1943 Rockford Planer "The Beast"

[swatkins]

Look what showed up today!

After a week long trip from Bryan Texas to Navasota Texas, 28 miles






I can now stress relieve edges right after they come off the planner It will hold up to a 48" edge. The heat is computer controlled and programmable for any heat/hold time and programmed cooling off steps... Max temp is 2200F

The bottom of the kiln is soft so Niels procured these white tiles to line the bottom floor for protection. Just need to get the diamond saw out and trim them to size.

I've been searching the internet looking for any information I can find on the best way to stress relieve cast iron. So far the best information I have found is to raise the temp to 1050 F for 1 hour per inch of cross section and then cool it off 50º per hour till it reaches 600º then air cool. That's the way I going to start off, unless someone has a better way

 

[Salem Straub]

Nice kiln there! I have a Paragon, similar enough, it's very handy to have a programmable furnace around!

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I have purchased a spindle that could be adapted to the planer very easily. The problem is the bed is not really suited to flood cooling and coolant could easily get into the table's way oil system and make big problems.

If I ever decide to put the spindle on the machine I'm going to have to come up with some sort of pan that can ride on top of the table to collect grit and coolant.

Also though of using cool mist and a vacuum to do extremely small jobs...

I've adapted planers so you could grind on them. The secret is to drain the coolant from the table as fast as is possible and put screens up to prevent over splashing. Don't run the table too fast, that creates a tidal wave on reversal, then it's not too bad.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[swatkins]

I've adapted planers so you could grind on them. The secret is to drain the coolant from the table as fast as is possible and put screens up to prevent over splashing. Don't run the table too fast, that creates a tidal wave on reversal, then it's not too bad.

Regards Tyrone.

Had not thought of the tidal action Right now I'm leaning towards a shop vac positioned behind the cutting head to catch the material and mist from a cool mist unit.

Just have to cross that bridge when we get to it

 

[swatkins]

New Video tour of the oven and it's first victim, I mean customer

 

[Jim Christie]

I have a copy of Metals Handbook Eight Edition by American Society For Metals.
I took a couple of pictures of the pages dealing with stress relieving of cast Iron and have attached them in case they may be of interest.
If they are not too readable in this format contact me through the email service of the forum and I will send you the files by email
Here are links about the book
Metals Handbook. - Vol. 2: Heat Treating, Cleaning and Finishing - Google Books
Catalog Search Results | Hathi Trust Digital Library
None available that I can find to read on line for free.
This thread on stress relieving cast iron also showed up in my Google search
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/stress-relieving-iron-castings-88121/
Regards,
Jim

 

[swatkins]

I have a copy of Metals Handbook Eight Edition by American Society For Metals.
I took a couple of pictures of the pages dealing with stress relieving of cast Iron and have attached them in case they may be of interest.
If they are not too readable in this format contact me through the email service of the forum and I will send you the files by email
Here are links about the book
Metals Handbook. - Vol. 2: Heat Treating, Cleaning and Finishing - Google Books
Catalog Search Results | Hathi Trust Digital Library
None available that I can find to read on line for free.
This thread on stress relieving cast iron also showed up in my Google search
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/stress-relieving-iron-castings-88121/
Regards,
Jim

Thanks Jim. I have seen most of those in my searches... Right now I think I'm good with a recipe that had a lot of study back up...

 

[swatkins]

And the results!

This edge was run up to 1050 F, soaked for two hours, and then soaked for one hour at 1000, 900, 800, 700 and 600 degrees. The oven turned itself off after the 600 degree soak and cooled to about 150 degrees when I opened it up this morning.

This is a picture of it right out of the oven. A light rust had formed on the iron. I placed the edge back on the table and it was in good shape. I have been putting a cigarette paper under the edge as a way to check and I could still feel some resistance almost everywhere. The ends were both a little high but nothing a few minutes with a scraper would not fix.



This is after I wire brushed of the rust and gave it a coat of rust converter.



