Just like Squatch253 when he's restoring old Cat Dozers and farm tractors. He makes parts and tools to restore them. His last tractor and dozer restorations.
Holy crap Wes! I have one of those mills, FTV-2S, variable speed, NT-40, and 10 X 50. That thing gets used more than my entire collection of 10mm sockets and wrenches. I have never seen one torn down like this. I am KEENLY interested to see you go completely through this, and repair the head, and replace screws (I hope). Then I'll know how to do mine. :-) BTW, I am NOT a machinist. I just love machining, so I'm a self-taught hack.
As someone who has an engineering degree I will gladly take a 'self taught hack' who understands the problem knows what they are doing rather than someone who knows on paper how to do it 'correctly' but doesn't actually understand the problem. I have had that experience a couple times...
@@alexlail7481 As a self taught hack I often have book taught machinists with 50K and up machines ask me how I made parts they could not. I told the last one I just eyeballed some HSS stock on an 8" grinder, chucked it in the lathe and counted rotations while turning the handles. Funny thing is, I am making parts for his 50K machines on 3K hobby machinist machines. I guess if the cad computer program does not have the part on file, it cannot be made! 😯
@@danielmartin382 yes I'm a bit of a self taught hack in many ways.... I've actually played on both sides of that street as it were... In my current job I design frames for custom hospitality furniture (think big fancy hotels I can't afford to stay in 😁). When I was hired they were doing things much the way they were done 100 years ago. But there were occasionally items that would really eat up time and resources and we'dbe luckyto break even. I suggested to my coworker (who had more years experience than I have been alive) , that we could do some of those much easier and cheaper with CNC cut flat plywood. He suggested that I draw up a frame and show our boss / ½ owner of the company. The boss shot me down numerous times because he had tried it many times and it 'NEVER' worked ! I responded yes but ' I ' haven't done it before. Finally he gave in and I made several resource intensive frames much cheaper and quicker than was expected... that was nearly a decade ago now and frequently he won't allow me to do things the old way even though it may be easier and quicker. I guess my point is somtimes being able to think outside of the box and approach things from a different perspective goes farther than a mere knowledge of what is ' possible ' does. For what it's worth my formal education/ background is Civil & Mechanical engineering. So I kinda came to the job with the 'wrong toolbox'. But I had built furniture and cabinets prior to that. As my fater said, no matter how much you know or how good you are someone is going to be better at it, an education is helpful but always learn from those who do it better than you especially those who learned it the hard way.
"I wish I knew what I was doin'..." Story of my life, Wes! Nice work on that old beast. I totally agree with your decision on which shaft to repair and the method. Looking forward to part 2.
The first time, you never know what you're doing. The second time, you do, a little more. None of this knowledge is instinctive - it's all learned. The difference between the adventurous / smart people vs the sheepish / less smart people is the willingness to just dive in and figure it out.
My father was a Millwright and the factory he worked at found out about his background. He started repairing their milling machine saving their company from major losses in production and down time. Art, Skill, knowledge, experience, and mechanical ⚙️. I see this all in what you are doing here. So thank you for sharing this with us.
@@WatchWesWork * as long as the 'previous' JACK was NOT a JERKoff all trades ? - fixing previously 'repaired' / 'fixes' can really be a can of worms > (that have been out in the sun too long ! ) GREAT start to the head being closer to 'right' , Wes ! Fingers crossed for you !
@@georgewocosky Not everyone has the luxury of the time and money to fix it by the book. Usually, it's unrealistic deadlines (It has to be fixed today!) and no budget. Production equipment can't be fixed when you "get the time" and it can't be down for a week and half waiting for a repaired or replacement part. You do what you have to do to keep it running. It's not uncommon to reach a point where they won't put any extra money into something. It's old, it's been depreciated and they plan on replacing it, but not this year......
@@tarstarkusz 100% correct. Experienced that 15 yrs ago in the European Automotive Electronics production industry, where we were sometimes airlifted to go quickly patch some machine in multimillion € production lines, some replaced parts as preventative, others stored them and replaced only when broken. Can you tell which one had several rework stations at the end of the lines? Same goes now in the metal industry I work for now, there are some hack techs, but mainly it's the factory owner who decides " put some duct tape in it for now and send us a repair estimate later, maybe we'll replace it ......never"
@@irongoatrocky2343 Agree, pictures and commentary, rinse and repeat. Helps quite a bit that Wes, has quite a bit of experience, with other machine tools. Best wishes from the far North.
