# Dore Westbury Mk1 milling machine restoration



## Canobi (Oct 13, 2018)

Hi folks 


I thought it was about time I stop being a lurker and actually post something.

About two years ago, I started putting my home machine shop together, I had little knowlege back then and no formal training but heaps of enthusiasm and a thirst to learn.

A few months after getting my Grayson lathe, I went and bought a Dore Westbury Mk1 milling machine. Unfortunately it was pretty beat up so I concentrated on getting good with the lathe until I'd learned what I needed to fix the mill.

Having then got it up and running some time after, the knowlege I had gained all that time made it plainly obvious I was going to have to it properly and so a few months ago, I tore it down and got stuck in.


Here she is just before teardown:






Main casting and their sundries after cleanup:





Castings after paint removal:





I then tackled a persistent problem with the lower pulley section. Initially I thought the bore was out of true as it had a terrible kilter which was casing vibration and had wrecked the original bushings. 

However, it transpired that the mating surface on the bottom, apon which the whole pulley rests and spins, was out of true, not the bore and a quick skim with the boring bar finally vanquished the issue once and for all:





I then got creative on the support column casting with a brass wheel and blow torch and used a little known technique to plate the two bands as I decided on a black and brass colour scheme throughout and I felt that brassing the bands would enhance the easthetics.

However, in most cases it is not good practice to heat cast iron unevenly as it leads to warping or snapping as it cools. The casting I treated has a long split down the back of it, allowing for the iron to flex without hindrance but in doing so, it could have still warped on me but I took an educated risk that the thickness of the banding would help to retain its shape:





Here are the main castings after painting, I used a hard wearing skip paint which is resistant to anything I will likely throw at it and gave the parts two good coatings so it should hold up for quite awhile:





After painting the castings, I set about turning a ruck of brass washers for all the various bolts about the machine to keep with the theme:









I then cobbled this stand together and used the old chuck that came with my lathe to hold all the bolts for blacking. For that I used linseed oil and an old rag and repeatedly alternated between heat and oil till each bolt head turned a deep black:













Using the same stand, I then brass plated parts of the various levers, making sure to account for the alternating colours:





Once the levers had been plated, I made a start on painting some of the other parts:









Once dry, I couldn't help myself reassembling it to see how it looked, I'll need to take it down again for final polishing and assembly but I think she is going to look mighty perdy when complete:

























That's as far as I've got with it so far, I had to take a short break to make a workshop press so o can install a new set of bearing I got for the quill but if anyone is interested in seeing the process in more detail, I've been documenting it and uploading the footage to my youtube channel, this link will take you to the playlist so far:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGgeJ0jNxfJJOypmxmrNIVVl88D30waze

I'm hoping to get the press finished by the end of next week so I can get on with the restoration and will post again as soon as I have more.

Until then, stay happy, stay safe and keep those chips flyin'


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## BaronJ (Oct 13, 2018)

Hi Canobi,

Very nice job so far !  The Dore Westbury is a nice machine.  Put together well, quite capable too.


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## francist (Oct 13, 2018)

What an interesting little machine, quite different from the usual small verticals usually seen. The blacksmith's gold is a distinctive touch too!

-frank


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## Canobi (Oct 13, 2018)

BaronJ said:


> Hi Canobi,
> 
> Very nice job so far !  The Dore Westbury is a nice machine.  Put together well, quite capable too.



Thanks BaronJ 

For the short time I used it, I felt it had great potential, can't wait to try it out when its finished...


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## Canobi (Oct 13, 2018)

francist said:


> What an interesting little machine, quite different from the usual small verticals usually seen. The blacksmith's gold is a distinctive touch too!
> 
> -frank



Hi frank, thanks for stopping by 


Yeh, the Dore Westbury is indeed a unique mill, not least as it was originally sold in kit form, which comprised a set of plans, a book containing all the machining procedures and notes, a set of partly machined castings and all the materials to make the various levers and such. The parts were also designed so that everything could be machined and finished using a myford ML7 size lathe. One upshot being that the quality of each mill varied depending on the skills of its builder, with some deviating from the plans to make some truely unique variants.

