Gorton 9J came home to roost.

HSS said:
Cathead, my 9J has a hydraulic cylinder and a hand crank on the knee but I have never used the hydraulics. It was disconnected when I got it and have only used the hand crank. Does your 9J have the hydraulics on the knee, kinda hard to tell from the pics.
Great find, by the way!
Click to expand...

No, sorry to say that I am going to have to hand crank until something better comes along.
 
Cathead,

I just notice in one of your pictures of the mill. You have one of the older ones probably built before 1940. Look for the serial number, it should be stamped on the back side of the mill column, just below the handwheel where you tighten the motor vee belt. Post it and I'll look at my page and let you know the year it was built.
As for the selector switch on front of the mill, I suspect that was for the coolant pump. Gorton did not provide means of reversing the spindle on their mill. If you wanted for-rev, you wired in a 3-pole toggle switch at the control panel. That's how two of our Gorton's were wired up. BTW, 9-J's built sometime after 1940 had the electrics mounted in a recessed cabinet in the housing of the mill instead on the outside. As I said earlier, make sure the motor leads are clearly marked, at the pecker head as well as in the cabinet. There is no diagram on the motor indicating which wire goes to which leg on the motor. Plus one leg is shared with both low and high speed. You'll find that out sorting thru the wires in the cabinet! Ken

Oh, I think I mentioned it in one the PM's the other day, when you get power to the mill, check the feed motor and make sure it feeds the right direction when you put it in gear. Also make sure the spindle is running the right direction. If it's not, I'm pretty sure the power feed is reversed too. Just swap two of your three leads coming into the mill that should fix it. You'll figure it out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
4gsr said:
Cathead,

I just notice in one of your pictures of the mill. You have one of the older ones probably built before 1940. Look for the serial number, it should be stamped on the back side of the mill column, just below the handwheel where you tighten the motor vee belt. Post it and I'll look at my page and let you know the year it was built.
As for the selector switch on front of the mill, I suspect that was for the coolant pump. Gorton did not provide means of reversing the spindle on their mill. If you wanted for-rev, you wired in a 3-pole toggle switch at the control panel. That's how two of our Gorton's were wired up. BTW, 9-J's built sometime after 1940 had the electrics mounted in a recessed cabinet in the housing of the mill instead on the outside. As I said earlier, make sure the motor leads are clearly marked, at the pecker head as well as in the cabinet. There is no diagram on the motor indicating which wire goes to which leg on the motor. Plus one leg is shared with both low and high speed. You'll find that out sorting thru the wires in the cabinet! Ken

Oh, I think I mentioned it in one the PM's the other day, when you get power to the mill, check the feed motor and make sure it feeds the right direction when you put it in gear. Also make sure the spindle is running the right direction. If it's not, I'm pretty sure the power feed is reversed too. Just swap two of your three leads coming into the mill that should fix it. You'll figure it out.
Click to expand...


Ken,

Yesterday I had some time to wire things up and do the smoke test. The quill motor runs fine as does the feed motor and
gears. So I have automated X and Y now. All the electrical stuff is a mess and somewhat damaged but I was able to do
some repairs and rewiring. The wires were somewhat corroded on the terminals and the relay contacts needed attention.
It would be easy to add the reversal with a double pole double throw switch. I may go to a VFD later as well, time will tell.
Your post has a lot of valuable information in it for me or anyone else wiring up a machine. One thing I have not figured out
yet is this: There is a left-off-right switch on the bottom of the mill switches. When the quill is not running, the switch operates the
feed when turned to the left but not the right. It turns on the feed(same direction) either left or right when the quill is operating.
Probably a wire or two got moved over the years to cause this. It is somewhat difficult to diagnose as it is hard to determine
where the switch wires are going. It's not a big deal I guess, maybe a project for when I get bored, probably next winter...
The serial number is 19161. I notice on the top of the quill( near the draw bar top) are some left handed threads which are
likely used to loosen the BS10 taper. There is no nut on there. Do I need to make up a left hand threaded nut that pushes
up on the end of the draw bar? It isn't apparent to me exactly what it's all about. There was no cover on the main Cuttler-Hammer
relay box so I made one out of sheet metal. It isn't as nice as an original but at least covers the hot wires ETC.

It just occured to me regarding the left-off-right switch that the wiring could be correct. Left would run the feed with the
quill off and right would run the feed AND the oil pump in the right position. The oil pump isn't hooked up at present. I may
clean it up and wire it but likely will not be using it. Today I will clean out the greasy gummy. ikky, rotton, stinking,
putrid, nasty, vile, detestful, oil sump, something I have been putting off!

On higher speeds, the main motor and belt drive seems kind of noisy to me but everything(bearings) are nice and
tight. Possibly the bearings are not the best in the quill...
THE BOTTOM LINE: EVERYTHING WORKS NOW!!!!:dancing banana:
 
cathead said:
Ken,.........snip....................

It just occured to me regarding the left-off-right switch that the wiring could be correct. Left would run the feed with the
quill off and right would run the feed AND the oil pump in the right position. The oil pump isn't hooked up at present. I may
clean it up and wire it but likely will not be using it. Today I will clean out the greasy gummy. ikky, rotton, stinking,
putrid, nasty, vile, detestful, oil sump, something I have been putting off!
.........snip........
Click to expand...

Originally, the factory install, had a push button contactor/ switch on the side of the mill next to the main contactor. Same for the coolant pump. Neither one was controlled from the pendant control the spindle is run from, originally. Looks like someone added a selector switch to the pendant to control the feed motor from.

Hey, it's your mill now, run it as you please! Who cares how it was setup when it left the factory.

Enjoy! Oh, I haven't for got about the s/n lookup. I'll do that next.

Ken

S/N 19161 = 1943 to 1944.
 

Attachments

  • Gorton Serial Numbers.pdf
    1.9 MB · Views: 39
Last edited by a moderator:
There's just nothing better then a beefy big old mill. She will just work her cast off for you. Not like the puddied up cast they use in China. Consider yourself lucky I sure wish I could get more of the machines that won the wars. I new the old motor would run , I bet the bearings quiet down too. They get the old grease warmed up and flowing. Keep her working she loves it.
 
A little update on the 9J mill:

The X axis feed rod(acme) now pretty straight and running smoothly now. I'm working on making an adapter from BS10 to ER-40
so I can run all my end mills and stuff. I still need to clean the GUNK out of the bottom of the mill. Then it will be on to
a paint job. I scraped off all the olive drab so down to the original bluish gray color.
I can't decide if I should do the original color or possibly black with green trim(like the old Model A) or maybe
black with almond trim.
 
Last edited:
If you go farther down on the gorgon section you can read my questions on x arises direction. Mine was reversed . You can tell by your By your x axis stops they should push control to neutral.
I have a lot of manuals for a 9-j if you need copies. My sn is 34721 if4gsr can date it for me.
Thanks scruffy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top