Member postings for Alan Waddington 2

Is the handle pinned on with a roll pin ? You might need to remove it to allow the casing to come off.

A 3 phase isolator is just a switch that disconnects the machine from the incoming mains supply, looking at your photos, you have hooked up the rotary converter direct to the main motor of the mill ?

this will bypass all the existing wiring contactors and switches etc.

if you look inside the panel at the back I suspect you will find the connections where the original 3 phase supply would have been connected. If you wire your RPC up to them, all the switches on the mill should work as originally intended including the isolator hanging down.

Hi Robert

Interesting photographs......Your machine looks to be in good condition, certainly the paint is more intact than mine ( assuming its original) There seems to be lots of variation between VPRB's, i don't know if this is down to development and product evolution over the lifespan of the model or if there was a basic model with an 'options' list. My serial number is 10,309/2 so I'm guessing quite a bit later than yours which seems to be 4769/2

For example there are lots of pictures showing VPRB's with a slotting head on the back of the overarm, the overarm has a large lug cast at the back to bolt the head to. Mine however is like yours, the lug is not present, just a flat face with a hole in it.

I also noted that your overarm is fixed centrally, the one on mine has dovetail slides, and can be moved back and forth. Also you don't seem to have power feed to X, which most including mine have, although I've seen at least two different types of feed gearbox fitted. Some also have power to Y & Z

Difficult to tell from the pictures, but i would hazard a guess that the rotary switch hanging down is simply a 3 phase isolater (It is on mine located in the same position)

Am hoping to get some time in the workshop this week, have a new VFD to wire up to the mill.

Hi Robert

Welcome to the Beaver thread, good to hear you have yours up and running.

I'm not aware of any forums dedicated specifically to Balding machinery, I guess as a minority manufacturer they don't generate the interest of more mainstream makes such as Bridgeport.

There are a couple of Beaver rebuild threads knocking about on the web including this one, and manuals are freely available.

Can you post some pics of your Stateside Beaver ? I wonder if there were any differences on the exported machines.

Regards

Alan.

I made a staircase at the last house and sealed the bare polished steel with bri-wax wood polish, worked a treat and never rusted.

My pet hate is the blatant misuse of the phrase ' Barn Find '

Just type it into ebay and marvel at the diverse amount of Tat folks have 'found' in barns recently.

Ah,16swg, you didn't mention that bit !.....i think rusting through would be the least of your worries if you tried to steam that

Edit: Just had a look at your photos, and it looks thicker than 16swg, although the welding looks non too clever.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 12/12/2016 15:30:09

I'm not a model engineer, but was a boiler maker in years gone by, so please bear with me here........I'm curious as to why steel would be classed as 'inappropriate material, to build a boiler ? Surely that's what full sized original ones were made from.

If it was made from certified boiler plate and welded by a coded welder, why would it be inappropriate for a model. ?

**LINK**

Worth a watch, very emotional towards the end. I come from a mining area, in fact a childhood friend of mine was killed at the mine the program is about. It's hard to comprehend that such a massive and dominant industry could vanish virtually overnight.

I've never made anything so small, but when I worked in engineering pretty much any fabrications that required accuracy would be welded first, heat treated then machined. On large pressure vessels the amount of movement post heat treatment, was sometimes staggering.

Could you not have soldered first and then bored out on the lathe or mill ? I realise it would be a bit awkward to hold the part, but that flat base should give a good start.

i guess you might be able to clean up the existing bore by boring out slightly larger and making a new piston, or sacrificing your existing reamer and chopping the tapered portion off.

When i was an apprentice, one of the blokes decided to make a barbecue by cutting a 50 gallon drum in half with the gas axe.........Only he forgot to unscrew the bung before work commenced. The resulting blast knocked him on is @rse and bent the cutting torch to 90 degrees from the handle. Drum lid was found about 100ft away.....he escaped with a singed tache and a bruised ego.

An ironing board.....obviously just make sure you duck when you hand it over

Let me guess...Chinese lathe appears in 'built to a price', shock horror post !

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 08/12/2016 22:05:13

Pistonheads **LINK**

Yup V1000 4kw £191...... **LINK**.......would have definitely stumped up the extra £60 to get that

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 07/12/2016 21:49:41

I'm sure your probably right Pete, but as I had to buy one anyway, I thought there was no harm in having a bit of headroom. Especially as I've gone for a cheapo chinese jobbie, £130 delivered for a 4kw inverter.

i paid more than that for the 2.2 kw one, which was secondhand, although it is a good name brand.

John Guest Speedfit, do a plastic push fit system specifically designed for compressed air.