Just finished and tested.

[Ray Cover]

Believe it or not this is engraving related. Ya we'll get to it.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend my daughter Rachel and I started tearing down my Hardinge TL-10 lathe to repaint it. When I bought the lathe it had already had new spindle bearings, new lead screws and lead screw nuts in the cross slide and compound, had the bed reground and thurcite B installed on the carriage, a new Penta DC regenerative drive with a new 3HP DC motor, etc, etc. The lathe had been rebuilt to as like knew condition as you can get a 65 year old lathe. But when they were doing all this rebuilding they didn't paint it and it looked like crap.

Rachel and I just finished taking care of that. I even had to engrave a new thread chart for the gearbox. The original one was readable but looked really nappy. SO I guess I can officially say I have an engraved Lathe.

I also made a dust cover for it out of some rubber coated canvas curtain liner material. Unfortunately, my situation doesn't allow me to have a dirty room for the grinders and grit making equipment and a clean room for the precision stuff. So I have to have a way to keep the grinding dust off the precision machines. Machine covers were the best solution I could come up with.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Ray,That some machine shop your putting together,what other machines are you preparing to work with?Good luck. J.J.

 

[Ray Cover]

Thanks JJ. I have been pecking away at this shop / man cave for about 2 years now. The remodeling of the garage is all done, the cabinets are all made and hung and the work benches and tables are done and some of the machines are up and running. Now that this lathe is done I can make a lot of the parts I need for the other machines. Every machine I get done makes rebuilding the rest of them that much easier.

I have an old 1800s 9x18 American Watch and Tool Co lathe that Rachel and I have set up as a wood lathe at the same time we were working on this. She has been using it to turn every scrap of wood she can find into something round.:biggrin:

Here is the list in the order I plan to tackle them.

I am currently working on an old cast iron Bett Mar 14" vertical bandsaw that I am setting up as a metal cutting saw.

Hardinge UM milling machine with both horizontal mill and vertical mill attachments
8" metal shaper
Deckel GK21 pantograph
Hardinge DSM-59 second op lathe
Burgmaster (a big Burgmaster) 6 head turret drill. Did I mention this thing is big?

That's all the project machines. Everything else is up and running and in use at this point.

I do plan to eventually replace my current belt grinder with a KMG but I want to at least get the saw, mill and shaper running first.

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Ray

Before you go and buy a KMG Grinder You might want to look at a grinding machine that a fellow in Arizona is producing. He came to our ABS Knife Hammer -In. It was very impressive and hopefully by know he has added a surface grinder attachment. If you are interested I will look up his information.

Bill Rice

 

[Cloudy]

WOW! Quite the improvement! Nice to hear you got the room finished up, too!

 

[Sam]

That's a beauty, Ray. Wonderful machine and with fresh restoration and coat of paint and it'll be good for another 60 years!

 

[graniteguy52]

Ray,

Looks really great! Very professionally done like everything else you do.
Thanks for sharing and enjoy that fine machine.

Gordon

 

[Ray Cover]

Thanks for the offer Bill. I have done a lot of window shopping. I've looked at the polar bear forge grinders the Wilmont Tag-100 and all the others out there. For what I want to do with it the KMG is the best bang for the buck.

I'm not a real big fan of belt grinder based surface grinders. At least not impressed with what I have seen come form them so far. Maybe someone has figured out how to make them more accurate by now. It's been my experience that cold rolled sheet is more uniform in thickness than steel surface ground with a belt. They are great for quickly cleaning up forged billets of Damascus though if your willing to accept a few thou variance in thickness.

Ray

 

[highveldt]

Wow;

A genuine restored/rebuilt TL-10. Appears that you have done excellent work on the rebuild, but from viewing your engraving work, I should expect such excellence. One of my friends has one of these. What superb accuracy.

I have to stick to my others lathes and hope to be able to come across a Hardinge tool room lathe that I can rebuild like you. What sort of accuracy are you getting on a long bar using your Hardinge? Lots of chuckers around, but not what I am looking for.

I am fortunate that there is a machine tool re-builder 45 minutes drive away from where I live and they have reground the bed on my lathes with excellent success.

Best Regards;
Steve Howell

 

[Ray Cover]

Hey Steve,

I haven't had the opportunity to take a cut on a long bar and see what the runnout over the length of the bed is yet. I did check the Spindle and it was .0002" in a complete revolution. She is pretty tight.

Ray

 

[KCSteve]

That plate came out very nice. If you hadn't said the original wasn't good I would have thought that was the original.

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Hi

OK I will take one more stab at this. I have a badder III in my shop and only because I setup my knife shop based on someone telling me what was the best grinder. After that I then was introduced to KMG and yes I wish I had waited this is a great grinder. However I continue to look at and try out machines that in the future I want to upgrade to. I ran into Travis Wuertz at the California ABS Hammer-in in 2010 and had a hands on demonstration of his machine. Two of the features I really liked was 1. His belt tensioner is pretty slick. 2. His machine will run Vertical and horizontal with little to no effort. 3. His attachments are very versatile and sturdy. Now as to surface grinding. Yes if I had a very large shop like steve lindsay has I would have a Machine shop quality surface grinder. I do not have a big shop. I have though looked high and low for a great alternative and I do believe that Travis Surface grinding attachment Is pretty slick and cost effective. If you have your heart set on KMG then you will be getting a great machine. ( sometimes I think that comparing belt grinders is like comparing different hand gravers.)
IF you are interested in looking at his machine you can find information and videos at www.twuertz.com
Let me know what you think

 

[Ray Cover]

Thanks Bill. I did look at those when I was comparison shopping. The only advantage I can see is the vert / horiz. tilt feature and to be honest that wasn't' worth the extra $1,400 to me. Especially when I have found out how to make the KMG do the same thing. In a different way but the same effect.

I'm not saying its not a whiz bang grinder but for what I plan to do with it I can't justify the extra expense. If they both cost the same it would be a different story. If I were a full time knife maker it would be a different story. To play around with making an occasional knife or straight razor its just not worth the extra cash to me.

Ray

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Ok Ray

I just wanted you to have another option.Glad you looked at this one also. one thing nice is that his attachments fit the KMG. I am surprised though why do you not build your own grinding machine the KMG is not difficult of a design. By the way I bought your engraving DVD when it came out and it was not that great. I talked to you about it and you said that one day you would reproduce it only better the next time.

 

[Ray Cover]

Ya I agree, I was not impressed with what they did with those. When I saw the finished products I regretted even doing it and swore that I would never do it again unless I did it all myself and had total control over the entire process. That's exactly why I never sold them or had anything to do with marketing them.

Once the trigger was pulled there wasn't' a lot I could do about it. That whole situation ended up being one of those live and learn experiences.

 

[ddushane]

Nice job Ray! A buddy of mine is helping me build a cabinet for a micro lathe I'm reworking.

 

[billrice@charter.net]

Ray

I have not look at that video since I bought it ( 2008 )and so I thought I would pull it out and watch it. i remembered all the closeup shots being blurry However I did not remember the wealth of information you gave. This is a 2 disk set. I am doing allot more engraving these days and I am going to apply allot of what you go over in the video. If only they redid some of the closeup shots that would be great but it does not sound like you will be doing this any time soon. I want you to know I do not regret buying the DVD. You are one of the great engravers and I look forward to your next DVD.