Way Repairs To A Large Mill

I've seen much worse over the years. I think you have a keeper there. The mill has very wide slides/bearings surfaces that have probably kept the wear to a minimum. A lot of water base coolant has taken its toll on the mill. As in any typical rebuild/reconditioning lots of crud and the typical abuse from no maintenance. If you had time to go over the slide bearing surfaces by "fuzzing" the surfaces, in other words, take a scraper and create a "X" pattern over the entire length of the bearing surfaces. This would create high and low places about 2 to 4 tenths deep. This would help in lubrication. Also, if you know how to "flake" or "Spot" the surfaces with those scallop looking figures, that would help too.

Your table is a good design. It is like the old Gorton mill design where the table is almost fully supported by the saddle. If all you can get is a 3 thousandth feeler in, I wouldn't worry about it. It would be a easy scrape job to recondition, but once cleaned up and honed, probably would be less. Unless you are needing to hold a tenth or two, I wouldn't worry about it.

But at minimum, hone all of the surfaces as you can with a oil stone and mineral spirits and call it good for now, as I have said earlier, and looks like you are doing. Clean up and flush all of the oil lines and get them pumping fresh oil before going back together. Don't be afraid to over oil with your favorite oil when you go back together. Try to replace all of the way wipers with new. McMaster Carr has way wiper materials available that you can buy and fit to your ways as needed. That where i've bought my last from. Your mill looks to be in good shape for one that has seen a lot of neglect in its past.

And good luck! Ken
 
As for the rust, there is no easy way to remove it on large pieces as you have there. And there's lots of threads here on rust removal. The easiest I find is to get a couple of wire wheels, the one's with the rope looking bristles on them. They work about as good as anything else. Plus, they don't sling out those wires that you always get stuck with using the common ones. Ken

BTY- There is a guy over in your neck of the woods that does a little bit of rebuilding and scraping. He has equipment to go in and re grind the ways if you had to. I don't know him personally, I know of him because he hangs out on another forum out. Have no clue his location in respect of yours over there. As far as I know he may be totally on opposite sides from each other. If you are interested in contacting him send me a personal message and I'll try to get contact information for you.
 
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Str8jacket said:
Not sure on the best way to clean the rusty mungey bits up?
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I'd soak them in phosphoric acid or Evaporust. You can make a tank with boards and plasitc sheet. Alternatives are plastic wading pools, tubs for mixing concrete, and plastic stock tanks from the farm store. Gelled phosphoric acid ("naval jelly" or "rust reformer") is a possibilty for stuff that can't be tanked.
 
That's something I need to do with my Zayer 3. I think the ways are all smooth, but the gearbox sounds a little rough and the rapid clutch is shot. One day I'll have time to tear it down. Meanwhile, I'll keep pushing it along when I need the size. Not often, but when I need it, it still gets the job done.
 
Using an oil stone or similar is one way to get the high spots/nicks all smooth. I would rather burnish the area in question. I have through the years collected large pieces of flat metal just for this kind of thing. When needed, I apply a little oil and run the chunk of metal over the area and any high spots get leveled and wind up as little shiners. This method does not remove any metal like stoning would…Dave

Also, if the rusty part is too big. I soak paper towels in Evaporust and then lay the towels over the rust and wrap it up in Saran wrap or something and keep it out of the sun.
 
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4gsr said:
As for the rust, there is no easy way to remove it on large pieces as you have there. And there's lots of threads here on rust removal. The easiest I find is to get a couple of wire wheels, the one's with the rope looking bristles on them. They work about as good as anything else. Plus, they don't sling out those wires that you always get stuck with using the common ones. Ken

BTY- There is a guy over in your neck of the woods that does a little bit of rebuilding and scraping. He has equipment to go in and re grind the ways if you had to. I don't know him personally, I know of him because he hangs out on another forum out. Have no clue his location in respect of yours over there. As far as I know he may be totally on opposite sides from each other. If you are interested in contacting him send me a personal message and I'll try to get contact information for you.
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I have had a chat to one very knowledgeable bloke about some stuff but not in relation to this job. I did find another person from the "other" forum who is based "close" to me. He's 4 hours away but hopefully he replies as he has scraping experience and restos too.

I will try the techniques everyone has suggested to see what I can make work with the least amount of accuracy damage. Thank you everyone it is greatly appreciated.
 
When I got my mill, I could hardly move the table in the X axis, and milling was just a mess. When I removed the table, I found the table was sliding on a 1/8" thick slab of hardened and dried grease! Your ways look pretty good, maybe you can fill in the gouge marks with Moglice?
 
You could also try Devcon plastic steel to fill gouges. It will be significantly less expensive.
 
zipfactor said:
You could also try Devcon plastic steel to fill gouges. It will be significantly less expensive.
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I thought of using this type of repair but was concerned if the filler didn't adhere properly it may come loose and ball up and cause more issues. I have used Belzona metal repair before but it is so hard I worried it may damage the opposing surface
I spent hours with a wood chisel in the end to clean the built up grime of the column ways, can still see the fish scale pattern on most areas now. Very happy. All other spots I hit with kero and a stone and come up pretty good. The worst bit is on the table right hand side.
I'm up to a grand in new bearings, picked up 4 brand new Gorton way slides for 20 dollars each (which with the aussie dollar conversion equalled 2.3million!)
I have 3 shafts to repair and fit with new needle rollers with inner race assemblies. I spent 12 hours just cleaning the knee gear box housing. Not a fun job at all. Have just started re-assembling the speed change gears for the feed. Made a small error pulling one shaft out not paying attention and the clock mechanism fell out of sync :eek: there are some serious amounts of combinations they can go. Hopefully I got it back in the right way cause I will have to completely disassemble the box to fix it. Still a few weeks away with work and kid commitments.
 
Str8jacket said:
I thought of using this type of repair but was concerned if the filler didn't adhere properly it may come loose and ball up and cause more issues. I have used Belzona metal repair before but it is so hard I worried it may damage the opposing surface
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I wouldn't try to fill gouges in the ways at all. You're only losing a tiny fraction of the bearing area. Think of them as oil pockets.
 
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