Member postings for larry phelan 1

And I thought it was only me !

Yes Bazyle, sad to say it is only a wood planer, but then, one cannot have everything !

If I ever come across one of the other type, I will be sure to let you know. Are they still around ?, never used one, just know of them.

And yes Nigel, those springs can be deadly, much like a woman scorned

At this point I am just setting about finding spares, cone pullies, chuck ect, a suitable motor will turn up sometime.

Amazing how one can get hooked on things like this.

Good morning Robert and Hopper,

There are so many big holes in this drill table that there is almost a complete slot from side to side! He seems to have missed a few spots, but not many. I was thinking of just sheeting the top with a piece if plate and milling out the bolting down slots.

Regarding those springs ???? dont even mention them! I have two fingers which know all about them, from my experience with my milling machine some time ago. After that I made up a clamp to help wind back the housing, and save the fingers, not pretty but it worked.

Nice to know I can get parts, since I hate to see a machine scrapped for the want of a little effort.

When it,s finished, I will end up with a machine I will most likely never use since I have a small bench drill and a floor standing one, along with the mill, but it,s nice just to get them working again.

Regards to all.

Sorry, back again !

Just did a quick check on Ali Express and there seems to be quite a range of springs available, so perhaps all is not lost !

Not sure how I got involved in this, must be due to old age !

Onward, ever onward !!

Thanks Michael and Hopper, I am delighted to get it finished and working again, The blades are just light rusted, not even pitted, so I will get them re sharpened while I am making up a proper stand for it.

The drill may not be as simple as I thought. The bearings seem to be OK, the quill is smooth enough, but the return spring is broken, I,m not sure if these are to be had as spares. the table is in rag order, full of holes, but I can always sheet it to hide its good looks [dont know people can do this damage !} It needs pullies, but I know these can be got, and a suitable motor will turn up. Spring is in the air, but not in the drill !

Again, thanks to all for your help and advice, I m still learning, do we ever finish ?

Good morning all,

You may remember my difficulty in removing damaged allen screws from the block of an old planing machine recently. Well, the good news is that we, [my friend who knows a lot more than I do, aided by my good self ] applied our combined technical knowhow plus a fair amount of grunting /.swearing and a large slice of luck and managed to remove all the offending ones.

Had to take the machine apart to do so, and decided to fit new bearings as well, since one was a bit iffy. All back together now, ready to be fitted to a new base and with a suitable motor, which is to hand.

Has been an interesting project and my thanks to everyone who responded.

Next on the list is an old bench drill, which has not had an easy life, to put it mildly.

I learned a lot along the way.

Could be handy when staggering home from the pub ?

Good morning all,

Yes I did attack it with a thin cutting disc and managed to remove both blades.

Both very rusty but can be saved. Still one screw close to the end of the block where the cutting disc cannot reach. this will be more difficult, but at this stage I am not going to give up. The rest of the machine is in fairly good condition, just needs a motor and a new stand [it was part of a bigger unit, saw ect ] Could be a nice little item when/if finished !

My thanks to everyone.

I like Ian,s idea, worth a try.

Nicholas, these screws are buried deep in the block, no way to get to weld anything to them.They are grub screws, not caphead.

Yes the screws are good quality quite hard, as I found when trying to drill them and at this stage the heads are well and truly mashed up .

Another option might be to cut off the screws where they emerge under the blades and drill new holes near the old ones. A thin cutting disc should be able to do the job, crude, I know, but needs must !

Well Dave, whatever about the screw tips, the heads are in a sad state !

The other six screws came out clean, with no damage, just the last two.

There seems to be no way to remove the block, so I am devising a way to clamp the machine minus the tables on the mill, while making up a jig to guide a drill or endmill or whatever. I am hoping to use some of the other holes to hold this jig in position.

The other option might be spark eroder, not sure where I can get this done, but will ask around.

The blades are rusted but not gapped as far as I can see [this machine was not too well cared for ], so could be reground or at worse, replaced, they are not too dear anyway.

Sad to see a good machine end up like this.

I am also restoring a 16mm bench drill, and the less said about its condition, the better !

Enough to say that had a few more holes been drilled in the table it might have fallen off !

Quick answers indeed !

The block is 55mm dia x 200 long, with no easy way to remove it.

The screws are 6mm grub screws.

It may be possible to remove the tables [more sad screws ? ] and set it up on my mill, should be able to clamp it well enough to try it. If not, I will try plan B.

Thank you both for your ideas.

Good morning all.

While restoring a small 8 inch wood surface planer, I have found it difficult to remove two of the grubscrews retaining the blades.

There are two blades with four screws in each. I have managed to remove six of them but the last two have resisted all efforts. I tried heating, wd40, diesel, all to no effect, then tried drilling, big mistake !

AT this stage, I have run out of ideas, but since the rest of the machine is in fairly good condition, I dont want to scrap it.

Any ideas how to get these screws out ? They are sunk well below the surface of the block, needless to say.

Never judge a book by its cover !

Not much sign of a DRO, there !

Needs must !

Regarding the problem with my Craftsman lathe, I think Clive Foster hit the nail on the head pointing to the link belt.

I replaced it to-day with solid belt and it seems to have cured the problem.

My thanks to all.

Thanks for the many pointers, will check out everything.

Not easy to get at the motor pulley [are they ever ! ], but needs must .

I did suspect that the link belt might be the cause and was thinking or reversing it to see if the same thing happened, in reverse, as it were. Clive may be quite right.

To Coggy, I suspect you still have the original belts, so may not have come across this effect. The reason I fitted a link type was because I did not fancy the hassle of removing shafts ect, I tend to leave well enough alone, but I might give it a try. As a matter of interest, link belts are about three times the price of standard belts.

I will check out everything, and again, thanks to all.

I dont know if it is backlash, but it never happens when running forward, only in reverse.

I will check the belt, which is a link type. The original one died from old age a few years back.

Thanks for your reply

I have noticed a strange effect with my lathe. When I engage forward running, the start up is quite smooth, but when I engage reverse there is a distinct "jump" as it starts. I thought this might be due to electrical connections, but changing around the leads [it is 3 ph, working from a rotary converter ], it had no effect.

I seems to be more mechanical than electrical, as if the gears dont like engaging in reverse, but run smoothly once they get started. The machine runs OK, it,s just annoying. Anyone got any ideas ???

Has anyone else experienced anything like this ?

PS The lathe is belt driven, could this be a factor ?

I dont think you went too far wrong there. You were right to buy the whole lot, money well spent.

You dont need something right now ? how about 12 months down the line ?

Looks a beautiful machine, I hope you have many, many happy years with it.

That looks like a well cared for machine. I think you would be foolish to pass it up for the sake of some unit you dont need or want, right now. In a few years time, things could change and anyway, you could always sell on what you dont need. In your place, I would grab it.

Like Hopper, I seldom feel the need to be changing the speed on my drill, and anyway it takes only a moment to change, so no big deal. I like to keep things simple and uncomplicated [less to go wrong ] and if I dont see any real advantage, I dont change. I agree 3 ph motors are smoother running, but I could live with single phase if I had to. Some of my machines are single phase anyway, it,s just that before my last move, I had 3ph for some bigger woodworking machines and when I moved to the sticks, I needed to provide for them, hence a converter.

I get the feeling that for many people, it,s just something they feel they "need" and "must have" in order to fit in.

No doubt I will be told off in no uncertain manner, but then, I,m used to that !