10-03-2012, 10:58 AM
Hi,
Many thanks for asking Gary and they are not daft questions at all.
In grinding the beds both the top surface and V's are ground with great accuracy on a very expensive grinding machine. This takes care of the actual bed but as you rightly point out the saddle then needs grinding to match as this too will be equally badly as worn as the bed was. Yes the V's also wear.
Thankfully I was sitting down when I first contacted Robert about the grinding and after explaining what I required a rough estimate unseen was £400 for both beds. After a bit of haggling this came down to £300 which I still considered expensive as I know my chum Big Al had his much more complicate lathe bed reground costing less; anyway I accepted this. When Robet inspected the beds as I delivered them he said they were smaller than he expected and that he could grind them for less but would let me know once the job was completed. I ended up paying a fair £250. I was happy with this as was Robert.
Now to the saddles (compound slides). Each part has a pair of V's. The saddle proper has the largest V's and these match the V's on the bed. Another set of V's allow cross travel of the carriage at 90 degrees to the bed so this is the second pair of V's but there is also a third set of V's nearest the tool holder these are mounted on a pivot for use in off setting the tool for procedures like thread cutting.
Whilst talking to Robert I asked if these Myford beds had been easy to regrind and he said just the opposite was true; he pointed to a very large lathe bed and said he would much prefer to do one of these; dry grinding produces heat as anyone who uses a bench grinder will quickly find out. These Myford beds caused Robert trouble by wanting to bow in the middle during grinding. The cost of grinding is not actually the grinding process but in the setting up which takes most time.
Now take the saddles with three pairs of V's each; each pair would take a similar amount of time as a lathe bed to set up accurately and as I'm restoring two lathes the work would be doubled.
So at last I can answer your question Gary; yes the saddles could be ground and Robert could have done them for me but in short I would end up with a huge bill hence I'm going to have a go at hand scraping.
The main saddle I can hopefully scrape by using the newly ground bed as a "Master" by applying engineers blue to the sliding faces of the saddle to highlight the high spots and these spots will show up as shiny metal where the blue has been rubbed away; scraping these shiny spots or areas will eventually end up with more and more shiny spots as the surfaces come more into contact; the aim is 25 high spots to the square inch.
The remaining two pairs of V's will see me on my own as I have nothing at the moment to act as a master and to be honest my head is also empty so this will be a learning curve for me; once I need to scrape these I'll give it a lot of thought and I'm confident I'll come up with a solution; until then I can practice hand scraping using the bed as a master on the saddle.
I'm very pleased you are taking the interest to ask such questions Gary because even a basic question can open up a whole new world of information. I must admit it takes me quite a while to answer such questions because I need to really think about it as I've never done a lathe rebuild before so I'm on a rather large learning curve; I have 50 years of mechanical engineering to fall back upon but even so I need to resolve problems as they arise.
I'm adopting my usual approach to these restorations; if I tried to think of everything up front I would quickly become overwhelmed by all the problems I could foresee; instead I have a broad plan knowing what I wish to achieve but work towards this in a planned and methodical manner tackling each problem one at a time as the problem arises. I recently demonstrated this method during my huge saga of restoring my first ever TV. The trick if there is indeed a trick is to work slowly and take nothing for granted. Lack of knowledge or skill on my part is made up by my confidence as I can learn the necessary skills as I proceed; I'm not clock watching and once I get into a project that has gained my enthusiasm my patience is unlimited.
Regarding the van man Gary; he paid up front for all the radios so yes he made sure he collected these. A few years ago I was given three chests of workshop drawers; the kind with the metal sides and many plastic drawers to hold components. These came from an electronics shop that was closing down and the drawers contained lots of electronic chips and other components; the prices were on the drawers and some of these cost over £6 each; there were a lot in the drawers. Whilst van man was here collecting the remaining radios he had agreed to take and collect the lathe beds; I gave him all three chests of drawers as a thank you up front.
I trusted him and I don't regret doing so; it would be a sad world for me to live in without trusting my fellow person; I seldom get let down but recently this is becoming more regular as people are making promises to me and not following through. My word has always been my bond and I'll end up out of pocket before breaking my word to anyone. Van man still hasn't made contact with me regarding transporting the lathe beds; I'm not angry as I just hope he is not ill; I'm not even annoyed any more because I merely turned it into another problem to resolve; I can always rely on myself.
