Finally got my first machine. Van Norman #16S

Finally got my first machine (and just bought my first house to store it!) Found a VN16S on craigslist awhile back in July. Went to look at it, put some money down, and picked er up after we moved into the new house. (Moved it in last friday).

Now just waiting to get the RPC so I can run it.

I've never worked on a VN before or even saw one up close before I bought this one. I just was sure I wanted a universal tilting head toolroom mill with a quill.

So onto my question: outside of the 1,000,000 lube change, what should I mechanically be checking for wear (I ran around with an indicator, swept a bearing race and engineers square at true vertical and true horizontal to check for knuckle wear) TIR was less than .0015 on sweep.

It has a 30 NMTB spindle and the overarm/arbor support.

Congrats!
Pictures, please?
fusker

Since you are new to this, couple of things before you accept .0015 out of tram. First off... keep in mind, .0015 is half the thickness of a sheet of notebook paper. That's pretty danged good for a 60yr old machine, even if you can't correct it. That said, I'll bet you can improve it.

Were all the table and knee locks bound down and are all the gibs adjusted correctly? a loose gib can let a table, saddle or knee sag enough to give that kind of error. When I first got the big Cincy #3 at work, I dialed the table with the spindle and got a little over .001. Tightened up the locks and it went to nearly nothing. Lock everything down and check it again. Now, start unlocking one at a time and note the difference. You may find the knee gib is loose or the ways are worn, maybe it's the saddle or maybe the table is rocking on the saddle. Next, run the axes to a different position and check again. Run the knee up or down several inches, move the saddle out or in, crank the table to each end and measure again. May just be a worn area from a repetitive operation. Move the ram and check again, could be a ding in the ram put there decades ago that needs to be filed flat with a very fine file.

Which direction is the .0015 out in? If it is side to side across the table, it sounds like ram, knee, table, or saddle wear and/or gib adjustment. Lock everything down as above and check again, then start unlocking to see which is causing it. Also, move the table out to the ends of travel to see if it is loose in the center due to wear. If so, put your work and vise out on the ends of the table whenever you can for fine work, also helps to spread the wear more evenly on the machine.

If the error is inline with the ram/head, that is adjustable with the head stops and it may even just be a piece or dust on the stop or head contact point holding it off that much. Clean the stops and contact points, make sure the head is pushed firmly and slowly against the stop, tighten the lock bolts in two steps in a cross pattern and check it again. If you let the head bang into the stop as it reaches full horizontal or vertical position, it may very well bounce off the stop a small amount.

YOOOO congrats on the house i too just closed on a house, which was like you FOR my machines lol i can not wait to get them into the garage so i can call it my machine shop.

any pictures?

Myrmidon said:

It has a 30 NMTB spindle and the overarm/arbor support.

Click to expand...

Two of the BEST pieces of luck, actually. VN marched to the beat of a lonely drum of their own as to spindle tapers as well, and those are not as easy to find.

"What Mike said", and at first? Just USE it gently for a while and take notes as to ANYTHING as seems to need attention.

Then you can plan ahead rather than get into ad hoc shoe soles, arseholes, and elbows moving in several "reactive" directions all at once, stepping on yer own Putz from time to time and doing stuff OVER. DAMHIKT.