Oh dear been on ebay again! - Milling Machine this time

[Pete.]

You have the fine feed working right, engaged by the right lever.

I think the lever on the left is to engage the power downfeed, and it should lock by some kind of ball-and-spring probably in either the in or out position.

The reason your quill drops is because I reckon the quill return spring has broken or become disengaged. It's possible someone had had it apart and left bits out or put it together wrong.

 

[M@tt]

That's great thanks pete

Well I think I know why one of the levers was all floppy looks like the knobbly bit on the end has broken off at some point. I think I might take it to my welding class and get a bit made and welded onto it

 

[mike os]

I think I would like to find the end if it is in a gearbox.......

 

[M@tt]

bit more advice required please

i was having a look at the mill tonight with a view to getting some more tooling for it. I wanted to remove the collet to see what type of taper it has on it and also to remove the cutter. However for the life of me i can't work out how to lock the quill from spinning so i can undo the top nut.

the small pin on the top seems to completely disengage the quill from the gearbox as its then possible to spin the cutter really really easily but with it located in its hole you can hear the gearbox tuning as you spin the cutter by hand, but it is still possible to spin it by hand so as you try to undo the nut it just causes the cutter to spin.

there are 2 holes on the top either side of the nut which look like they could take a large pronged spanner similar to an angle grinder but i'm not sure

this is the collet, i presume to remove the cutter i just need some big ass spanner to undo it(once i work ut how to lock the quill from spinning) as it doesn't have a hole or notch for one of those half moon hook type spanners

also any ideas what the purpose of this handle is it tightens up but doesn't really do anything, it doesn't stop the head from moving up and down once its tight so i'm a bit stumped

cheers

 

[Pete.]

The lever is a lock for the dovetail - it's just not locking it!

The nut with the two holes doesn't look like it's meant for holding the spindle - it looks more like it's retaining the pulley so I'd be careful what you do - don't release that nut and run the machine with it loose. I would say that the pull&twist knob is more likely to be a spindle lock.

 

[graffian]

The nut with the slot sounds like it's part of the gear change, but looks really crude for such a nice bit of kit.
You will probably find if you snug the jibs up the lever will lock the slide.
The spindle looks like int30, not that I have ever seen int 30 before. I have 35 and 40. The largest diam[largest part of the taper that is] of int30 is 1-1/4", int 35 1-1/2", int40 1-3/4", 50 2-3/4" and 60 must be a real whopper. Not saying you don't have something else but it looks like int and it's small. The taper is 3-1/2" per foot.
You can use CAT and BT, if it's int, you need a slightly longer draw bar to use them.

 

[gridley51]

Try turning the pin on the top until the cross pin lines up with the slots and can drop down,then slowly turn the spindle by hand to see if there is a hole the pin can drop into to lock the spindle.
If it doesnt I suspect the pin has been bent or broken and you may have to hold the collet chuck with big stillsons or something to release the drawbar.The stillsons won`t mark it as it`s hard.Loosen the drawbar a couple of turns and give it a sharp smack to break the chuck out the taper.
The chuck looks like an Osborne or Acramill btw.

 

[M@tt]

pete by "dovetail" what bit do you mean, sorry i'm a complete novice here

sorry i should have been clearer grindley51 thats exactly what happens with the pin if you pull it up and twit it 90 degrees so that little pin holds it up then it feels like it completely disengages the spindle, howeer if you twist it so it drops down into the slot and slowly spin the sindle it does drop into a hole and them you can "feel" the whole gearbox spinning as you turn the cutter by hand, but the problem is it is still possible to turn it by hand.

i'll go and have another play now with it

 

[gavuk]

If the spindle doesn't completly lock ,but u can feel the gearbox engage can u select the slowest speed on the gearbox ,making it very difficult to turn ,and use a spanner against the low gearing ?....hope this makes sense,can help to use a soft mallet on either the drawbar or collet nut to shock it....

 

[astro_al]

By dovetail, he means the vertical slideways that have the same profile as a dovetail joint in woodworking. You can see them in the 3rd pic of post 44 - part of the main casting.

