Stag53
Plastic
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2007
- Location
- Bay Area, CA
Hey All,
Long time listener, first time caller. Wait a minute... Anyhow, thought I'd post some info and pics about my 10EE rebuild/recondition/repaint/etc.
I acquired my 10EE from a fellow hobbyist who had posted it on Craigslist. It was, strangely, in the town I live in about 2 blocks from where I grew up. This was strange only because I live in a beach town known more for awful roller coasters than classic machine tools. The finding was, well, somewhat serendipitous as I've always coveted the 10EE (and had been tentatively been looking to replace my crappy Grizzly 10X24 with one, or a HLV-H, or Clausing Colchester, or something awesome along these lines). Anyhow, I digress. according to the owner and the badges, the lathe had spent most of it's life with a company called Philco. He had acquired it from someone up in WA state. In '74 someone had outfitted it with a DC rectifier setup as the Motor Generator had burned out. It was in running condition (and understandable wear from all the years), with various minor issues, the largest being speed not being consistent with load and not being able to reach full RPM. Luckily, the former owner had done a nice job getting the majority of the crud stripped off.
The plan has evolved from 1) fix the basics and use it, to 2) swap the motor to 5hp AC/VFD and use it (Blackmax motor purchased), to 3) basic repaint and use it, to finally 4) screw it all, strip it down, grind the bed, Moglice the saddle, generally get way out of hand with it, and use it (eventually). Funny how my projects always do this to me (my severe lack of accountability showing through like a sore thumb). I've done a bit of minor machine tool rebulding and upgrading in the past (CNC upgrades, VFD/AC-motor retros, etc), but this is certainly the most aggressive. Lots of reading and studying. Thanks to this forum for all the great info that keeps me up late and is a major reason that I've had to increase my caffeine intake at work. I've also begun learning about scraping in the process... I've actually been bitten by the scraping bug after watching "This Old Tony" on Youtube. He is one clever and inspirational guy. Great vids if you haven't seen them (warning: serious binge watching possible). The Connelly book is a recent purchase - bit of a dry read, but very informative and a nice supplement to the great info on Youtube, etc.
Here's some pics of the last few weeks of the process... moving, tear down, paint stripping, filling, priming (the last 2 weeks have felt much more like car restoration). I found a great shop in Redwood City CA to grind the bed... they also happen to know 10EEs fairly well as they used to work on them for NASA out at Moffett Field. This was all thanks to George Andreason's post (http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/grinding-hendey-208273/) - it wasn't until I found this post that I decided to go forward with correcting the .004" of wear in the bed. D&L is practically in my backyard, so it seemed right to take advantage while I'm at it (I probably will never take advantage of the precision of this lathe, but respect its amazing potential). Today I primed the base, so that's the latest...
Long time listener, first time caller. Wait a minute... Anyhow, thought I'd post some info and pics about my 10EE rebuild/recondition/repaint/etc.
I acquired my 10EE from a fellow hobbyist who had posted it on Craigslist. It was, strangely, in the town I live in about 2 blocks from where I grew up. This was strange only because I live in a beach town known more for awful roller coasters than classic machine tools. The finding was, well, somewhat serendipitous as I've always coveted the 10EE (and had been tentatively been looking to replace my crappy Grizzly 10X24 with one, or a HLV-H, or Clausing Colchester, or something awesome along these lines). Anyhow, I digress. according to the owner and the badges, the lathe had spent most of it's life with a company called Philco. He had acquired it from someone up in WA state. In '74 someone had outfitted it with a DC rectifier setup as the Motor Generator had burned out. It was in running condition (and understandable wear from all the years), with various minor issues, the largest being speed not being consistent with load and not being able to reach full RPM. Luckily, the former owner had done a nice job getting the majority of the crud stripped off.
The plan has evolved from 1) fix the basics and use it, to 2) swap the motor to 5hp AC/VFD and use it (Blackmax motor purchased), to 3) basic repaint and use it, to finally 4) screw it all, strip it down, grind the bed, Moglice the saddle, generally get way out of hand with it, and use it (eventually). Funny how my projects always do this to me (my severe lack of accountability showing through like a sore thumb). I've done a bit of minor machine tool rebulding and upgrading in the past (CNC upgrades, VFD/AC-motor retros, etc), but this is certainly the most aggressive. Lots of reading and studying. Thanks to this forum for all the great info that keeps me up late and is a major reason that I've had to increase my caffeine intake at work. I've also begun learning about scraping in the process... I've actually been bitten by the scraping bug after watching "This Old Tony" on Youtube. He is one clever and inspirational guy. Great vids if you haven't seen them (warning: serious binge watching possible). The Connelly book is a recent purchase - bit of a dry read, but very informative and a nice supplement to the great info on Youtube, etc.
Here's some pics of the last few weeks of the process... moving, tear down, paint stripping, filling, priming (the last 2 weeks have felt much more like car restoration). I found a great shop in Redwood City CA to grind the bed... they also happen to know 10EEs fairly well as they used to work on them for NASA out at Moffett Field. This was all thanks to George Andreason's post (http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/grinding-hendey-208273/) - it wasn't until I found this post that I decided to go forward with correcting the .004" of wear in the bed. D&L is practically in my backyard, so it seemed right to take advantage while I'm at it (I probably will never take advantage of the precision of this lathe, but respect its amazing potential). Today I primed the base, so that's the latest...