B-port clone rebuild

Some bearings came in today. The step pulley bearings and the hand crank bearing.
The pulley setup sounds superb now.
However, when trying to put the pulley back in the housing with the lift/gear change assembly, I realized I basically had to rebuild the whole set up. After hours of pissing around with stripped threads, galling, wrong bolts, I just rebuilt it.
The shoulder bolts that thread into the pulley body that are lifted by the change lever were stripped, not to mention the wrong bolts. The assembly was worn out enough that the pulley wouldn't fully lift off the cog on the top of the spindle. Sooooo, I drilled and tapped new holes for the shoulder bolts, cut a spacer/shim ring to go under the lift ring/collar to give a bit more height, and filed/sanded all mating/sliding surfaces to make movement smoother cause it just galled before.

Everything works now, smooth, engages and disengages as it should. Only issue now, the break ring has a worn section and an unworn section that sat above the top of the pulley. Since the pulley is slightly higher now it just skims that unworn section of brake. Just enough to create an annoying ring. Nothing I'll worry about at this point. I'm sure it'll settle or wear a happy spot.
I also wrapped the brake spreader with a copper shim cause the brake wouldn't engauage anymore. Fix what ya got rather than spend more money... Now the brake catches and works great. I will keep an eye on it over time to make sure it doesn't wear right through.


The light gray/white looks nice, but maaan it grabs dirty finger prints. I keep wiping everything down after I'm done a step.


I also have part of the table back together. Re did all the oiler system. Cleaned untold amounts of crap out of the holes. No way oil was getting through there before. And it showed - the ways have lost all the hand scraping. The y slide gets real tight if you travel beyond the worn area, near the column.



I turned a brass ball to replace the missing plunger handle. Fastest brass knob I ever cut. Seconds!


I'm going to ATTEMPT to turn new nuts... I have to use my friend's lathe again since I can't turn the 5tpi acme thread. I will turn each piece as one then part then in half in order to get the two threaded pieces to adjust the backlash. I had picked out a piece of good bearing bronze at the metal shop until I got to cash and found out it was $150... I promptly returned it to the shelf and grabbed a smaller section of regular brass for $50. Lol.
If I can make the nuts, it'll be nearly $80 cheaper than ordering from H&W

so you have a 'First' mill too! any problems with interchanging parts? mine is from 1991, but been abused. It'll take a full rebuild... someday... but now I can cut chips with it, so - later!

I have been going through the H&W machinery website looking for parts. I haven't actually ordered anything beyond bearings, and I just order what the bearing actually is. I can't justify ordering from H&W due to cost to Canada with conversion. Basically add $40 to every part ordered to actually get it to my door. So, I'm resorting to making what I need.
However, from going through the site it looks like a vast majority of the parts are identical. I downloaded a Bridgeport rebuild manual from here a few weeks ago and it's verbatim. It's exactly the same with the exception of a vari speed drive. Mines a pulley. But even the pulley and timing stuff is the same.

So, the head and table are identical. However, nothing else is. But that doesn't leave much.

What kind of a First do you have? A knee?

I have a knee First mill on the BP #2 pattern, so it is a 9" X 49" It was made in Taiwan, approx 1991. It is really gummed up, and needs a complete overhaul. On the plus side, the ways look great, and it came with a Mitutoyo DRO installed. I'm a convert to DRO on a mill...

Once I get around to it, I'll post photos of my rebuild. First I have a surface grinder to finish and then a tool and cutter grinder to do. I'm assuming the mill will hold together until then.

Bit of an update.
Been a slow week. Kiddo has been sick again, wife is busy with school work, and I had no access to a lathe to thread the new lead screw brass nuts to 5 tpi. Kinda stinks the last few actual projects I've needed to thread I couldn't even thread on my lathe. I think once I have the equipment to cut gears, I may figure out if I can cut a change gear to expand my lathes thread abilities to the lower tpi's. I'm sure I'll have to call on the folk here for help with the math.

Yesterday I was able to temporarly set up my friend's lathe in his barn. Breaks my heart the way he takes care of his machines. The ways were already rusty, but where he has his equipment temporarly stored is close enough to the big barn sliding doors that rain gets in and onto the lathe. So there was new rust on the old surface rust. Uhhg...
I spent an hour scrubbing, honing, and oiling his machine before I was able to use it.
I ran a cable from an electrical panel over to the lathe to power it.

But I was successful. It's really quite nerve racking when you only have one shot to not screw up a part.. one wrong turn of a dial, one missed notch on the thread dial, one slip, and the whole piece is ruined...
I had to hand file the keyway as I didn't set up his mill. He has it on a rotary phase converter with a transformer since it's a 3 phase 600v motor, kinda dumb, actually... The cabtire cable I had as temp power isn't heavy enough for the draw of that set up. However, I may have talked him into a motor swap project, to a 2 hp single phase. He didn't think it was possible. I said all kinds of guys have changed the motor. At worse, you have to build a mounting plate. Easily done out of an aluminum plate. He was intrigued.


I have the Y feed nut pressed in, gapped, and locked in place.


Maybe this week if I have time I'll get the x axis nut key way cut, parted in half, pressed in and gapped. Then I can fully reassemble the table.

Also, my spindle bearings should be in tomorrow.
I went with a good brand name off the shelf bearings instead of the ABEC 7 bearing. That supplier was $300 A PIECE... for the ABEC 7 bearing. And didn't have anything in between.
He thinks for my home application they will be fine for a number of years. And at $21 a piece, I'll change them yearly if I have to. I honestly don't think it'll matter. This machine is worn out enough I won't notice.

Thanks for reading.

Onward!

nice work on the threading job! Cuting threads under those conditions! wow.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet mama-jama... I could NOT have been more wrong about the spindle bearings. Goooooood lord.
See, I never took the spindle out cause I had to make a tool to get the collar nut off. I was reading the smaller top bearing, and to my delight, is the crunchy bearing. I cleaned out the actual spindle bearings and they sound fine.
For Christ's snakes...
So, now I can replace the smaller 6206 and put all this back together.

- you dodged the bullet... My friend with a BP clone changes bearings with goup 3 bearings about every 4 or 5 years, and they are 1/4 the price of precision bearings. On that machine he holds .001 tolerance over the entire range (he uses a DRO to help with that.

Pretty much everything mechanical that is going to be assembled at this point is. I need to put the electrical back together, however, I may change it. The machine came with a magnetic contactor as well as a DTDP switch, but I installed a disconnect just behind the head, so I may just remove the contactor as it serves no purpose.


I've left everything to do with the quill power feed out. I have to rebuild the whole set up. and frankly, I'm not sure I'll ever have power feed. Just too many parts broken and missing. I do want to at least have the fine feed knob working. that will take some machining to get running.

The mill came with a box or random worn out goodies that I had gone through, dug out some half decent parallels, which is great cause I didn't have any. But the vise it came with is embarassing... No, worse than that, it's depressing...




I was going to add it to the Christmas list for my wife, but I've already added too many expensive things to get me started in cutting gears. So, I may just have to use this embarrassment for the time being. Maybe I'll make new jaws.


Almost ready to cut chips!

Hukshawn said:

But the vise it came with is embarassing... No, worse than that, it's depressing...

Click to expand...

Iron worms! Make sure you put out some bait to kill them. If nothing else, make some jaws from mild steel. That is what I did with my BP vise, and I now prefer them to hard jaws. I bought enough material to make another set should I screw them up or more hopefully when (IF!) they ever wear out.