Part 6:
Not a huge update, but I continue to plug away at things. I pulled the vise off the table and found a couple of pounds of chips hidden in the T-slots. I gave the table a very quick cleaning and ran a non-abrasive wheel over it and it cleaned up pretty well. Part of the reason for removing the table is to help with balance when unloading it...it was clearly front heavy during loading, and the vise has to be 200lbs or so.
I've pretty much finished working my way around the entire machine with a scrapper and the shop vac to remove the worst of the loose paint. After than I followed with a wire brush and a variety of cleaners to remove the bulk of the dried grease/oil/dirt. It's still pretty dirty, but about 200% better than it was!
I ordered new 1/4" round wicking felt from McMaster-Carr and that showed up the other day. I went with the F3 density rather than the harder F1 density. My thought was the F3 is supposed to absorb more fluid than the F1, so that's probably a good thing in this application. I cleaned the sight glass recesses, packed them with new felt and popped the covers back on. One of the covers has a crack that leaks badly so I made a temporary plug out of acetal. I have to make a sight glass for the table as well so I ordered some 1/8" thick 1" diameter round clear acrylic and that should be here soon. I'll probably turn a couple of plugs out of aluminum that the clear acrylic will drop in.
I worked on the table oiling system and it turns out there is a Bijur meter in between the pump and the table, and that meter was plugged. I've read it's generally not possible to clean this sort of meter (similar to the meters used on one-shot oil systems). I found someone selling a bag of 6 on eBay....$13 with shipping was too good to pass up. I used compressed air on the table oil lines and also ran .025" welding MIG wire through the lines and they seem to be clear. I sprayed some WD-40 into the lines and then followed that with compressed air (yes, it sprayed on me a bit) and there was flow on the far end, so that's a good sign.
My next challenge is to get the vertical movement of the table free. I couldn't get it to move at all initially. I triple-checked that both the clamping strap nut and rail clamp were loose (table support is off as well). A couple of days spraying penetrating fluid with no change. I then carefully put a jack under the table all the way at the rear, close to the vertical ways, put upwards pressure on the table frame and used a 3lb hammer to tap on the bottom of the table and from the sides along the ways. I soaked it in penetrating fluid again and let it sit overnight with upwards pressure from the jack. Finally I saw a bit of movement and was able to crank the table upwards a bit. It still doesn't want to lower with the crank, so I'm letting it sit, soaked in penetrating fluid again rather than force things. I think this is one of those times where you get a little movement, soak it some more, get a little movement, wash, rinse repeat until it moves freely rather than use brute force.
I took a short video of the inside while running...lube is clearly flowing. You can see the epoxy putty repair on one of the lines. I'm going to replace that, but I figured I would wait to see if I have to replace any other lines first. If so, I'll replace them all at the same time.
To be continued...
