Elandan frame-off renovation

[DeOrellana]

Besides working on the oven, I've spent a lot of time cleaning the shop. Not real exiting to write about, but very necessary. My wife's car is due for it's annual safety inspection and there isn't enough space to get it inside to fix the parking brake.

As you may remember I picked up a big knee mill just before heading out to Korea, and I needed to find space for it. And it was blocking the door to the shop so I couldn't get anything bigger in or out of it. I spent an entire weekend cleaning a path and moving the mill. I even took pictures of all of it. The only detail I missed out on was putting a memory card in the camera! So you guys will have to use your imagination.

The mill weighs about 3,000 kg, or 6600 lbs., and I don't have anything that can lift it. I used a floor jack to jack it up and place it on car skates that are designed for a 4 ton car. But since the base is fairly narrow, I used short wooden beams 6x10 to extend the track somewhat and make it less tippy.

You'd think that it would move freely, but it didn't, and I didn't figure out why until I had moved it to it's new location. Since it wouldn't roll easily, I rigged up ratcheting straps to the two post hoist and used the ratcheting function on the straps to move it a few inches at a time. It moved across the shop floor at a speed of about 3 feet per hour. Once I got i to the engine hoist it was rolling a bit easier and I was able to push it into it's new location a little bit at a time.

I now have it sitting on the skates with the back of it up against the wall between the wheel aligner and the parts washer. I decide that it's a good place with just enough space to the wall and remove the front skates and place the machine on it's vibration dampeners. Then I jack up the back using a floor jack and this is when I notice why it was so hard to move. One of the skates had the post for the caster underneath the machine and it hit the bottom of the machine, so on that skate all of the weight was on one caster. No wonder it was hard to move. I was a bit irritated at not noticing it from the beginning, but it was now in place and I didn't have to move it any more. Then I put it down - THUD! - the top bar hits the wall. It turns out that the rear had been higher up on the skates than the front. and when I leveled it out it hit the wall. So I had to jack it back up, put it back on the skates, pull it forward, and then repeat the entire process of aligning it straight with the wall and getting it unloaded. It took an entire weekend to move the mill the whopping distance of 12m (40ft).

It's now in place waiting for me to repair it so I can use it.


Before I moved it I did figure out what is wrong with it. When I bought it they said they thought it had an electrical problem. I traced the problem to the feed gearbox, and it has a bearing that is worn out so that the electric clutch doesn't seem to have enough space to disengage. I'm hoping that is the only problem with it. I've ordered a piece of alloy for the bearing and once I get the lathe operational I will make a new bearing and see if that solves the problem. In the meanwhile I can use the manual maneuvering wheels.

So I am continuing to clean the shop and at the same time get some of the smaller projects taken care of to free up space.

[DeOrellana]

One of the things that is taking up space in the shop is all of the parts for the lathe. So part of clearing space has been getting the lathe put back together. This also meant painting all of the final pieces. At the time of writing this, I have one piece left to paint (not counting accessories)!

I spent way more time than I care to admit in cleaning the windings and the rotor for the motor. I would constantly go back and clean them more because I never felt they were clean enough. I also had to paint schellack on the windings where they had been hit by chips and the bare copper was exposed. I also had to clean all of the gears and bearings for the threading gearbox.

Once the motor was clean, I first mounted the body on the lathe, and then put the rotor in it. I rebuilt the motor in place on the lathe rather than on the bench because the motor was so heavy and it was easier to handle the parts individually. After everything was clean I painted the fan blades black and repacked the bearings before putting the ends on.


At some point somebody had noticed that there were a lot of chips flying into the motor, and their solution was to mount brass netting inside which they held in place with a piece of electrical cable. The solution appealed to me, and it worked, so I kept it.



Putting the front cover in place the motor turned freely on its bearings and was good to go.

[Franka548]

Nice Erik, you have the patience of a saint.
Frank

[spinroch]

I wondered where you had been!

[GlennLever]

Originally Posted by DeOrellana

Update on the oven:

I finished insulating it except for the side that will house all the electrics. It kind of looks like a giant woolly TARDIS. The rock wool really makes a mess working with, but it's fire proof and more importantly it's free. Fiberglass insulation is even less fun to work with. I also cut the height of the base down to make the oven feel like it's at a better height. The top of the oven is now at eye level, which means that when hanging things in the oven my arm is fairly level.


