Thread: Going to look at a J & S 540. What to look for?

Going to have a look at a J & S 540 grinder soon...

Not being very familiar with these machines is there anything in particular to look for besides general abuse, way condition etc?

I have read the older ones of these were fitted with babbit bearings that are irreplacable, if this machine was to have them how would you determine if the bearings were stuffed?

The machine is connected to power and it can be run to test it..

Are those two hooks on the front (look to be on the saddle) used to lift the machine in conjunction witht he eye bolts on the head?

My thoughts from 1953 about this machine.

Good for flat grinding but slow table speed.
Not too good for hand cranking. Not enough "feel" for intricate form grinding.
Accurate for cross feed increments due to fine feed knob.
Accurate down feed also with fine feed knob.
Once the fine feed knobs are disengaged the readings on the knobs are no longer valid.
The spindle housing is so large that you may not be able to use a J&S type wheel dresser.
The wheel guard may not be rotatable, thus may have to be removed under certain conditions, such as when you need to use a small diameter grinding wheel.

Gene

Based on the spindle that is indeed a Babbitt type bearing. They can be adjusted and have a exceptionally long life though! But you can't mount some of the wheel head mounted dressers on them easily. Some can though. The wheel head dresser on my ball raced head is hollow underneath hence could be swapped for that cover.

Not seen any J&S 540 with a wheel guard that can be rotated. As far as i know at least till the 70's there all simply screwed on with 2 or three allen bolts, circa 1/4" BSW IIRC.

The hooks and eye bolts are indeed there for lifting. All 540's are std plain bearing ways lubed by a feed off the hydraulic pump. So no special transport requirements like taking the table weight off on a ball way machine. Just make sure the pumps running even if your hand feeding is all the manual states.

Above all check the controls all work. They can get sticky - fail especially if the machines sat for a while.

Check accuracy however you wish there's loads of threads here on ways to do it, your requirements for the machine should answer how good it needs to be. Assuming the machines been looked after and no one has ran if for too long by hand feed alone the ways will probably be good Due to the auto oiling. The lead screws there pivots and such may be a diffrent story, there lubed manually, or not as the case may be!

There's very good parts availability for them too, they stuck with almost the same exact design for more than 3 decades, hence a lot of the bits can be got and swapped fairly easily. According to another member parts even from the factory are not too bad price wise either.

They are a great little toolroom grinder, I would snap it up regardless as long as the price is reasonable. Looks like a mid 70's version?

Thanks everyone, going to have a look at it Thursday.. Not very often a machine comes up within a few hours driving distance.

Well Gents, I went to have a look today.... It is indeed a plain bearing model S/N stamped on the side of the table is as follows

51380
1546 52
794

I think I checked it out fairly well, the original grind marks are still visible on the ways.. Cross slide did not have what I would call excessive wear... Spindle was tight which concerned me but was quiet, and it did not run more hot then it should (specs say 60C).... After dressing the wheel and taking a cut the finish appeared to me to be OK for a shitty bit of steel and no coolant.. The ways were wet with lubricant oil as well...

Hydraulics worked snappily... mag chuck is a newish one sold here by one of the larger suppliers... Unfortunately it is a 6X12, not a 6X18...

He wanted it sold as he was moving shed, he had had it advertised for awhile.... So I made an offer pointing out the stiff spindle and he accepted... We loaded it up and it followed me the ~250km home....

I got it home and removed the drive belt, the spindle stiffness does appear to have been coming from the belt it drive motor(not checked the motor out yet) as the spindle now feels as smooth as a babies bottom to turn, with just a hint of stiffness...

It is also an ex-government machine as it has a training facility sticker on it, probably only sold off by them in the past few years as the sticker is a modern bar coded one the sort they would put on to keep track of assets...

Also came with a few spare wheels and an instruction manual that the seller got from the UK (photocopy of an original)

The coolant tank it interesting with all the baffles in it, and it will hold a hell of a lot of coolant...

All in all it looks to be a goodun... I am pretty happy with it by now...

BTW did I mention like a lot of UK things the automatic anti-rust feature it has...

I need to find a small amount of Velocite #3 oil for the spindle now... Plus some Vaculine 1409 for the hyds...

Vid of the grinder in action

Jones Shipman 540 - YouTube