Working on your own machines is cool. One of my professors had a hobby of buying older fucked up machines lathes mills ect for cheap and fixes them not necessarily for resale but definitely sometimes. He was an older guy and a very good machinist especially with the older manual machines.
In a pinch you can use CA glue to attach a thin piece of sheet stock to the back of the gib. I actually have a southbend lathe with a thin piece of cardboard glued to the back of the gib on the cross slide. I know it's not ideal but until I have the time and a few more pieces of equipment to make a new one it's a big improvement.
The German Master I apprenticed under would make a thin shim to go on the non-sliding surface of the gib. He taught me how to get a superb fit using only a single-cut file and scrapers. I made my own set of scrapers, still have them. Nobody teaches that stuff anymore. Sad!
that's like what connelly mentions as shimming gibs. Brazing keeps it in place apparently. the knee gib on my Nichols mill has a bronze button pressed in and about flush.
Check out our video on putting the boring mill to sleep - the same treatment the table receives goes for the ways also (Use Way oil, not engine oil). Essentially you want to wipe down the ways and then give them a good coating with a thicker way oil. If it's cold the oil will be more viscous, so get a good film over the ways and you're good to go.
If the machine is only used a few times a year, you might use grease for it's longer rest periods, that's what I do for the outside stored machines, then I tarp them to keep the grease from washing off (then the tarps wear out & I grease again & sacrifice the next tarp)
Working on your own machines is cool. One of my professors had a hobby of buying older fucked up machines lathes mills ect for cheap and fixes them not necessarily for resale but definitely sometimes. He was an older guy and a very good machinist especially with the older manual machines.
In a pinch you can use CA glue to attach a thin piece of sheet stock to the back of the gib. I actually have a southbend lathe with a thin piece of cardboard glued to the back of the gib on the cross slide. I know it's not ideal but until I have the time and a few more pieces of equipment to make a new one it's a big improvement.
Yes, you could even put turcite on it, and call it fixed.
The German Master I apprenticed under would make a thin shim to go on the non-sliding surface of the gib. He taught me how to get a superb fit using only a single-cut file and scrapers. I made my own set of scrapers, still have them. Nobody teaches that stuff anymore. Sad!
that's like what connelly mentions as shimming gibs. Brazing keeps it in place apparently. the knee gib on my Nichols mill has a bronze button pressed in and about flush.
Excellent and timeily...tip!
How much oil is good for lathe ways. I need to protect them also from corrosion, because my lathe is in unheated workshop.
Check out our video on putting the boring mill to sleep - the same treatment the table receives goes for the ways also (Use Way oil, not engine oil). Essentially you want to wipe down the ways and then give them a good coating with a thicker way oil. If it's cold the oil will be more viscous, so get a good film over the ways and you're good to go.
If the machine is only used a few times a year, you might use grease for it's longer rest periods, that's what I do for the outside stored machines, then I tarp them to keep the grease from washing off (then the tarps wear out & I grease again & sacrifice the next tarp)
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