The insulation is just slightly thicker than the studs. Just enough to make it difficult to put the metal siding on. I ended up strapping a 2x4 to the side to hold it flat while I riveted it in place. At this point the roof panel is just lying on top of it and not riveted in place to keep the dust down. I'm using standard corner protectors on the corners to hide any misalignment between the panels and to avoid having sharp edges on the corners.


Next I riveted the ceiling in place. I recommend that anybody who takes on a project like this gets themselves a pneumatic rivet gut. It gets real tiresome after just a few rivets, and the rivet gun certainly makes things go faster. The box in front of the oven contains the parts from a brand new space heater that I got for about $15 on sale which provided me with a 230v fan motor, a metal fan blade, and a thermistor. The heating elements come from my old oven that died and will be mounted to the back wall. They produce 2200W at 380V, so I'm hoping that's enough. If not, there is space to add two more elements for a total of 4400W.


When I had riveted the roof in place, I niticed that I had forgotten to order the metal for the back panel and the door. My metal supplier doesn't stock galvanized in his regular assortment, but if I'm willing to wait until his next order of sheet metal I don't have to pay extra for shipping and packaging. So I'm waiting until his next delivery arrives before I can finish the build.

To control the oven I've ordered a PID controller and a contactor. I've also ordered high temperature oven lights for the ceiling so that I can see what I'm doing.I still haven't decided on how I will mount the window in the door, but I will figure that out when I get he door built.

So for now I just have this big box taking up space in my shop.

I do not believe you will need the light in the top of the oven, there is no light in mine.

The inside of the oven gets coated, over time, with loose powder for projects.

Will this be a convection oven?

Also The glass in the door is something you might also skip, for this same reason (the inside of the oven gets coated, over time, with loose powder for projects).

I will follow the electronics install of this oven closely. The electronics in my current oven is very complicated and I am afraid it is on it's last legs. The box itself is in good condition. I would like to rip out the guts and redo it.

Glenn

[DeOrellana]

Originally Posted by GlennLever

I do not believe you will need the light in the top of the oven, there is no light in mine.

The inside of the oven gets coated, over time, with loose powder for projects.

I have the lights on order. I guess time will tell if I install them or not. They were on sale for $4 each, so no big deal if I don't need them. Delivery is 6 weeks, so I thought it was better to order them and have them and not use them than to need them and not have them. Normally they run
almost $10 each. If I don't use them I'm sure I'll find another project to use them on.

Good to know that they will get coated over time. I'll have to start to think about some kind of cover for them.

Originally Posted by GlennLever

Will this be a convection oven?

Yes. It will have a variable speed fan mounted in the ceiling. The motor will be mounted above the oven with a shaft going through the insulation.

Originally Posted by GlennLever

Also The glass in the door is something you might also skip, for this same reason (the inside of the oven gets coated, over time, with loose powder for projects).

Perhaps I'll build the door without the glass to see if I need it. The glass I have from the old oven, so it's free, but I still need to figure out how to mount it.

The door will be divided up into two halves with a hinge in the middle so that when you open the oven it folds up with the hot sides towards each other. That way I won't need as much space to the side of the oven when I use it, and there will be less outward torque on the outside wall when the door is open. But the biggest reason is so that I don't burn myself.

Originally Posted by GlennLever

I will follow the electronics install of this oven closely. The electronics in my current oven is very complicated and I am afraid it is on it's last legs. The box itself is in good condition. I would like to rip out the guts and redo it.

Glenn

I'm using a PID controller with a thermistor and a contactor. I thought about building my own setup, but the $8 cost of the PID made it an easy choice. The PID is a digital temperature controller which can be used either with a contactor or a solid state relay. Entire electronics PID + termistor + contactor = $17.

A quick search found this

YouTube video

which shows you the basic concept.

I'll make sure I get all the details while I build for you.

[DeOrellana]

Originally Posted by Franka548

Nice Erik, you have the patience of a saint.
Frank

I don't know about that, Frank. I guess as long as I don't have to deal with people I have a lot of patience. I'm not good dealing with people in person - then I have very little patience.

