12-30-2012, 05:31 PM
Well group, here is an update on my mill project. I am happy to report the project is finished and the mill is up and running. I sure learned a lot on this project, first I learned there is no such thing as a cheap milling machine. What started out as a $1,200 project ended up closer to $3,000. I found a couple of expensive problems with the mill and I decided to do some upgrades as well.
First after removal of all of he grease and dirt I found many quick repairs had been made over the years. Nothing had been repaired properly, just patched together. These repairs were made by the owner two back from the person I purchased it from. The guy I got it from actually did the most amount of damage by not understanding what the machine needed to run properly and not bothering to get any documentation on it.
I was fortunate to have the help of a retired machinist friend of mine who was able to get a lot of it apart with very little documentation. Some of the work was just taking the gear boxes off of it and cleaning them out and replacing fluids, others required some lathe work to make some missing parts like handles and levers. Drive belts were replaced after a couple of trips to the parts houses for correct sizes.
The big expense was replacing the static phase converter with a rotary phase converter. Seems two speed, three phase motors, require rotary converters and the prior owner had attempted to run the motor with a static converter and burned up one of the winding's. This required having the motor rebuilt after it filled the garage with smoke when it was started. This was the major expense, coming to over $1,200.00
One thing that helped with the project cost was I had a can of coins in the garage that I had stored away after I retired. When I was working I used to throw my coins in the can every night after work. When I retired and we moved to the country I had stored the can in the garage and while moving the mill to its' final place I stumbled across the can. I decided it was time to take it to the bank and cash it in for currency and it provided me with $2,200. This paid for the motor and money for a DRO.
First after removal of all of he grease and dirt I found many quick repairs had been made over the years. Nothing had been repaired properly, just patched together. These repairs were made by the owner two back from the person I purchased it from. The guy I got it from actually did the most amount of damage by not understanding what the machine needed to run properly and not bothering to get any documentation on it.
I was fortunate to have the help of a retired machinist friend of mine who was able to get a lot of it apart with very little documentation. Some of the work was just taking the gear boxes off of it and cleaning them out and replacing fluids, others required some lathe work to make some missing parts like handles and levers. Drive belts were replaced after a couple of trips to the parts houses for correct sizes.
The big expense was replacing the static phase converter with a rotary phase converter. Seems two speed, three phase motors, require rotary converters and the prior owner had attempted to run the motor with a static converter and burned up one of the winding's. This required having the motor rebuilt after it filled the garage with smoke when it was started. This was the major expense, coming to over $1,200.00
One thing that helped with the project cost was I had a can of coins in the garage that I had stored away after I retired. When I was working I used to throw my coins in the can every night after work. When I retired and we moved to the country I had stored the can in the garage and while moving the mill to its' final place I stumbled across the can. I decided it was time to take it to the bank and cash it in for currency and it provided me with $2,200. This paid for the motor and money for a DRO.
ml_woy, proud to be a member of MetalworkingFun since Jul 2012.