Al.

 

[M@tt]

Cheers chaps

Ah yes I see what you mean by the dovetail, there appears to be a dovetail shaped block which I'm guessing gets pushed against the head when you tighten the handle therefore stopping it moving ( although it is still possible to adjust the head using the wheel)

When I say gearbox I'm not entirely sure it has one, I think there is a power feed but the actual speed of the cutter is set by physically winding the motor wheel at the back of the mill which moves the motor and the friction plate/clutch setup means the motor plate comes into contact with the other drive plate at a different radius and so the mill cutter rotates at a different speed

 

[gavuk]

If the spindle is more difficult to turn at low speed than high ,it might worth slowing mill to its slowest and use the resistance to remove collet nut or drawbar

 

[Pete.]

That knob on the top pulley - looks like it might be a back-gear selector. The pulley looks very heavy I wonder if it houses a planetary back-gear? tHe speed dial shows dual speeds for each setting so there must be one somewhere.

Look around the outside of the spindle housing for some means of locking the spindle.

 

[M@tt]

right well i've been out in the shed having another head scratch

i still have no idea how the spinde locks as there really doesn't seem to be any method to do so, so i decided to dig out my cordless impact gun and give the drawbar a quick buzz with it and that did the trick

now i'm pretty sure they didn't have cordless impact guns in 1940 so god knows how they did it!

one thing i did notice was that if i wound the spindle right up there was a splined section on the spindle shaft so i wonder it there is some sort of key/spanner which holds that bit whilst you loosen the drawbar nut

this is the chuck, is it anymore use in helping identify what type it is? or is it a case of taking some measurements? the ring bit which holds the collet in place i think would need a 60mm spanner although i'd need to double check with my verniers as i only had a metal rule to hand

cheers

 

[gavuk]

I've run mills in the past which had no form of locking the spindle,mallet and spanner and low gear is all thats needed ....but as you have found out an impact wrench is a great modern alternative.....

 

[wyn]

If you've got a few measurements have a look here to identify it. Probably the NMTB, i think they are usually called INT 30/40/50 depending on size, i could be talking rubbish though on the INT bit.

 

[Pete.]

My mill has no way of locking the spindle - I use a ring spanner on the top of the spline. Looks like a INT30 taper as said ealier in the thread - but I wouldn't be buying a 60mm spanner for that collet when you could make one from a piece of 8mm plate and a hacksaw.

 

[M@tt]

cheers gents as always

oh one final question, any ideas as to what type of collets these are?

it has Clare A682 written on the bottom of it but google hasn't turned up anything as yet

 

[graffian]

Hard to be sure without measuring it, so measure it[you should
be able to tell the difference between 1-1/4 and 1-3/4].
Drawbar for 40 is 5/8 or M16, if it's 12 or 1/2 it's 30, thats another way to tell.
Your probably best off getting an ER chuck, unless your lucky and pick up a set of Clare collets. It's an old system.

 

[jugs]

one thing i did notice was that if i wound the spindle right up there was a splined section on the spindle shaft so i wonder it there is some sort of key/spanner which holds that bit whilst you loosen the drawbar nut

this is the chuck, is it anymore use in helping identify what type it is? or is it a case of taking some measurements? the ring bit which holds the collet in place i think would need a 60mm spanner although i'd need to double check with my verniers as i only had a metal rule to hand

cheers

cheers gents as always

oh one final question, any ideas as to what type of collets these are?

it has Clare A682 written on the bottom of it but google hasn't turned up anything as yet

PIC 1- The splined section on the spindle shaft is the drive between the pulley & the spindle DONT damage it.

PIC 2 - The spindle taper looks like INT 30 or 40, check with wyns link.

PIC 3 - Those collets look oddball, if you have a set then fine use them, if not don't waste time/cash trying to find/adapt to fit that chuck - get yourself a set of ER 32 collets+chuck like -> this - scroll down page or ER40
The low cost option is a collet chuck + 6,8,10,12,16.mm collets, that will cover you for most jobs.

Looks a smashing machine, you can make lots of swarf

john