Kind regards, Col.
Many thanks for asking Gary and they are not daft questions at all.
In grinding the beds both the top surface and V's are ground with great accuracy on a very expensive grinding machine. This takes care of the actual bed but as you rightly point out the saddle then needs grinding to match as this too will be equally badly as worn as the bed was. Yes the V's also wear.
Thankfully I was sitting down when I first contacted Robert about the grinding and after explaining what I required a rough estimate unseen was £400 for both beds. After a bit of haggling this came down to £300 which I still considered expensive as I know my chum Big Al had his much more complicate lathe bed reground costing less; anyway I accepted this. When Robet inspected the beds as I delivered them he said they were smaller than he expected and that he could grind them for less but would let me know once the job was completed. I ended up paying a fair £250. I was happy with this as was Robert.
Now to the saddles (compound slides). Each part has a pair of V's. The saddle proper has the largest V's and these match the V's on the bed. Another set of V's allow cross travel of the carriage at 90 degrees to the bed so this is the second pair of V's but there is also a third set of V's nearest the tool holder these are mounted on a pivot for use in off setting the tool for procedures like thread cutting.
Whilst talking to Robert I asked if these Myford beds had been easy to regrind and he said just the opposite was true; he pointed to a very large lathe bed and said he would much prefer to do one of these; dry grinding produces heat as anyone who uses a bench grinder will quickly find out. These Myford beds caused Robert trouble by wanting to bow in the middle during grinding. The cost of grinding is not actually the grinding process but in the setting up which takes most time.
Now take the saddles with three pairs of V's each; each pair would take a similar amount of time as a lathe bed to set up accurately and as I'm restoring two lathes the work would be doubled.
So at last I can answer your question Gary; yes the saddles could be ground and Robert could have done them for me but in short I would end up with a huge bill hence I'm going to have a go at hand scraping.
The main saddle I can hopefully scrape by using the newly ground bed as a "Master" by applying engineers blue to the sliding faces of the saddle to highlight the high spots and these spots will show up as shiny metal where the blue has been rubbed away; scraping these shiny spots or areas will eventually end up with more and more shiny spots as the surfaces come more into contact; the aim is 25 high spots to the square inch.
The remaining two pairs of V's will see me on my own as I have nothing at the moment to act as a master and to be honest my head is also empty so this will be a learning curve for me; once I need to scrape these I'll give it a lot of thought and I'm confident I'll come up with a solution; until then I can practice hand scraping using the bed as a master on the saddle.
I'm very pleased you are taking the interest to ask such questions Gary because even a basic question can open up a whole new world of information. I must admit it takes me quite a while to answer such questions because I need to really think about it as I've never done a lathe rebuild before so I'm on a rather large learning curve; I have 50 years of mechanical engineering to fall back upon but even so I need to resolve problems as they arise.
I'm adopting my usual approach to these restorations; if I tried to think of everything up front I would quickly become overwhelmed by all the problems I could foresee; instead I have a broad plan knowing what I wish to achieve but work towards this in a planned and methodical manner tackling each problem one at a time as the problem arises. I recently demonstrated this method during my huge saga of restoring my first ever TV. The trick if there is indeed a trick is to work slowly and take nothing for granted. Lack of knowledge or skill on my part is made up by my confidence as I can learn the necessary skills as I proceed; I'm not clock watching and once I get into a project that has gained my enthusiasm my patience is unlimited.
Regarding the van man Gary; he paid up front for all the radios so yes he made sure he collected these. A few years ago I was given three chests of workshop drawers; the kind with the metal sides and many plastic drawers to hold components. These came from an electronics shop that was closing down and the drawers contained lots of electronic chips and other components; the prices were on the drawers and some of these cost over £6 each; there were a lot in the drawers. Whilst van man was here collecting the remaining radios he had agreed to take and collect the lathe beds; I gave him all three chests of drawers as a thank you up front.
I trusted him and I don't regret doing so; it would be a sad world for me to live in without trusting my fellow person; I seldom get let down but recently this is becoming more regular as people are making promises to me and not following through. My word has always been my bond and I'll end up out of pocket before breaking my word to anyone. Van man still hasn't made contact with me regarding transporting the lathe beds; I'm not angry as I just hope he is not ill; I'm not even annoyed any more because I merely turned it into another problem to resolve; I can always rely on myself.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
