Very old Taft Peirce oil metering system (Bijur predecessor?)

[Rex Walters]

@DownSouth — lol! I was about to ask where in the south (thinking the Carolina’s or Georgia or someplace I could visit easily) then I saw your profile. Just a wee bit farther south!

Where in Oz? I’ve been all over, but spent more time in Sydney and Port Townsend than elsewhere. Interesting to see this old grinder down there.

 

[DownSouth]

Here you go - switch contacts when the lever is moved in either direction, 'off' when central. Let me know if you need any close ups.

My VFD arrived yesterday, couldn't help myself and fired it up last night & it runs great. Need to reverse direction and mount it all properly which will take a bit of time but I'm getting closer

 

[DownSouth]

@DownSouth — lol! I was about to ask where in the south (thinking the Carolina’s or Georgia or someplace I could visit easily) then I saw your profile. Just a wee bit farther south!

Where in Oz? I’ve been all over, but spent more time in Sydney and Port Townsend than elsewhere. Interesting to see this old grinder down there.

Perth - Western Australia, or more specifically, south of Perth hence the name haha

Indeed - would love to know the history behind this unit. It has this interesting tag so may be ex-defence force? or could have moved after the war..

 

[Rex Walters]

It has this interesting tag

Mine has the exact same tag. So cool!

I’ve been to Perth exactly once, but never ventured south! I truly enjoyed my time there, had an interesting vibe: LOTS of miners, of course, but I got the impression that locals liked being so far away from the more populous east.

As an American, it kind of breaks my brain traveling that far with so little in between. “Fly-over states” notwithstanding, there is precious little of the US that isn’t MUCH higher density!

 

[Rex Walters]

Mine has the exact same tag

Thought I’d posted it already in this thread. Apparently not!



Thanks for the photos of the switch! I’m looking forward to getting back on this project!

 

[Rex Walters]

switch contacts when the lever is moved in either direction, 'off' when central

Is there any sort of detent or stop for the center-off position? Or does it just rely on the friction of the pivot point? Double-pole double-throw knife blades are SO much simpler than what I’ve done!

Also, which position puts the mag chuck in “suck” mode? Toward the operator, or away?

I’m (hopefully) down to just a few more weeks of work (and a massive cleanup) on the shop, then I’ll finally get back to this project.

 

[DownSouth]

No detent- though that might be a good idea, or some sort of spring return as it looks like it would be quite easy to have the contacts only barely touching..
haha "suck" mode is either towards or away from the operator - appears either direction engages the contacts and has the same result. Before seeing it operate I would have thought one direction reverses the polarity to help remove the workpiece but I suppose that's probably not needed.

 

[Rex Walters]

My bad, I was thinking of the mag-chuck controller I’m using. (You might want to consider one, seems VERY useful).

Actually, I’m curious: IS yours an AC chuck?

Mine came with an huge old electrical box with a “rectifier” label inside the base (hinting at DC) but the guts had been ripped out. The double throw of the switch and red/black wiring makes me wonder if it did reverse polarity and send DC to the chuck.