Junk Yard Find

[Hawkeye]

My work day ended a bit early today, with me not far from my favourite scrap yard. I managed to find a nice piece of 5/8" thick cast aluminum for a project I'm contemplating. Once more around Steel Mountain and I spotted this on the ground.


I waited for the yard owner to notice me and stop his machine, then asked what he figured it would be worth. He says, "For you ... Is it Christmas? ... $20, plus tax."

When I stopped in at my buddy's machine shop to show him, he offered me $100 for it.

There are apparently a few parts missing, but I don't know what just yet. The diamond point is there. For reference, the radius dresser is 15" long.

Now I just need a couple of things to make it really useful. A surface grinder and a bigger shop.

 

[valleyboy101]

Nice find and good deal. I,m still waiting for my local yards to dry up enough for a spring inspection.
Michael

 

[JimDawson]

Nice find. Looks like the only thing missing is the setting stop, and the 2 cams for the height adjustment. Neither of which a absolutely required for setting the radius if you have a height gauge.

I bought mine for $100 about 2 years before I got my surface grinder.

 

[road]

Good reason to look for a grinder now...

 

[Hawkeye]

Somehow, not having room in the shop hasn't stopped me when a machine becomes available. I'd jump on a surface grinder at the right price even if it had to sit outside the back door under five layers of tarp. :biggrin:

A better vertical mill, on the other hand, would simply replace the ZX-25.

 

[Hawkeye]

I learned a lot about this tool this morning. The Yuasa manual gave me a few hints, but leaves out a lot of detail. No cams on this one, but there should be two large buttons to help register the starting position. I'll work out the dimensions and make those soon.

I did replace the locking bolt that shows on the side of the body in the top photo. The aluminum knob works very well and is a lot closer to the original one than the bolt that someone had stuck in there.

 

[JimDawson]

I learned a lot about this tool this morning. The Yuasa manual gave me a few hints, but leaves out a lot of detail. No cams on this one, but there should be two large buttons to help register the starting position. I'll work out the dimensions and make those soon.

I did replace the locking bolt that shows on the side of the body in the top photo. The aluminum knob works very well and is a lot closer to the original one than the bolt that someone had stuck in there.

Those buttons are actually cams. I'll post those dimensions for you tomorrow. Mine is identical to your yours.

 

[JimDawson]

Here is the cam dimensions.

 

[Hawkeye]

Thanks, Jim. I think mine has one concentric pin and possibly one eccentric. One of them goes into a tight counterbore and wouldn't be able to rotate if it was eccentric. I made them both concentric and they seem to fit properly when the measuring pin is riding on both of them. I can always make a new one if I find I need an eccentric one.