Hi Richard-
I've been peeking in on this forum now and then and I like that there's some recent activity. I'm slowly collecting tools to get the feel for hand scraping small stuff, like a lathe cross slide. I have a VN12 I'd like to tackle one day, and a Sheldon 10x56 lathe that I am currently cleaning up.
As far as the lathe, I don't think I'll ever be able to get it back to precision. And, considering that even professionals have trouble scraping in prismatic ways, I'll gladly sidestep that project and spend my money and time elsewhere.
Getting to the point, how do you feel about Moglice and/or Turcite when scraping/machining the ways isn't practical? Sending the bed and other assemblies out to be machined sucks up a LOT of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Are these methods more trouble than they're worth?
Welcome Steve,
I'm glad you wrote to keep the questions coming in.
I have scraped several lathe beds over the years. We call "prismatic" ways a V-way. A, V-way and a Flat way combination are fairly easy to scrape parallel, but the double V-way is a real pain to measure and indicate to keep them parallel . I always say if the bed ways (no matter if its a lathe, mill or grinder) are worn more then .005" then get it machined. There are always exceptions to that rule which would be if the machine can't be dismantled and moved very easy, is a machining company close and reasonable who can do it, your budget, time you have, have the tools to do the job, have the skill level, etc.
I will prepare a procedure to test the ways for wear in an upcoming thread, where and when to level and or align a machine, I used to sell Moglice and love the product in several places. I got in a little hot water with them when I was speaking at a SME Rebuilding Forum and someone asked me "what is better, Moglice or Turcite?" My answer was "They are both good products and both have areas where one works better then the other". I think you readers know I have taught scraping classes in Taiwan at new machine builder factories for over 25 years and I would estimate 99% of the builders use turcite. Over there they use both the brand name Turcite and a similar product called Rulon, but they call both brands turcite (small T).
The Chinese language I guess is not like English, they get used to a English word and that's the word for ever. I have an example that's pretty funny. Before leaving home, I had some work shirts made and put "Machine Scraping" embroidered over my pocket and under that I put my name "Rich". They never said anything to me until the day I left, being very polite, my interpreter and friend said "Richard next time you return, please spell out you name, Richard" as the people who see "Rich" think you are bragging and you have a lot of money"
Anyway here in the states I buy Rulon as I find it to be as good as Turcite and less expensive. Moglice is wonderful on big VTL's, Big machines in general and not so good on small machines. Once you put Moglice on and you might have misalignied it, it's a pain to scrape as it will dull carbide. For you that don't know how Moglice works you use set screws or small shims to align the ways before you inject a wet liquid or paste that is similar to a 2 part epoxy and it dries. Check out the website:
http://moglice.com/ You can scrape Rulon after it is applied and that's why the Taiwanese prefer it.
I wish the readers would put the brand name of the machines you own as I have worked on so many machines over the years I get the models mixed up, sort of like memorizing all the names of cars versus brands (really getting hard now with all the imports). What's a VN12, Van Norman??
Thanks and keep writing, don't be shy and all questions are welcome!
Richard King
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