New machine day!

[A_Pmech]

I just got word that my new surface grinder is loaded on a truck and headed this way. Keeping with my general preference for top-of-the-line heavy machine tools, this one is no exception. It's a Brown and Sharpe 1030 Micromaster.

When new, Micromaster grinders were too expensive for general machine shops or tool rooms. Most went into specialized grinding departments, aerospace shops, and high-tech. When new in the late 60's, this machine cost more than a nice house on a couple acres on the good side of town. They're still considered top-of-the-line machines today and are still workhorses in many precision grinding operations, some on their second or third rebuild. Around 2,300 1030 Micromasters were built, mine is number 218.

This machine was rebuilt sometime in the fairly recent past, although it does appear to need a spindle rebuild, which I'll tackle after confirming that it isn't a preload issue. I'm looking forward to seeing how close to new tolerances it will hold. When new it was guaranteed to hold .0001" over it's entire work envelope!

Once running, it will be fed a steady diet of tool steel for a line of precision tools.

A few specs:

Weight: 3 tons
Power: 5 HP direct-drive spindle, 2HP hydraulic pump
Largest wheel size: 14"
Chuck size: 10" x 30"
Maximum work height with maximum wheel: 19"




I need to do a little re-arranging this weekend as I don't yet have a hole big enough to skate it into:

 

[Bigpigdave]

These are wonderful machines, beautiful craftsmanship from when Brown & Sharpe was a "top of the line" manufacturer. My last employer was fortunate enough to have one and it was a joy to use. Good luck with your's.
Dave

 

[NASTYZEN]

A new machine is always cool.
This one should keep you busy for a while.Congrats!

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Wow....where are you putting this thing?!

 

[A_Pmech]

Wow....where are you putting this thing?!

Right about where the rest of the flooring is right now:

I'll have to move the DoAll a little to the left and move the Bridgeport a little to the right to squeeze it in front of the water heater. Hope I never have to take that water heater out.

I'll probably shuffle things around a little more, but that'll do.

Here's another photo of the machine in better lighting:

 

[JASTECH]

Congrats indeed! Looking forward to new tools made in the USA by Dave.

Thanks, JASTECH

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Congratulations on the 'new' toy/money-maker!

I'm curious as to how thick is your shop floor? With the addition of this monster, I would expect the building to either start tilting or sinking. lol

Just for fun -
Rumor floating around Boeing's Developmental Center when I worked there on the B-2 bomber.
Years ago (1980's-1990's), Boeing built a new machine shop in their 'Oxbow' facility (south Seattle) but found out the machines wouldn't keep tolerances. It seems the shop floor and (LARGE) machine pedestals were 'floating' a bit due to the building's proximity to the Duwamish river/Elliot bay tidal basin (i.e., tides) Never knew if this was fact or fiction, however Boeing did sell the building & complex a few years after it was built and moved the machines elsewhere.

 

[oldtools]

That is an awesome machine. I love Brown and Sharpe machines and tools. I am surprise BS also make hair trimmer (not precision tool). How much did you get it for? You must have a big garage or a shop.

 

[A_Pmech]

Congratulations on the 'new' toy/money-maker!

I'm curious as to how thick is your shop floor? With the addition of this monster, I would expect the building to either start tilting or sinking. lol

Thanks!

The floor is between 6" and 8" thick with a single course of #4 re on 12" centers on compacted crusher run fill. These machines generally perform well on isolating mounts on top of a well-built standard floor, although in extreme cases an inertial foundation is necessary to de-couple the machine from floor vibration.

At least it's not installed next to a press department.

 

[A_Pmech]

That is an awesome machine. I love Brown and Sharpe machines and tools. I am surprise BS also make hair trimmer (not precision tool). How much did you get it for? You must have a big garage or a shop.

Very few machine tool and precision tool manufacturers started out in the business of machine tools or precision tools.

