HI guys,
So, new (to me) tool day.
A 70's Mori MS850.
Which is cool, but it's all the extra tweaks on this machine that are the really interesting thing.
This particular machine came out of the personal shop of the guy who was the lead machinist for Hewlett-Packard back in the day. So it started out in good shape. And then he had his way with it. So it's now easily the most tricked out Mori on the planet.
And I got all his tooling with it. Even the custom made stuff.
Being an old school machinist, he put clocks on every axis this thing has, but no DRO. So I'm going to pull some of the clocks off, and add a DRO, but that's the only change. The wild thing is all the little tweaks he added. Like it now has a hand made thread kick-out, that works at least as fast as the Hardinge version. It pops out *lighting* fast. That's what all the aluminum widgetry on the front of the apron's all about. I haven't tested it yet, but I'd be willing to bet it repeats to within a thou.
It also came with what looked like just an aluminum bracket along the back of the headstock, for mounting the DRO it doesn't have. (yet) But there were a bunch of holes in it, of various sizes and shapes. Turns out, now that I have it home, and can dig into the tooling boxes (3 crates worth) that there were a whole collection of wrenches and other things that fit (perfectly) into each of those holes. Until I got into it, I couldn't figure out what the two slotted holes were for. Turns out one of them's for a file, and the other (look at how *that* was done) is for a 6" scale. Found the file and the scale. They fit perfectly. And *of course* the file is a lathe cut file.
On the tailstock is a little box on the back of the clamp that holds the tailstock clock. If you pull the cover off (pinned in place, natch.) you'll discover that it's a little holder for all the standard sized center drills. Right where you need them, and now you can't lose them.
The really trick part is hard to see: the cover's tapered. And the inside hole is too. And this was done on a manual machine. Because he could. Even sicker, the back end of the clock rod will push back through the area of the case, and would hit it...except that he drilled a perfectly located hole, sideways, through the cover, to clear the back of the clock rod.
The entire machine is full of little tweaks like that, and dear god, what the rest of his shop looks like beggars belief. If the gods of the scrounge are kind, I may end up with his surface grinder, which is also a work of art. If so, I'll post pictures.
Note the little brass bar for tweaking the vise jaws. Labeled as such, of course...
I've also included a couple of pictures of his bridgeport.
It has a chair.
He was a reasonably small man, from what I understand, and did a lot of very small parts.
So he built himself a chair onto his bridgeport.
Because he could.
That is a modification that deserves to be seen and shared.
I'm seldom rendered speechless by someone's skill, but this guy, dear lord. He even machined up little aluminum screw clamps to hold the spare jaws for the lathe chucks. Just so they wouldn't get lost or mixed up.... It just goes on, and on, and on like that.
Note the fitted drawers in his main Kennedy. I bought the little drawer full of DTI stuff, just to keep it together.
My point here isn't necessarily bragging (much) but mostly to show off all those tweaks, to share the ideas. Like the Bridgeport chair, or the tool tray that's machined to fit on top of the compound. How many of us have thought about making something like that, but never got around to it? God knows I've thought it, every time the drillbit I stashed on the compound rolls off into the chip pan. But I never did it. He did.
Raise a glass to them as came before.
Then go oil their gear.
Brian.
So, new (to me) tool day.
A 70's Mori MS850.
Which is cool, but it's all the extra tweaks on this machine that are the really interesting thing.
This particular machine came out of the personal shop of the guy who was the lead machinist for Hewlett-Packard back in the day. So it started out in good shape. And then he had his way with it. So it's now easily the most tricked out Mori on the planet.
And I got all his tooling with it. Even the custom made stuff.
Being an old school machinist, he put clocks on every axis this thing has, but no DRO. So I'm going to pull some of the clocks off, and add a DRO, but that's the only change. The wild thing is all the little tweaks he added. Like it now has a hand made thread kick-out, that works at least as fast as the Hardinge version. It pops out *lighting* fast. That's what all the aluminum widgetry on the front of the apron's all about. I haven't tested it yet, but I'd be willing to bet it repeats to within a thou.
It also came with what looked like just an aluminum bracket along the back of the headstock, for mounting the DRO it doesn't have. (yet) But there were a bunch of holes in it, of various sizes and shapes. Turns out, now that I have it home, and can dig into the tooling boxes (3 crates worth) that there were a whole collection of wrenches and other things that fit (perfectly) into each of those holes. Until I got into it, I couldn't figure out what the two slotted holes were for. Turns out one of them's for a file, and the other (look at how *that* was done) is for a 6" scale. Found the file and the scale. They fit perfectly. And *of course* the file is a lathe cut file.
On the tailstock is a little box on the back of the clamp that holds the tailstock clock. If you pull the cover off (pinned in place, natch.) you'll discover that it's a little holder for all the standard sized center drills. Right where you need them, and now you can't lose them.
The really trick part is hard to see: the cover's tapered. And the inside hole is too. And this was done on a manual machine. Because he could. Even sicker, the back end of the clock rod will push back through the area of the case, and would hit it...except that he drilled a perfectly located hole, sideways, through the cover, to clear the back of the clock rod.
The entire machine is full of little tweaks like that, and dear god, what the rest of his shop looks like beggars belief. If the gods of the scrounge are kind, I may end up with his surface grinder, which is also a work of art. If so, I'll post pictures.
Note the little brass bar for tweaking the vise jaws. Labeled as such, of course...
I've also included a couple of pictures of his bridgeport.
It has a chair.
He was a reasonably small man, from what I understand, and did a lot of very small parts.
So he built himself a chair onto his bridgeport.
Because he could.
That is a modification that deserves to be seen and shared.
I'm seldom rendered speechless by someone's skill, but this guy, dear lord. He even machined up little aluminum screw clamps to hold the spare jaws for the lathe chucks. Just so they wouldn't get lost or mixed up.... It just goes on, and on, and on like that.
Note the fitted drawers in his main Kennedy. I bought the little drawer full of DTI stuff, just to keep it together.
My point here isn't necessarily bragging (much) but mostly to show off all those tweaks, to share the ideas. Like the Bridgeport chair, or the tool tray that's machined to fit on top of the compound. How many of us have thought about making something like that, but never got around to it? God knows I've thought it, every time the drillbit I stashed on the compound rolls off into the chip pan. But I never did it. He did.
Raise a glass to them as came before.
Then go oil their gear.
Brian.