Well another reasonably hectic week comes to a close.
We started the week on Wednesday driving for 3hrs up to Orillia Ontario to pickup a Van Norman #10 Milling machine. I plan on using this machine to fix and repair/make parts for the two lathes and other items. For those not familiar with a Van Norman this on has a rotating head such that it can be either a Horizontal or Vertical Mill. This particular mill replaced the Model 1/2 and was most likely built just after WW1 since the patent date on the machine is 1917. The serial number is 9182 however pretty sure there were not that many made as they are not common out there. These were eventually replaced by the much more popular Van Norman #6 and #12 Milling machines built just before and during WW2. Anyway here is a picture or two of the machine and a short video of it running. The pulleys for gearing and motor are not original they were installed by a previous owner however they do provide more speed changes than original as well, from 95 to 395RPM.

 

 I still need to pick up tooling for this machine since very little came with it. As of now I have 3 arbors coming and a complete set of collets. Still need to pick up bits, vice and clamping devices.

Anyway even spending time on this machine I still managed to do a little bit of work on the Hardinge Lathe. First off I finished painting the inside of the cabinets and will now mask this off and finish painting the exterior of the small cabinets. As well I painted the large tray that fits under the lathe and have also fitted the two tracks for the collet tray. Luckily enough I found all 6 of the nuts and bolts that secure the tracks to the tray. Since I had all these not sure why we did not have the tracks as well. However it was a relatively simple job to re manufacture those. Here's a quick picture of the hardware after I started cleaning them with a brass wire wheel. Once they were wheeled clean I chased the threads in the nuts with a 5/16 by 18TPI tap. This went quite smoothly just cleaned out some crap and loose rust from them. The bolts on the other hand were a little harder. After wire wheeling them only 4 threaded into a nut smoothly. The other two needed some work due to thread damage. When I went to chase them with a 5/16 by 18TPI Die the die would not easily thread on. It actually needed to cut metal to thread on. Not sure if there was a little difference in the thread pitch or what so all I did was clean the first couple of threads and then let the nut chase the remainder.
Here's a picture of the hardware while being cleaned as well the tray.

 One last thing I started this weekend was painting the raised lettering on the cabinet doors. I was looking for something that would work well with the Charcoal colour and stand out however not be too obnoxious a colour. I first thought of a bright silver since I plan to polish as much of the bare metal as possible however after having a close look at it decided there was not enough contrast. I've painted a few letters with the same gold colouring I used on the #39 but for some reason one coat is not doing it. Will let the first coat dry and then do another coat to see if that works better. If that colour does not work then I need to look for something else. Hopefully by next instalment I'll have these done or at least almost done. Well have a nephew to look after today and deliver him off to camp tomorrow. See you next week.

Harold