Comprehensive details regarding dore westbury mills can be found here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/dore-westbury/


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## Richard King 2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I like your passion for rebuilding.  If you need help on the ways I have several friends near London who attended a scraping class I held near Battle last year.  They are a group of friends who invited me to teach there.  You could scrape the machine alignment and give it some new lubrication high and low spots.  Private message me if you would like there information.  The host who has a farm near Battle has a very respectable machine / repair shop.
Rich


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## Canobi (Nov 21, 2018)

Hi folks

My workshop press is now up and running, though it needs a little refinement here and there but I'm now finally able to install the new bearings and finish the restoration


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## Canobi (Nov 25, 2018)




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## Canobi (Dec 5, 2018)

Hi guys 

Having pressed the races into the quill, I gave the bearings a bath in some white spirits to remove the shipping grease:





I then made some calculations for bearing grease quantity, in my case .2oz per bearing:






It was after packing them and getting near to fully assembling it that I noticed a major issue. It seems I overlooked a critical dimension when choosing the taper roller bearings. While the outer races are a perfect match depth wise, the inner races aren't and both protrude enough that I can't fit the second rear spindle nut to lock off the preload nut and they also prevents the brass bearing cover from doing it's job:









A few solutions came to mind after some ponderings and while they would work, I'd rather not have to modify the quill or it's components. Paradoxlocally, I'd prefer to stick to taper roller bearings after seeing the condition the old deep grooves were in and I found myself in a catch 22 situation for a little while.

That was until a DW Mk1 quill came up for auction on ebay a few days ago, I rarely do auction bidding but on occasion, it can pay off. What got my attention is that the quill is only half finished, the outside has been ground and the rack has been cut (luckily, the two jobs I can't do myself) but it still requires the keyway and bearing seats to be machined. 

I do wonder sometimes, a more perfect solution to my predicament couldn't have presented itself if it had tried, it was the only item the seller had for sale and I was the only bidder, I even waited till the last 10 seconds to confirm my bid, just to be sure but in this case however, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and just call it fate.

The new quill should arrive in the next couple days so I'll be back again with more soon...


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## FOMOGO (Dec 5, 2018)

I would say your right about fate intervening there. Good luck with the new spindle, and great job on the rebuild. Mike


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## Canobi (Dec 6, 2018)

Thanks Mike


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## Canobi (Dec 14, 2018)

Hi guys


Well, thankfully the new quill arrived in good form. I am however facing another interesting challenge as I found that it was too big for my lathe's fixed steady.

Line boring sprang to mind but the only only round stock I have that's suitable was tagged for a required future tool project a few days ago.

I also considered making an expanding mandrel and an extended live centre point that would allow room for the boring bar but found the bore in the casting was off centre by a fair bit, so that idea went out the window.

I'll be honest, I'm not keen on the amount of stick out there is but without any alternative to fall back on, I'm going to have to risk it for a biscuit.

Given the circumstances, I felt using the 4 jaw would provide a better grip and it also allowed me to dial it to within a few microns, so at least I know the bearing seats will be on centre if all goes well:






It'll be light cuts all the way, so it's going to take a fair bit of time to finish both sides, wish me luck.....


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## Canobi (Dec 17, 2018)

Hi again folks 


Well, I decided not to attempt to work on the quill myself as I was just too dodged out by such a sketchy setup.

Instead, I've contacted another machinist with a bigger lathe and he has initially agreed to help out with it, though I'm still in talks with him but a solution looks to be forthcoming at least.

Meantime, I thought I'd see about fabricobbling a bigger fixed steady out of stuff I have laying about my workshop but given a lack of raw material variety turn to, I'm playing the repurposing game, though in all honesty, its one of my favourites any way.

To that end, I hoiked off one of the flange mounts from a damaged reduction gearbox. I chose the flang mount as it has some interesting features I should be able to make use of, once I've opened up the bore, which handily is only a little smaller than the quill itself.

Once I got the thing off, I mounted it to my faceplate and started boring it out:


















Having some larger diameter round stock in my collection, I made the bore big enough to take those as well and I ended up removing the webbing completely from between all four protrusions.

Afterwhich I faced it to give two referance surfaces and removed it from the faceplate:





I then made use of the flange mount holes in each of the four protrusions by tapping them as it meant it could be firmly affixed the other way round, without risk of warping the workpiece as there was a fair gap between the holes I'd used previously and the faceplate:









With that job done, I set it up to fly cut the flanges flat spot on it's outside edge as it will give me a way to mount it at 90° to the bed:









Thats as far as I've got so far, it was late by the time I finished it and I'm still working out some of the details as I'm limited by a short swing cross slide and nonfunctional mill but I did at least find a piece of square that would be a suitable foot to mount the thing to the ways.

Anyhoo, have a great Christmas one and all and I'll see y'all round.

Until then, stay safe, stay happy, and keep those chips flyin'  (= [ >*


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