Oncor Drilling Tools Kelly Mill

johnoder · Jan 14, 2011

Another of my creations to make big chips.

Was amazed to find this old photo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...s and Eighties/Oncor Kelly Mill/KellyMill.jpg

J.O.

Limy Sami · Jan 14, 2011

Thanks John, lucky find.

Does the wheeled carriage travel with the milling head to support the workpiece.

If not could you explain to us non oil patchers how it works please.

Sami

johnoder · Jan 14, 2011

Actually the "wheels" are dials to select multiple stops in a steady rest system which clears table enough for table to move but stays under cutter. Sort of a follow rest in reverse.

I.E., a cutting force support system that is quickly adjustable for multiple sizes of hex and square work pieces.

To the right out of the photo, a chuck equipped indexer.

To the left out of the photo, some sort of tail stock to support that end.

Been 29 years or I would remember more.

J.O.

Limy Sami · Jan 14, 2011

Thank you John, it's a bit clearer now.

Cool mic holder BTW

lazarus · Jan 14, 2011

Yeah John, about 25 of those years ago, I was dropping pipe in the ground and twisting it with one of those Kelly's. '84-'86 West Texas, was fun till the Arabs ran us out of business.

It's nice seeing how they were made. Thanks for the pic.

Ben

reggie_obe · Jan 14, 2011

I thought all Kelly's were square. Why a five or ....sided Kelly? Wouldn't the larger flanks of a four sided Kelly transmit all the torque from the rotary table, with less chance of being twisted or having the corners round off?

lazarus · Jan 14, 2011

Ours were all square, but I believe a closer to round pipe would have a tougher time twisting off. Six flats don't take as much material off as four.

Limy Sami · Jan 14, 2011

According to my dodgy maths

Area of a hexagon = 0.908 that of a square

1" AF sq = 4" (4X1"L faces)

1" AF hex = 4.363'' (6x 0.727''L faces.

abarnsley · Jan 14, 2011

Neat machine John..

A lot of steel to peel off.....

4GSR · Jan 14, 2011

John,

Wasn't this machine the same one as in your picture?

Or this one?

Ken

johnoder · Jan 14, 2011

Can't tell with those little photos Ken, but it was not a spiral mill like the upper one (at least not at Oncor).

This was a German (?) big long running machine Paul H found somewhere and it came in on several trucks with some serious rigging help. We installed it, got it running and I got the tooling/devices designed and built for it. Can't remember if the table or milling head went up and down the bed, but it had nearly 50 feet of travel.

I halfway think the green one in your upper photo is the Wadkin at Charles Elder's place I also worked on

J.O.

4GSR · Jan 14, 2011

johnoder said:
I halfway think the green one in your upper photo is the Wadkin at Charles Elder's place I also worked on

J.O.

John,

Now that you mention that, it is, and that one went to OMSCO. That was a Wadkin spar mill you designed the retrofit on way back 1980?

I have to quit bringing up these pictures, most of them, you had something to do with them! :eek:

Ken

4GSR · Jan 14, 2011

John,

While I'm at it here's some pictures of one of the other spiral mills/ kelly mills you designed back then, this one went to Brazil and later back to the USA. It's in Navasota, TX cutting iron today, but with newer CNC controls and other retrofits.

Here's the machine cutting a square kelly. I'm at the controls, old GE-550 controller! This was in 1979!

Now, cutting a spiral on a drill collar. You should have see those Brazillians eyes when that mill took off cutting at 60 ipm! They didn't know to run or turn the feed down to 10%

. They were used to their old machine only cutting at about 10" at a fraction of the depth I was running at.

Their old spiral mill was a Brazillian lathe (IROMI) with a "Versa-mill" head mounted to the carriage. Please, no offense to Bryan at "Versa-Mill". It did do the job until the new machine took its place.

Ken

recoilless · Jan 15, 2011

reggie_obe said:
I thought all Kelly's were square. Why a five or ....sided Kelly? Wouldn't the larger flanks of a four sided Kelly transmit all the torque from the rotary table, with less chance of being twisted or having the corners round off?

We use a hex type shaft to transmit power to augers 24"-48" we have mounted on hydraulic excavators and Gradalls. This is referred to as kelly bar on the jobsite.

johnoder · Mar 27, 2019

Well its only eight years late, but I found the issue of HOTLINE - Oncor's house organ in those days - that has the brief article on the subject of this thread. I'll scan it in the AM and edit it in here. Its from January 1982.

Here it is, not much to it

Cole2534 · Mar 28, 2019

johnoder said:
Its from January 1982.

6mo before the bottom dropped out.

Anyone read Funny Money?

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

Aejgx6 · Mar 28, 2019

I am impatiently waiting for the scans, hoping to see them before I crawl into a hole for 12 hours.

4GSR · Mar 28, 2019

Bringing back some old memories there!

I miss those days.

Ken

idacal · Mar 28, 2019

Are machines like these on fabricated beds or are they on cast ways?
Always wondered how the spirals were put in. Wrestling drill collars is so much fun with a drill rig break out system thats not quite big enough to break the joints

johnoder · Mar 28, 2019

idacal said:
Are machines like these on fabricated beds or are they on cast ways?
Always wondered how the spirals were put in. Wrestling drill collars is so much fun with a drill rig break out system thats not quite big enough to break the joints

Whatever you can get your hands on without busting the budget. I built two spiral mills with fabbed up beds.

Here are a few photos of the larger one going together in a Detroit shop about 1985

The bed (which is in sections as can be seen) is basically a flock of burnouts slipped on a pair of 6 X 12 rectangular tubes with suitable additions to accommodate ways and gear rack, etc

Oncor Drilling Tools Kelly Mill

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