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  1. #1
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    Default Brown & Sharpe #2 grinder restoration

    A few months ago me compadre Miguel and I agreed to buy a basket case Brown & Sharpe #2 surface grinder that was on ebay. With shipping to my lair it cost juat shy of $500 and worth about 1/500th of that.

    The finish was completely gone:cracked paint where there was paint, rust where there was none. Grit, oil, dried coolant, bird droppings, expired pie remnants, and general workshop snot adorrned the workings. On arrival I was tempted to write "DOA" on the pathology report and retire to the library with a snifter of brandy to soothe my ruffled feathers. Alas, my more Calvanistic angels propelled me to engage in restoration of this basket case. So then...
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  2. #2
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    Default First steps...

    The first thing we did was go to Costco and buy a ten pack of shop towels, then 4 litres of turps and some degreaser. This thing was an extravaganza of cracked paint, decades old caked-on grease and the grit of a thousand miles of yeoman grinding service at the hands of a couple of generations of tradesmen.

    Upon delivery, courtesy of Machtool and his high mojo trailer, Mike and I started our survey: at first glance it appeared that the longitudinal travel was as expected for its age, and accurate relative to the spindle. (This ain't typical, by the way, of machine tools. Grinders though are a bit like panel saws in that they slide the workpiece to the tool and as such only need to be predictable at one location longitudinally)

    The lateral travel was stiff, and the indicators showed at least 0.0005" of variation*

    *sorry for the imperial measurements, but y'all have calculators, no?

    Next: we get jiggy with it.
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  3. #3
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    Default Cleanliness is next to Flying Spaghetti Monster ness

    No offence intended for those readers who are more devout than I.

    The first step in a machine tool reconditioning process is donning the wet suit and firing up the compressor. Load the Kero gun with a litre of turps and go crazy. Repeat until morning tea or until your supply of solvents is exhausted. Its that bad: Years of dried coolant. Grit, grease, dead mice, and many old lottery and drycleaning chits will all need to be shovelled out of the deeper recesses of the unit. Take heart fellow restorer-there's only so many litres/gallons of crap that these things can hide. Dig it all out.
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  4. #4
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    Default Basics

    The Brown and Sharpe, and I am sure the Reid #2 grinders had the options of 1: an internally housed motor driving a flat belt around two idlers and a counter-weighted arm which compensated for the z travel of the grinding head, or 2: a simpler grinder spindle cartridge driven by a rear mounted motor.

    In both schemes the vertical ways held the grinder spindle assy fixed in all axes but the vertical: this allowed a predictable performance at the grinding wheel while allowing the spindle freedom in the vertical axis to accommodate different workpiece dimensions. The vertical travel was constrained by an acme screw driven, through a pair of 45 degree bevel gears and a horizontally mounted handwheel. The handwheel on our grinder is calibrated in 0.0005" increments, on the perimeter of the cast iron handwheel.

    The grinders of this era came in a model with belt-driven longitudinal and lateral feeds, and a more basic model with manual feeds. The Brown and Sharpe #2 grinder was delivered in both guises.
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  5. #5
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    Default

    Before survey begins in earnest, cleaning and repainting works for me. I cannot abide trying to wrest some precision from a machine element while fighting grit and grime. I am more than happy to clean and paint, repair, then touch-up my recent paint than try to do all of that while swimming in a sea of dirt. Costco sells blue shop towels in a 12 roll pack for about $24. I cannot imagine a better value in the shop. All of my mates use them in the kitchen too in place of the consumer grade toilet-paper-towels.

    For me, a kero gun loaded with mineral spirits or turps is an important first step in de-gunking a project machine. Super Cheap Auto* sells an alkaline degreaser which also works, but you have to rinse it off with plenty of water that you can safely dispatch down the drain. I use plenty of shop towels and turps to get to the essence of a machine. A steam cleaner and air compressor would also get use in my shop on some of the more petrified pieces.

