Scraping a Wells Index

Thunderdog · May 25, 2018

Hi all,

Let me start by saying that I'm a learning and don't have all of the answers. So, I'm posting my current status and plan to scrape my Wells-Index Super 55(I hope that is an acceptable machine to discuss on this site).I began this process a few weeks ago with some beginning guidance from Richard King at a different site. He has not been there in a while and so here I am. Plus there are several other experienced individuals here who definitely know alot more than me. (Richard, if you see this I would like to touch base with you regarding your Ohio scraping class.)

Anyway, I laid the column down and took some prints with my CI surface plate. I measured the amount of wear on the face of the column to be about .0005". I have scraped the face of the column to 10-12 p.p.i. I know many will laugh at this, but it is a major accomplishment for myself.

Current progress:

MY PLAN MOVING FORWARD
(Please advise if I'm missing something or getting it wrong.)

1. Measure the dovetail wear again using my little jig. Video seen below. This mill does not lend itself to measure with pins due to rough casting beside the dovetail.

Most of the wear occurs at approximately 7" from the top of the dovetail with about .0035" movement of the indicator.

2. Roll the column on it's side. (Should I do sliding or gib dovetail first? Does it matter regarding the order?)

3. Remove necessary material at the bottom of the dovetail to avoid having the straight edge bottom out and produce a false reading.

4. Make bluing prints to identify high spots.

5. Scrape from high to low.

Unknowns/Need some clarity from the pros:
Dovetail is not necessarily concerned with any precise angle provided you scrape straight down from original scraped surface to the lowest point, correct?

To prevent scraping the dovetails into a wedge(from top of column to bottom of column) I should continue checking with my little measuring jig(video seen above), correct?

What else am I missing or have I overlooked something super obvious?

Demon69 · May 25, 2018

Thunderdog said:
Hi all,

Let me start by saying that I'm a learning and don't have all of the answers. So, I'm posting my current status and plan to scrape my Wells-Index Super 55(I hope that is an acceptable machine to discuss on this site).I began this process a few weeks ago with some beginning guidance from Richard King at a different site. He has not been there in a while and so here I am. Plus there are several other experienced individuals here who definitely know alot more than me. (Richard, if you see this I would like to touch base with you regarding your Ohio scraping class.)

Anyway, I laid the column down and took some prints with my CI surface plate. I measured the amount of wear on the face of the column to be about .0005". I have scraped the face of the column to 10-12 p.p.i. I know many will laugh at this, but it is a major accomplishment for myself.

Current progress:
View attachment 229276
View attachment 229278

MY PLAN MOVING FORWARD
(Please advise if I'm missing something or getting it wrong.)

1. Measure the dovetail wear again using my little jig. Video seen below. This mill does not lend itself to measure with pins due to rough casting beside the dovetail.

Most of the wear occurs at approximately 7" from the top of the dovetail with about .0035" movement of the indicator.

2. Roll the column on it's side. (Should I do sliding or gib dovetail first? Does it matter regarding the order?)

3. Remove necessary material at the bottom of the dovetail to avoid having the straight edge bottom out and produce a false reading.

4. Make bluing prints to identify high spots.

5. Scrape from high to low.

Unknowns/Need some clarity from the pros:
Dovetail is not necessarily concerned with any precise angle provided you scrape straight down from original scraped surface to the lowest point, correct?

To prevent scraping the dovetails into a wedge(from top of column to bottom of column) I should continue checking with my little measuring jig(video seen above), correct?

What else am I missing or have I overlooked something super obvious?

Welcome to the forum mate

, on way out so just to give my non pro 2 cents.
Your scraping is looking pretty good to my eyes. Youve a strong print thats hitting everywhere, looks like youve some depth to the scraping which is all good. If you wanted to go a touch further you might like to break up the heavier areas a bit more, 10-20 mins work. Dont get too caught up with PPI, 10 - 15 for a surface like that will fine.

The jig looks good, its primary purpose would be to align the final dovetail surface, some light oil will help with the squeaking and you might like to use slip gauge under the indicator for a smoother reading. Id have the front face flat and one side of the dovetail printing before id use it. Try and keep the surfaces as true to the original plain as poss (be the detective), head straight down removing as little material as possible is the general rule of thumb. Doesnt matter on the exact angle of the dovetails. Richard will be along soon to steer you right no doubt, happy scraping

Cheers
D

M.B. Naegle · May 25, 2018

Interesting alignment jig. I'm getting close to doing the same thing on a tool & cutter grinder I'm rebuilding. Basic idea is to confirm that the dovetail is the same width all the way across, measured from the same point in the angle (as you have done).

For my alignment jig I plan to make it in modular clamp-together components similar to height and mag-base parts and to make it with the intent of using most of the same parts as a "king-way" type tool for lathe beds later on.

Concerning the degree of the dovetail; my understanding is that it doesn't matter what angle it is so long as the mating surfaces fit together. In other words, your column dovetail could measure 43 1/2 degree's, and if the knee prints up to it nicely, you're good to go. The main castings on these machines are not interchangeable anyway.

Richard King · May 25, 2018

Hey Dog,

Never called a person dog before...lol.

I wrote the other forum about my laptop getting swiped in Oakland as asked them to change my password. Now I can't sign back on....weird...I tried and asked John York to let them know of my issues...no luck so far, Ive written 4 times..no response on 3 times.....

Oh well,

Your scraping looks super. NB is right don't worry about the degree of dovetail, you have both ends right and just scrape it down straight with straight edge until the low spot hits. Then give it a few passes to give it some new PPI. The knee is matched fit to that angle and if it's a 45, 50 or what ever it doesn't matter as the builder worried about it all you need to worry about in the match fit. Email us at [email protected] and we can sign you up for the Ohio class. Welcome....Rich

Thunderdog · Jun 6, 2018

The process continues, along with the continued reading. I finished the dovetails on both sides and used a half-thou indicator to check for alignment. Having NEVER scraped a dovetail, I'm feeling ok about the situation.
Here is the result of that:

PLANS FOR THE KNEE

I've been referencing Connelly's book on pages 413-417. The plan for the knee will be as follows:

1. Identify side(top or back) that has the most original scrape marks still intact. For me, that would be the TOP. Is this the best practice, to start on the top of the knee rather than the back of the knee?

2. Scrape the flats of the top of the knee straight down to their lowest point of wear.

3. Scrape the dovetails on the top of the knee. (Check for parallel alignment along the way.)

4. Set knee with the top side flat against the CI surface plate. Meaning, place it upside down onto the CI plate.

5. In this position, check the back of the knee for the amount of wear using my 12" Brown and Sharpe square and feeler gauges. (By simply looking at it now, I'm going to say that the bottom of the back of the knee has the most wear. This would make sense because of the amount of weight resting on the knee, right?)

6. Scrape the flats on the back of the knee flat, using the freshly scraped column as my reference.

7. Verify that scraping is to the lowest point and square on these flats.

7. (Need clarification here) Now, scrape about .0003"/12" of slope into the back of the knee to account for weight of the saddle and table weight. Or, is this scraped into the TOP of the knee rather than the back of the knee?

8. Scrape the sliding dovetail for back of knee using the freshly scraped column as the reference.

9. Scrape gib side (NOT THERE YET, NEED TO DO MORE READING ON THIS, to be continued...)

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Scraping a Wells Index

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