Horizontal mill?

[Maker]

Today I took the the vertical head off, there's no draw bar, it just unbolts from the front and wiggles out. Getting it back on was a struggle, you have to line up the drive slot thing and hold it in position with one hand and get the bolts in with the other. It has a Morse taper by the way.

I loosened the drawbar on the top of the vert spindle and have it some good hard whacks with a copper hammer but to no avail so I tightened it back up and left it.

I took the change gear cover off the front and found that I have the 39 and 25 tooth gears which will give me either 1.8 or 6.5 inches per minute, depending on which way around I put them.

I took the coolant pump out and started to clean that up, there was loads of coagulated crap blocking the inlet that had to be scraped out. With all the coolant and swarf in the sump I took out as much as I could and I've got it in a bucket, how should I dispose of it? And to clean it all out, can I use water or do I need a different solvent?

As far as I can make out, the motor will only run on 415 volts ( the piece of paper says at the top "for fractional horsepower motors" and this is 1 1/4 HP and I can only see 3 contacts anyway so it looks like my options are an expensive 230 to 415 volt inverter or a make rotary phase converter with 415 volt output.
Will any motor act as a generator when the shaft is turned or will I need a special one?

Has anyone on here ever built a rotary phase converter that could share some advice with me?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I'd be inclined to split the motor and see if the junction of the 3 coils is visible, if it is all you need to do is separate the 3 wires and solder on 3 lengths of insulated wire and bring those out to the terminal cover.

Your motor is hard wired for Star and you only have access to one end of each of the three coils, you need to have all the coil ends available under the terminal cover so that you can wire it as delta.

 

[Maker]

I'd be inclined to split the motor and see if the junction of the 3 coils is visible, if it is all you need to do is separate the 3 wires and solder on 3 lengths of insulated wire and bring those out to the terminal cover.

Your motor is hard wired for Star and you only have access to one end of each of the three coils, you need to have all the coil ends available under the terminal cover so that you can wire it as delta.

I'll try to take the motor out and have a look inside but I don't really trust myself not to ruin it and I would still need to do it to the powerfeed and coolant motors. I've just had a quick glance on ebay and used 3 phase motors go for tuppence so I really think a rotary phase converter is the way forward - I wouldn't have to do anything to the machine and it would allow me to run other things like compressors, etc.

I'd always thought star connection required neutral at the centre.

 

[Wedg1e]

I've just seen this, they look perfect for me but I really don't have £300 to spend on an inverter

That's the bad boy, mine's a 3HP I think. I paid £250 secondhand, by the time you've fannied around with rotary converters, spare motors etc. you'll be old and grey and will probably have spent most of that.
With a bit of thought you can use the one inverter for multiple machines... which it sounds like you'll end up with
When I was your age I was still building Airfix kits so whatever you do you have a good start to an engineering background

 

[DanielW]

When I was your age I was still building Airfix kits so whatever you do you have a good start to an engineering background

Hah but we could afford to buy the airfix kits back then,today you need £750 to build the titanic.....

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mantua_titanic_static.html

 

[brewdexta]

I'll try to take the motor out and have a look inside but I don't really trust myself not to ruin it and I would still need to do it to the powerfeed and coolant motors. I've just had a quick glance on ebay and used 3 phase motors go for tuppence so I really think a rotary phase converter is the way forward - I wouldn't have to do anything to the machine and it would allow me to run other things like compressors, etc.

I'd always thought star connection required neutral at the centre.

I broke out my star wound brook motor on my Tom Senior so I could wire it Delta, not too difficult.

 

[Wallace]

Do you need a spanner for the Clarkson collet? If so, measure the A/F as I have one sat here.

 

[Maker]

Do you need a spanner for the Clarkson collet? If so, measure the A/F as I have one sat here.

