Surface grinder table stuck

fitzo

fitzo

Well-Known Member
Hello, forum. New guy, old knifemaker. Shop dormant for nigh on ten years.

I have an old Taiwanese ENCO "Table Top" 800 pound surface grinder that was, when we installed it about 1986 precise to 3 tenths, plenty good enough for knife work.
That said, ten years left untouched and the table is welded in place by what I imagine is polymerized-to-dried-shellac way lube. I've tapped liberally but not harshly with a dead blow trying to break it loose, but didn't want to hurt anything by slamming it. No give, anyway.

If anyone has experience recovering aged equipment or has any suggestions, they would be most appreciated. I'd like to get this tool back. Thank you!
 
you may be able to heat it up to loosen it's grip and lift it off. then clean the daylights out of it.
I'd use low even heat over a long period of time so nothing bad happens, big cup of coffee and a hand held propane torch.
 
bladegrinder said:
you may be able to heat it up to loosen it's grip and lift it off. then clean the daylights out of it.
I'd use low even heat over a long period of time so nothing bad happens, big cup of coffee and a hand held propane torch.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I agree with you. A heat gun was going to be my next attempt. This step in its recovery I think I can handle. That said, the table, as a single casting piece, weighs 250 pounds. I'm lucky to lift 30 pounds nowadays.
If I get that far, I'll hire day labor as necessary from the local labor place.
And then the long process of cleaning those ways and the oiler, then re-truing the mag chuck.
I'm tired already... :)
 
I hope it works for you, I know about the weight thing, I just recently moved a 6x12 harig 300 miles and it was all good until time to get it off the trailer luckily it was a 50' building with doors on each end so I just pulled thru and lifted it with a tractor and set it maybe 10' away.
I never ran this machine and was thinking how I was going to remove the table if the oil ports were clogged. I figured a heavy table right in front of it, two people, up and over. but it turned out the machine operated like it's supposed too. good luck Mike.
 
I looked up the 612 Harig. The upper is probably about the same weight as mine. Then about double it with the heavy cab. I love tractors!!

Hard to imagine, now, but a machinist friend and I carried that down the basement stairs in my residence piece by piece and re-assembled. We both agreed the grinder would stay with the house should I move or pass. :) I can still remember Harry's smug certainty the grinder was going to be a POS, but after we got the table ground in we indicated it to three-five tenths runout or less in both axes. He suddenly became a believer; it was going to be not only fine for my work but okay for folders. No coolant, though, so...

Thanks for the good wishes, Steve. I'd really like to get this resurrected. Even manual, they're such a handy tool.
 
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Another option is to soak it down with WD40, and leave it sit overnight. I've "broken" loose many frozen machines in that manner. ;)
 
I would try Ed's method before heat. I'm not sure you can heat that even enough to not cause problems? Most surface grinder tables simply lift off...which means you could safely jack them up with the right setup after soaking in WD40....then gently clean the ways, smear fresh way lube on them and lower back down.

Also, the way lube reservoirs may be pockets in the bed of the machine that are exposed if you lift the table....would be a good time to clean and test. Diesel (kerosene) is good for cleaning way lube journals and will not damage an electric way lube pump. (a bijur style pump will just have lines to grooves in the casting and probably no reservoirs) you can cycle it with straight diesel then clean it out and put fresh way lube in. Do not run the table with only diesel in the machine.

I have a Chevelier 6-18 and a Crystal Lake cylindrical grinder and have had both tables off and done this procedure at the recommendation of a friend who is a machinery repairman. They both work like glass now...
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I will have to see how well I can get under the table with the WD40. I apparently managed to center it quite nicely before i shut it down last time. :(

@Smallshop This grinder's table also lifts directly off. 250 pounds worth. I tried lifting as best I could but i am feeble nowadays and it is jammed tight. Tried bapping it lightly with a dead blow; no movement. I'll try and get some WD40 in there. The grinder is totally manual. Oiler is a manual pump. Going to be a mess to clean up after I get it loose. If it is dead-in-the-water for me, it will sit there for the rest of my life and I'll look into that Beaumont "surface grinder" for my KMGs. That said, I could instead have cash for a boatload of ground CPM154 and not have to grind all the crap I have here.