Starrett realized the need for a better square while building his vegetable hashers.
Pratt and Whitney started as a job-shop in a rented room.
Bridgeport started with a hedge clipper which failed to sell due to the Great Depression.
Brown and Sharpe began after David Brown failed to make a go of repairing clocks.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

********, you don't do anything by halves, do you?

Very cool.

 

[justanengineer]

Very nice. Not that it looks bad by any means, but being you I must ask, what are the plans for repaint/restoration? Also, is the 10x30" the effective grindable area, chuck size, or both? I say because thats not far from being able to grind a standard Bridgeport table.

 

[A_Pmech]

Very nice. Not that it looks bad by any means, but being you I must ask, what are the plans for repaint/restoration?

Not sure yet... I'll probably try to color-match the existing paint and give it a basic clean-up. The spindle likely needs a rebuild but the rest of the machine appears mechanically sound. It looks a lot better than my Bridgeport currently does! (Which I'm slowly working on as time permits.) I hate dirty machines, but I don't mind oil-streaked faded paint. That means they work for a living.

Also, is the 10x30" the effective grindable area, chuck size, or both? I say because thats not far from being able to grind a standard Bridgeport table.

That's the magnetic chuck size. Actual travels are a touch more, around 11" by 32" I believe. I could probably grind up to a 42" table in two passes or a 32" table in one pass.

 

[A_Pmech]

It's here, the truck arrived at about 3PM. The driver did a good job of tying the machine down without damaging anything and it was carefully tarped.

Here it is after taking it off the truck. I removed one of the way covers so I could get closer into the center of gravity. Made the pick at around a 30" load center after dragging it to the edge of the trailer deck:

Getting ready to put it though the door:

Inside! I'm standing where the 50-gallon coolant sump goes.

Tomorrow I get to play "musical machines". Also, if you haven't noticed, my digicam is going to hell. About half the photos are turning out blue. Technology....

Now I need to re-wire everything for 220V 3-phase, all 5 motors plus the magnetic chuck! After that the only thing standing in the way of running it will be 25 gallons of new hydraulic oil and fixing the spindle where some numb nut buggered up the wheel adapter mounting threads. (Likely the reason the grinder was surplused.) I may remove the spindle to do that.

 

[Bull]

I sort of want to start a cult and worship you.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

So A_Pmech, do you have a thread that tours through your garage/outbuilding where you have all these cool machines?

 

[porphyre]

It's here, the truck arrived at about 3PM. The driver did a good job of tying the machine down without damaging anything and it was carefully tarped.

WAIT.

You didn't bring it home in the Camaro? Man, I'm losing respect for you.

But seriously... you're bringing home machines that do things that I don't even know why someone would want to do those things. So much to learn....

 

[Bull]

On an unrelated note: I think the no-beard look works for you.

 

[A_Pmech]

I sort of want to start a cult and worship you.

If you do, please start a collection and import a Holden Maloo for me. Black. All Black.

On an unrelated note: I think the no-beard look works for you.

Hmm.. I'll try standing closer to the razor tomorrow.

So A_Pmech, do you have a thread that tours through your garage/outbuilding where you have all these cool machines?

I do not! Steve started a "Machines of GJ" thread a while back and I've been meaning to post to that. Maybe once I get this one in place...

WAIT.

You didn't bring it home in the Camaro? Man, I'm losing respect for you.

LOL

Well, it does weigh twice what the bird car does. I didn't think it would fit on a roof rack...

This machine makes flat surfaces flatter, angled surfaces more angled, slots and sides more perpendicular and with special attachments and aftermarket gizmos round things more round. It also makes all of those surfaces smoother than a milling machine could ever hope to accomplish in materials that can be too hard to mill.

That's a surface grinder in a nutshell.

 

[A_Pmech]

Well, it's in place.

I had to completely re-arrange the shop, but it fits!

 

[itsvegas]

those pictures look vintage in a few. kinda cool.

 

[A_Pmech]

those pictures look vintage in a few. kinda cool.

Ya, they kinda remind me of scanned film enlargements.

