DoAll G-1 Hydraulic Surface Grinder restoration

[Josh Dabney]

WOW 2 1/2 months since the last update !

Still figuring out this new computer so bear with me.

Of course a resto like this cant be done without a mishap or three Here we've got my stone adapter which was left soaking in vinegar and forgotten about..... hmmmm way to go genious The vinegar ate the threads completely out of the nut side. these two pieces should be threaded precisely together... bye bye DoAll hello scrap pile

As luck would have it the adapter from my Boyar Schultz is a match to the DoAll's spindle so I'm still in business and I'm already set-up with a contact wheel.

Here I've got my two old ripped up suction strainers plus the two new ones, their related reducers and fittings, and some thread sealant.

New suction strainers installed back in the tank

I didn't get any pics of the next step but it wasn't without a trip up Reinstalled the end of the tank with gasket, no problems there. Re-wired up the machine and the cord, no problems there. Added 5 gallons of hydraulic fluid, no problems there. Flipped on the pump and she fired right up.... No movement on the cylinder... Hmmm .... Switch off pump. Investigate to quickly realize I never reconnected the 3 hydraulic lines .... Oooops Only pumped about a gallon or two of fluid into the base of the machine. Live and learn rookie :biggrin:

Reconnected the lines and the DoAll is back under power and functioning. I am getting oil to the ways which I'm very happy about but something is clogging the works for the excess draining correctly. I'm suspecting the clear sightglass filter is stopping up the works but I'll dig deeper into the issue. It could be that I'm just pushing too much oil through the system for the drain to handle and need to adjust it. Of course I gotta grab some more oil and top off the tank but otherwise I'm stoked she is back under power, functioning, and doesn't appear to be squirting fluid from anywhere :biggrin:

I had stripped all these parts and had them sitting around awaiting prime and paint. That time had finally come for this batch of parts.

With the prime and paint dry I mananged to reinstall all the dust covers and associated parts without forgetting what was what or how it went back together.

This is where I currently am with the resto so what's left to do on this ole girl ?

Electrolysis the 4 switch covers and the two side covers.
Prime and paint those plus the 110v outlet box that bolts to the base.
Trouble shoot the drain issue.
Hand polish the handwheel that raises and lowers the spindle since I never took it off and stripped it.
Top off hydraulic fluid.
Get and wire up a permanent cord. (the one I'm using is borrowed from my Bridgeport)

Celebrate with a beer

Of course I'll need to design and build the belt conversion then-

Grind the table on the machine flat
Grind the bottom of the chuck flat
Mount chuck
Grind top of chuck flat.

When I eventually reach this point she'll be a plug and play grinder.

Take care Dogs !

-Josh

 

[Mark Redmon]

Very cool, Josh! Despite your recent respite from the project, you really got that turned around quickly!

 

[teter09]

So you ARE still alive! Glad to see you continuing the work Josh!!!

FYI....remember my mention of Evaporust? It doesn't eat threads! I've forgotten parts in it for a month and come back to just normal clean metal!!! I like it a lot better than vinegar. I like it enough I've bought it in bulk 5 gallons since its so much cheaper that way than a single gallon.

She is looking great though! Can't wait til she is all done!

 

[Josh Dabney]

Appreciate the tip on the Evaporust ! Fortunately I'm nearly finishished eliminating rust on this project :happy: Just need to finish up the switch covers and side covers and I'm done :biggrin:

Have no fear... This project will be followed through until it's plug-n-play complete. It can be difficult at times to keep the end goal in sight with something like this but it helps to think LONG term. While it seems like forever since I've made a knife I know that in the big picture this is gonna be time well spent but will admit that paying 2 or 3 grand for a turnkey machine would be a nice way to go.

Spent a couple hours checking stuff off my to-do list last night. Topped off my fluid with 2 more gallons to reach the full mark on the dipstick then chased all the screw holes for the side covers with a tap and moved on to troubleshooting my drain issue.

I had previously cleared all oil pathways in the table, saddle, base, and return lines so I went straight for the return line filter as the most likely source for the backup.

Sure enough the inside of the filter housing was clogged solid on the inlet side. Here she is after cleaning it out

Return line filter unclogged, cleaned out, and reinstalled

Flipped the machine on for a test run and sure enough the oil is flowing into the return filter as it should now. Here you can see the oil running down the right/inlet side of the sight glass.

As evidence that I'm getting plenty of oil to the top end it's collecting pretty quickly in the sight glass. This is only a minute or so worth of oil.

Approximately 5 minutes. This oil is looking pretty nasty and it may take some time to really flush the internals of the system so at this point I'm pulling the sight glass and dumping off this nasty oil instead of letting it flow back into the tank and I'll just have to wait see with time and use if the oil in the return filter clears up.

