Is it worth fixing this milling machine? Welding Cast iron!

[fizzy]

I have had this milling machine in my warehouse for quite a few years. I run Speedshift which is a pallet shipping company. This mill was subject to an insurance claim as it fell over in transit.

There is only 1 way to ship a big heavy milling machine on a pallet. You need to screw 1/2" ply to a heavy duty pallet. Then lower the knee and turn the head upside down. A few heavy duty ratchet straps to finish off. We phone to check every collection and I was told it was all fine. It turned out they had done nothing other than use some plastic banding! The pallet was wrapped in back wrap so the driver was none the wiser!

Anyway - back to the machine

When it went over the table hit the ground which twisted the knee. It bent the table leadscrew at the end. The knee casting broke at top left and bottom right. The head had a whack but seems fine. The quill works ok.

It looks like it was a lovely old machine a bit bigger than a Bridgeport. I don't have a vertical mill so can it be fixed? I doubt there is much force where the castings broke. Perhaps braze or stick weld it?

Seems a crime to scrap it.

 

[Shox Dr]

You might be able to drill and tap that back on, as you might need to have it reground after welding due to distortion

 

[WorkshopChris]

Probably best to go with mechanical fixings where posible studs and pins. Give it ago you dont have anything to lose.

 

[Maker]

I think you'll struggle to weld it, being so thick it'll need hundreds of amps and all that heat is sure to crack it in other places.


If you do go down the scrap route, would strap the head to a pallet and send it to me (££)?

EDIT: Just remembered my mill was delivered by you, I told the seller to attach it as you'd described and it came held with 500kg ratchet straps. Clearly it didn't fall right over but I think it fell against something, there's a handle on the side that snapped off and was in the oil tray.

 

[Shox Dr]

I think you'll struggle to weld it, being so thick it'll need hundreds of amps and all that heat is sure to crack it in other places.


If you do go down the scrap route, strap the head to a pallet and send it to me (££).

You'd be surprised how little amps that would take

 

[fizzy]

I think you'll struggle to weld it, being so thick it'll need hundreds of amps and all that heat is sure to crack it in other places.


If you do go down the scrap route, would strap the head to a pallet and send it to me (££)?

EDIT: Just remembered my mill was delivered by you, I told the seller to attach it as you'd described and it came held with 500kg ratchet straps. Clearly it didn't fall right over but I think it fell against something, there's a handle on the side that snapped off and was in the oil tray.

No matter how hard we try things like this were never really designed to go through normal pallet networks. The stuff we see you would never believe. Everything from daleks to cast iron giraffes! A 1.5 ton mill is just about possible if there are forks at collection and delivery. Biggest thing we shipped was small 4x4 dumper - 1.8 tons and 6 pallet spaces. They did a great job on palletising it though!

 

[fizzy]

Probably best to go with mechanical fixings where posible studs and pins. Give it ago you dont have anything to lose.

I actually thought of doing this and using metal filled epoxy. There wouldn't be much stress on it I don't think.

 

[fizzy]

You'd be surprised how little amps that would take

Yes I watched a few youtube videos - Chucke2009 was stick welding at about 120 amps using nickel rods.

 

[Maker]

How much of the knee slide is intact? It looks like it might still work fine if you replace the X axis leadscrew.

 

[fizzy]

How much of the knee slide is intact? It looks like it might still work fine if you replace the X axis leadscrew.

Good point. 80% intact each side so probably doesn't need anything? Just looks so wrong!

How to fix the X axis screw? Looks like it is just bent at the one end. Could it be straightened I wonder? Where do you get ones for such an old bit of kit?

 

[awemawson]

Hello Speedshift - I've used you MANY times

 

[fizzy]

Hello Speedshift - I've used you MANY times

Ahh thanks - sheep pretty apt!!!

As Basil Fawlty would say - a satisfied customer - we should have him stuffed!

 

[Dieselman 63]

You could look into stitching it back together.

 

[gordon stephenson]

In heavy industry I have seen big broken castings stitched by Metallock many times to totally satisfactory results, Get them in for an estimate,

 

[Maker]

Where do you get ones for such an old bit of kit?

I doubt you'll find one to fit it, I think you'll have to buy a new screw and nut and machine them to fit.

 

[fizzy]

In heavy industry I have seen big broken castings stitched by Metallock many times to totally satisfactory results, Get them in for an estimate,

Sounds very expensive. But worth an ask.

 

[fizzy]

wow - old technology at it's best!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Sounds very expensive. But worth an ask.

It's not as complex as you may think. There is a guy online called jack forsberg, he restores woodworking machinery and I know for a fact he did it himself. Cant find the link now.

 

[Screwdriver]

A salutary tale from my other forum:

Oh. My. God. never again. And I mean never.
delivery guy took some persuading because the pallet had turned to matchsticks.

Without doubt the most dangerous thing I have done in recent memory. The machine was about as stable as a car perched on a beer crate. No stability at all and begger all pallet left under it. It would lean over so far it looked like it was going to fall through the wall of "the aggressive builder". The trolley was one of those powered lifters with tiny wheels and it only had one speed; too fast. So muggins here has to stand on the machine and balance it is it lurched at high speed down the alley.
Then it would get stuck as it dug in so I would free it up with a comealong and hop on once it took off. The pallet fell to pieces so it wouldn't go on my trolley.

So of course the crane couldn't get near it...
I ended up dragging the head off it. The head, possibly the only valuable part of this pile of scrap, weighs about 300-400kg I guess.

Nightmare. And because the crane lift was so far away, it swung off before thumping onto the precision scraped surface...

Got it onto the trolley eventually.

Then dragged it off road.

...

 

[awemawson]

A pallet jack under that broken pallet and a 'roadway' of cut up 8x4 sheets of ply would have moved that to a safer place where you could build a tripod over it to lift it.

It's situations like that that I thank God that I have a forklift - only recently I had to transfer a ton of Blacksmiths Power Hammer off a pallet that had completely rotted over the ten years that it was on it outside, (it had canted over to nearly 45 degrees) and re-palletise it