    Paint for generic machine tools is " machinery grey" from White Knight in both bulk and spray packs. It has a nice blue-grey colour that is not as drab as the European grey ( Maus grey, RAL 7005 colour code as found on the Euro machines in the pre-green era (resada green, RAL 6011)
    GQ

    *for North American readers: Pep Boys, Canadian Tire, Sears, Bob's Autorotica, etc will all carry something similar.
    It's all part of the service here at The House of Pain™

  6. #6
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    Default

    Looks similar to my robot surface grinder, which from all my research aparently does not exist, looking forward to see your progress

  7. #7
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Q View Post
    Paint for generic machine tools is " machinery grey" from White Knight in both bulk and spray packs. It has a nice blue-grey colour that is not as drab as the European grey ( Maus grey, RAL 7005 colour code as found on the Euro machines in the pre-green era (resada green, RAL 6011)
    GQ

    *for North American readers: Pep Boys, Canadian Tire, Sears, Bob's Autorotica, etc will all carry something similar.

    That is just a bit dull..... Be daring...... GO hot pink.....
    Gold, the colour of choice for the discerning person.

  8. #8
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    Default

    Hi GQ,

    Congratulations on the new restoration project

    +1 on the blue costco towells,

    This will be an interesting thread, I'm looking forward to following the progress of the machine survey and I guess bearings, scraping, electrical

    Was there much in the way of accessories with it?

    Regards
    Ray

  9. #9
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by RayG View Post
    Hi GQ,

    Congratulations on the new restoration project


    Was there much in the way of accessories with it?

    Regards
    Ray
    Yes indeed! There was a wrench. Oh yeah, it has an Eclipse magnetic chuck, but that's it. Some time ago I was buying some stuff on ebay and the seller casually mentioned he had a grinder vise and wheel dresser which I bought.
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  10. #10
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    Default

    So, the Dulux part of the process taken care of, the next stage was undertaken: the motor and drive mechanism. This machine was originally built with open ball bearings in all of the idler pulleys and the motor. Grease fittings were either plugged or missing, and water , grime and time had ruined all of them.

    The 11 foot long flat belt made a great random linisher when loaded with grit, so all of the pulleys were oddly worn-some tapered, some hourglass.

    We removed the drive components and removed the perished bearings by using heat and a ten ton (ha) shop press. Idler pulleys were trued up on Mike's Rivett 608 lathe...his beautiful machine looked like hell under all that cast iron dust afterward.

    We also removed the electric motor rotor to turn the shaft which was very badly scored from years of slipped set-screws. Of course the sheave had a 1" bore, the motor had a 25mm shaft. Genius.

    Photos of motor internals and one of the idler assemblies
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  11. #11
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    Default Staring me in the face

    Sorry GQ,

    I should have done this earlier. From my catalogue collection.

    BT
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  12. #12
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    Default

    As always, many photos taken during disassembly are a great help. Even better is to actually look at them . I had to do one idler twice...my penalty for relying on memory.

    I happened to be walking past Kowloon bearing company so I grabbed the bearings for the pulleys and motor. The motor, being old school British, has imperial sized bearings. I was able to get sealed bearings so I plugged the old lubrication holes. In a non production environment I expect them to last for practically ever.

    Idler bearings, and this is a WW forums exclusive tidbit, are 6204. 2RS for rubber seals. If you don't get to Hong Kong much, try VXB bearings on eBay for reasonable quality inexpensive bearings, or a local supplier if you can score a trade discount. I have learned that the price for bearings here depends on how much they reckon you need shearing.

    The motor bearings are probably unique to this dinosaur so I won't bother looking up what I bought.

    Illustrations: 1. the motor with cleaned up shaft, new bearings and wiring. 2. The left hand idler assy and support arm during re-assembly.
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  13. #13
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    Default

    Excellent, thanks Bob. I am trying in vain to copy PDF pages from my manual on Goodreader on the iPad. It is the only copy I have, and its 21 M. I need to find somewhere to host it.

    Greg
    It's all part of the service here at The House of Pain™

  14. #14
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    Default And this from the General Collection

    The vice as illustrated in the 1925 catalogue.

    And +2 on the Costco paper towels. Gregory very kindly brought me a roll on one of his stop overs. I have rationed myself to one sheet per shed visit. Sadly the roll is closing in on its core. Don't suppose Costco do mail order.

    BT
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  15. #15
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    Default

    Great work so far Greg, you might end up with a silk purse yet

    Stuart
    Costco is coming to Ringwood

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