Hello... I'm a brand new member with a brand new King 942VS-6-NS5 Bridgeport style milling machine... and she has a problem.
A little back story: I was retiring in May of 2014 (39 years in law enforcement) and as a retirement gift, my son bought me a new King 14"x40" lathe from a local dealer, here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The company was closing its doors after 80 years of business and they heavily discounted their remaining stock. We snapped up the lathe at dealer cost, 3 weeks before they were to hold a public auction on the remaining inventory. They also had the above mentioned milling machine for sale, complete with power feed on the X axis, an X/Y DRO, some tooling and a decent 8" vise. It retailed for $13,500.00 CDN and had been marked down to $10,999.00 CDN but I opted to wait until the auction to bid on the mill. Three weeks later I won the mill in the auction. I'd known the owner and the staff for the past 40 years and they assured me that the mill would be covered by a 1 year warranty even though they sold it through the auction.
Shortly after the mill was delivered to my shop, I began cleaning off the packing/shipping grease in preparation for setting it up in its new home. As I raised the knee it began to bind and became tighter and tighter as I tried to lower it. It would only go up, quietly stiffly I might add, but refused to go down. I heard a "tinkle" sound and discovered a piece of the knee's gib laying on the base. The bottom inch or so of the gib had broken off and fallen out of the dovetailed way.
I called the dealer who was still in the process of winding down the business and they said to call the local warranty centre. The warranty centre directed me to King Canada in Québec and a long, back and forth exercise began. They initially began to honour the warranty and eventually abandoned me claiming that since the mill was purchased at auction they wouldn't honour the warranty. Eventually they agreed to send me new parts and I received a new gib that was completely incorrect for the machine. The gib is too thick; too long and the side angles are 52 degrees whereas the original gib's side angles are 50 degrees.
They followed up 5 months later with a gib that's closer to the original but still not the correct size. The second gib is too long and the oiling holes and journals are in the wrong location. The angles are correct and my original gib dimensions can be duplicated by cutting some material away from the top and bottom of the replacement. However, the oiling holes/journals would be in the wrong location and the entire new gib would require scraping and fitting into the dovetailed way.
Should I silver solder or braze weld the broken piece to the original gib or would time be better spent modifying the replacement gib? I have the skills and equipment to weld on the broken piece and I'm thinking that I'd only have to scrap and fit the area of the weldment vs re-machining the oil holes/journal and scraping and fitting the replacement gib. Fitting, adjusting and installing either gib is something new to me.
I welcome all your thoughts, suggestions and recommendations.
Cheers
Mike
(sorry for the longish post...)
A little back story: I was retiring in May of 2014 (39 years in law enforcement) and as a retirement gift, my son bought me a new King 14"x40" lathe from a local dealer, here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The company was closing its doors after 80 years of business and they heavily discounted their remaining stock. We snapped up the lathe at dealer cost, 3 weeks before they were to hold a public auction on the remaining inventory. They also had the above mentioned milling machine for sale, complete with power feed on the X axis, an X/Y DRO, some tooling and a decent 8" vise. It retailed for $13,500.00 CDN and had been marked down to $10,999.00 CDN but I opted to wait until the auction to bid on the mill. Three weeks later I won the mill in the auction. I'd known the owner and the staff for the past 40 years and they assured me that the mill would be covered by a 1 year warranty even though they sold it through the auction.
Shortly after the mill was delivered to my shop, I began cleaning off the packing/shipping grease in preparation for setting it up in its new home. As I raised the knee it began to bind and became tighter and tighter as I tried to lower it. It would only go up, quietly stiffly I might add, but refused to go down. I heard a "tinkle" sound and discovered a piece of the knee's gib laying on the base. The bottom inch or so of the gib had broken off and fallen out of the dovetailed way.
I called the dealer who was still in the process of winding down the business and they said to call the local warranty centre. The warranty centre directed me to King Canada in Québec and a long, back and forth exercise began. They initially began to honour the warranty and eventually abandoned me claiming that since the mill was purchased at auction they wouldn't honour the warranty. Eventually they agreed to send me new parts and I received a new gib that was completely incorrect for the machine. The gib is too thick; too long and the side angles are 52 degrees whereas the original gib's side angles are 50 degrees.
They followed up 5 months later with a gib that's closer to the original but still not the correct size. The second gib is too long and the oiling holes and journals are in the wrong location. The angles are correct and my original gib dimensions can be duplicated by cutting some material away from the top and bottom of the replacement. However, the oiling holes/journals would be in the wrong location and the entire new gib would require scraping and fitting into the dovetailed way.
Should I silver solder or braze weld the broken piece to the original gib or would time be better spent modifying the replacement gib? I have the skills and equipment to weld on the broken piece and I'm thinking that I'd only have to scrap and fit the area of the weldment vs re-machining the oil holes/journal and scraping and fitting the replacement gib. Fitting, adjusting and installing either gib is something new to me.
I welcome all your thoughts, suggestions and recommendations.
Cheers
Mike
(sorry for the longish post...)
