- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Messages
- 109
Wednesday afternoon, I decided to stop by a used tool store not far from the shop on a lark. I was just about to leave when I saw a metal box full of shop-made tooling and aluminum shavings with a balanced crank sticking out. The owner, Dan, asked me if I had any idea what it was ( he had gotten it in a package deal with some other items). I'm not sure where I've ever seen or heard tell of a Versa mill, but I knew that's what it started life as. He offered it for 25.00, and I snatched it up, figuring that even if it was completely trashed, someone could use the parts. Into the truck it went.
I excavated everything from the beach ball-sized snarl of swarf, and found out that while the motor and pulleys were long gone, there were two versa grinder heads, the inside grinder, and the high-speed milling head, as well as a piece I believe is intended to drive the universal head. The whole shooting match was seized solid, even the gearbox; it was obvious the Versa mill had been sitting a long time, and the box may have been a graveyard of parts to keep other units running.
I couldn't stand it, so I pulled the machine down, put everything in the vinegar bath, and flushed the living daylights out of the gearbox with mineral spirits until it came out clean. Once it was derusted, I decided to kill the last bit of Rustoleum satin black in the can- that way, it will match my lathe, if nothing else.
I have the heads pulled down, and none of them have any serious issues except for being unused for years, possibly decades. I found a piece of heavy walled tubing to make a motor mount and will have to scrounge around and find a piece of plate for the motor ( currently a 1/3hp Westinghouse, at least until I see how much oomph I actually need), then we'll see what develops. I think my machine is an early one because there's no provision for a drawbar, so it may not have had reverse ( I wonder if they used left and right-hand endmills- seems to me a milling head that only can run one way has a lot of limitations. There is no tag anywhere on the machine, but I'm thinking it's an original Master era Versa mill.
I'll need to sort out a means to mount it to the carriage of my Mulliner Enlund- there's no way I'm cantilevering two-ton Tessie here off of the compound. Eventually, I may make up a mount for a small motor to do undercutting, as this would make one heck of a rigid setup for cutting the mica once an armature has been turned; I repair a lot of repulsion induction motors.
Does anyone know what size the various steps on the original pulleys were? I know what speed the motor would have been, but not what rpm the tooling moves at.
Thanks,
-James Huston
I excavated everything from the beach ball-sized snarl of swarf, and found out that while the motor and pulleys were long gone, there were two versa grinder heads, the inside grinder, and the high-speed milling head, as well as a piece I believe is intended to drive the universal head. The whole shooting match was seized solid, even the gearbox; it was obvious the Versa mill had been sitting a long time, and the box may have been a graveyard of parts to keep other units running.
I couldn't stand it, so I pulled the machine down, put everything in the vinegar bath, and flushed the living daylights out of the gearbox with mineral spirits until it came out clean. Once it was derusted, I decided to kill the last bit of Rustoleum satin black in the can- that way, it will match my lathe, if nothing else.
I have the heads pulled down, and none of them have any serious issues except for being unused for years, possibly decades. I found a piece of heavy walled tubing to make a motor mount and will have to scrounge around and find a piece of plate for the motor ( currently a 1/3hp Westinghouse, at least until I see how much oomph I actually need), then we'll see what develops. I think my machine is an early one because there's no provision for a drawbar, so it may not have had reverse ( I wonder if they used left and right-hand endmills- seems to me a milling head that only can run one way has a lot of limitations. There is no tag anywhere on the machine, but I'm thinking it's an original Master era Versa mill.
I'll need to sort out a means to mount it to the carriage of my Mulliner Enlund- there's no way I'm cantilevering two-ton Tessie here off of the compound. Eventually, I may make up a mount for a small motor to do undercutting, as this would make one heck of a rigid setup for cutting the mica once an armature has been turned; I repair a lot of repulsion induction motors.
Does anyone know what size the various steps on the original pulleys were? I know what speed the motor would have been, but not what rpm the tooling moves at.
Thanks,
-James Huston
