The Machinist

Ill have to go through the circuit thoroughly to bring the tubes back up and on line. It will need all of the capacitors replaced and at least one of the xenon filled thyratrons replaced, the envelope has detached from the resin socket. That’ll be when I find it.

Anyone have a Variac and a tube tester they want to donate?

Maybe Norton kept records of these old machines. I’ll give it my best shot.

The Machinist

I’ve been making slow progress, amid some significant setbacks.

I recently had to replace the HVAC unit on my house to the tune of about 5 grand. That sucked.

I have acquired power for the shop, which was also tumultuous.

The generator is an old Dieselite unit from a USNavy warship. It is powered by a Buda-Lanova 6DT317 Diesel engine. The displacement is 5.2L. The generator is wound to run at 1200RPM at full load.
25kVA.
240V 3Ph

Never mind the state of my garage. I have a lot of **** crammed in there.


WW2 Navy 3 phase generator.

Sideways shot of the fuel side.

Crammed into the garage for engine work

Bent valve as a result of being stuck from sitting

Valve after being straightened along with the broken valve guide.

I didn’t want to risk the straightened valve breaking off from fatigue in operation, so I manufactured a new one from a valve blank, along with the guide to match. Another shop took pity on me and let me use their equipment to make it happen.

New valve installed in the head.

The height is within .010” of the OE valve next to it. Luckily I have .250” of valve lash adjustment.

New valve in the head chamber.

Shot of the top deck waiting for a new custom made head gasket

The Machinist

The generator is back together and making 3 phase.

All I have really are videos of it running on my IG.

So this is a major hurdle crossed, I just need to find a small enclosed trailer for it to live in, and then I can start running electrical power to the machines.

I’ll see if I can take some screenshots from the video to post.

The Machinist

Y’all, I’m getting closer to opening up and finally making some sparks.

I have been very busy, and actively working towards opening. It’s starting to cool off here in coastal NC, so progress will be a bit easier going.



The surface grinder is moved into its permanent location.

This is the newer lathe which has a quick change gearbox for the feeds and speeds.

Quick change gearbox on the lathe.

About to unload it.

A period correct single phase century electric motor mounted up there.

The Norton OD grinder is installed and the walls are all torn down.

Another shot of the new lathe in its place.


The first new grinding wheel this old surface grinder has seen in probably 40 years.

The Machinist

Ive been gentrifying my car park too:


I also got rid of a car payment on the VW that I had by buying an old Mercedes as a daily driver. But it’s not just any old Mercedes.

It’s an E320 CDI with an OM648.

doncmleon

not too often i'd take a truck over a Benz, but that F350 is a damn good one. Those are like GOLD here in Texas. Legendary reliability. Salute

The Machinist

Thank you. I’ve had the old girl since new. Spends most of the time locked up in the garage. This was probably the first day she’d been out in 2 months when the picture was taken.

The Machinist

I have given up trying to make these orient properly. They are all right side up on the source device.

Enjoy...

Jasonoff

EXIF properties will have camera orientation to assist viewing on some devices.

EDIT: Or maybe too many high life pops

The Machinist

It was a long day, and I was stoked to see that machine manufacturers included beer holders in 1928.

The Machinist

It’s been a couple months since I posted. Here’s another photo dump.

The images are in no particular order, and they speak for themselves.

The Machinist

I need cores for rebuilding. Until then I can’t do a core exchange program.

If you or anyone you know has junk adjusters laying around, put me in touch with them. Let’s talk.

@63machinist on IG
@63Rc Precision Grinding on FB

or you can contact @asherc63amg @Asher4799 on here. He and I have been working together to find cores and get the first few sets made.

The Machinist

Big things coming soon. Finally the culmination of the last TWO YEARS of work is going to be going public. I expect in as soon as possibly two weeks or so they will be available as long as the rest of the mechanism on the website is good to go.

Needless to say, the search for good used cores ended up being a waste of time. So we are going to be making completely new components from some pretty good stuff, complete with our ultra hard bushings already built in. No more looking for good rebuildable parts in piles of scrap. It’s not worth my time or what other people think their scrap is worth.



Also this summer, I want to focus on completing the restoration on our old Brown and Sharpe #4 grinder, and to get the big old Flather lathe finally making chips again.

But in order for any of that to happen, we’ve got to get the big generator out of the shop and into the brand-used horse trailer for it.

The Machinist

August 12, 2020 I came up with the idea to refurbish OE cam adjusters.

My first sketches of the repair prototype were completed on September 17, 2020.

On November 3rd 2020, the first machine arrived.

And on November 10th 2020, the first prototypes were finished.


Fast forward to April of 2022, and I am about to release these to the world.

Brand new parts, no refurbished junk.

Stay Tuned.....



4Ra surface finish from a nearly 100 year old grinder.

2 of the plates pictured are finish ground, the rest are waiting.

DRBC43AMG

They look fantastic, and should I need to renew these parts in the future, I certainly know where I'll get them from.