wahl hair clipper oil's pretty good too, damned if I can remember where I bought mine...

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[zx9]

Those spray tins of light oil which Lidl occasionally sell would be a good one to use. Smells lovely too.

Sounds good but the smell of oil is a matter of opinion, I love the smell of warm Rocol but Mrs Zx9 always complains about it.

The Wahl hair clipper oil's pretty good too, damned if I can remember where I bought mine...

Dave H. (the other one)

I expect that would be about the right viscosity but trendy hair dressers product sounds expensive.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Sounds good but the smell of oil is a matter of opinion, I love the smell of warm Rocol but Mrs Zx9 always complains about it.

I expect that would be about the right viscosity but trendy hair dressers product sounds expensive.

Not if it's something I'd buy, tight as a camel's in a sandstorm, me...

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[zx9]

Looks like I will have plenty of time to spend with the Hauser over the next few weeks so I have made a start on re finishing some of the smaller castings which are brass or bronze (?) whilst the simpler parts are milled from steel.

Part at top right is the lifting arm from the vertical slide, it is obvious that the drive belt has been rubbing on it in so I will fill the damaged area with JB weld prior to etch priming.

This

Is the left hand end plate from the horizontal slide, I am experimenting with wrinkle finish paint this is after twelve hours drying the finish is starting to form reasonably so we will see how that develops over the next couple of days.
I sprayed the brass / bronze casting with acid etch primer first but having never done anything like this before it is all a bit of a suck it and see, I have read that they were originally finished as requested by the company that commissioned the order and could have been wrinkle / crackle painted or smooth finish. This one appears to have had a smooth finish overlaid with a wrinkle coat the Admiralty marks were applied to the smooth paint which has clearly been masked before the wrinkle coat was applied. I did think, was it sanded to remove the wrinkle then stencilled but I don't think so the edge between smooth and wrinkle is too well defined.
The question of is it a bitsa or has it been robbed for parts was raised earlier in the thread, every part so far has been stamped 35 which I am guessing was year of manufacture or number in the batch supplied? I don't know. So in my mind it is looking like the missing parts are just that, missing / robbed out or still sat on some ones bench during a garage clearance.