Rockwell Mill Refurb

stevecmo

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Well, I finally finished refurbing my Rockwell 21-100 vertical mill. It was a winter project, like my Logan lathe last winter. I can't wait to see what next winter brings. :)) This mill has been beat up pretty bad but was complete and I felt like I could bring her back to a useful state. Here's a picture of her on the trailer when I got home.

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I used my tractor and loader to lift it out of the trailer and take it around to the shop door to the basement. I had to rent an engine hoist to get it inside and in place. Here it is sitting where it will reside when it's done. Someone had given the WHOLE thing a hideous coat of beige paint.

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You can get an idea of the condition in these pic's.

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It was hard to crank the knee up. I soon discovered why.

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Fortunately new bevel gears were available and required only minor modification.

I decided to strip as much paint as possible with the column and knee still assembled to the base. But eventually it all came apart for cleaning, stripping, and re-painting.

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In the next post I'll start putting things back together.

Enjoy.

Steve

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After lots of cleaning, stripping and painting it was time to start putting things back together. This is the stage of a rebuild that you get your second wind after many tedious hours of cleaning and painting.

Here's the column and base back together again. Aren't they a cute couple? :)) I liked the hockey puck feet on my lathe, so went with them on the mill.

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The knee, complete with new bevel gears, and the saddle were next.

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And then the table, end caps, dials and wheels. Gee, it's starting to look like a mill again.

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Then came the ram and the head. The lower duplex bearings on the quill were junk. I was lucky to find a lead to someone that had a new set of ABEC-7 duplex bearings for a really good price. (Thanks Don and Ray) The upper quill bearing is not an expensive bearing so I replaced it as well. There is also a set of duplex bearings in the drive pulley. After cleaning they seemed to be fine, so I used them after packing with grease. I didn't get any pictures of the "innards" but there was considerable work involved, including new "NO" type bearing retainer nuts.

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And here she is in all her glory.

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I still have a lot of things to do before she's ready to spew chips, but at least Humpty Dumpty is back together again!

I have to say thanks to Bob (buickgsx455man) for commiserating as we went thru this together.

Thanks for looking.

Steve

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Why beige paint? Couldnt't they just grab a quart of gray and slather it up? Why why why? But that paint stripper looks like it did the trick! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the pics !!:drink2:

Bob
 
I can't see the pics. AAHH. I can see the first couple and look forward to the rest. That's a neat looking mill.
 
So what's left? Looks ready to make a mess anyway.
 
Very Nice! You did an awesome job! I want one.

Dwayne
 
You do really nice work Steve. That is a nice addition to the shop. I hope you get lots of use out of it now. Half the fun is restoring it, the other half will be getting it dirty. I bet you learned what really makes it tic though.
 
Thanks for the compliments, guys!

While trying to get the mill done, I've been neglecting the outside springtime chores. We had a few nice weather days so I had to devote my time to that. And then.......the weather turned nasty and we got snow yesterday! So now I can spend some more time hopefully finishing things up. Not a lot to do, just the little things tram the head and vise, adjust the gibs, make sure everything is lubed and smooth, etc., etc.

I do have to make some sort of keeper to contain/adjust one of the gibs as it has a notch worn in it and the button head won't retain it. I also have to make some brass plugs for the dial locks. And I have a couple of cool nameplates coming (thanks Bob) that will set it off nicely.

Randy, you're right. I like tearing them down and going thru them completely. It gives you a better understanding of how everything works so you can troubleshoot problems in the future. (I'm still in awe of your BP......and shop, by the way :)))

Steve
 
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