The shop is my sanctuary where I escape from the deadlines and delivery demands of work. I can take as much time as I want, and I'm in control. If something doesn't go as planned, there are no project plans to update, no change requests to file, and no one to give "advice."

[DeOrellana]

Originally Posted by spinroch

I wondered where you had been!

Thanks! Nice to be missed.

[DeOrellana]

Today I continued working on the lathe. I have the first coat of paint on the last of the parts to be painted which is the cast iron hand wheel for the carriage feed. The wheel was cracked in three places. I'm guessing somebody hit it with something or it got knocked while the lathe was loaded or unloaded. I welded it yesterday and today it received paint. The parts for the threading transmission received their final coat also.


With the motor put back together, it was time to put the drive belts on. I went down to the local tractor supply place, but they only had three in stock, but they ordered one more and it will be here on Monday or Tuesday. In the meanwhile I put the old drive belts on just to test the machine.


I filled the main transmission with new ISO-68 oil. It took about 15 liters (15 quarts) of oil to reach the top of the indicator tube. I live the detail they put into the little things like the oil level tube. It’s hand made!


None of the electrics are in place yet. I hot-wired the motor directly to a switch and then to a plug just to test the running of the motor and to see if the oil pump worked. When I first started it, it ran backwards. Switching two phases fixed that. The next start it ran for about 15 seconds and stopped. The main shaft was frozen. Pit in stomach time – months of work only to have it seize! Fortunately, after a few minutes it freed itself. When it ran backwards, the oil pump emptied itself and then it couldn’t re-prime so it overheated and seized. Fortunately, no internal damage occurred, and after re-priming the pump it shot oil up in the air. I’ve seen pictures of other similar lathes where the oil pump shots a few inches of oil. I guess I got my tolerances right – what a geyser! And what a relief!


The oil shot almost to the 8 foot ceiling, and it came down right in the distribution tray. Luckily very little splashed outside the machine. The oil flowed very nicely along the oil distribution lines and dripped into the bearings just like it should.


I put the cover back on the transmission and replaced the sight glass. Again, handmade with lots of attention to detail. It leaks a little bit, but I’ll sort that out later. It’s really cool to see the jet of oil rushing up and filling the sight glass. Much better than an idiot light.


With the lathe basically functional, I couldn’t resist to try it out. I know I really should wait until all of the safety guards and motor protection is in place, but I couldn’t help myself. I took an old rusty brake disk that I had lying around and chucked it up just to try. I chose a brake disk since the brakes on my wife’s BMW are first on the list to turn. I chucked it up and dialed in the brake rotor until the mounting flange was within 0.03mm runout. Then I proceeded to turn the rotor with a skim cut which removed most of the rust.


Then a second cut. I know I have the wrong insert for this work, but it was just for fun.


And finally a third cut got me through to clean metal. I learned 3 things:
1. It’s not as easy as it looks. But it’s not that difficult either.
2. The guys turning stuff on YouTube really know what they are doing.
3. Turning brake rotors makes a huge mess! It took me over 30 minutes to clean the machine afterwards.


Finally I turned the parking brake surface. It didn’t turn out all that bad. In fact, it was good enough that I would put it on the car if it wasn’t so far under spec.


And that’s where I’m leaving it for today. It kind of fun having a museum like machine in the shop. I found an LED bulb that has an authentic yellowish glow to it to add to the vintage feel.

[Gordon Dewald]

Congratulations on getting the lathe running - and working! Great to see the classics working as they were originally designed and constructed.

You must have had at least one giant "Yahoo" when you started turning the brake disc and the first curls came off.

[DeOrellana]

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

Congratulations on getting the lathe running - and working! Great to see the classics working as they were originally designed and constructed.

You must have had at least one giant "Yahoo" when you started turning the brake disc and the first curls came off.

I did! Although cast iron doesn't curl, it creates little tiny chips. It was a great feeling!

[GlennLever]

I see an old vacuum cleaner being repurposed in the future.

What can be said, beautiful.

[Electra 225]

Great work Erik! The lathe looks perfect like new, maybe better with the TLC you've applied. The oven is very factory looking, very nice.
Oh, a Doctor Who fan eh? I go back to the Jon Pertwee era for my (1st) "doc".

Best regards,
W.D.

[GlennLever]

I'm a Tom Baker fan.