Pics of Mill as purchased and rough paint phase

[cnczky]

Machine is now in the basement shop. Nicely painted thanks to my wife.
Ran the spindle for the first time today after wiring it up. I am using the original
circuits in the box. Very old school.
I noticed that the spindle gets quite warm and it leaks grease. I did replace the
lip seal on the spindle. I got the grease from Replacement parts Inc. Had a bit of trouble
getting full 1465 spindle rpm....motor would bog down. Other rpms seemed fine...any thoughts.
The feed drive mechanism works nicel as well, but I need to replace the silent chain as it is very stretched.
The trip out lever works grat in both directions. I noticed that the feed drive motor does not reverse when the
spindle rotation is reversed. Not a big deal since I can select table direction manually up front.
Like others I broke the machine down into large sub assemblies. I loaded each piece after cleaning with a wire wheel
and de-greaser and used an engine hoist to lift parts onto a refrigerator dolly and strapped down hard to it.
My crew helped me slep it down the basement . Friends from work and my sons had a hand in it. It was not too bad to get down.
After mechanical inspection, cleaning and learning, the machine was rough painted by my wife. The detail painting was just done today.
She's grey trimmed with royal blue. Shop colors here are Infantry blue but I could not find it at an affordable price.
The sight glasses had to be replaced due to them being cracked and leaking oil. I had 2 glasses water jet cut out of 1/4 " thick poly carbonate.
They are swaged in pretty tight. Slight leaks were dealt with using gas fitters pipe dope.

 

[HMF]

Congrats on getting up and running with your #12. I have the large, original motor also, and it looks like it needs to be cleaned and checked, maybe bushings changed. Did you open the bell and check out the motor?

i have a couple of the old electrical boxes, and we have the wiring diagrams on here, but I was planning to use a VFDS instead.

 

[cnczky]

No I did not disassemble either motor. Im wondering how to lubricate the large one. I don't see oil cups ot screws .
Have you any ideas?

 

[jumps4]

the mill looks nice annd heavy duty, congrats
steve

 

[HMF]

No I did not disassemble either motor. Im wondering how to lubricate the large one. I don't see oil cups ot screws .
Have you any ideas?

I don't see any lubrication points for the motor. I checked the literature on here and saw nothing. Perhaps Cal or Frank can shed some light on motor lubrication.

 

[cnczky]

I really need to buy some collets. All I have is a 1/2 " one. Most of my end mills are 3/8 shank. Got a vise and measuring tools. I also need to find some arbors for gear cutting.

I noticed that the spindle drive motor does get warm. Is this normal in such an old motor.

 

[Cal Haines]

... I noticed that the spindle gets quite warm and it leaks grease. I did replace the
lip seal on the spindle. I got the grease from Replacement parts Inc. Had a bit of trouble
getting full 1465 spindle rpm....motor would bog down. Other rpms seemed fine...any thoughts. ...

The older cutter-heads like yours can get quite hot and it's OK. Van Norman ran the heads in at the factory and made sure that they didn't get any hotter than 170 degrees F (which is a lot hotter than you can hold your hand on). Using modern oil and grease may help some.

Electric motors when operating at full power get quite warm as well. Going strictly from memory, but a 50 degree F temperature rise is usually not a problem. The data plate on the motor may give the full load rise.

The No 12's that I've seen have had grease fittings on the motors, but your motor may have sealed bearing. On the other hand, some shops plug the grease fitting holes to keep maintenance guys from over greasing the motors. If the bearings are properly greased when installed they will usually last a very long time. Over-greasing is a good way to have an electrical fire. Someone spent years pumping grease into the motor of my No 16. There's a plug on the underside, opposite the grease fitting, that's supposed to be removed when greasing, to keep the grease from squeezing out into the motor's guts; apparently this guy didn't know about the plug...


Cal

 

[Tamper84]

Very nice!!!

Chris

 

[HMF]

There is a set of 6 collets (VN, Hardinge) on Ebay right now BIN $50 which I'd snap up if I was you. Tools4cheap.net also has a set of 10 good quality import collets on Ebay for $175. Tools4cheap also has shell mill holders too. Arbors appear on Ebay from time to time and go for about $100.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Man...that's a helluva shop you have there....and a helluva wife if she paints your machines! Not sure I can help, but I would consider pulling the spindle if it's heating up. You may need to adjust preload.