Any of you lads remember Sornberger's supply business and HT out of Sunnyvale, CA, back in the day? I have several bars of HRA ATS-34 from back in the 80s sitting downstairs. Finding all sorts of cool memories buried in that shop.

Thanks, again. I'll report back about the WD-40. Unfortunately, today the illness said, "No," so nothing going to happen today. Hopefully I'll still remember tomorrow. Ha!
 
Owe you a debt of gratitude, @EdCaffreyMS . Thank you, sir! I’ve been banging, lifting, cajoling, threatening that table for days. It was going to be very difficult to get the ways wetted from inside, so I took a wild shot and squirted some WD40 along the visible line between table and base. Waited about 2 minutes, gave it a couple tugs, and about soiled myself when it popped loose. Very surprising, and very happy making.

So, I am good for lifting about 25 pounds max nowadays. I calculate I need 12 more feeble old men to get this off so I can clean. Anyone close to Waukegan, Illinois? :)

Thanks, again, to everyone. You kept me working at it, and I am grateful.
 
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Surface grinder is up and running.

Runout on a 5" scrap of CPM154 was 3 tenths cross-table and 2 tenths longitudinal. Chatter quite acceptable for an all-manual "tabletop". Stone wasn't even dressed. That's as good as the old girl has ever been.

Happy camper. Thanks, again! God Bless WD40!
 
fitzo said:
Surface grinder is up and running.

Runout on a 5" scrap of CPM154 was 3 tenths cross-table and 2 tenths longitudinal. Chatter quite acceptable for an all-manual "tabletop". Stone wasn't even dressed. That's as good as the old girl has ever been.

Happy camper. Thanks, again! God Bless WD40!
Click to expand...
no feeble old men were harmed in the restoring of movement to this machine....
 
Smallshop said:
no feeble old men were harmed in the restoring of movement to this machine....
Click to expand...

Just a little more tired than I should get. And, as always, without the constant help from my very dear wife of 46 years, none of anything happens. Soulmate and caregiver barely covers it. And, still a strong little s**t at 67. Still can't read a mic. :)
 
One last word, please, if I may be indulgent -
The missus has always been my sidekick with the knife thing. Everything, really. We just do most things together. She's always done our leather.
The story - Zowada taught me to forge, ca 1986. Our second trip to Battle Creek, we wanted to make damascus by hand, as all I had at home was a coal forge and us. The little s**t swung that maul for hours and hours without complaint. Zowada was sitting up on the beam of his Bradley hammer with a big grin at how hard we were working. 8 hours. Enough for two blades. Likely about 0.2% carbon left in at the end, but man that first bar is a rush idn't it? Then we did the same work in under an hour with the hammer. The next day she forged her first knife. Thanks, Tim, always!
My best friend and soulmate, Nancy:

Zowada_ca_86.jpg
 
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Hey Mike, cool pic of you two. Since we've only known each other since after you retired, I never even knew the two of you were once that young :cool: Nanc swings a bigger hammer than me, apparently.
 
CapHayes said:
Hey Mike, cool pic of you two. Since we've only known each other since after you retired, I never even knew the two of you were once that young :cool: Nanc swings a bigger hammer than me, apparently.
Click to expand...

It's getting harder to remember we were once that young. :)

Young lady in that pic was buff at that point. We lifted Nautilus and free 3 days a week back then. They wanted her to compete in bodybuilding, she was so cut. Scrawny little old woman is still surprisingly strong, 'cept the arthritis has destroyed her hands and, thus, her grip.
Doesn't stop her from trying, though. Good woman.
 
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