Reconditioning Challenger 1A618 Surface Grinder.

I am working on a Challenger 1A618. I am not a Machinist by any means. I purchased it as well as a DoAll 13 lathe and a 113" Vertical bandsaw (the brand escapes me at the moment) basically at an estate sale. the previous owner was a bit of a tinkerer and a self proclaimed "Cobbler".
he gutted the control box, there is literally nothing inside the electrical box at all. He installed a 110/220v 1hp motor, running it on 110v so it was very under powered. and also installed a mill chuck and a second motor to run it, turning into somewhat of a mill, it was clearly a home made job but appeared to be pretty true, he only used it to cut keyways.

I have a couple questions and requests.

first can anyone provide some pictures of what is actually inside of the control box? I have the basic 20 page owners manual, but that only covers the basics of operation and maintenance.

I do not have 3phase if i keep it, as well as it would be easier to sell if wired for 220v so what would be a good motor to use to run it? the motor on it is 220v as well but i have not tried it on 220v yet.

also does anything go inside the base? it is the sheet metal base not the cast, this model didn't appear to come with the dust collector as the base is completely enclosed except for the door in the front. I was thinking of mounting the hydraulic pump and tank inside just to make it more of a self contained unit as well as not taking up as much floor space. would there be any issues with doing this? I have a sight gauge i can mount though the base so the level can be checked without having to go into the box.

I haven't gotten into checking the ways and everything out real good yet, they appear to be in good shape but i have not measured them, it came out of a High School so i assume it lead a fairly easy life, right now i am just cleaning the 15 layers of paint off, apparently the school painted it each year or two so there is many layers of paint on it in various states of pealing.

Thanks

and for those thinking "I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole" it was a package deal kind of thing, I got the lathe, band saw, surface grinder, about 4 running 5-10hp Briggs engines, a decent amount of new usable metal (plate, several pieces of 4 and 6 inch round stock, some angle and random other pieces) a few electric motors, and some other odds and ends for about $2500 and i hauled off $950 in scrap metal that was also in on the deal, so i have about $1,000 in the grinder, lathe and bandsaw. I doubt anyone here would pass up a deal like that.

Can't offer any help with the electrics but do wonder what the motorized vertical head was used for? A larger close-up photo of that and other components would be nice.

that was the motor he added to drive the mill chuck he added to it. It isn't a factory installed part or any kind of normal add on, if you look closely you can see the mill chuck to the left of the grind wheel.
it is apart right now. I may have some better pics i will see what i can find.

That is a very interesting project and should be a nice machine for you once you get it working properly. I have sent you a Private Message, please remember to forward your electrical questions to the General Subforum. That is the better place to discuss it as more people who would be able to offer assistance watch that subforum rather than this one.

Charles

I have used it a little, I don't really have a use for it. I was more interested in the lathe and bandsaw when i bought it all. It seemed to work fine tho under powered due to the 110v motor, you had to make very very small passes or it would completely stall the motor. i did not have the hydraulics hooked up at the time and just did it manually but the pump does run and they did have it hooked up when i first went and looked at it.
thanks for the tip, if i don't get any info with it posted here i will repost it there.

No problem HCK, we just dont discuss electrical issues here. Just repost your electrical issues in the General subforum but please keep us informed and feel free to ask questions once you start checking out the ways. Looks like a neat and simple machine, I didnt know it was hyd, that is nice.

Charles

will do. it is hydraulic on the longitude but manual on the crossfeed.
I will differently be asking some questions when it comes to the measuring and for sure be asking a lot if it does need scraping, which i really hope it doesn't as i don't have the tools or knowledge. i didn't even know what scraping was until a couple days ago when i watched a video on it.

That's a Boyer Shultz 6 x 18" grinder and unless you have a lot of spare time and patience, you IMHO should buy a machine that is running and sell it. You said you don't need it, so why go to all the hassle? If you get it running and you wanted to sell it, i would guess you would be lucky to get $1000.00 for it even with the hydraulics going.
The machines name fit's the project that's for sure..lol. If you have room and want to scrape it you can host a rebuilding seminar....and i can help....lol Rich

I was mostly just looking to clean it up, paint, and at least try to get something that at least resembles proper controls on it. the electrical end of it doesn't concern me as for as actually wiring it goes. I have rewired similar things and have done electrical work in the past. I was just curious as to what it is supposed to actually have. he had it wired straight to an extension cord, plug it in to turn it on, unplug to turn off. not even an on/off switch.
I would rather have and could get more use out of a mill, so I will probably sell it to buy a Mill. I would just like it to look a little better and at least function somewhat like it is suppose to if and when i sell it. and thus far it only cost me some elbow grease and a little paint.

...I am sure we can help get it running for you. That mag chuck if it works you can use it to scrape and grind tapered gibs too :-)

removed bad stuff, sorry.

the mag chuck works but it doesn't seem to fully release, takes a bit of effort to get a part off, like the mag only looses about half it power or so. which maybe normal i don't know, I've never used one before.

There's going to be quite a bit of wiring involved in the table hydraulics, like when to reverse direction, end of travel limits, etc. Plus motor starters and overloads for the spindle drive motor and the hydraulics motor. Does your electric chuck control have a de-magnetize position on the switch? Most do. That should make getting the part off easier, altho there's always a little residual magnetism.

this is all old school stuff.
the table hydraulics run off a manual valve, to change directions there are 2 adjustable tabs on the table that hit a valve mounted in the center of the base. the directional valve is mounted right next to the speed adjustment valve lever you can see in the picture just above the crossfeed wheel. you can't see the directional valve, the portion sticking up is only about an inch in diameter and 3/4" tall or so.
the mag chuck is mechanical, it has a 1/4 turn lever that activates and deactivates it, probably why it doesn't completely de-magnetize.

Ok one more time, we do not discuss electrical repairs in this sub forum. One more comment and I will close this thread. I dont want to do that. Please lets keep the discussions to those permitted.

Charles

please refer further comments to this thread.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ions-challenger-1a618-surface-grinder-300519/

Inside those mechanical mag chucks have a little long-gated connector on the on / off handle that wears and doesn't let the ..i am not sure what it's called..flat coil or inner portion of the chuck that reverse's polarity when it's slid or moved sideways. the connector wears the slot longer I have also seen them get full of rust and crud and the slider can't move fare enough. On some of the imported chucks they have a set screw that you can adjust to limit the movement of the slider. The slider is directly under the top surface inside the chuck. You flip the mag over and unscrew the cap screws. Pretty simple if the cap screws aren't rusted away. I always grease the heck out of it when I assemble the cleaned slider. Rich