Hey.. shouldn’t you be busy making more content for us to watch!? I’ve been waiting years for more restorations like your parks planer series! I used that as a guide for my own rebuild. Great vids- I hope to see more someday B]
@@Jwil3743 Funny that, I have two more older machines that are in desperate need -- can't even use them right now. I'd gotten diverted on finishing our basement which just wrapped last month so I'll be back to a more regular shop cadence soon. Appreciate the comment and your interest!
I just find the whole video fascinating to watch and listen to you explain. Your patience that you put into something like this in addition to the obvious recording and editing work you put into everything you do I find totally remarkable. I'm looking forward to part 2 very much. Kind regards, Dan
This is a very interesting adventure you're doing rebuilding and fixing that machine so it can work correctly. Can hardly wait until part two. Let your wife know "Happy Mother's Day" from all of us on your channel!
“Somebody has been here before” - my personal favorite is when they put wood screws into a hole threaded for machine screws. You see that on a car (or machine) and you KNOW some high- quality thinking went into previous work. 🤪👍🏼
There's always a moment of "oh no what have I got myself into now" when you open up something and find out some dingleberry has been there first. Gets worse when you're 2/3rds of the way through a project and realize you were the dingleberry that was there first. As the saying goes, be nice to the next guy because it could well be you.
I just rebuilt a Bridgeport head. I used a manual from H&W Machine Repair. I think with the similarities to the Bridgeport, most of your questions on how to take apart and put back together your mill are covered in the step-by-step guide. They are also an excellent resource for parts.
🙌 Hooray! At last a machine tool fixing video again. I absolutely love to watch you fixing/restoring old machine tools and different kinds of old vehicles. Although I'm deeply and always impressed by your diagnosis skills with the computerized newer cars, it's definitely not as fascinating to watch as for instance this video. By the way: 👍👌👏 Very well done again (video and work). Of course I'm eagerly looking forward to watch the next part. Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and especially health to all of you.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, You are unbelievable! Keep up the good work Wes. Always a pleasure to watch whatever you do, auto mechanics, truck repair, tractors, machining, knife and tool repair welding, electronics, everything. You are one of a kind, keep going, love watching and learning. Thanks Man.
Love your machine videos. Brought back memories when I worked maintenance and follow night shift on a teardown. Turns into a Japanese jigsaw puzzle. Ready for the second part of your adventure I know you got it 👍
Love seeing old iron being resurrected. Being a machinist myself, I know the feeling of a good slip fit and nailing that on the first go. Thank you for breathing life back into the ol' girl, they definitely don't make them like they used to!
I'm glad you decided to expand, based on that poll I saw. I personally love the variety and the fact that you, a single man, have so many different skills to put to use and let us learn from you (and your mistakes!) through the different journeys.
I have a Taiwanese BP clone and it’s 3 phase so I just wired it up using a VFD, about $100 delivered so now speed changes are just the turn of a knob and reverse is the touch of a button. Sort of brings an old machine into the digital age. Also being Taiwanese most replacement parts are cheap through Aliexpress ect. My whole machine was absolutely covered in some kind of gunk when I got it and it turned out to be the dried Wurth cutting fluid. The remaining fluid came with it. I tried everything to get it off and the only thing that worked without removing the paint was gasoline. I spent many hours with Scotch Brite pads, paint brushes, tooth brushes, toothpicks and gasoline removing it. Im really looking forward to see the finished machine. Cheers, Stuart 🇦🇺
Wes, while I sympathize with your struggles it just would not be as interesting without your struggles. Your troubleshooting and thought processes are both great inspiration and learning experiences for me. I am not as patient as you seem to be, so I tend to break things to see how to fix them...if that makes sense.
Wes, is there anything mechanical, electrical, electronic, metal working, sausage making that you can't do? *Thank You* for the videos. They are greatly appreciated and educational to boot. 👍👍 Brilliant ending to Part 1. Very cinematic IMO.
@@WatchWesWork Work twice as hard, deal with lots of a-holes, die of a heart attack when you are 50. As my mom says, nice people never make a lot of money. That's fine by me, there's more to life than $$$.
I am impressed with your machining skills. When I was in the Navy I was waiting for Nuclear Power School to start and was assigned to a machine shop. I learned a lot but nothing like the guys that were trained on the machines. Those guys were good and you appear to be in the same league as them. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
as someone who has worked in maintenance and mold set up in a rubber factory and repairing plastic injection molding machines at a plastic factory and at both places was told to fix them as cheaply and quickly as possible, i feel your pain and probably caused some for others. that's why most old machine tools get abandoned or go right to the scrap yard. they have been repaired and/or rebuilt so many times with varying degrees of success, that when finally replaced, it will cost more to repair them than they are worth. the phrases "buying someone else's headaches", and "there's nothing more expensive than something you got for free", come to mind.
