Inside Doc's Machine Shop

[Impactfour]

Hey doc, would you ever consider making a pgp quick changer out of brass? If so I'd definitely be first on the list!

[DocsMachine]

The whole thing, or just the collar? I'd considered doing up some collars, which would better match the body, but they're rather thin when they're machined. That's why I went with the high-tensile stuff.

Doc.

[Impactfour]

I'd be in to either/any options, I just like having metals that meet be the same material, and also love all matching markers.

I'm not very informed on machining, but is what your saying brass can't be threaded that fine and retain its form? I could see that being the case from an outsider perspective.

[DocsMachine]

Got quite a bit done today- both in the shop and on the new machine.

Before I started reassembling things to the cabinet, it needed to be properly leveled. This section of the shop used to have a drain, which has long since been filled in, but the floor still 'slopes' towards it. This necessitated a little bit of customizing...

First, though, the lathe has these adjustable screw 'feet'.



Common to many machines, the Springfield has ones much like it. (Eight of them much like it. ) The only problem being they only had about 3/8" of usable adjustment- they're only intended for minor unevenness, and fine-tuning the level of the machine. The floor slopes just a bit more than that...

So, for the first two corners, the ones that need the least "rise", I bandsawed and milled-square two 3" chunks of 1/2" 'luanmum.



These I drilled and bored in the center to 1/2", simply using an endmill.



And, just for a little style, I chamfered the top edges a bit.



I then made some 1/2" long barrel pegs out of 1/2" round stock...



And corked those into the plates with a dab of red LocTite.



The plate spreads the load a little, and the 'peg fits into the bore of the adjuster (hollow because the machine was bolted through them to a shipping pallet when it was first sold) so the machine can't walk off the plate, or the plate slide out from under the foot.



The third corner- rear right- needed a 1" thick plate, and the front-right corner, needed one a full inch and a half tall:



That gets us pretty close to level-and you can see how little adjustment is left on the bolt.



Et Voilá!





Next up, before the chip tray can go on, I needed to clean up the spring-loaded door latch detents.



And get those installed.



Now, when I took this thing apart, there were strips of a cork-gasket type material around the top edge of the cabinet, that the drip pan rested on. It was oil-soaked and disintegrating- this machine is around seventy years old- so I scraped it off and tossed it. For a replacement, I had a near-new roll of Homey-Dee tool-drawer liner, and sliced off a few strips with a razor knife...



Which I then glued to the top rail with a few dabs of black RTV. It's not a "seal", it's really just an anti-vibration cushion.



Then, while I was waiting for help to manhandle the drip tray back into place, I pushed that loose key back in, shifted the pulley over on the shaft a tad to better line it up with the motor pulley, and tightened the setscrew back down.



I'll keep an eye on it and see if it works loose or goes for a walk again.

And, I got out some fresh Scotchbrite and some WD-40, and scrubbed the rust off the bedway as best I could.



It's better than it was, but there's still more faintly-visible staining than when I got it. Kind of mildly annoying- concrete evidence of ones' laziness always is- but of course doesn't affect accuracy or performance.

Finally, help arrived and we got the drip tray worried back into place. (It's tricky to get the sump and it's drain 'rotated' into place when there's only just enough room for it.)



Next up, several days of... more cleaning, sanding and painting! Yaaaay! (And there was much rejoicing.)

Doc.