Harrison Grinder

[Dieselman 63]

All re-assembled and functioning properly. I like to build and dismantle the machine a few times, it helps me understand how it all goes together and what needs cleaning. The arm hasn't been treated to filler yet.

The reservoir is in place and the lid is done too - sadly the cast on this is just a bit rough for my liking so I'm going to fill it

Today is a two-fold reason for celebration - I successfully rebuilt the motor for the Fobco and now it spins freely unlike before when it always felt a bit stiff. The reason was a washer in the front was not properly aligned with a spring washer I think.

The other reason is that I managed to fix my HTC M8 which has been in a drawer for about two years. I got thinking the other night about how it would be a challenge that would pay greatly if I could fix it. I knew it was just the screen and charging port, so I bought some bits for $40 from Hong Kong and they arrived today. From the type of work I do on these machines to working on a micro computer I can tell you it was intense, but at the same time the discipline and understanding that each item must be removed in order etc that machines teach you paid dividends in my patience in taking the phone apart.

More updates soon. The spray primer is running out and I'm out of sandpaper so if my supplies turn up soon it'll be the dreaded body skimming this week...

 

[Dieselman 63]

A little work from today. I bought a paint stripping disc to get the last stuff off and bring the cast up to a nice shine. Then I sprayed it with etch primer. There's a lot more to do and that means more paint wheels. I got a flapdisk too for tidying up and rust.

I'm thinking of galving the inner wheel with black zinc for the reservoir as its so rusty in there, a test fill of water just clogged it with sludge. That's another product to buy...

 

[Dieselman 63]

A paint wheel has bitten the dust, but progress is good.

Off with whatever is on the metal, then any blemishes are touched up with a flapwheel to make filling easier. The iron is degreased, then etch primer is applied.

 

[Dieselman 63]

These holes (the large one intersected by a threaded one) are going to be filled - they're for the standard wheel guard, but mine has the fancy trough one on the left. The seat for the guard is milled - I'll use another scotchbrite wheel at the end once filler is on to get it back to bare metal.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Time for more grinder work. I flipped it over and ground off the paint remains on the other side til the metal was shiny, then degreased and etch primed. Only one side left to do now, and that little bit at the front where the filler is - I'm going to take that off because I didn't clean the metal up as well as I have on the stuff under the etch primer.

The new filler, Novol, is really nice compared to the Septone stuff. It sands easy and it goes on like silk, there's hardly any drag. I bought a set of proper applicators for it because they were cheap ($7) and I have to say it's been a good decision, they're very handy. If I can get the back done and that bit at the front without buying another stripper disc I will be happy. Then I can worry about the fittings later

 

[Dieselman 63]

Before this update I'd like to thank @brewdexta for highlighting the effects of not degreasing before repainting - I had rushed and forgotten this step, so the first pink filler which you can see in the photo above was duly chipped off, and came off rather easily. It was good to put my mind to rest buffing out then washing with turps before spraying etch primer over. I've almost finished the entire 'main' casting, of course I had to run out of primer right at the end of the job when I had a little square left. Another trip to the shops is obviously in order, and I might pick up some hi-build primer when I'm there too.

So today I've been thinking about the motor; whether to swap it, vfd it, whether it even works... when I lifted it up it spewed black dust everwhere. I thought I'd got rid of all of it but it coughed up another load today. If you touch it your fingers get black instantly - like carbon, but I can't work out where it's come from

The cast is pretty, metallic green. With a good slosh of turps this tidied up very nicely. I'm happy about this because it's something I won't have to repaint (if I keep it).

That cap in the centre unscrews and holds a race within which grease flows from the cap above. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been greased since new in 1955... the grease is like plastic and falls out. The bearings feel good but are pretty dry.

Then the other side of the race which clasps around the bearing is coated with this black dust

I half expected to find fire damage but it looks okay in there. The dust is a mystery to me, unless it's just never been cleaned in its 63 years.

Is there a way of opening up the windings to find more connections so I can make this 400v motor run in 240v? Any pointers are welcome (and I might need a short tutorial!)

In unrelated news, my hammer handles showed up today in the post so I was able to finish them off and give the posse a fresh coat of blue Hammerite. Just the 1lb and 4oz to go and there's a full set of English ball peins

 

[Seadog]

The dust is probably grinding residue and dust picked up during its liketime. These machines tended to be used until they stopped in many places. A good blow out with an air line(outside), bump on a bench and repeat until clean should suffice. The star point should be accessible but some close ups of the stator end where all of the windings are bound together may help in identification if you can't find it.

 

[Dieselman 63]

How about some grinder progress?

I ran out of etch primer (again) but on Friday I was in town, so I managed to pick some up. Different brand, seems the same and it didn't react which was good. Then it was time for some filler

Then I stood it upright. It's not actually that heavy. You wouldn't want to carry it alone but propping it onto its side and lowering it down is no hassle. All the holes are plugged with pegs, dowels and cut-down nails to prevent filler going in them. It has a vague look of a sea mine!

And in case you missed the other thread where I converted the motor from 400vac to 240vac, here's what I'm left with. The old star wires haven't yet been fitted to the terminals as the input isn't sorted yet (I'll need to buy some flex).

Next step - filler, and lots of it!

 

[oilyneil]

Nice job on the refurb!, looking at the state of your pulley all that black dust is the remains of the drive belt!
The motor would have sucked it through as it cooled itself, so blow it out and regrease the bearings and you are all good.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Nice job on the refurb!, looking at the state of your pulley all that black dust is the remains of the drive belt!
The motor would have sucked it through as it cooled itself, so blow it out and regrease the bearings and you are all good.

Good call - I think you're right, the belt was proper chewed up! Reminds me I need to buy another one.. more cost...

