Covel surface grinder : Tossed some paint on .

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

Thought id start a little journal of the grinder repair .i started on it a year and a half ago. kinda slow moving.
its a 1958 Covel model - 10 mechanical table drive. 10x18
with model-1971 Excello spindle cartridge.
***ALL BLACK HARDWARE IS DONE IN CASEWELL BLACK OXIDE .WORKS OKAY .parts need to be extremely clean and oil free .

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

Mohawk Dave · Mar 12, 2015

oh yea. Just tossed some paint on, that's all.

HOLY COW!!!!! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!!

What kind of stripper did you use? And what kind of filler/bondo? What kind of paint and how did you apply and cure?

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

CwazyWabbit · Mar 12, 2015

That's an amazing job! Better than new

quick question, did your mag chuck lose most of its magnetism when you took it apart like that?

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

the striper is the aersol stuff from fleet farm, the epoxy white is from fleet farm as well. it comes in gallons with hardener and spray cans . i used both .
spray cans for small parts .
i used castrol purple degreaser for the mess firsts.

As for the mag chuck , no i dont believe it lost anything by taking it apart .
i read alot about them before pulling apart .

the one pictured is not the one i took apart and cleaned.
i found a walker finepole at a auction that was froze up for 25 bucks. Thats the chuck i repaired and painted and is on grinder now.
has great holding power ! even on small parts !

royesses · Mar 12, 2015

Beautiful work!

CwazyWabbit · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech said:
......

As for the mag chuck , no i dont believe it lost anything by taking it apart .
i read alot about them before pulling apart .

the one pictured is not the one i took apart and cleaned.
i found a walker finepole at a auction that was froze up for 25 bucks. Thats the chuck i repaired and painted and is on grinder now.
has great holding power ! even on small parts !

I took apart an Eclipse mag chuck quite a few years back before I knew about them losing magnetism and I'd say it has lost most of it's strength. Glad to hear yours worked well, you really have done a wonderful job on that whole machine

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

thanks much . i do enjoy this kinda work very much.
theres no doubt theres more time in this then i could have bought one for.

but its much more then that to me , just in the stuff i learn along the way.
and the piece of mind knowing everything works right

CwazyWabbit · Mar 12, 2015

That's the thing isn't it? You know every inch of the machine so you know what it is really capable of and what will damage it because you've seen it all, you know it's strengths and weaknesses unlike a brand new machine.

ndnchf · Mar 12, 2015

Wow, that's beautiful, great job. I picked up a small Delta Toolmaker surface grinder a couple weeks ago. I may need to toss some paint on mine too. Thanks for the inspiration!

BTW, I'd encourage you to share this restoration on the "Old Metalworking Machines" forum too:
http://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=77&sid=9f5ad8b7d0da1e289ee712d8010e72a1

fnieto · Mar 12, 2015

Wow! what a beautiful job, well done. A true labor of love.

A_Pmech · Mar 12, 2015

Very nicely done, first rate!

Squashfest81 · Mar 12, 2015

Amazing work. The red interior, wow, just wow. As the pics kept coming I was sure that the internet's was going to implode.

G_P · Mar 12, 2015

Beautiful work. That looks like a brand new machine!

littleponderosa · Mar 12, 2015

Awesome.
Bill

gtermini · Mar 12, 2015

Nice job.

How come you didn't rebuild and scrape in the ways on it while you were in that deep?

Greyson

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

thanks all , A-pmech's Do-all rebuild inspired me to go all out on this one ! table was well with in spec . no scraping needed. Z -table in - out was scraped in .the left side oil feed to
saddle V was plugged and there was major damage , .020" leveled off on the whole v-way.
Vertical Y was absolutely perfect yet . no wear i could measure over entire range top to bottom.

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

iam wondering if i can use these old motors with the vfd's or if they will get damaged ?
the table drive motors mechanical in good shape .just needs a good cleaning and possiably
new bearings

CwazyWabbit · Mar 12, 2015

I'm using the 1960's 3 phase motor on my bench drill with a VFD and have had no problems.

DocsMachine · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech said:
iam wondering if i can use these old motors with the vfd's or if they will get damaged ?

-First off, excellent work. I love it.

My only gripe is you really need better labels for the control board- those printer strips don't match the rest of the build.

Second, the answer is "maybe, but probably not". If you run a motor under its rated speed for extended periods, it can overheat because the fan isn't moving as much air. The older motors tend to be a bit more susceptible to this due to the aged/dried-out insulation.

