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My 36" King-Way Straight Edge

M

morestainless

Cast Iron
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
I'm just about ready to get this rough, lightly rusted casting machined but I am wary of inducing thermal stresses into it by insulating it with coatings of paint:-)...so, I opted for one of my favorite cast iron patina processes - a warm Simply Green bath, rinse, then a 12hr, 90F degree oxalic acid soak, with intermittent stainless steel brushings, a thorough rinse/brush session, air dry, and then final treatment with WD40. The resultant dark brown/grey patina is very stabile.
 

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I've been painting those straight-edges for my whole life. I usually use an air grinder and burr or bastard file to knock off the burrs, machine it, file it again wipe it with lacquer thinner, dry it and spray it with grey primer, let it dry and then spray on a good brand of gloss enamel paint. Lately it is fast dry Hunter Green, before they started making good paint we used oil base enamel. And thats it as they will get dirty if you use it.

It's yours now and can do what you want. But since I started using an amazing heat treat company here in MN you only need to machine and scrape it. How do plan on machining it?
 
Still weighing my options - a full day's machinist's pay for a big established firm, a large, a well worn, huge K&T horizontal. renting time on a big planer, multiple setups on an undersized, 22" Van Norman, and I'm still shopping.
 
More patina picts. I'll almost hate getting it machined.
 

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I suppose I should change the city to Cottage Grove, but that pattern is 60 + years old and was lettered when we(my Dad) had the shop in Minneapolis. If you use a Bridgeport rough mill it vertically and the side mill it as a Bridgeport knee droops down when it is fed way out side to side and the conventional milling will make it convex. Andy down in Austin learned that the hard way when he used his Bridgeport to do his HKA-48. it was off .009" . That's why he helped Steve Watkins buy the "Beast".
 
The (knee mill) bow is a pain
I think the most accurate way I could do it would be to mill all 4 faces in one setup with the vertical spindle and kiss the 50° and then the sole last on the horizontal
 
Hbjj said:
The (knee mill) bow is a pain
I think the most accurate way I could do it would be to mill all 4 faces in one setup with the vertical spindle and kiss the 50° and then the sole last on the horizontal
Click to expand...

That's a 45 deg angle. If I were you I would call around for some one who has a planner. I had said he could have had Steve Watkins do it in Texas....but more declined..
 
I was thinking along the same lines as Bill .....I see Dennis or dfoster is in Bellingham, WA and
He has a long bed mill. Maybe he would be interested in doing it? He might give a fellow forum member a and he heck of a deal? I would also drill and tap 1/2 13 holes in the ends so you can hang it when your done and use them to clamp on when machining. Drill both ends. When I had a planner I would put the angle in a Tee slot and use small jack screws under the frame in several places and clamp it down. Indicating the back side to get it pretty close...maybe .005" Put a stop on the front end and cut the back side then flip it over and set the SE on the back side so the flat edge was about 1/4" stuck out the side of the table, Then I could do the flat and angle in one set up. I never planned the top side. Years later I had a Thompson Grinder and I would grind the top, bottom and then set it in magnetic V blocks and grind the angle. Different strokes for different strokes. :-)
 
thermite said:
How close is Bellingham, WA to.... wherever it is YOU are in Washington?
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Bellingham is a 361 mile drive from Spokane. As I mentioned, I could most probably have access to a large planer. That's just outside Wenachee - Rock Island on the Columbia River, about 1/3rd the distance that Bellingham is. I was just there 2 weeks ago visiting my friend and PM member, Gary Moore (didn't ask about any relation...), who has the most incredible collection of machine tools in his shop, uh, warehouse, that I have ever seen. A hundred machines at least. At the time I was looking at shapers. He has at least 10 - 24" heavies to the 7" baby machines. During the tour he pointed out the planer, but "straight edge" didn't register at the time. Now, I'll have to call and ask him about it.
 
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