Harrison Horizontal/Vertical Mill Restoration

[Carl Wilson]

Thank you for that! It's a pain when those things blow. If I was in your place I'd do the delta conversion then go for the 240 to 240 type. They are less expensive and more numerous.

I think the really cheap ones from eBay seem to blow a lot more often. The ones I use are Teco. They aren't that expensive but are good quality. Teco recently became part of Westinghouse.

 

[minimutly]

Well I'm going to test the repairable bits of the current one, if nothing obvious and repairable surfaces I will look at combining the rectification/doubling stage with a 415/415 emerson one I have. This also has the DC terminals available to connect to the dc link, so also worth a try. Last option will be to spend £500 odd on a new one.
I will start a thread...

 

[Carl Wilson]

Sounds like a plan. You can get 240 ones cheaper than 500 though.

I fully understand the motivation to rise to the electronics challenge that combining two units presents.

 

[minimutly]

Yes it's a challenge allright, but could be a very time consuming one - all the while "the job" is sitting on the miller waiting....

 

[Carl Wilson]

I get that one too. I think there comes a point where you have to ask what it is you want to achieve. The sub projects to complete the main project become projects within themselves...

I think there are times when it is neccesary to go down the path of least resistance. If that means buying an off the shelf solution then fair enough.

I used to spend a lot of time designing and making bespoke electronics for projects, speed controllers, relay drivers etc. It takes such a lot of time, prototyping, debugging etc. Now I almost always go for a ready made Chinese module solution that cuts the development time down by an order of magnitude.

 

[Carl Wilson]

In what is quite possibly the least interesting photograph that has ever been placed on this forum, here you can see that the Gryphon motor and the feed gearbox have all been masked up ready for painting.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

In what is quite possibly the least interesting photograph that has ever been placed on this forum

I'm sure i'ts not.

 

[Carl Wilson]

It must be up there.

 

[Carl Wilson]

1st coat of primer on.

There will be a lot of painting on this project, but you will be pleased to know that I don't intend posting yawn inducing pictures of all of it.

That is a coat of Paragon zinc rich grey primer on now. 16 hours before the second coat can go on.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Rather more than 16 hours as I am currently "down south" with my family. Back in about a week.

 

[minimutly]

Been looking into my inverter issues. Stripped and checked everything I could, no issues found. So I connected it back up, it runs.
Couple of things I learnt. The motor is 415v delta connected allready, so a 240v 240v inverter won't work.
The dc link voltage on my old one is 630Vdc.
The voltage across the motor terminals is 570 to 620 vac, I can't see any way to adjust this...
Will be measuring the currents later.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Made a bit more progress this morning. Second coat of primer on the gearbox bits.

Made a tool to enable fitting on the front oil seal on the Gryphon motor.

This will allow me to reach in through the stator and press the seal in correctly.

Made a second simple tool to protect the acme threads on the leadscrew nut as I pull the bearings from it.

Thus:-

Here is the leadscrew nut with integral wormwheel.

 

[Carl Wilson]

This afternoon I stripped down the suds pump.

If you've been following this thread from the beginning you'll recall that this was the first part of the machine my Son and I removed.

The unit was absolutely filthy and I gave it a good wash off in solvent prior to dismantling it. Even then, horrible lumps of congealed God-knows-what kept falling out of it.

The pump is essentially two halves, a rotor/stator unit and the impeller housing. The impeller housing is a fairly robust casting. A plastic impeller is held onto the end of the long rotor shaft by a screw.

The lower bearing of the rotor is centralised in the impeller housing by a corrugated shim. The bearings on the rotor are both in good condition. There is also a lip seal at the motor end of the impeller housing.

The bottom of the impeller housing is closed out by an aluminium plate. This has the first bit of corrosion I've seen on the project so far. There has been some fairly serious galvanic action going on here between moisture and dirt trapped by the impeller and the dissimilar aluminium plate and cast housing.

There is a new one in here though.

Here is a view of the stator. I'm going to be running the coolant pump from single phase using a Steinmetz connection. I won't need to do anything invasive for the delta conversion. There is a terminal board at the opposite end that gives access to the connections.

 

[scottmk1]

Is that an MG Electric pump? If so I have some new suction strainers to fit them.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Thanks for that Scott! According to the manual it's made by Electrosuds. Not sure who they were/are. My Harrison M250 lathe has an MG pump so maybe it is.

I have the suction strainer, it's very dirty but will come good after a solvent bath.

 

[Carl Wilson]

First coat of Harrison Blue/Grey on today. Started making the new bottom plate for the impeller housing.

The inlet hole is 1.25 inch diameter and I have a hole saw for that. The aluminium plate I'm using is L163, which is an aircraft spec. It is essentially 2014A clad with 1050A and pre heat treated to the T3 temper. No reason for using this other than it is what I have to hand in the right thickness.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Today I started to reassemble the suds pump. I gave the stator housing a good clean and then refitted the rotor. The top end bearing seats against a series of shims and a wave washer, all held in place by a circlip. The picture of the rotor was taken prior to my cleaning the shaft up.

I then installed the terminal strip and connected the stator up in delta.

There is now one spare terminal as previously this was used for the star point.

I then started to make the new plate for the bottom of the impeller housing, using the piece of L163. Hole sawed the inlet and drilled the mounting holes. Then tapped three holes to 4BA for the suction strainer screws.

I cut the plate out with a fretsaw. I have a plan for the coolant system, which is to fabricate and fit an enclosed, separate tank in the bottom of the stand.

The pump will be fitted into this and all drains will return to it. I'm trying to save the newly cleaned and refurbished main motor from the vagaries of living in coolant.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Finished the plate for the impeller housing this evening. I will get some paint on it tomorrow.

 

[Carl Wilson]

Reassembling the Gryphon motor...wrong seal! How many more times?!

Correct one ordered...suitably slapped self round the back of the head.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Reassembling the Gryphon motor...wrong seal! How many more times?!

Up up side to this is you'll be able to disassemble it with your eyes, closed should it need it in future. In fact, you'll be the forum expert in such things.