I "fixed" the camera today by dropping it. It's back to taking proper color photos.

 

[alberto]

Ya, they kinda remind me of scanned film enlargements.

I "fixed" the camera today by dropping it. It's back to taking proper color photos.

The proper engineering term is "impact adjustment", not "I dropped it", or "i hit it"

 

[mjozefow]

This machine makes flat surfaces flatter, angled surfaces more angled, slots and sides more perpendicular and with special attachments and aftermarket gizmos round things more round. It also makes all of those surfaces smoother than a milling machine could ever hope to accomplish in materials that can be too hard to mill.

That's a surface grinder in a nutshell.

And most importantly it keeps your floor from floating away!

 

[mjozefow]

I sort of want to start a cult and worship you.

This could have significant tax advantages John... you should look into it.

You any good at making fruit punch?

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

This looks like it may be a hell of a deal...

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/tls/2443071078.html

 

[A_Pmech]

This could have significant tax advantages John... you should look into it.

You any good at making fruit punch?

Hmm, good point!

That's not the way to build a large following...

This looks like it may be a hell of a deal...

The 2L was the last of the B&S #2 grinders. They used plain spindle bearings that last a long time if kept properly oiled. Mechanical table feeds IIRC.

Price-wise it's hard to say, haven't priced small grinders like that lately.

 

[Shadowdog500]

How big is your shop? You have a ton of equipment in there!

Looks good!

Chris

 

[justanengineer]

Looks good and here's hoping you have a good (cheap) source of coolant and hydraulic oil. Ive actually got a case of grinder envy now - Ive wanted a good mid sized one for quite some time to try my hand at grinding machine saddles, small beds, tables etc, and even more so now that Im finally about to try my hand at scraping.

Being that I read in a post youre restoring an old farm I have to ask, is the shop new construction, or did it come with the thick slab already poured? If things work out with my current employer then Im going to be buying here next year, and need to plan out these details like the thick concrete before I acquire any more machines of my own.

 

[A_Pmech]

Here are a few photos from the machine move yesterday and this morning. I had to re-arrange the whole shop to fit it in. The machine needs a space roughly 10' square and that was a challenge!

First, the machine mover's friend, a toe jack! So named because it has a "toe" which fits under the machine base to lift it. As with everything involving machine moving, these things weigh a ton. This one is about 100 lbs:

The other helper, machinery skates. These little devices have a capacity of 10 tons each for a total capacity of 40 tons and they operate sortof like a tank track, but in reverse. There's a reason why the kit box has forklift slots!

Here's the machine up on skates and roughly in position:

A view of the front controls. From left to right, magnetic chuck remote control box, hydraulic controls, cross feed course handwheel, wheelhead course handwheel, table traverse handwheel:

The fine feed controls are the small handwheels mounted 90 degrees to the coarse feed handwheels in this photo. Each graduation of the fine feed wheel is .0001", roughly 1/50th the width of a hair.

A close-up of the hydraulic and chuck controls:

The back side of the machine, showing the hydraulic system radiator, chuck electrical cabinet, coolant sump, etc.

Finally, here's a photo of the inside of the electrical cabinet. Lots of fun stuff in here!

 

[A_Pmech]

How big is your shop? You have a ton of equipment in there!

Looks good!

Chris

Hi Chris, right at 1,000 SF. Actually, around 20 tons, I think.

Looks good and here's hoping you have a good (cheap) source of coolant and hydraulic oil. Ive actually got a case of grinder envy now - Ive wanted a good mid sized one for quite some time to try my hand at grinding machine saddles, small beds, tables etc, and even more so now that Im finally about to try my hand at scraping.

Being that I read in a post youre restoring an old farm I have to ask, is the shop new construction, or did it come with the thick slab already poured? If things work out with my current employer then Im going to be buying here next year, and need to plan out these details like the thick concrete before I acquire any more machines of my own.

Yeah, I need a lot of both!

