It looked like this in the advert: It arrived in biggish barely liftable lumps on a pallet. No picture as it was threatening to rain when it was delivered. Th biggish bits were reassembled into this: I'm not sure if this is where it will stay, but it'll do for now. The first thing I did was straighten the levelling bolts:
The compound table was dismantled and hefted onto the bench in pieces: Nothing terrible on the underneath of the bottom part of the table: That's it back on the base unit: The underneath of the mid section. There's a couple of missing bolts and the locking bolt is bent:
The mid section back, at a funny angle to clear the column: All back together: The bent locking bolts: The longer one was straightened by judicious bending in a vice. The shorter one can wait.
I think they are scraping marks. Based on having seen lots of rust before, but not knowingly any scraping marks. They don't look like rust to me. I cleaned it with kerosene and fine wire wool and lubed it with random semi synthetic motor oil. I scrounge the empties from a mate's garage and drain them overnight. Keeps me in random lubing oil and enough to do the lawnmower. And the paper shredder on occasion. That was a invoice I didn't need: I don't know if the shredder needs it, but it can't do any harm.
Now the questions: I know the base unit and table are Perrin, they have names cast in or on plates: I don't think the head unit is, and I'm pretty sure the column is home made. I'd like to identify the head as I'd like to get a rise and fall worm gear for it, as detailed in another thread. Any suggestions before I spend my life looking at pictures on lathes .co.uk. It's a three pulley job but isn't a round column type. It's got imperial calibrations so I think I might be able to rule out recent Chinese makes. It's also quite low to use, I may make a 150mm plinth from steel plate and fencing strainers. I can't use it yet, I'm waiting for a 12mm allen key to tighten the column down. I also need C spanners for the chuck, a stepped pulley for the motor and new felt wiping pads.
Those long straight marks are left by a shaper from when it was last machined. More is better. Always true. Fact. In all seriousness, I'd be looking for a 0.75 or even a 1hp.
I am wondering if the head and column are original but were a transition between the round column drill/borers and the true jig borers that they made.
Could be. This is what makes me think the column is home made. I'll point out it's well made, and better than anything I could do, but it doesn't look commercial IYSWIM. What look to me like the remains of oxy cutting: It's welded, but I'd expect there to be no step: The plates aren't all the same length: And finally, it' looks like the motor was originally on the side and has been relocated when the third pulley was added: I say again, I'm more than happy with it. It doesn't bother me that it might not be all original. I'd like to know who made it if I need spares. I'll probably have a go at brazing the gear myself. I'll take lots of measurements first, but I reckon I can't make it worse.
The two photos on Lathes.co.uk of the round-column 'older and lighter' machines (on the AV-1 page) were nicked from my website, the one on the left is my machine. The other one, granted, I nicked from a machinery trader's website many years ago just to show the domed belt guard . Someone sat there and very laboriously blacked-out the background of the original pics As an aside, it continues to irk me that they are listed as 'Perrin Montier' when all the badges clearly say 'Moutier', I mean how hard can it be? Looking at the pics above, the motor mounting plate is the same as mine - it slides in and out on two pins. The entire intermediate pulley assembly looks the same and from what I can see, the quill downfeed assembly is the same although I can't tell how it's mounted to the 'new' head. The quill return spring housing on the left side looks like mine. The base cabinet is the same although it looks like the doorknob has been replaced. I guess a good clue would be whether the rough-cut spreader plate under the column is hiding the original mounting holes for the round column 'foot'. Whoever built it went to the trouble of trying to match the paint. To my eyes the table seems to overhang the front of the base quite a lot; with a round column it'd have sat slightly further back, and the deeper throat of the new head is probably to compensate for the table being further away. Can you say deep throat on here? On my machine the X-Y table (with about 7x6" of travel) is calibrated in inches whilst the quill downfeed is in millimetres. I fitted the 'cheapo' DRO system that uses digital caliper scales and with the table gibs fine-tuned it's superbly repeatable. Just a shame about the round column limiting its use as a mill... and obviously someone else thought the same
I'm back to irritating this. I got the rise and fall gearbox on the column to work. It ran up and down fine when held against the column but when bolted to the head it jammed. It needed a 2mm spacer at the front to keep it aligned. I'll take some photos now I've got cleanish hands.
There's no locking mechanism to stop the head dropping by gravity. It doesn't when not running but I suspect any vibration might just convince it into doing doing so. I'll have to make a clamp of some kind. Also there seems to be no way of oiling the ways except by squirty oil can. That's on the quill, the column, and the table. Something else I need to rectify.
A change of tack. The gearbox seems like it shouldn't be there, there's just to many things not quite right, so I'm going to a leadscrew and nut lift. Here's an appalling bodge to see if it was feasible. The scissor jack and clamp are there for safety reasons, I didn't want the head plummeting into the table. The gearbox has a machined top face: The bottom of the head doesn't, not even near the column: Bodge V2.0: It works tolerably with threaded bar and found bracketry so it should work even better with a proper leadscrew and nut.
