Radial arm to the rescue, or why they belong in all repair shops

How else are you going to do work on the machined face when there is no other flat surface?

I'd swing the head to the side on a bridgeport and work off the back side of the table. Perhaps that is just because I don't have a radial arm drill.

P.S. I like your setup.

I do the same thing only with a Bridgeport, hang it off the back of the table and swing the turret.......unfortunately we don't have a radial arm drill or room for one at work!

I made a set of parallels for such jobs, use them in the horizontal saw as well for holding down odd shaped parts........clamp the parallels with the saw vise and use hold downs for the work. I have to be careful not get to close to the blade and cutoff the parallels!

Kevin

Nice setup. Ram out and turret over works, but then you've gotta dial in the head AGAIN! Plus, you've got the ability of angling the base. Is that a #2 or #3 Armstrong screw jack? Handy device.

Here is my setup with a radial CB 5' arm over a 50" P&W rotary table with a BP head

gbent said:

How else are you going to do work on the machined face when there is no other flat surface?

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Same way, exactly. Why d'you suppose both my tiny Walker-Turner and the massive AB5/S "column" drills both have tables that swing to either side? Only dif is the bars are not square to the edge of the table.

Now... need to sink a three-inch hole in thick steel plate four feet from the nearest edge of the sloped body on a coal-mining machine?

THAT is where the 8-foot ATW radial just smirked and DID the old "AT&T telephone call thing".

Reached out and touched it!



Radials. Gotta love 'em even when you have no SPACE.

I have pulled one of our trailer mounted pumps under the G&L Bickford at work and drilled out a broken bolt in a flange. Saved having to take ANYTHING apart.

Mike C. said:

I have pulled one of our trailer mounted pumps under the G&L Bickford at work and drilled out a broken bolt in a flange. Saved having to take ANYTHING apart.

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Walker-Turner actual had an SKU for the clamps that would let a person run their DP column out the TOP of the head casting, then hang the valiant little beavers UNDER an I-beam. I have the beam, It spans about 25 feet, clear, even has a convenient "parking place" at one end where the DP can be used 90% or so of the time, as-had with about three or four feet of "throat depth".

Remaining challenge is to rig a "levelable OR tiltable" table of adjustable height to be rolled UNDER it. That should not be rocket insemination, either off the back of a HF hydraulic-lift die-cart and some basic fab work.

The only broad 'stuff' is usually sheet-metal or plywood that is hole-saw meat. I had not even considered wheeled-goods, but there again, not only the trailer - anything one can put INTO it, then wheel into place, line up, and level or tilt.

The 20-something inch depth of the Alzmetall column drill can otherwise reach any more serious material in the sizes I actually deal with.

We used the hell out of ours making hydraulic manifolds and punching ports.
Big hydraulic motors...lift the cast face on machine jacks and square to the table as you did.

I suppose you could do it with a bp but what a pain.