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Recondition a Sheldon carrige and slide.

bmikkalson

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Location
St, Paul MN
Rebuilding my Sheldon carriage and cross slide. This is my 1st attempt at machine tool rebuilding, so all suggestions welcome.
My plan is to mill .030 from the saddle and turcite the top bearing slide. Just ordered a 60 degree dove tail cutter( jesus $$$$$$$$$). Any event I will post pics and keep updates.

(Dennis and Rich your tools are safe and secure)

 
I have a 10X36 model L Sheldon from 1942, real sweet little lathe. My only issue is the pathetically short compound and tail stock travels.

I would like to re-scrape mine too, but it's not worn enough for me to justify learning how....:sulk:
 
??????????? Were you sleeping when Dennis and I showed you how to do it during the class???????????????????///


Dennis and I live within 20 minutes from your shop, using our tools and your asking the forum for suggestions ????????????? WTF???
 
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How do you get them to go to the end ? I can get them up above....what's the secret?

I suppose I should edit my ending...but ......i'll wait for him to read it......lol

Just type them in where ever you want them, : ) ; ) : ( I put spaces in between them so you can see them. Try it out, it isnt hard to do, just one more useless skill we develop. :)

Charles
 
??????????? Were you sleeping when Dennis and I showed you how to do it during the class???????????????????///


Dennis and I live within 20 minutes from your shop, using our tools and your asking the forum for suggestions ????????????? WTF???


hahah, I "think" I have it handled so fare, What I am doing is removing .030 from the carriage. I still don't have the dove tail cutter yet and I am working around my buddy with the xxx precision mill drill.
 
I think what Dennis is saying, remember how bad the bed was? If you want to do it correctly, we should do the bed first, then match fit the saddle then the cross-slide. But if all you want to do is rebuild the cross-slide and ignore the bed. You can but it will turn a taper. If i recall the bed is worn .012 up near the head-stock? I do realize everyone likes to do things on their own, but Dennis and I have seen 1/2 as_ed repair jobs over the years and are trying to protect you and your machine from that. Rebuilding the cross-slide is pretty simple if you know what your doing. I would do some tests on the crap mill before machining anything on it. Those Chinese mills are not very accurate, that's why the management on here (practical machinist) deletes posts when they are mentioned. I will be around and can stop by and we can talk about it. Rich
 
I need to address this a bit deeper. Everyone knows I generally teach on my own or I have a old student help as I did in MI and Scandinavia. In this class Dennis volunteered to help, he took a class several years ago plus he is a machine tool rebuilder and a card carrying Journeyman. Dennis lives close and I wanted the students to learn and grow from Dennis's knowledge.

This is a bit bothersome to this old teacher and I want talk about it and not piss anyone off. I want you to think about it. Over the years I have worked with thousands of new students who have successfully rebuild a machine after the class. We have all seen others on these forums who have rebuilt machines with-out taken a class with anyone who teaches rebuilding.

Also in this case we need to remember the old sayings "You need to let the horse have the reins" and "you can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink". Hopefully my years of teaching will help both Dennis and Ben here. Dennis is not new to instruction either, but we all can learn. As my Dad used to say, when your done learning your dead and when you think you know it all your also dead".

Another old quote I like is "The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it open. – Arnold Glasgow

Just to make it clear to all Ben is a "Gung Ho" sort of guy, he is a type A kind of guy who is always in a rush. He is the student who after 5 minutes of first day and first time scraping said "I can't do this". He is in a rush all the time. I really like him, but anyone who scrapes knows you have to be patient. Things takes time and it gets boring doing it right. On the other hand, one can't baby sit a new guy and hold his hand every move.

Dennis during the class was holding Ben's hand or every time Ben went to blue up his plate Dennis would talk to him on what to do. I had to say something to them a few times. In my opinion, if you don't let a new student alone to make his own decision he won't learn from his mistakes. In many cases I see a student making a mistake scraping a test practice part, I will show him he is making the mistake, but because he is stubborn and thinks he can do it on his own I let let him keep making the mistake until he sees the mistake he making and "understands" finally and asks for help.

Like I told the students "This is not my first rodeo" and I have been quite successful over the years with this method. I have seen these types of problems thousands of times and all works out well, but one who teaches also needs to be patient, one can not push the student and push him. They need to learn on their own in their own time.

Ben on the other-hand wanted a short cut and there are ways to speed up the work, but scraping is not a good trade for a type A person as one has to slowly get the part coming your way. During the classes as all my other students will testify to, I show everyone how to do it more then once. I stop the class and point out mistakes other students make so they learn from eachothers mistakes and they can talk to each other or teach each other about what they did and learn!

When Ben asked this forum for "suggestions" he was looking for a short cut in my opinion. He forgot he had his teachers here to help him and that literally pissed me off as you all saw. I left a hand scraper, power scraper, bluing with Ben and Dennis left a straight-edge with Ben to finish his machine. I live maybe 15 minutes from Ben's shop and was expecting a call as I am sure Dennis was too. Then we see the saddle in the crap mill and "My God" . We were emailing him, I PM'ed him, Dennis said he called him 3 times and left a messages. Ben doesn't check his messages very often .

Back to the "learning here" During the class we discussed or I did with Ben to buy a dove-tail cutter or fly cut the saddle, turcite it ( I was going to bring over some turcite when he was ready, etc. he said he had a friend who was a machinist with a Bridgeport. I figured his friend was a machinist, now I am not so sure. But anyway if one takes his time and is a detective and plans his moves, asks questions to experienced people he can rebuild.

Like I always say "scraping something flat is simple, but knowing where to scrape and how much to take off is a trade". I just hope Dennis lets Ben learn from his mistakes and not do the job for him and Ben doesn't look for a short cut.

Dennis and I can both help him, Dennis is retired and I say I am semi-retired or getting ready to. Ben told me Dennis is coming over to help. Hopefully it will be a learning experience for both of them and I get my tools back sooner then later...lol...

Rich
 
Richard, learning is why I wanted to start this subforum after you suggested it. We all want the end results, most people rebuild a machine not because they want to be expert machine rebuilders but because they want a better machine than they can buy or afford. I am sure everyone appreciates that it takes time to learn a skill and I am grateful that you are willing to show some patience as well. I look forward to seeing some more posts about how this project proceeds and hope Ben remembers to stop and take a photo now and then so we can keep up with his progress. Mistakes and all....

Charles
 
Rich, thanks for the response.. patience is not my strong :-). Probally a poor example, but 10 years ago it took 30 min to dry urethane clear Baking at 150. Yesterday I painted a car and the clear was dry in 15 min at 70 degrees. The point of the story, hhhahah the way of removing metal with precision is the same.
 








 
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