This a picture of the treated edge beside a finished 24 inch edge. I like to give it a coat of paint, scrape the surfaces and then give it two more coats.



My first 24 inch edge was sent off to be stress relieved after I milled the surfaces. When it came back it had a very hard coating on the surface and frankly without a power scraper I would have had to mill it again just to get through that coating. Richard King thinks the shop got the edge too hot. After I got through that coating (I really should have just milled it off) it scraped fine.

With that experience under my belt I wanted to test the surface and make sure I had a workable surface. This is a picture of a few half hearted, one hand scrapes with a dull hand scraper. I also ran a stone over the area and was able to get to bright metal easily. There is no hard coating on the planed surfaces



The next Victims



I had these at the last scraping class and had planed on planing them so I treated the rust and gave them a coat of paint. The more I though about them the more I realized that they had probably never been treated at all, they were really cheap.

So today I spent some time getting my bead blast cabinet finished and sorted out. 5 minutes with the new gun striped all the paint so they can go in the oven without making a mess.

I'm debating putting these in with a 48 edge that I also have no history on. Problem is the soak time at 1050 will be about 3 hours for that edge and the triangles only need 1.5 hours. I'm thinking that if I support them well in the oven there should not be a problem. Will make up my mind tomorrow

 

[M.B. Naegle]

Excellent move with the oven. Being able to control the hardness and stability of what you make seems to be often overlooked by shops. Once you get into it, it adds a whole new spectrum of quality to the parts. We used to outsource our heat treating. Now we own two ovens and nearly every steel part we make makes a trip through them. Even if its a soft part, it still gets heated up to 850 and quenched in oil to blacken it.

 

[swatkins]

What are you using for oil ?

 

[M.B. Naegle]

What are you using for oil ?

I'll have to check for specifics but it's "quench" oil. I've heard that almost any kind of oil will work. My understanding is that the color comes from the heat and oxidation, while the oil is to cool it and leave a film inpregnanted in the oxidation.

 

[Rick Rowlands]

Well if that is the Beast, this 50 foot long Gray that I'm installing at a local machine shop must be King Kong.

 

[swatkins]

What did they do for a foundation? I see boards sticking up there...

 

[Paolo_MD]

I don't see any board sticking up. I see, instead, 4x4s or, more likely, 6x6s at regular intervals on which the base is resting. I'm wondering if the metal plates are anchored down or they'll be before the base will be rested on them.

Paolo

 

[Rick Rowlands]

When the planer was in its previous shop it just sat on the floor on the plates. There were brackets at both ends to keep it from moving lengthwise but other than that nothing holding it to the floor except gravity.

Compare that to a 98 foot long Ingersoll planer mill across the bay, which has 98 stud anchors to attach it to a full foundation.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

Found a pail of the oil we use with our oil-blackening process: CON 8732 Quench Oil, Benchmark brand.

 

[swatkins]

A little update on the planer

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

A coat of paint works wonders. I'd paint everything that mid grey colour. I don't like it when the controls etc are painted like a a fairground ride.

Regarding the bent shaft end, it'd do my head in as well. Get a welding torch with a decent sized nozzle and warm the shaft up in a circular zone. Put a bit of close fitting pipe over the end of shaft and bend it straight. I wouldn't try to bend it cold.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[John Garner]

Rick --

If King Kong is a Gray planer, would The Beast be a Green planer?

(sorry, but I had to ask . . . )

John

 

[swatkins]

Head Repairs

The start of Texas 4 scraping class, with Richard King, is starting next month and I wanted to make a repair to the planer before the class started. Some of you may recall that the horizontal head had a missing key that raised and lowered the head via the gear system. Today I took off the head and started looking at the works to determine what I needed to make for a new key.

I still puzzled at exactly how the original key was held in place and the order of reasymbly. Tomorrow I'm taking apart more of the machine to see if I can figure it out.

Here is short video of the head disassembly.

I shot more video of how I took off the head and will upload it later..