Rockwell Mill - New Brake Shoe

stevecmo

Active User
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
715
I've spent the winter refurbing / rebuilding / repainting my Rockwell mill. One of the items that needed to be replaced was the brake shoe. The cam had worn the contact surface of the old one to the point it wouldn't hold.

I ordered a 6" square of Garolite LE x 1/2" thick from McMaster Carr. This is nasty stuff to work with - almost like wood with lots of dust. I started off by first drilling a reference hole in the center and then knocking the corners off with a scroll saw.

P1050655.jpg

Then I mounted it in my four jaw chuck and centered it up using the reference hole. Next I drilled the hole big enough that I could use a boring bar.

P1050661.jpgP1050663.jpg

I bored it out to just over 1 1/2" to fit my duplicate spindle plug that I made when making my ER collet chuck. The plug is sitting on the cross slide.

P1050664.jpg

Next I put the plug in the four jaw and centered it. Then I put the brake shoe on the plug and used my ER collet chuck as a net to secure it, and turned the outside to fit my pulley.

P1050669.jpgP1050670.jpgP1050673.jpg

The next step was to face to the correct thickness and bore the ID to the correct dimension.

P1050674.jpgP1050675.jpg

I was struggling with how to cut the slot for the cam. I finally decided my little Unimat was up to the task, so I made some brackets and clamps and let the dust fly.

P1050677.jpgP1050678.jpg

And the finished product:

P1050679.jpgP1050681.jpg

It seems to fit the pulley and the cam fits in the slot. I think she'll work just fine.

Thanks for looking.

Steve

P1050655.jpg P1050661.jpg P1050663.jpg P1050664.jpg P1050669.jpg P1050670.jpg P1050673.jpg P1050674.jpg P1050675.jpg P1050678.jpg P1050677.jpg P1050679.jpg P1050681.jpg
 
Thanks Steve,
I have often wondered what I would do when the brakes on my mill and lathe wore out. Now I have some good ideas.

Thanks again and nice work,
Michael
 
Can you post more pics as you reassemble it. I'm getting ideas to maybe add a brake to my lathe.
 
Can you post more pics as you reassemble it. I'm getting ideas to maybe add a brake to my lathe.

Daver,

I'm not quite sure what you're looking for. This brake shoe goes on my Rockwell mill and is specific to the drive pulley and housing on that machine. If you're wanting to add a brake to your lathe, it will take some serious design work, although the principle should work. You could buy the Garolite and machine it to whatever size and shape you want.

On the Rockwell, there is a cam on the end of the actuating lever that fits in the slot I milled in the shoe. When you turn the lever the cam expands the shoe which rubs on the inside of the cast pulley.

Hope that helps.

Steve
 
Thanks Steve, I totally missed that it was on a mill... That's what get for reading he forums on pain killers! But it did get some creative juices flowing. If I get areound to doing it, I'll try to remember to give you he credit :)
 
Very nice and clean looking ring. How did you decide what to use for it?
 
Very nice and clean looking ring. How did you decide what to use for it?

I had worked with a similar phenolic material years ago (different application entirely) so I sort of recognized the material of the shoe that I removed. The stuff I previously worked with was called Micarta. A little research indicated Garolite, Micarta, Bakelite are trade names for similar material. McMaster Carr has several versions of Garolite - the LE version being machinable. So I rolled the dice. It may not be exactly the same stuff, but I think it will work fine.

By the way, did you get your "new" table?

Steve
 
Very nice work and great information! I may need to make one of these someday.
 
Back
Top