This is getting ridiculous, another "Orphan"
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:29 pm
I am getting the Mark VII pretty much squared away and love the design and machine in general (I will have more later if anyone is interested). I have a (I thought) major problem with one of my casters on the Mark VII. The casters move up and down off the cam(s) by a cast steel piston. Good idea, but not implemented very well. The cast steel seems brittle and weak and after doing some research and contacting JPG, I found that it is a common ailment. JPG sent me his last piston so I can move mine around, but what about JPG? So what to do. If I only had a lathe ..... (you know where this is going)
I had a friend of mine in the shop that I helped get set up with a Mark V a couple of years ago and we were making a mirror frame for his daughter and I started lamenting about "the current problem". He looked at me and said, "I will be right back". He comes back in an hour with a 60's vintage Atlas/Craftsman 6 inch mini lathe. All in boxes and a real basket case. He said "here you go, get it working and it's yours".
So I did:
OK, now, the pistons.
Made one in steel first successfully, but didn't like the work it took (it's been thirty five years since I have even seen a metal lathe, much less did anything with one)
Steel and cast steel side by side.
So I told JPG that I was ordering some tempered aluminum round bar stock and I would try some in aluminum for us both to try (the least I could do). I got two made today and hopefully get his other two made tomorrow. I tried the first two and they work perfectly. Time will tell if they hold up.
cast steel and aluminum side by side
So, I have taken in another "orphan" machine that needs a lot of TLC, but is in pretty good shape, a few problems, but fixable, and the bonus, is my Mark VII is fixed and I will hopefully get JPG's back on her "feet" again too.
I had a friend of mine in the shop that I helped get set up with a Mark V a couple of years ago and we were making a mirror frame for his daughter and I started lamenting about "the current problem". He looked at me and said, "I will be right back". He comes back in an hour with a 60's vintage Atlas/Craftsman 6 inch mini lathe. All in boxes and a real basket case. He said "here you go, get it working and it's yours".
So I did:
OK, now, the pistons.
Made one in steel first successfully, but didn't like the work it took (it's been thirty five years since I have even seen a metal lathe, much less did anything with one)
Steel and cast steel side by side.
So I told JPG that I was ordering some tempered aluminum round bar stock and I would try some in aluminum for us both to try (the least I could do). I got two made today and hopefully get his other two made tomorrow. I tried the first two and they work perfectly. Time will tell if they hold up.
cast steel and aluminum side by side
So, I have taken in another "orphan" machine that needs a lot of TLC, but is in pretty good shape, a few problems, but fixable, and the bonus, is my Mark VII is fixed and I will hopefully get JPG's back on her "feet" again too.