Making Do

I mentioned Mr. Garcia, and his "milling machine".  A significant portion of commenters, like a 100%, wanted to see more of it.  I haven't uncovered it in a while...

Dang, even covered up, there isn't much protection a hundred miles from the gulf coast.  What a swamp.... Our normal weather is hot, mostly 40% to 75% humidity in the summer (March to October).  The winter is wicked for tools stored outside.  We'll get a strong south wind, with a lot of sticky humidity just before a cold front will come in.  A few days of nice cool and dry, then the front backs up as a warm front.  Anything with mass will still be cold, and start sweating like iced tea in summer.  If you haven't swabbed down the bare metal, you are in for a race against rust.  My rust proofing on this tool didn't survive the summer.   Another project for the list....

Okay, here's the mods on this old tool.

Attachment point:

Set at the perfect angle to be sqare to the axis of the chuck.

So, Mr. G fabbed up this square tube, and made angle iron brackets for it.  This is set square to the axis of the quill.

Quill support:

I wonder if those are skateboard bearings?

This beauty is a square tube that nests inside the one above.  It has a plate attached, loaded with bearings.  This supports the quill from lateral forces when you use it as a mill.  Brilliant.



Bearing ring installed:

Looking from the front.

And from the left

    

These bearings fit right on the chuck.  In spite of this, there is significant wear on the quill.  It's a bit floppy.  It could be, he added this to fix the floppy quill.  But I'm sure he used it as a mill as well.  There used to be an X Y table on it.

Table lift:

He added this bracket, with a crank handle.  That is a bike chain attached to the table, and has a small counterweight to keep the chain from jumping off the sprocket.  Very neat.


Quick belt changer:

He engineered a pivot for the motor.  This allowed quick belt / pulley changes for different speeds.  Normally, this would be a solid rod.  The weight of the motor pulls it tight.  The pulleys are off square a little, but the vee belt doesn't care.  It works perfectly.


Here is what it looked like stock:

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/images/17431-D.jpg

I'll start taking it apart next spring for a de-rust and freshen it up a bit.  Provided I get all my winter projects done.  Winter comes on a Tuesday and lasts most of a whole week.  Not much time to get a long list of to-dos, to-done..