One of the last parts through the paint was the backside cover for the spindles electrical connection. I temporarily wired it back up for testing purposes but need to unwire it to reinstall the cover

I ran the machine for over an hour and she appears to be running smooth as butter. All the ways are getting good lubrication and the oil is now flowing back through the return filter from the top end as it should.

I am getting a tiny bit of seepage from the pilot valve and the crossfeed cylinder but nothing I'm too concerned with right now but those areas I'll need to keep an eye on.

I'm quickly getting passed my worries about this machines functioning and moving my thoughts on to building a belt conversion and throwing some sparks with her.

All who are familiar with manual machines will completely understand... THIS GRINDER IS GONNA ROCK !!! unk::2guns:unk:


-Josh

 

[Josh Dabney]

Gotta love the rare occasion when something turns out easier than anticipated. Started the night off cleaning up the elevation hand wheel. A little steel wool, a little PB Blaster, and a little elbow grease and she cleaned right up.

Here's my 4 switch covers. The skinny two are for the on/off switches for the pump motor and spindle and the other 2 are for the motor reset buttons.

Here I'm getting my electrolysis bucket ready. 4 anodes tied together with some light gauge steel wire. Nothing fancy.

Now I've got my switch covers suspended in the bucket again with the steel wire and all the tails wrapped together for the connection to the battery charger lead. It's ready to fill with electrolyte and connect the charger now.

I decided to strip the side cabinet covers by hand. Hosed them down with oven cleaner and let them sit for an hour. The first scrape took the top 2 layers of paint off with little effort at all.

Something's definitely going on in the bucket

This is the stone guard that came on the grinder

I may or may not end up using part of this for the mount to attach the belt conversion to the spindle but regardless I want to get it apart so I have that as an option. Getting these out are a no go even after repeated soakings with the PB Blaster so here I'm drilling the screws from the back side with the drill press.

Even after I got the mount separated from the aluminum housing it still took some convincing to drive the screws out and separate the spacer form the mount

A little persuasion later I got the mount stripped bare

Whittling away at my to-do list

-Josh

 

[Josh Dabney]

The switch covers coming out of the electrolysis

The rusted areas of the part get coated with a black oxide that needs scrubbed off. I just wire brushed these in the sink to clean them up

My intension was to prime and paint these like everything else but they look pretty good stripped bare so I decided to just season them with Ballistol and reinstall. Heated them up too hot to touch with the heat gun and hosed them down.

Wipe off excess oil once cool and install.

I soaked my side covers down with the oven cleaner and left over night. It nearly ate it to bare metal so a good wire brushing and rinse had me ready for paint

Pulled my contact wheel and put on the stone mount to size things up. It clears the contact wheel but there's no room for in and out adjustment and the belt conversion will need to be mounted without making the clamp wider anywhere.

I'm going to go for it using this clamp as the mount for my conversion but If I don't like what I come up with I can always scrap it and built a clamp.

This is pretty much it for the resto :1971_dancing_dog:

If Y'all are interested in the conversion build wip I started a thread for it in my forum here-
http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?31794-Surface-Grinder-Belt-Conversion-WIP

Can't wait to finish this project off and get the shop cleaned up

Take care Dogs !

-Josh

 

[Josh Dabney]

I got my side covers painted and reinstalled which were the final parts.

The machine came with a stub of wire hanging out of the electrical box which I had just wired my cord to temporarily for working on the machine. Having 220v on exposed wire nutted cords isn't a good practice but it served it purpose.

Removed the cutoff stub of cord and did a proper job of wiring the cord directly into the box.

Finishing those tasks buttoned up the resto aside from mounting the chuck but I need to build my conversion for that.

Edited to add- Notice I rewired EXACTLY the way the machine was wired. This is 3 phase power so I do NOT want to reverse the motors rotation ! The cord was wired red to black and black to red so I wired the same. Too easy but pay attention as this machine is designed for a specific rotation and running it backwards would not be a good thing.

-Josh

 

[Drew Riley]

If it were to end up backwards for one reason or another, just swap any two leads to reverse.

That's the nice thing about 3 phase. Very easy to fix rotation.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Josh Dabney]

Andrew, Of course you are 100% correct. On many application it doesn't represent a problem if rotation is reversed.

My main concern here is the spindle nut that holds the contact wheel on. It is a reverse thread nut so it tightens as the wheel spins. Reversing the rotation could potentially cause the retaining nut to spin off which would of course send the contact wheel launching at 3600 RPM.

Maybe it would be fine but I'd rather avoid that potential hazard.

All my other 3 phase stuff has keyed or splined shafts so spinning in reverse wouldn't present any danger but this one's a little different.

-Josh

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

Awesome thread! Subscribed, just a little late to the party! Rex