I've had some people tell me the "artificial" 3-phase from a VFD can- somehow- potentially damage a motor, but I have yet to see any concrete proof of it. I've been running machines on VFD-supplied 3-phase for eight years now- in many cases daily, and for hours on end- and have yet to see a problem.

Doc.

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

thanks

i will go through the motors and give them a shot .

Doc i found your shop projects page !
its like hitting gold for me !
some really nice work there for sure !!

A-pmech has some nice rebuilds and projects as well!

bikeguy5 · Mar 12, 2015

hard to believe that's the same machine

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

bikeguy5 said:
hard to believe that's the same machine

ive heard that a few times now.
when my dad stopped over he thought i bought a new one and scrapped the old one . lol
lots of patients goes a long way with these old machines.

Iam most happy that it didnt get sent to the china foundry like so many do!!

DocsMachine · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech said:
Doc i found your shop projects page !
its like hitting gold for me !
some really nice work there for sure !!

-Thanks.

There's lots more in the works, too- I've got at least another five entries almost done for the big lathe, and that machine isn't even done yet.

Part of the reason I looked at this post was because I have a Covel surface grinder myself- albeit one of the much older versions where the table and knee rise up to the wheel, like a vertical mill.

I got it cheap, and started working on it, but shortly thereafter found a good Republic-Lagun that really only needed cleaning and very minor repairs. So the Covel has been sitting, waiting for me to get back to it...

The main problem with it is back in those days (it probably dates to the late 30s) they didn't guard the ways very well, and so it's pretty badly worn. To build it up properly means I'll need to either have it ground (somewhat ironically

) or finish learning how to scrape machine tools.

Doc.

justanengineer · Mar 12, 2015

thieltech said:
thanks
i will go through the motors and give them a shot .

Be careful if you get into the motor, and even then it might be worth it to send it out for a balance check after. SG motors are very finely balanced from the factory, which is why so many sell for cheap with common industrial motor swaps - bc theyre not worth the effort.

Nice job on the rebuild btw.

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

As far as the spindle motor goes the only thing iam doing to that is cleaning ,stoning the back mounting area that bolts to motor and then installing new bearings in the main excello spindle . MM57 front , MM67 rear bearings , abec 7

of course this will all be done in my super clean room!

Still only about 1/2 done with this project . i have all the table feed gear boxes ,pulleys ,drives etc to redo yet ,along with the spindle and Z feed mech.

lots of intresting stuff though !

Thanks very much for all the compliments

thieltech · Mar 12, 2015

spindle motor cleaned up and painted.

A_Pmech · Mar 13, 2015

With the advent of inexpensive digital oscilloscopes and inertial reference IC's, building your own vibration analyzer is incredibly simple. With about $15 in parts (literally,) and a four-channel scope, one can put together a multi-axis vibration analyzer with analysis tools far more advanced than off-the-shelf equipment and just as accurate. I wouldn't be afraid to tackle re-balancing the spindle assembly if it's required.

thieltech · Mar 13, 2015

A_Pmech said:
With the advent of inexpensive digital oscilloscopes and inertial reference IC's, building your own vibration analyzer is incredibly simple. With about $15 in parts (literally,) and a four-channel scope, one can put together a multi-axis vibration analyzer with analysis tools far more advanced than off-the-shelf equipment and just as accurate. I wouldn't be afraid to tackle re-balancing the spindle assembly if it's required.

i was wondering same

CwazyWabbit · Mar 13, 2015

That idea sounds interesting, any pointers on suitable chips/sensors?

yaidunno · Mar 13, 2015

Awesome documentation and attention to detail!

dr_clyde · Mar 13, 2015

Outstanding work. Very well done.

shanny19 · Mar 13, 2015

Wow. Incredible work, thanks for sharing!!! And if you're reading on dial-up, welcome to 2018.

Mike.ASC · Mar 13, 2015

Most excellent work !

scw1991 · Mar 13, 2015

Beautiful restoration sir

I restored vintage Delta/Rockwell & Powermatic woodworking machinery for 10 years and one thing I wish I would have done was to go the extra mile and invest in a spray gun system to properly apply a nice automotive type paint system. The Rustoleum rattle can enamel method just does not hold up to any abuse whatsoever. Glad you did it the right way!

thieltech · Mar 13, 2015

Thanks much for all the compliments. the only thing i wish i would have done is pull the base apart.and clean / paint the inside red like the other parts.
oh well little late now .

bczygan · Mar 13, 2015

Interested in cleaning, polishing and painting tools, materials and procedures you used.

Everything is incredibly OCD.

And nice job with the VFD's. Does that mean the feed is powered? It must be.

Covel surface grinder : Tossed some paint on .

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