All things Beaver Mill

That gauge looks unfinished, I have the brown & Sharpe version that must be about 60 years old and it is a joy to use all the sizes are beautifully ground. Is it possible its hooky?

If your ceiling is high enough to be able to pull the drawbar straight out the top then you're luckier than me!. Only way is to tilt the head right, do whatever with the drawbar, tilt it back and align it. Pain in the neck which I haven't had to do for about 125 years luckily.

Need a ventilation cowl on the roof, just above the spindle.

I had a similar problem with my Myford VM-B drawbar, which hit the ceiling of my workshop. It was in a two-storey structure with a bedroom above. I cut a square hole in the workshop ceiling plasterboard, glued in a short piece of square drainpipe abutting the floorboard above, and cleaned out the insulation material in the gap. This gave me room to remove the drawbar with about 1/2" to spare.

Hi,

I was looking for different feed change gears for my MK1 VBRP as I only had the 48 32 combination and after finding them in the HPC gears catalogue I did a bit more searching and found the Myford ML 7 gears fit, even the hole size and keyway are correct, the only difference is they don’t have a boss like the originals so I just made up a couple of washers.

I got a 59 and a 21 from RDG and they work fine, the 59 looked like a Myford part but the 21 looked like a pattern part and the teeth needed a bit of filing.

The good news is they are around £10 each and there are loads of sizes available

ian

Hello

New to the site as I've recently purchased a Beaver Mill. I would like to replace the draw bar on it as I suspect it is not original and also find it difficult to use when doing tool changes (haven't figured out if the spindle even locks and need to use a spanner wrench).

Would anyone be willing to share some pictures of their draw bar / setup? Anyone install a pneumatic draw bar on their mill? Does that even work if I can't lock the spindle?

Thanks.

Daniel

Hi,

I can have a look at my draw bar in the next day or so, I’m not sure if it’s original as I have spacers on it.

There is no spindle lock I just use a low gear!

Ian

I'd be interested in any ideas for a pneumatic draw bar. Advancing years makes it more difficult to get up there with a spanner everytime.

Sorryu, due to ceiling height I can't remove the drawbar without tilting the head 90 degrees and it took an age to get in clocked in again last time. I made my drawbar from a simple length of steel M12 studding. I turned an over length brass nut with a taper on the bottom to keep it central when taking force, and a pair of locked together nuts for operating it. Surprising easy to get the length right. I don't have any INT30 holders with the old imperial drawbar thread, They're all M12.

DItto as Ian, no spindle lock, just drop it into the low backgear. Fine for tightening chucks etc.

Nearly four years ago I made some enquiries in this thread regarding the dimensions of the Y axis gib strip to allow me to make a new one and I finally got around to making it yesterday, I used a piece of flat cast iron bar and milled it to approximate size then ground it to fit. I will now finish the contact faces by scapping for a perfect fit and a bit of oil retention.

The top one is the gib that was in the machine when I got it.

I made and fitted a pneumatic drawbar for my Bridgeport, what with its riser and off floor pads, the top is quite high.

Works every time without locking the spindle although I can if I wanted to.

Air Drawbar pic for Bridgeport

My VBRP - 2 seems to have a lot of oil passing down through the spindle from the back gear housing, the diagrams in the parts manual are not very clear as to the sealing arrangement in there, has any one resealed one of these machines?

I solved the drawbar removal problem on an Elliot turret mill when low ceiling height was a problem,I had a variety of 30 int tooling with different threads , so I made a new drawbar (en8)with a smaller diameter thread, and then plugged the threaded hole in the 30 int tooling and tapped them all to suit the new drawbar, some of the threaded inserts were more like helicoils but they worked with no problems and no need to remove drawbars,and were in use daily for around 25 years. This scheme was ok for 30 int but there could be potential problems if the spindle had been 40int.

Lex, I did a clearer traced diagram of their exploded diagram of that area :

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/images/member_albums/143475/808162.jpg

And of the casting alone :

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/images/member_albums/143475/807977.jpg

In neither of them can I see any sign of an o-ring or flange seal, or any outlet other than the spindle/quill, but I'm unsure on orthogonal veiws. It looks like the only thing that stops spillage is the casting (green in dwg I think) being deeper than the back gear (dark blue in dwg), and the lower spindle seal (felt, hardens over the years, cracks apart when removed) leaks that spillage.

Obvious questions, but have you checked the oil sight guage on the front?. They are notorious for getting blocked with gunge and showing a fix incorrect reading. Over the years, the oil gets topped up and up and eventually over fill. Also, checked for casting cracks?

Maybe put a tin under the spindle, engage back gear and highest speed. Don something oil proof, stand well back, Quill up, push the startbutton, stop after 5 minutes, quill up, on for 5 minutes. Repeat. Or just pull the drain plug, change the sight guage, and refill.

Thanks for your reply Peter, there is an oil seal (item 40, Gaco Seal #MIS20) in the deep recess of the casting but it is not doing much in my case, the oil is definitely coming down through the spindle bearings, there is no leakage anywhere else. The sight glass is stained but still readable and until I can find an exact replacement it will have to stay there.

You're right I missed that oil seal completely. I'm trying to think how else oil could get to the spindle bearings. The only openings I recall on the whole spindle assembly is the aperture at the top where the shaft comes out. Even with the quill at the lowest point, I can't see how, but it's difficult to think about the internals in 3D. I'll think on.

Just so I'm on the right track, oil emerges from between the spindle and the quill, not from between the quill and the head casting?

Correct, it comes down through the spindle bearings, the outside of the quill is dry.

The good things are that you know the bearings are getting lubricated (even it it's not the grease they'd normally have) and that the last thing you want is a lot of 320 Weight gear oil between the quill and the head if they are still a good fit to each other.

Consolation until you find the time and energy to strip the head and replace the seal!

Hi,

For a Mk2 Beaver Mill is there a such a document that tells you the torque settings for the mill? If not how best to understand how much to tighten up nuts and bolts on the unit. Following my other posts have issues with runout on the spindle and before diving into the worrying task of taking out the spindle to see any issues just want to know I have all info needed to put it back together.

Plus does anyone have a clear manual for a mk2 variable speed head? My one has the disk type breaking unit on the top, not the drum style. I have a couple downloaded from the internal but for the drums type break and can’t hardly read the part numbers.