what to do with a free scrap dumpster find ?

they are all over the place here used in good shape and can be bought cheap, i think it would cost as much to restore this one to a good condition honestly. that's why i am thinking about converting it. would i go buy one to convert probably not but since it was free it makes the idea more attractive. i have most of the parts needed already too. i probably might end up with one later because they are useful when you have the need for them but my needs for one right now are not enough to sink the kind of money into this to make it right.

i think i will hold off on messing with the grinding head for now but work on the table section to automate it into a CNC. if i can keep things tight and keep things close enough it might be useful to have a grinder that could be programmed to grind tapers and do some contouring?

i do know this for sure i do not want to swing handles and do it all manually been there done that and it's no fun

machinedude wrote:

Oh yes, fully-manual surface grinders are about as bad as it gets to operate. Been there..

back in the day tool and die was still around in some volume and i got into grinding. i had never done it before hand so i had no clue on how hard it was to swing handles all day. by the time the day was done your arms and shoulders were reduced to jello image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png

the only thing that concerns me with a cnc grinder is a mishap and having a wheel explode in my face image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png plus things would have to be supper tight with absolute zero backlash since the cuts are so small with grinding. anything more than .0001 or .0002 could be a problem.

i was cleaning up the saddle and table and seen the table may not be as easy as i was thinking to put rails on for a conversion so that area will require some more thought before i do anything drastic image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png once i start on a path i'm pretty much stuck going that direction.

most of the wear is in the table. i took the Rulon off the ways on the saddle and under was in very good shape but the Rulon i took off was really bad and the table ways it rode on were really badly worn. with no Rulon liner all the heights off now plus this grinder has been worked on before and some things on the screw have been altered. someone has taken material off the bottom of the brass nut and there where shims under that nut because they must have took to much off?

i can machine things to where they need to be if i convert this thing and keep things close enough for milling but i have my doubts about keeping things close enough for grinding with the equipment i have in my home shop. splitting 1/10 ths  is a whole different animal. after taking about 10 layers of paint off this thing i can see machined surfaces that will keep me square to the existing machine so reworking things on a milling level is not a problem. even having room for ball screws is not an issue since the casting has lots of room to work with.

i think the grinding spindle is ok but i can't say for sure i have used this machine as a grinder at work and it had some major finish issues. so i know a little more about the weak points of this machine than most would with a random machine. 

i think at the very least you would need a 2 foot x 3 foot class A surface plate and a good indicator half a 1/10 to get this thing back to grinding along with lots of time hand scaping and could find that issues with the spindle might be the problem after all ? although i think it's in the table at this point. i did feel the spindle but have not put an indicator on it at this point yet.

this thing is a distraction but after 2 years of looking at the other stuff it's nice to take a break from it and have something else to look at so it's not all bad. image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png

      hear are some pictures of the Rulon film and what the ways looked like under that film. i wish everything was lined with Rulon. but the scratches in the Rulon looked about the same as the scratches on the bottom of the table. it was so bad not one little bit of the scraping survived on the mating surfaces of the table bottom. the box ways had some wear but it was what you would expect on a machine close to 50 years old.

i have yet to even find Rulon film as thick as what this stuff is? it's probably around 30 Mil thick and everything i seen was only 10 Mil thick or in sheet form and the price of sheet stock will make your head spin once you see the price.

The ways look great. Is there any way that the machine could work without the Rulon as a conventional iron-on-iron slideway?