Wes my friend you are a brave man tearing that thing apart i would never get it back together 😂😅 great video man you are the Bob Ross of the mechanic world I'm a maintenance engineer but I know my limits thumbs up buddy
I literally just got finished towing my new old Bridgeport back from the Chicago suburbs to the mid Atlantic yesterday. Perfect content to help motivate me to get into the head where mine has some issues too
Cool repair. Definitely better than spending over a grand for a replacement shaft. I hope you will give us all an update on how well it holds up over time.
Wes, if for whatever reason this doesn't work out, you could also fix the surface on the narrow end on the other shaft instead. Ditch the variable speed control all together and put a VFD on it. You can also get the 3 phase output as well if you need it.
Had the exact same issue on my Beaver with a vari speed setup...I ended up building a thicker shim to place between the bearing and the Bottom splines of the shaft to help with the preload issue. The bottom shaft bearing play is a bigger issue as you pointed out with the heat treating, but I ended up doing exactly what you did with the sleeve and grinding it back into spec. If it goes out again in my lifetime I'll have to build the entire shaft from scratch anyways so figured it was the lesser of the terrible options I had before me to choose from.
The captions always put the word applause in when Wes is making a lot of noise with tools, and sometimes it lines up in the video when Wes gets a part that's stuck, and it makes my day, because everyone watching is applauding.
Shaft rebuilding is an Abom79 specialty - might be worthwhile to consult with Adam Booth. He's in contact with Brian Bloc, whom you know. Just a thought, but there's some brains to be picked...
There is something satisfying watching you repair these type of machines, like the welders you picked up. I guess it is taking the old machines and making them useful again. I wish more people still turned rotors and drums around me as the new drums for some reason go out of round for me. and no one will turn drums even though I have 6,000 miles on them.
Hi Wes what a fantastic fix on that wouldn’t know where to start with all of it, you have great knowledge and talent and if you can’t fix it no one can I really hope people admire what you can do as this is defo not a job for the faint hearted awesome man with phenomenal skills take care and all the best to the family and max look forward to part 2 👍👌🔧🔧🔧❤️
Really enjoyed this one. Before you solved the problem with that sleeve (well done, by the way), I was going to suggest a bearing with the same dimensions, except for a narrower inner race. Assuming one even exists. Looking forward to part 2.
Wes, it's very rare I look at a mechanical thing and not have a clue, not only how to mend it but to even know what's wrong with it; cap that off with I wouldn't even know what to do with it when it's fixed and you will have an idea how bewildered I'm feeling watching this.
Thank you Wes! This is great content. Your description of how and why you are doing each step keeps it interesting. Mixing in the different content is always entertaining! Keep up the good work!
This is a real education for me. I’m just a tinkerer, never had any Shop Classes but have wrenched on my own vehicles some. Thanks for another great video!!
I nearly missed this one scrolling through UA-cam since it didn’t have a photo of some broken up vehicle to help describe the video. This video series is going to be counted as being one of the best Wes ever produced. It’s a very welcome break away from broken vehicles, the series more or less returns to the start of the “ Watch Wes Work” channel and for some reason these machine rebuilds seem to elicit a greater richness of the Wes trade mark sarcasm I have grown to love. I mean… who didn’t chuckle out loud when they heard “harder than a $9 jawbreaker”? Looking past the sarcastic humor we can see Wes has skill across many disciplines. Not many can do this well enough to be competent in all of them but Wes proves he can. There are many of these watch me fix it UA-cam channels but I only watch two regularly… Wes and Vehcor. They both are expert at what they set their minds to doing and they present what they do in a sarcastic fashion. I’ll always be a loyal follower of their channels.
There are 2 m6 tapped holes to put threaded bar into, so you can compress the spring. Strangely, I started dismantling a Lion variable speed head last week.
The variable speed pulley drives seem to be the achilles heel of just about any machine tool that uses them - actual Bridgeports included. I've seen a ton of them with rattly, blown out drives that barely work. And of course, the companies always want a million dollars for replacement parts that cost maybe $150 to make. I totally get why the fixed speed pullies + VFD conversions seem to be the go-to these days.
You could have dropped a 2.2kW 3ph motor onto the head and ran it variable speed with an inverter vsd, they're not too expensive now and you would just have a pot for speed control. Sort the wobbly pulleys and it might have worked with the original head OK.
Yeah that would work. But those pulleys are not concentric or balanced. A better option would be to just buy a whole Acer E-mill head. Or maybe a whole E-mill...
