Reconditioning a Relmac lathe

[irving2008]

Well a weekend came and went... but today I managed to get the day to myself, as SWMBO went shopping with daughter...

So rechecked everything, was still as I'd left it 2 weekends ago. I'd already decided that the main problem before, primarily, was not enough heat in the bearing housing so the metal set too quickly. So I wrapped the whole lot in loft insulation and pointed my 500W heat gun into the centre and left it to cook for 30min. That got it nice and hot. Unfortunately I didnt take any pics cos my camera battery was flat and I couldn't find one of the kids. Anyway, melted the metal, skimmed the slag off the top (using a bit of wood, not metal apparently is good practice) and proceeded to pour. Now being on my own (which prabably wasnt a good idea) I was trying to hold the heat gun in one hand and the ladle in the other so as to keep it all hot as it went in... this worked but it was impossible to pour slowly as I had intended and some 'missed' the hole and ended up on the drip tray. But the two vents seemed to work and hot metal bubbled up all three holes at the same time...

Left it to cool, by which time son was home and found me his camera. So banged the spindle out with a rubber mallet... its a tight fit.. i found a quick reheat helped to release it...

took the first 'dam' off...



Well that was looking good... but wait a mo, whats that down in the RH corner... took the other dam off.... :(



bu***r, almost got it right... oh well set up for another go...



Dont' know if that problem was lack of heat down there, or an airlock. So for next time (tomorrow hopefully) I'll put a couple of additional air vents down there... like this... note I'm only using the firecement to form the vents. Standard bathroom silicone selaer is all thats needed to fix the aluminium sheet 'dams'... it stands 380degC no problem...





more to come tomorrow hopefully...