I'll measure it later, what do you want for it?
So how do I wash out the sump then?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

If it's milky under the oil layer chances are it's water soluble oil.
Bail as much as you can out then use blue roll, newspaper etc. to wipe as much of the crud out and then wipe out with parafin/White spirits/diesel/Jizer.
If you can get the pump going you can pump it out but stop before the oil scum reaches the pump screen as it can gunge up the pump.

 

[penfold]

I took the coolant pump out and started to clean that up, there was loads of coagulated crap blocking the inlet that had to be scraped out. With all the coolant and swarf in the sump I took out as much as I could and I've got it in a bucket, how should I dispose of it? And to clean it all out, can I use water or do I need a different solvent?

As far as I can make out, the motor will only run on 415 volts ( the piece of paper says at the top "for fractional horsepower motors" and this is 1 1/4 HP and I can only see 3 contacts anyway so it looks like my options are an expensive 230 to 415 volt inverter or a make rotary phase converter with 415 volt output.
Will any motor act as a generator when the shaft is turned or will I need a special one?

Has anyone on here ever built a rotary phase converter that could share some advice with me?

As Wendel says finding the star point isn't that hard, although it is fiddly and time consuming; if you dismantle the motor, take pics of the coil windings and post them up I bet we can spot the star point. If you can solder competently, you can convert motors.

As for a bucket of grotty old cutting oil, take it to the council dump (or maybe a friendly local garage if you ask nicely)and pour it in the oil recycling tank.

 

[roofman]

are you just un-doing the draw bar or getting the locking nut too that sits on the collar

 

[Maker]

Just the draw bar. Is the locking nut the round piece with the holes in the side?

 

[oilyneil]

The autolock will only be held in the top, the drawbar is to snug the taper in,,if it's been done up too tight you may need to give it a proper whack with a big hammer to shock the taper out, undo the drawbar bolt a few turns and let it have some ! the ring with the holes in at the bottom wont be holding it in as that is part of the chuck itself.

 

[Maker]

The autolock will only be held in the top, the drawbar is to snug the taper in,,if it's been done up too tight you may need to give it a proper whack with a big hammer to shock the taper out, undo the drawbar bolt a few turns and let it have some ! the ring with the holes in at the bottom wont be holding it in as that is part of the chuck itself.

That's what I thought but I didn't want to hit it too hard and break something.

 

[oilyneil]

It's not unusual for them to be tight,but they are often over tightened,,,,,
Personaly I would bolt the head back on the mill, with the head sat in normal upright position,tighten all the mounting bolts and find a couple of bits of hardwood blocks to put under the head either side of where the autolock is, then wind up the table untill its under them supporting the vertical head. Then get the big hammer out,,,,,

 

[Maker]

I loosened the draw bar, kaboomawhacked it with a copper hammer and it fell right out.

 

[oilyneil]

BFH always wins!

 

[Maker]

I've sorted out the snapped gear handle. There's a tapered pin holding the centre thing on a shaft, knock that out and it slides off, then there's a grub screw in the back stopping the thread from being undone - Take that out, drill the snapped stud, hammer a cheap torx bit into it and unscrew it.

There's another snapped bolt that might have been snapped when I got it or I might have snapped it. It's one of the bolts that locks the double swivel head. There's three blocks inside it that have studs sticking out onto which a nut tightens, stopping it from moving. Well, the stud is screwed into the block and a tapered pin goes through the thread, creating a weak spot where it inevitably snapped. Luckily it unscrewed and the thread in the block is still perfect. I'll probably be fine with just two bolts holding it but I'm still gonna sort it out. I'll post pictures later

 

[DanielW]

You can replace the broken handles form a number of suppliers.

http://www.wdsltd.co.uk/categories/66/hand-levers
RGD tools
Arc Eurotrade

 

[Maker]

You can replace the broken handles form a number of suppliers.

http://www.wdsltd.co.uk/categories/66/hand-levers
RGD tools
Arc Eurotrade

Thanks but none on that link are suitable, it's just a shaft with a thread on one and and a ball on t'other, I'm sure I can make one.