@@WatchWesWork had to Google the Acer E-Mill, blooby expensive, wouldn't any good pulley (that fits (with the right sized belt)) make it work? Guessing your choice is to go old school mechanical or hit it with the pixies... You're good at both so either will make it work. And you've already spent the cash on the replacement head so might as well get some use out of it.
Dunno, that wobble looked to be in the 0.1 inch (±2mm) sort of range, making the mill quill not that much better than a corded 3/8" drill in a vise. Milling machine ought to be accurate to around 4 "zeros" (as in 0.00001", 0.000254mm) or why bother? Ok, Wes is under happy about the table guides scaring 0.001" (±0.0005"), but, a certain precision is wanted in one's machine tools.
Beware the farm kid that fixes all the tractors in the area. He knows no fear. He has no bounds. May this be the only time you have a milling machine in pieces on your table.
The Brits are too focused on figuring out how to make their machines leak oil than to worry about the service tech having to fix oil leaks and replacing parts that break.
clapped out junk isnt limited to just vehicles ehh Wes. whoever retrofit that milling head put some effort into it thats for sure. A for effort, B- for execution. who needs a shop manual when there is the magic of UA-cam. hopefully ole girl comes back to life, able to earn her keep as more then a hat rack
I was half expecting you to disassemble this machine with your shoes off and some chickens in the background like the fellers do it across the ocean. !!!
A return to machine repair....a good thing for those of us who follow your channel!
A real craftsman knows his trade and fixes his own tools. Thanks for keeping vanishing skills alive, great job cheers.
I agree Robert. Great video, great work.
And never blames his tools or throws them around !
Just like Squatch253 when he's restoring old Cat Dozers and farm tractors.
He makes parts and tools to restore them.
His last tractor and dozer restorations.
I just love these Machine Videos this is Wes in his element thoroughly exact and inquisitive giving us a view of a forbidden place 😂
Holy crap Wes! I have one of those mills, FTV-2S, variable speed, NT-40, and 10 X 50. That thing gets used more than my entire collection of 10mm sockets and wrenches. I have never seen one torn down like this. I am KEENLY interested to see you go completely through this, and repair the head, and replace screws (I hope). Then I'll know how to do mine. :-) BTW, I am NOT a machinist. I just love machining, so I'm a self-taught hack.
Very interesting. Thanks!
As someone who has an engineering degree I will gladly take a 'self taught hack' who understands the problem knows what they are doing rather than someone who knows on paper how to do it 'correctly' but doesn't actually understand the problem.
I have had that experience a couple times...
@@alexlail7481 What a nice comment , not the usual but hell , a breath of fresh air , Good Man !!
@@alexlail7481 As a self taught hack I often have book taught machinists with 50K and up machines ask me how I made parts they could not.
I told the last one I just eyeballed some HSS stock on an 8" grinder, chucked it in the lathe and counted rotations while turning the handles.
Funny thing is, I am making parts for his 50K machines on 3K hobby machinist machines. I guess if the cad computer program does not have the
part on file, it cannot be made! 😯
@@danielmartin382 yes I'm a bit of a self taught hack in many ways.... I've actually played on both sides of that street as it were... In my current job I design frames for custom hospitality furniture (think big fancy hotels I can't afford to stay in 😁). When I was hired they were doing things much the way they were done 100 years ago. But there were occasionally items that would really eat up time and resources and we'dbe luckyto break even. I suggested to my coworker (who had more years experience than I have been alive) , that we could do some of those much easier and cheaper with CNC cut flat plywood. He suggested that I draw up a frame and show our boss / ½ owner of the company. The boss shot me down numerous times because he had tried it many times and it 'NEVER' worked ! I responded yes but ' I ' haven't done it before. Finally he gave in and I made several resource intensive frames much cheaper and quicker than was expected... that was nearly a decade ago now and frequently he won't allow me to do things the old way even though it may be easier and quicker. I guess my point is somtimes being able to think outside of the box and approach things from a different perspective goes farther than a mere knowledge of what is ' possible ' does. For what it's worth my formal education/ background is Civil & Mechanical engineering. So I kinda came to the job with the 'wrong toolbox'. But I had built furniture and cabinets prior to that. As my fater said, no matter how much you know or how good you are someone is going to be better at it, an education is helpful but always learn from those who do it better than you especially those who learned it the hard way.
"I wish I knew what I was doin'..." Story of my life, Wes! Nice work on that old beast. I totally agree with your decision on which shaft to repair and the method. Looking forward to part 2.
I guess it would be if we knew what we were doing, but I'd like to try it!
