In article ,
Gene Kearns wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 20:05:47 -0800, "PeterM"
wrote:
I just picked up an older Unimat lathe, a DB 200. I like to clean it up. It
has light rust on the metal rails that allow other pieces to slide on. What
is the best way to do that, and maybe a hint on what to put on the parts
afterwards, so the rust will not come back......many thanks...........Peter
Never use anything abrasive on the ways of a machine. If you MUST use
anything to scrub, use #0000 steel wool.... and that isn't a great
idea, either.
I had suggested either 3M's ScotchBrite (fine grade) or a very
fine steel wool (such as your #0000 above).
I would *not* suggest these for the ways of a normal lathe (in
which the ways are part of a large casting), but the ways of a Unimat
are a special case. They are simply steel rod in a metric size (12mm
IIRC), so they are easy enough to replace. And the fit on the front way
is adjusted by a clamp screw, so it will grip a slightly undersized rod
anyway. The main trick here is to get "silver steel" (drill rod) in a
metric size. The ways show no sign of either being ground or scraped to
size -- just extruded rod as far as I can see. Attachment to the base
casting is via a cross-drilled and countersunk hole in each at each end,
with nuts below the casting (aluminum in the SL-1000, perhaps cast iron
in the older DB-200).
The rest in 'V's for positioning.
The Unimat (either DB-200 or SL-1000) can be lifted with a
single hand with little effort -- unless it has been screwed down to
something more massive, such as a large slab of aluminum or a workbench
top. (It also has a column which can accept the headstock, and the
column can be placed at the end of the bed where the headstock was
previously, to make it into something of a drill press or milling
machine. The spindle is mounted in the headstock as a quill, with a
lever and rack-and-pinion feed. The collets for the milling cutters or
the drill chuck screw onto the spindle (M12x1 thread).
There is an optional spindle which accepts ww series collets,
including the proper taper to expand stepped ID-grip collets.
There are other optional features. A circular saw table and
arbor, a (wood) planer head, a sanding head an arbor for small grinding
wheels or cups to use it as a sort of surface grinder, and many other
things.
But the ways are too limber, so anything other than the lightest
of cuts will have the ways springing -- especially in the middle of
the span of the ways. (And since the carriage fully surrounds the ways,
they can only be supported at the ends.
There are a number of products on the market, now, that will
chemically convert rust and leave bright metal behind. One such
product is "Evaporust" and is available at Wal-Mart. There are other
industrial products available. (Note: this is way different from
"Naval Jelly.")
I have found that these products work more slowly than the
manufacturer suggests, but your patience will be met with excellent
results.
That sounds like useful information.
I have an example of using this material on my website, where I
restored a 100 year old Peck, Stow, and Wilcox shear.
http://myworkshop.idleplay.net/machi...hear/index.htm
Nice work -- with one minor problem with the web page itself.
This text:
================================================== ====================
Another problem was that one of the cast bosses supplied to hold the
left table had been knocked off at some point. I fabricated another
boss, screwed it into the back and bedded it into a foundation with J-B
Weld, faring it into position and re-drilling the mounting hole.
================================================== ====================
Has the left-hand side hidden by the image "IMG_0515xxx.JPG",
which is also partially covering the larger image "IMG_0528.JPG".
This is on a system running mozilla, and it may not appear on
Internet Explorer (which I cannot use on my systems).
"Opera 7.50 B1" has the same problem.
And on FireFox, it has a slightly different problem. The same
image is overlaying the left-hand end of the following text:
================================================== ====================
I missed this picture, somehow, so this is a poor quality blow-up. I,
originally, thought that this was a poor quality weld. I was wrong, it
was a really, really,poor quality braze. The arm was actually broken
into three pieces and was poorly tacked together with the brazed job and
two pieces of steel held on by four stove bolts. Obviously, quite an
old repair... but really poor quality.
================================================== ====================
O.K. Looking at the page source, I find the following:
name=Generator content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0"
name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"
And this program is famous for using things which work only with the
broken HTML of IE, and not with real standards-compliant browsers, so
you would not see the problems with IE.
Good Luck,
DoN.
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