FP1 Nearly Finished

Hi all,

After about 2 years on and off, I have pretty much finished the FP1. Many thanks to all who provided advice and information during this time.

Got it all going about two months ago, and put it to work. I am pretty pleased with it compared with the old Spanish CME mill I used to have. Smooth, accurate, well you know - nice. Kind of weird though, standing behind and to the side to operate it. And I havn't found a place to rest the cup of tea yet. Still have to paint the overarm, work out what bits fit in the timber drawer liners, mount the light, get a 110 mm chuck for the dividing head, and a pair of the decals for the inside of the dials.

Moved house 8 months ago, from a single garage to 94 square metres of garage, workshop, and storage under the house. Got two extra 3-phase outlets wired in ready for the next project. Anyway, posted some photos of the mill, the cabinet, new control box, and a lathe at web page

Thanks Again, Steve

Steve,
Looks good, your 2 year project gives me hope yet. Can you share with us the type and colour of paint used and how much you took the original paint back.
Thanks.

Steve,
It looks like a nice place to work/play, whatever the right term is. Your FP1 looks like a very nice machine, I hope you get to enjoy it.
I really got a kick out of how our tastes in machinery compare when I saw your Chipmaster. I recently bought a clone of the Chipmaster, a Harrison AA and found first hand how these are a very good lathe to compiment an FP1.
Dan

Alan, Some sod had hand previously painted it straight over the origonal paint, is something non- compatable I suspect, making a repaint necessary. Just went to the local automotive paint supplier and looked at their greys, and picked the closest industrial enamel. Took the main bits of the mill back to metal and the ancillaries back to a clean surface be that paint or metal. 2nd time I went back for another 4 litres, they mixed to the same number, but it was different. 3rd time they eye matched it and got it right.

The painting was,,, I can't find the words. It started off enjoyable, but towards the end, I was sick of scrape, sand, prime, fill, sand, fill, sand, prime, undercoat, sand, fill again, sand, undercoat, sand, finish, sand, finish. But it came out alright, (Don't look too close.) Compound curves made me appreciate the straignt flat surfaces. Still got a few things to do, but will need to be in the right frame of mind for that.

Dan, I see a few people on the forum have the Chippies. I was in teh right place at the right time and got mine from the local University, for $3300 with some tooling including an unused Burnerd collet chuck, and surprise surprise, a fixed steady! For a '63 it has very little wear and tear, and cuts surprisingly accurate, so much so I put a Fagor DRO on it. I stripped it down completely, replaced all bearings and seals, except the main spindle ones which I wasn't even game to ask the price of from 600 Machinery, and the variator which looks too tricks to muck with. Made some new bushes and bronze shoes for the gearbox to tighten up the brake actuation, and gave it a lick of paint. Still mucking about trying to match the correct hardness vibratiuon mount under the motor/gearbox assemby to get rid of that last bit of harmonic vibration at about 1700 rpm.

Keep looking at he two empty spots, and thinking about maybe a J&S cylinderical grinder, or another favorite from years ago, a small Kearns horizontal borer. Used to love operating both of those.

Steve

Skippy- nice work. I too love the machines but I haven't the patience to spend two years working on them. Enyoy your efforts

markus