ACIERA F3 - getting ready to move one ....

[marcsO]

General cleaning of the parts I took home is underway, the head unit is the square design, believe the machine is a 1966 model but has the W20 nose, look sin decent shape, has some paint applied at some stage, fair job and perfectly fine for me, cleans up well enough.

Cover plate on the horizontal head unit snapped, made from a plastic which has become a little brittle, will trace and make one from some FR4 sheet I have to match.

Considering getting the table machined up to clean the surfaces and sides, the surface has one small drill hole but other than that fairly clean, is getting this done a big NO or is it fine to do, will use a friends CNC mill and surface grinder but the finish looks like its been done on a shaper which I do not have access to - pointers/thoughts?

Couple of questions:

In #20 of this thread on the side of the F3 there is the head travel wheel but attached and swinging behind it is a long rod with a black knob on the end - what does this do?

Oils, On my Schaublin 135 lathe I use Mobil Vactra No2 as a way oil and Mobil Velocite No6 as the gearbox oil, would this be a workable/suitableoption for the F3?

Couple of pictures of parts after a little TLC, more to go.

 

[Peter from Holland]

Table looks great as it is
Leave it like it is then
Milling a table always will look bad
It is hobbed like you say like adviced by Schlessinger
If the 90dgr angle is out of spec you scrape the backside and leave the surface like it is

Peter

 

[marcsO]

Well, your F3 is the new version - and pretty as well...
So it should have ISO30 instead of W20... That's great.

Sadly looks like a 66 model with a later head, its W20.

 

[marcsO]

On the topic of W20 while the F3 sadly has no 'nice' extra accessories it did have 136 x Schaublin W20 collets so that has made me feel a little better but would have preferred a slotting or high speed head, dividing head, riser etc but will keep a look out over time for these as in no rush - need to bring the main unit home first which is still a work in progress..

 

[marcsO]

A few small jobs done as awaiting the previous owner to move his lathe and smaller mill to storage so we can get to and move the F3 safely.

Removed the tired metal flexible table drain hoses, had some flexible steel conduit which was slightly smaller in ID than the original items which looked perfect. Machined the inserts which press into the table drain nuts accept the hose with the smaller ID, cleaned up the parts and bonded the pipes into nuts with a little epoxy as they were slightly loose, set drying with pipe held upright to ensure they are not at an angle.

The thin protection plate inside the horizontal head was snapped in half, it had bent over time too probably due to oil saturation. Had a quote for a new one which was mad money so bought a piece of black FR4 board, templated the shape, cut and filed to shape and fitted back inside the head unit. The original is 2.5mm plastic (of some form), the FR4 is 2mm and stronger at this thickness so hopefully there should be no issues with interference when the vertical head is fitted.

 

[Peter from Holland]

It is not a Deckel. Accessories for these are abundant
Deckel representatives where very aggresive in selling accessories I suppose
For a Aciera very rare So expensive
The set of collets is a nice bonus

Peter

 

[marcsO]

As the main machine move is still awaiting the owner to clear items to storage I cleaned up and re-painted the rather rusty milling vice which came with the machine, its not a fancy brand but for now seems it was worth some TLC.

Cleaned off the paint, wire brushed the castings, cleaned and lubricated, rattle can sprayed with some Hammerite finish silver paint and its come up pretty well. Took some time masking the little areas where bolts and washers sit to give it that more considered look. A simple job compared to most but pleasing non the less.

Question, is Hammerite hammered finish original paint oil and solvent resistant or not as the finish from a can is pretty good and was considering using it to re-do the small carriage areas on the Schaublin 135 which are painted in this finish from the factory but has over many years faded and become patchy?

 

[marcsO]

Tackled the original light over the last few weeks, stripped it back, painted using the same 'hammered' finish, re-wired, replaced fibre pivot knuckle shims with 0.5mm stainless items which work well and replaced the brittle lamp holder.

Main machine base and column due to be collected next month and then can start the full re-furb.

Having the F3 paint scanned to get a reference number and will also do the Schaublin 135 at the same time just to get the bang on right codes for the machines for paint when required.

 

[chiiiip-maker]

hello

you got a beautiful machine , this is an Aciera F3 type RL, you can move the " Y " quickly bye a rack gear system, this is the utility of the long rod and black knob you ask in a #21

 

[chiiiip-maker]

the little rod is for selction the rack or screw system.

on the picrure, with this position you use the handwheel ( Screw ), on left position ( rack ) you use the long rod for moving the " Y". make some test, but it should be like this.

 

[marcsO]

Thank you for the info, once the main parts are here in my workshop I will try them all out.

 

[Oliver M]

Oils, On my Schaublin 135 lathe I use Mobil Vactra No2 as a way oil and Mobil Velocite No6 as the gearbox oil, would this be a workable/suitableoption for the F3?

Hello !

Vactra 2 ist fine for all oil fittings, it is even recommendet in the manual which is available online.
For Head an Gerabox an ISO 100 to150 Oil is recommendet, so Velocite Nr. 6 is way too thin.
Mobile DTE Heavy would work fine