This place was a land grant farm, but when I'm done with it all the old buildings will be gone. I'm especially looking forward to driving a bulldozer though the old rotten farmhouse in a year or two.

The shop is the first floor of my house, an ongoing project that started about 10 years ago with this particular usage in mind. With help I built this place from scratch, including mixing the concrete, around 100 yards in total. I'll see about starting a shop thread at some stage with some photos...

 

[RivennHewn]

Hell of a shop.

What kind of tools you turn out?

 

[bobadame]

Those are really nice grinders. I found one sitting out in the weather a few years ago at a state surplus yard in Wyoming a few years ago. It's at the University of Wyoming now. We paid $1500. for it including the magnet and .0001 DRO.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

So A_Pmech, do you have a thread that tours through your garage/outbuilding where you have all these cool machines?

I do not! Steve started a "Machines of GJ" thread a while back and I've been meaning to post to that. Maybe once I get this one in place...

Nope...you need your own thread. That way you can add to it as you get more and more equipment.

 

[Skyline]

Excuse my ignorance, but what make this machine work? I get the idea that it will cut and smooth a flat surface, but what does the actual cutting/smoothing? Are there rotary blades similar to a wood surface planer? Or is there a giant abrasive belt? Or some sort of circular cutting blades?

Keep the info coming, very interesting.

 

[A_Pmech]

Hell of a shop.

What kind of tools you turn out?

Thanks.

Currently, I make hammers and aluminum tap charts as time allows in addition to regular job shop work and I have more tools planned for release this year. I'm slowly working my way into the field of high accuracy metrology equipment and grinding machines, where I intend to make a living.

There are more grinding machines to come once I build an addition. A universal cylindrical grinder, Moore jig grinder and Sunnen honing machine are planned, plus several CNC machines.

Here are links to the threads on those tools:

The Hammer
Etched Aluminum Tap Charts

I found one sitting out in the weather a few years ago at a state surplus yard in Wyoming a few years ago. It's at the University of Wyoming now. We paid $1500. for it including the magnet and .0001 DRO.

Not bad so long as it doesn't have a case of "Micromaster Sag". These machines are known for wearing the front of the column traverse ways causing the column to go out of square as it is advanced towards the table. I think this machine is only out about .0003", but I won't know for sure until I do a complete survey of the machine. I need to grind in the table to begin that.

Nope...you need your own thread. That way you can add to it as you get more and more equipment.

Good point... I'll see what I can do...

Excuse my ignorance, but what make this machine work? I get the idea that it will cut and smooth a flat surface, but what does the actual cutting/smoothing? Are there rotary blades similar to a wood surface planer? Or is there a giant abrasive belt? Or some sort of circular cutting blades?

What does the work is a grinding wheel. These come in many shapes, sizes and compositions for different operations. However, to simply flatten a surface a "Type 1" grinding wheel is often used, which is similar in shape to what is used on a bench grinder, just bigger.

 

[green.bubbly]

How much is your monthly electricity bill?

 

[A_Pmech]

How much is your monthly electricity bill?

A lot.

 

[cnc-me]

Finally, here's a photo of the inside of the electrical cabinet. Lots of fun stuff in here!

Looks like a couple of IEC style starters were added or replaced.
Throw those over your left shoulder, and replace with NEMA spec. units.
If I ever have to use IEC starters I always de-rate them by 50% as they
are wimpy. Get some Allen-Bradley NEMA spec. they last almost as long
as the machines they control.
Great looking machine BTW.
Just trying to point out a possible problem, not to criticize.
Those IEC units always pick the worst times, to let out the magic smoke,
usually right in the middle of a big job...

 

[A_Pmech]

Those are going to get roundfiled, eventually. I think the one with overload block is for the coolant pump. I'm not sure yet what the other one does yet. In fact, I'm not sure what about 50% of the stuff in the electrical cabinet does. Waiting on schematics!

Looks like a couple of IEC style starters were added or replaced.
Throw those over your left shoulder, and replace with NEMA spec. units.