 

[Dieselman 63]

The motor tensioner bolts look to have been in some sort of vice-grip or pliers to turn them. It's somewhat ironic that the factory drilled holes so that you could use a length of bar to do this and they evidently haven't been used.

Two second job with a nice file and a bit of care, then a quick sand and a go under the wire wheel

I'll sort the threads out later

 

[Dieselman 63]

Sorted the water delivery system - this was fully seized when I got it, and it wasn't so easy to get it operating as smoothly as it does now again.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Polished the water valve. I can't fully blame the previous owners for its condition as I had a serious go at it with both pliers and hammers, but even before then I'm sure someone had either had a go at freeing it up or just turned it with pliers for fun. Either way, it took rather a lot of sanding! Must have taken about half a mil at least off each side starting from 40 grit up to 1200 and a bit of Autosol just for fun. She's come up very shiny indeed - I put it next to this screwdriver handle to show the mirror effect.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Uni has restarted. In all honesty I'm glad, and it also means winter, my favourite season is on the way. At least I can gauge how hot I want to be in winter, fed up with all this 25 degrees at night malarky now. Uni also means that I can get to the sandblaster again, and I'm not going to waste a minute as this is my last year.

I decided I would chip all the paint off I can get to and use the blaster for hard-to-reach places. I also can't transport larger castings to uni which is a shame. I'm pretty sure it's only for 'project use' so I don't want to get caught in there with a 20kg casting spending 45 minutes blasting it, so I'm doing the small bits, like this guard

Caked in paint.

I spy five coats of paint. Some other bits have a red colour in there. The last one is probably the worst, it peels off in places

Around the water inlets it's really shot, there's rust between the layers of paint. This justifies the full stripping for me, same with the body. Big rust patches just get worse.

Chipped and cleaned up with sandpaper. I'll get the rest off with a stripping wheel back home, another item for the shopping list.

This is what I want to blast out, really can't be bothered poking around with a chisel and screwdriver!

Same with this, get it right back to bare metal then spray galv it instantly. I know it's not the best, but it might at least do something.

The casting is pretty rough on these small pieces, they've been given a good fettling with a grinder in places. For a machine that was made in 1955 though the bits must have been made around '53, I suppose the industry was still recovering after the war

 

[Turbo]

It's really handy having the blaster at your disposal, those little perks are nice to have.

At a previous employer they had a lathe, milling machine, welders, grinders, plus loads of tools all in a nice clean heated spacious workshop, even had a painted floor. My boss didn't mind us using it for our own work as long as we kept it tidy & of course in our own time. I had the advantage of working on night shift, no bosses around so if there were no breakdowns happening I would always have a project on the go. When I look back now I realise how lucky I was & I really miss those facilities!

 

[Dieselman 63]

It's really handy having the blaster at your disposal, those little perks are nice to have.

At a previous employer they had a lathe, milling machine, welders, grinders, plus loads of tools all in a nice clean heated spacious workshop, even had a painted floor. My boss didn't mind us using it for our own work as long as we kept it tidy & of course in our own time. I had the advantage of working on night shift, no bosses around so if there were no breakdowns happening I would always have a project on the go. When I look back now I realise how lucky I was & I really miss those facilities!

I’m happy to report mission success. Two annoying parts blasted and galved. Used a big old three phase wire wheel to brush out the inside of the guard, funny getting one machine to fix another virtually identical! More parts to do so I’ll take them in tomorrow. Piccies later

 

[Dieselman 63]

The machine did a really nice job of cleaning the crud out of the guard. Here's a before/after with the zinc galv on the right one.

And on the other side, brushed up ready for degreasing and etch priming

Which is what happened next to the two parts

Tomorrow this support arm gets the blasting treatment in this awkward spot

This one had the red paint on as well

I'm toying with the idea of taking this big boy to school with me too - it's just such an awkward shape to clean. It's not ridiculously heavy so I'll probably give it a go

Until next time...

 

[Dieselman 63]

It's really handy having the blaster at your disposal, those little perks are nice to have.

At a previous employer they had a lathe, milling machine, welders, grinders, plus loads of tools all in a nice clean heated spacious workshop, even had a painted floor. My boss didn't mind us using it for our own work as long as we kept it tidy & of course in our own time. I had the advantage of working on night shift, no bosses around so if there were no breakdowns happening I would always have a project on the go. When I look back now I realise how lucky I was & I really miss those facilities!

Yeah I've been putting these jobs off until I had access to the blaster again haha. I also managed to get myself a tutorial on the mig welder tomorrow (after cracking a steel bar in the bender!). I'm looking forward to it, if I like it I might investigate buying one.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I managed to get the arm done and into etch primer

Then I gave it a coat of green paint. The internal bits were green on the machine before I stripped it - whether this is original or not I do not know, but all the same it looks nice and I have green paint left over from the drill.

A casting defect revealed itself during the blasting and I have filled it with epoxy.

The front guard has been given a few coats of green two. These parts have the galv underneath as they're for the water-fed wheel.

I will chip some more parts and then carry them down with me to the big smoke.

Something quite scary happened the other day at uni. I was using their lathe, Colchester Student 1800 to make some screw guard/spacers for this project - more on that on a later post. The coolant was blocked on the machine I was working on so I went to find one that had it working. The only one I could find was the big old Triumph 2000. Now here's what I should have done - checked it was not in gear - but I didn't. I turned it on and the machine roared into life at 1800rpm - scared me half to death with the 'what ifs' but there you go, something to be aware of. Check the lever is in neutral and the speed the machine was previously set to if it's not your machine. It will be something I always check there from now on!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

That's why you should never leave the key in the chuck for ''storage'