Cincinnati No 2 Tool Cutter Grinder - let the fun begin!

BrentH

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Hi Folks,

I picked up a new project a few days ago and will be "overhauling" a new to me Cincinnati No 2 Tool cutter grinder. The Serial number of this beast is 12457. I think this puts the machine late 1930's? Some of them now have letters in their serial number that indicate later years. The purchase of the Cincy was through Kijiji from a tool sharpening shop that was closing. I picked up the Cincy for a very reasonable price and it came with a lot of tooling - pretty much all the big stuff like an indexing head and a power rotating head as well as a number of wheels, fixtures, No 50 taper adapters, centers etc.

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I had other pictures of when I first picked it up etc, however, my iphone crapped out and is now on its way to service or the garbage. The second photo shows the slow feed handle missing, it is in my parts washer getting cleaned up.

I am missing a few small parts (springs and detent balls) and a a few small locking knobs, but all of those can be made. Couple items on the search for is a new belt (1-1/2 x 85 flat belt) and a gear for the slow feed. Evidently this was not in the machine from the previous owner. It is part Number 75248 and is a double ended helical gear. I found its mate (part number 75247) on eBay the other day so I am one gear short of a complete machine.

Taking the machine apart is pretty straight forward with only a few bots and allen screws keeping the table assembly in place.

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Lots of balls! all in great shape as were the cages. Some loose parts found inside - like the rack retainers (those 4 blocks with the two allen bolts each - those were really loose.

Lots of old grinding dust to clean up. There is wear on the bushings and spindles for the rapid feed handles so I will be re-machining new bushings at a slightly less ID to accommodate the wear (about 0.010" on the diameter) - pretty good for a machine this age that was used a lot.

The one "damaged" item (other than the missing gear) that needed attention was the work head support. It is cast iron and had suffered a catastrophic failure at some point in its life. It had been poorly brazed together and a few taps with the hammer saw it separate into two pieces. I ground off the small amount of brazing and welded it back together with mig for Cast iron.

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I will be finish up machining the inner bores and surfaces on the milling machine. I have had some great success with this mig wire repairing a bandsaw guide and a few other cast pieces. It could be that the mig does not tend to create a massive amount of heat in the entire piece like brazing. I also peen the welds to stress relieve and try to weld all over the place to avoid heat build up - hopefully it is not cracked in half when I go out the the shop in a few minutes - LOL

If anyone is interested in certain parts of the machine or questions let me know. I have quite a few things to make to get the machine 100%. Any source for a belt (found one on ebay but perhaps there are more) and any leads on a gear would be great! Thanks for reading!
 
Cast iron mig wire, and that it works well is a revelation, at least to me. Thanks for sharing. If you have any tips which help in this process I would be interested in hearing them.
 
Sopko also sells wheel adapters and other tools and parts for grinders.
 
@Diecutter I have had good success with the cast iron wire the blue demon sells - you can get this from McMaster Carr. It is not "cheap" but if it saves your project, well, irrelevant. I use it with regular mig gas (20/80) or like Argoshield, All Mig etc. Grind out the crack (i try to fill both sides if possible or grind deep enough to leave a decent amount of filler metal. Leave enough of the original break to align things. Clamp everything together securely. You can heat parts up with a torch ( propane or oxy/acetylene) but I have trouble doing that and working alone. I basically tack things together at spots that will keep the assembly all together - for the 0.035 wire I am running my mig at 95 amps and 18.7 volts on 0.030 wire size. gas flow about 18. You then weld in short lengths working around the part. in between you can stress relieve by peening the weld with a welding hammer - not brutal beat the heck out of it, just a little dimpling to help relieve stresses. - not sure if this is a total benefit, but so far so good. You need to be mindful of inclusions and pockets as the cast iron impurities will create some voids - these I die grind out and refill. Also you have to watch your heat as you can melt the cast iron pretty quickly if you just "giver". The weld is typically pretty hard as it is 55% nickle or something like that so it grinds out nicely but is a bit of a bugger on HSS bits.

I have not tried it on any parts that take heat - like exhaust manifolds, or anything that requires great strenght - like an overhanging casting or a flange but it seems to hold well. I am also not sure if I would bake it for stress relief........hmmmm
 
I had no idea that MIG wire was available for cast iron. That opens up a world of possibilities for repairs as I have a Miller MIG but no oxy/acetylene for brazing.
Do you have a McMaster-Carr store near you?
I didn't think they shipped to Canada.
Thanks Brent!
 
I had no idea that MIG wire was available for cast iron. That opens up a world of possibilities for repairs as I have a Miller MIG but no oxy/acetylene for brazing.
Do you have a McMaster-Carr store near you?
I didn't think they shipped to Canada.
Thanks Brent!
Register for a personal business then order thru it. I think the last order my brother in law did shipped from a warehouse in Concord ontario.
 
@DavidR8 here is the link - as is typical McMaster does not provide the supplier details, but this is what I got. I signed up for McMaster about 15 to 20 years ago - can't remember..... so I will buy stuff and just have it come to work on my credit card.


Our CAD is in the bottom of the dumpster right now so it is a costly purchase - You may be able to find it in Canada at a welding supply cheaper? or at least not subject to the brutal shipping.

I now have to mill up a bunch of 90 degree angle plates etc for holding the projects to my mill table properly....hahaha - more fun!

I found all the bushings I need for the Cincy at Princess auto so that is cheap. I will also remake the spindle for the slow feed as it is 0.750 rod (not hardened) and I found the right woodruff key cutter in my assorted bits :)
 
@BrentH,

This is a great find and a great project I am "watching".
It's the first I've heard of cast-iron MIG wire too.
Thanks for sharing this!

so I am one gear short of a complete machine.

People have said that about me too! :)

-brino
 
Building some jigs today to hold the welded fixture properly for machining. Also ordered the bushing stock and the shaft steel so will update as I progress. Lots of projects on the go. Will post some additional pictures tomorrow.

The one gear from e-bay is on the way and it will give me some clue as to what I may need to make or "assemble" if I cannot locate an original.
 
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