Saving a Harig Super 612

akjeff

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Aug 21, 2020
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Managed to save an old grinder from the scrapyard. This Harig Super 612 was once in the shop at the University of AK. It got tipped over, which looks to be easy to do. Top heavy, light base cabinet, and the grinder just sits in a recess in the top of the cabinet with nothing but mean old Mr. Gravity keeping it there. Anyway, they must have tipped it soon after getting it, as the ways have zero wear on them, and the original paint still looks pretty good for a 30+ year old machine. At some point, the folks at the U of A got sick of moving this thing out of their way, and were going to junk it. Fortunately it was saved by an employee, who ultimately gave it to a friend of mine. He had it for a while, and also grew tired of it being in his way, and having more projects than free time to complete them all, recently passed it on to me. Every shaft was bent in a dogleg; traverse, cross feed, and elevation, as was the dust tube that covers the elevation screw( the screw, fortunately, was safely down below the top of the column when the tip over happened. Were it bent, it would have been toast. ) The cross feed screw was also bent, but a little careful use of the shop press got it straight again. The ways, while pristine, had a few dings in them from the spill, and it took a while to carefully stone those out. The only major part that had to be purchased was the oil pump. It was from the era when they were plastic, and was cracked and done for. Also replaced the old oil lines, and the cable for the table drive. With all the major stuff out of the way it was time to see if it was a keeper. My first attempt at grinding the chuck, was also my first attempt at surface grinding....bad idea! Did some practicing, and research, and tried it again today with much better results. The table grind went well using a porous Norton 46H stone and mist coolant. Then squared up some 4140 blocks on the mill and placed five of them on the chuck and ground them with an old Camel 46J that came with the grinder, also with mist coolant. Relieved that the results confirmed it was worth the hours spent fixing it. Should be a great addition to the shop!
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Great work! I’m thankful your machine was able to be saved from the graveyard. I have a newer version of the 612 that I’m working on, but it’s not nearly as clean as your machine.

I plan to convert the table rack and pinion on my machine to a cable drive system. Would you be willing to share dimensions of the cable, cable drum, eye bolts, Hardware, etc, along with some detailed pictures?

Once I complete this, I intend to write a post with detailed information, drawings, and McMaster part numbers so people can follow along with their own conversion for a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Cahark
 
Great work! I’m thankful your machine was able to be saved from the graveyard. I have a newer version of the 612 that I’m working on, but it’s not nearly as clean as your machine.

I plan to convert the table rack and pinion on my machine to a cable drive system. Would you be willing to share dimensions of the cable, cable drum, eye bolts, Hardware, etc, along with some detailed pictures?

Once I complete this, I intend to write a post with detailed information, drawings, and McMaster part numbers so people can follow along with their own conversion for a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Cahark
Thanks Cahark, and hope your project goes well! I'll look through my photos and add some details on the repairs. I don't have an exact length on the cable, as it was one of the factory parts I bought from Jim at https://www.harigtechsupport.com/index.html. An extremely helpful, and knowledgable guy. Quite a number of parts are still available for these grinders, though I chose to make the majority of mine. I did buy the cable drive, oil lines, oil, oil pump, and the factory pads that the four corners of the grinder sit on from Jim.
 
Beautiful! An unused grinder needing repair. Far nicer than the grinder I paid more than 3500$ for,
 
@Cahark here are a few shots of the cable drive components. Unfortunately, I didn't record any critical dimensions. I simply made duplicates of the bent/broken parts. The first photo is the underside of the table. One end of the cable attaches to the adjustable J-hook, makes a couple of wraps around the the hand wheel pulley, and then the other end is on a stud that is just barely visible in the left edge of the photo. In the center, the SHCS threaded into the casting, needs a plastic bumper on it, as it is the stop that keeps the table from flying off the saddle if you over crank it!
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Next is the bent factory cable pulley/shaft next to the replacement I made. Then a photo of it as an assembly, which is then held in the saddle casting with a set screw.
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@akjeff This is exactly what I need to get started. Thank you very much for the pictures and details. I should be able to scale your pictures in order to get rough dimensions since most of these parts have a bit of leniency.

Would you be able to measure the cable diameter if its easily accessible?

Thanks again!
 
@akjeff This is exactly what I need to get started. Thank you very much for the pictures and details. I should be able to scale your pictures in order to get rough dimensions since most of these parts have a bit of leniency.

Would you be able to measure the cable diameter if its easily accessible?

Thanks again!
Yep, I'll see what I can get at and measure what I can later this week/weekend. Also, if you don't already have an owners manual, you can contact Jim in the link provided earlier, or depending what vintage yours is , www.vintagemachinery.org may have it for download.
 
One thing I wanted to add to the thread is a link to a youtube video that I found extremely helpful in getting a good grind on the magnetic chuck.
 
@akjeff thanks for Jim’s contact information. I was able to get a manual and some good tips from him. He seems like a great guy to work with. If I can’t find a more cost effective substitute, I’ll be buying the cable from him. However, for the sake of having fun and putting a project together, I hope to find some suitable cable from McMaster.

Thanks for the info on grinding the chuck. Once I finish my wheel balacing arbor, that will be the first job.
 
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