Atlas milling machine refresh project

[VSAncona]

I made a little progress this weekend, but I had some other things going on so I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted. First off, my bearings and belt showed up in the mail:





To install the bearings, I made a pusher out of a piece of black iron pipe. It's just the right size to fit over the spindle but press on the inner race of the bearings. I faced off the ends on my lathe:






In order to fit the spindle and the pusher under my arbor press and still be able to press the bearing all the way onto the spindle, I had to use a series of spacers, pressing the bearing on a little way, then adding a spacer to press it on further. I actually used the spacers from one of the arbors that I got with the milling machine.



Next, I lightly pressed the inner dust caps in place:



Then I slipped the spindle through the headstock and added the bull gear, pulley, and spacer. It took three hands and a lot of swear words to get this all assembled, so I don't have any photos of the assembly in process. The biggest thing is not to forget to install the V-belt. Here are the parts all laid out:



And here it is with everything in place:



Next, I pressed the outboard bearing onto the back end of the spindle:



Then I added the outer dust caps. There's a notch in each dust cap. You need to line up the notch with the oil port in the bearing seat on the headstock:





Next came the spacer, gear, and collar. The threads on the end of the spindle were a little bit dinged up, so I had to clean them up before I could get the collar back on.





With the spindle assembly complete, I installed the back gear:



I ran into a problem with the back gear. There's too much side-to-side play and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. A check of the parts diagram shows that I'm missing a washer, part M6-255. I don't know if that is what is causing the problem, but I'll have to look into a little more. In the meantime, I set the headstock back on the column. It's starting to look like a mill again.



Next week, I'm hoping to tackle the change gear assembly.

 

[34_40]

It's looking great! Especially on that wonderful cabinet you made.. :thumbsup2:

 

[VSAncona]

I did a little more work on the mill tonight. First, I got the feed gear case put back together and reinstalled. I ended up repainting the case housing because all the paint came off when I cleaned it.



Then I put the inner guard back on:



And then the tumbler and reverse gear assembly:



I'm hoping to get the change gear assembly done tomorrow.

 

[VSAncona]

I worked on the change gear assembly this afternoon. This assembly probably has the most parts of any of the assemblies. There are a lot of gears to clean and de-gunk. Here's a before shot:



Here are all the cleaned up parts laid out:



After putting it all back together, I had a little trouble getting the gears to mesh and turn smoothly. They would catch and rub against one another. I ended up taking them off and lightly filing off any burrs on the face and that made a huge difference. Here it is all put back together:



The window on the Change-O-Matic scale had yellowed over the years. It's just a piece of acrylic plastic, so I made a new one:



And here it is installed:



And everything back on the mill:

 

[34_40]

Sah Weet! It looks great. Thanks again for sharing the pics too.

 

[ogberi]

Very nice!

The gear sector arm on mine was broken. I believe I have all the parts still, but I'll probably fit electric power feed on one end of the table. I'd like to get mine back to stock, but that'll take awhile, and I need to be able to use it.

You seem to have been luckier than I concerning zinc pest in the Zamak parts. Most of mine corroded and swelled, necessitating that they be driven out of the bores in chunks. :/ Hence my need for a new set of backgear eccentrics, pulleys, overarm cam locks, arbor support cam locks, pretty much anything that's Zamak. Thankfully the spindle pulley is in good shape, although the holes for the bull gear pin have been beat up a bit.

Yours is looking good! Can't wait to pics of chips!

 

[VSAncona]

Thanks Ogberi. I'm anxious to get it running and start playing with it. I've already got a couple of projects in mind for it. I'm getting real close to having it done, but I've got obligations the next couple of weekends so it will have to wait a little longer.

So far I've been pretty lucky with the zamak parts -- nothing broken and no zinc pest. It looks like most of the change gears are the same as the gears used on the 6" Atlas lathe tough, so that might make it easier to find replacements.

 

[jster1963]

Beautiful!

 

[VSAncona]

I was out of town last weekend and have some kid activities going on this weekend, but I found a little time today to work on the mill. First, I got the countershaft cleaned up and re-installed:



Then I cleaned up the motor base:



I also cleaned up the guards, but I won't put them back on until I have the motor installed. The motor needs a little work yet and I have to wire up a switch. When I bought the mill, the switch and wiring had been removed, so I had to scrounge up a replacement for the toggle switch. Hopefully I'll have time next week to wire it up.

 

[34_40]

VSA, is it easy to switch between pulleys ? That is change speeds.. On mine the belt is very close to the mount, at the moment the link belt lets me disassemble the belt to move between pulley sheeve selections.