'Dual Dragon' Vintage Machining Centre

Well, this looks like a very interesting project. I can't wait for updates on the dual dragons!
Way to go, and keep up posted.
:D
Jonathan
 
Well, I have been in France for the past week and - despite having a lot of other stuff to do - managed some progress on the Dual Dragon.

The top of the cabinet needed to be reinforced, so I went for some thick plywood. I have noticed that some of the plywood they sell in France has a nice dark reddish veneer on it and - unlike the stuff they sell in the UK - looks pretty presentable as it is. So, I had a bit of that cut to size. While I was in the shop, I had an eye out for some beading to hide the edge of the plywood. Imagine my delight when I found some chunky, serrated strips of beech which look exactly like the spiny ridge that runs the full length of a dragon's back - you know, these spikes that dig into your butt when you're riding a dragon on some quest or to rescue a damsel from the top of a tower. They also happened to be exactly the same width as the edge of the plywood. I have never seen these in the UK:

beading.JPG

I gave the plywood three coats of super-hard water-based varnish and - staying with chunky - fixed it to the top of the cabinet with hex-head coach screws before attaching the beading with round-headed brass screws. The whole thing looks a bit 'new' but I think it will tone down once it has been subjected to wear, tear, cutting oil and general machining grime:

cabinet.JPG

Next, the pillar which will support the motor and drive system. This is a massive piece of oak that was one of the vertical supports for a dilapidated outbuilding that I demolished a couple of years ago. The bottom end of it had been soaked in water for quite some time as the building deteriorated, and the wood had rotted a bit and split because of that. However, the wood is fundamentally sound, heavy and hard. I dug out the rot and took it back to healthy wood. The split end will be the top of the drive support pillar because IMHO it looks good and funky and will be seen (whereas the bottom end will be hidden by the cabinet):

end of pillar.JPG


I then planed and sanded the pillar (not too fussily, you understand), treated it with xylophene just to be on the safe side, gave it three coats of beeswax and buffed it up. The result is a lovely nut-brown satiny sheen:

pillar.JPG

And now to the machines. The antique Swiss seven-headed machine has had a brown colour to it since I first bought it. Because of this I thought that much of it was made of bronze. However, it's actually a finely textured layer of superficial rust. Some tentative experimentation with WD-40 and Scotch-brite revealed that the machine is made of some kind of silvery steel (I'm no metallurgist). See the spindles nearest the camera:

7-head.JPG

It seems to me that in time, and with patience, it might be possible to achieve the kind of finish that can be seen on this beauty. It will certainly be worth the effort as the seven-headed machine is exquisitely engineered - real Swiss quality.

Meanwhile, it would seem unfair to post a picture of one of the machines without posting one of the other, so in the interests of even-handedness here is a recent photo of the Burke No.0:

Burke No 0.JPG

So, to get an initial sense of what the Dual Dragon will look like when it's done, I sat both machines on the cabinet and propped the pillar up behind them, all in roughly the right positions:

Dual Dragon basic setup.JPG

I may move the whole thing in due course so that I can bolt the top of the pillar to one of the oak roof trusses for extra stability.

And that, guys, is as far as I got this week. At this point I'm looking to use a three-phase motor and variable speed control. However, I'm going back to Guernsey tomorrow and won't be coming back to France until April or May next year, so nothing will happen until then. This is not short-term stuff...

beading.JPG cabinet.JPG end of pillar.JPG pillar.JPG 7-head.JPG Burke No 0.JPG Dual Dragon basic setup.JPG
 
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Looking Great Gary,
the old oak post and the beading are nice touches, giving a lot of character to your work.
nice work!


the shot of your Burke looks like it could go into Vogue Magazine!
she really looks beautiful!
 
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Awesome project! Brilliant! If you find links/info to the equipments actual history or prior uses I would love to hear about it! Fun stuff! CG.
 
The post titles are all changed now. It is officially the Dual Dragon. Awesome project.

"Billy G"
 
Thanks for all your comments.

@ Mike - I have just realised that I should use my DSLR more often instead of the compact...

@ countryguy - the Burke No.0 is pretty rare and the seven-headed machine is - as far as I can tell - pretty much unique. A google search for the Burke No.0 will bring up only two or three of them, one of which is mine (before and after restoration). There are lots of Burke No. 4's around but very few No.0's. The '0' is a tiny machine - smallest mill I have ever seen. It has rack and pinion lever feeds on the X and Z axes, suggesting it was designed for production manufacturing of small workpieces. I guess it's about 100 years old. I bought it from a seller in England who was unable to tell me much of its history other than the fact that it had lain untouched in his Dad's workshop for about 30 years (which means of course that it wasn't getting any wear for a third of its life). This other thread shows my restoration of the machine in some detail. As for the seven-headed mill, there doesn't seem to be any info on it anywhere on the net, and no-one I have asked knows anything about it - not even this guy. Tony Grffiths has posted some photos I sent him of it on lathes.co.uk as an unknown machine. I bought it from an amazing gentleman in the South of England who - in his 90's - is building a half-scale aeroplane. He has been an engineer all his life and had considerable contact with the watch and clock-making industry in Switzerland, which was where he acquired this machine. It appears to be designed for production runs of small workpieces, as a blank can be run past seven different spindles, all of which are fully adjustable. This would allow for repetition work as long as the workpiece was the same size and mounted to the table in the same way. My understanding is that sometimes these Swiss horological firms would make one-off machines for a particular purpose, and this could be the case here. Thanks for your interest.

@ Bill - thanks for changing the post titles. Great attention to detail in your role as a moderator. Much appreciated.
 
This diagram shows how the Dual Dragon will be set up. My thanks to Mike, aka Ulma Doctor, who has been generous with his advice. His suggestion of using a drive roller strikes me as being a much better solution than the row of idlers I had previously planned to use:


Dual Dragon Schematic.jpg

Dual Dragon Schematic.jpg
 
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