Restoring Beaver VBRP Mill

Hi Alan,

I am finding this forum very hard to use so pardon me it my posts are not right. Here is a Icloud album with pictures of my Beaver Mill and my South Bend Lathe. In the photo that shows the main switch you'll see the switch hanging out of the box. Do you know anything about these switches? I don't and don't know how to check one out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

**LINK**

Thanks, Bob

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.

Alan what is a 3 phase isolater? In the one picture from the back (you may have to move down on the picture) I have a Rotary Phase Convertor sitting on a piece of plywood temporarily till I can find some Isolators.

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.

Don't assume from a transwave when you wire it up everything will work as it should!! Not so in some cases, my transwave will not power the motor properly on my mill through all the relays in the back, but it does power the coolant pump & the x drive motor ok. If the transwave is at its max ☹️ The motor can be noisy in one direction. Transwaves are not true phases! Wire your vfd straight to the motor then use the transwave for lower hp motor through the correct way of conecting the mill to 3 phase 415v

Had some time in the workshop over the last few days, wired the head up to a new VFD inverter, put the table feed gearbox back together and fitted the motor to it (these items all came loose in a box with the mill), wired the feed motor to my RPC for the time being, eventual plan is to buy a smaller inverter to run the feed motor. Filled the head and gearbox with oil............

All seems to work as it should, so bolted on a machine vice and took a test cut.......yay it works

One thing i can't figure out is the machine is piped for way lubrication, I found a pump in the bottom of the table feed gearbox, which runs from a cam on the bottom gear shaft. What i can't get my head round, is how the oil would be topped up.......or does it use the oil from the gearbox and pump that out on a total loss basis, presumably you would then keep topping up the gearbox ? If so then it would need really thin oil in the gearbox like hydraulic fluid ?

That pump is for the table feed gearbox itself. On the Mk1, 2 and 3 gearboxes, lubrication to the gear train relies on oil being carried upwards on the gear teeth of lower gears to feed higher gears and bearings. It worked, sort-of, on the earlier ones...

My Mk1 had suffered the indignity of at least the previous owner using grease on the ways. At the end of the re-scraping/rebuilding process, I blanked off and redrilled the existing oil ports and added a few more when fitting a one-shot system. It has 68ISO oil for the horizontal ways and 220ISO oil for the column ways:-

Edited By Mark Rand on 31/12/2016 17:39:51

Thanks Mark

That makes more sense now, thought it was strange.

Where was the original oil reservoir sited on your mill ? I have a pipe coming out of the side of the main column high up, it goes into an aluminium block that has a grease nipple threaded in to it ( although the pipe looks to contain thin oil) I can only assume the previous owner used a grease type gun to force oil through the lines.

lovely job on your mill btw, a lot of hours must have gone into that rebuild. Would like to see more images,Is it back together now ?

Alan

It didn't have an oil reservoir, just a number of oil nipples. Which is probably why previous idiots had used a grease gun on them. The original had 6 oil nipples, which gave limited lubrication of the table, little to the vertical knee ways (oil port exited into a gap that let the oil out) and none to the horizontal knee ways. After spending a lot of time re-scraping all the ways and making new gibs, I didn't want to have to do the job again, so nearly every separate surface has its own oil feed (26 in all).

The mill is back together now, but I've got a job on the back-burner to make two new poly-V pulleys for the motor/quill. This is because the existing ones have got chunks missing from the flanges. I'll try to fit some words and pictures together in another thread, but it might take some time, because I'm illiterate.

Edited By Mark Rand on 31/12/2016 21:40:02

Hi Guys, A few questions if I may.

First, My machine has the zirk fittings that we here in the states use for grease. What kind of lube gun do you have in England to inject oil into those zirk fittings. If you know of a factory supply that has a website where I might order one that would be awesome.

Second, Does anyone have a good page 36 from the manual? Could you send me a copy mine is cut off.

Third Does anyone know anything about the main switch on the left side of the machine close to the floor. I believe it is the main switch. I think it supplies power to the head and the suds pump and table drives if the machine has any. Mine is wired out and the head is wired directly to the phase convertor. I don't know how it is supposed to work so I don't know how to test it. Is it a electromagnetic type that once turned on will stay engaged until turned off or until there is a power failure?

Forth, What kind of Cutting Fluid / Coolant was used in the suds pump sump? ( try to say that fast 5 times)

Thanks!

Edited By Robert James 3 on 02/01/2017 00:38:33

Edited By Robert James 3 on 02/01/2017 00:39:18

Today I found out my "Manual Mortor Start Switch" is toast. Since this switch is the main switch , It sends power to both the spindle and the suds pump I'm going to try to find a suitable replacement. The old switch has an adjustable amp setting. Does anyone know what that setting was supposed to be? Have any of you found a suitable replacement? the only one I've found is almost 250.00 U.S. dollars. Ouch!

I too have a beaver mill and this page seems to have the most information about them that I have found.

I'm currently having to rebuild the head on mine as the previous owner disintegrated a bearing on it causing the lower pulley to drop down onto the timing gear for the backgear. It made for an interesting disassembly to say the least...

All the documentation i found said basically pull apart the assembly and simply replace the belt, no biggie.

Three days later and lots of penetrating oil I was able to get it apart enough to cut the bearing off the shaft.

Mine is a VBRP model as well and since i'm currently compiling a list of bearings needed for the rebuild I'll be sure to post pictures and bearing numbers when I'm done to help out other folks in the same situation.

A lot of these bearings can be cross referenced to things found over here in the U.S. However I've found two bearings that I cant seem to find anywhere else than in the UK.

RHP- XLJ4 1/4E (SIZE-ID 4 1/4"xOD 6" X W7/8" *

RHP XLJ2 (SIZE-ID 2"XOD3 5/16"X W5/8" *

Mark what brand is the manual oilers you used I like the manifolds you used.

They are actually genuine Bijur fittings, But made by Bijur's Chinese plant! They're the metric series, but I guess you might prefer the imperial ones.

I got mine from Arc Eurotrade.

Thanks for the response those make a nice system. Are they setup for a specific flow for for a specific point?

An update for anyone needing a new motor start switch. Here in the States I found a company called WEG. They have a nice inexpensive replacement switch, mine cost about 66.00 usd. It works on the 220V 3 Phase I have to run. It senses a phase loss as well as overload conditions. I have one on order if this works as advertised I'm going to replace the suds controler as well. When I get it installed I'll post pictures.

Travis if no one answers before I get home on Friday I'll get you measurements and pictures. I'm just curious are you in the U.S. or Great Britain?

I'm in Indianapolis, and you?