The first time, you never know what you're doing. The second time, you do, a little more. None of this knowledge is instinctive - it's all learned. The difference between the adventurous / smart people vs the sheepish / less smart people is the willingness to just dive in and figure it out.
My father was a Millwright and the factory he worked at found out about his background. He started repairing their milling machine saving their company from major losses in production and down time. Art, Skill, knowledge, experience, and mechanical ⚙️. I see this all in what you are doing here. So thank you for sharing this with us.
It's a good job for a jack of all trades.
@@WatchWesWork * as long as the 'previous' JACK was NOT a JERKoff all trades ? - fixing previously 'repaired' / 'fixes' can really be a can of worms > (that have been out in the sun too long ! ) GREAT start to the head being closer to 'right' , Wes ! Fingers crossed for you !
@@WatchWesWork I like to think I'm a Jack of all trades just not a machinist so I guess I'm a jack of some trades?
@@georgewocosky Not everyone has the luxury of the time and money to fix it by the book. Usually, it's unrealistic deadlines (It has to be fixed today!) and no budget.
Production equipment can't be fixed when you "get the time" and it can't be down for a week and half waiting for a repaired or replacement part. You do what you have to do to keep it running.
It's not uncommon to reach a point where they won't put any extra money into something. It's old, it's been depreciated and they plan on replacing it, but not this year......
@@tarstarkusz 100% correct. Experienced that 15 yrs ago in the European Automotive Electronics production industry, where we were sometimes airlifted to go quickly patch some machine in multimillion € production lines, some replaced parts as preventative, others stored them and replaced only when broken. Can you tell which one had several rework stations at the end of the lines?
Same goes now in the metal industry I work for now, there are some hack techs, but mainly it's the factory owner who decides " put some duct tape in it for now and send us a repair estimate later, maybe we'll replace it ......never"
When you panned over the table of parts, I actually felt my anxiety heart rate kick up several notches. You're a braver man than I.
you know hes got hours of video about where what goes!
@@irongoatrocky2343 Agree, pictures and commentary, rinse and repeat.
Helps quite a bit that Wes, has quite a bit of experience, with other machine tools.
Best wishes from the far North.
Hey.. shouldn’t you be busy making more content for us to watch!? I’ve been waiting years for more restorations like your parks planer series! I used that as a guide for my own rebuild. Great vids- I hope to see more someday B]
@@Jwil3743 Funny that, I have two more older machines that are in desperate need -- can't even use them right now. I'd gotten diverted on finishing our basement which just wrapped last month so I'll be back to a more regular shop cadence soon. Appreciate the comment and your interest!
It only goes together one way. It just takes 38 tries to figure which way that is!
Classic Watch Wes Work content. The machining videos originally brought me to this channel. I like all the content.
I just find the whole video fascinating to watch and listen to you explain. Your patience that you put into something like this in addition to the obvious recording and editing work you put into everything you do I find totally remarkable.
I'm looking forward to part 2 very much. Kind regards, Dan
Man did I geek out on this one. "Let's take this off and see what we find" were spoken words of childhood curiosity.
Great project, and a creative repair- looking forward to seeing the rest of this!
This machine repair video takes me back a few years…
As a hobby machinist who also does some automotive repair, I love this!
Never a dull moment. "I found some problems"
In 1966 I bought a new CB160 Honda. My next purchase was an impact driver.
This is a very interesting adventure you're doing rebuilding and fixing that machine so it can work correctly. Can hardly wait until part two. Let your wife know "Happy Mother's Day" from all of us on your channel!
Holy man! no wonder those other guys took the whole CVT thing out and put in the different pully sizes, phewf!
It is great to see you working on a piece of machinery that is not 90% Illinois road rust.
90% is kinda a conservative number 😂
Well the tires don't usually rust...
@@WatchWesWork but steel rims do, so 97% LOL 😂
“Somebody has been here before” - my personal favorite is when they put wood screws into a hole threaded for machine screws. You see that on a car (or machine) and you KNOW some high- quality thinking went into previous work. 🤪👍🏼
There's always a moment of "oh no what have I got myself into now" when you open up something and find out some dingleberry has been there first. Gets worse when you're 2/3rds of the way through a project and realize you were the dingleberry that was there first. As the saying goes, be nice to the next guy because it could well be you.
Hey Wes 👋, it's always fun watching you tear down and repair these old machines. Can't wait to see part 2. Thanks, and have a great weekend ahead 🖐
I just rebuilt a Bridgeport head. I used a manual from H&W Machine Repair. I think with the similarities to the Bridgeport, most of your questions on how to take apart and put back together your mill are covered in the step-by-step guide. They are also an excellent resource for parts.
I got there in the end.
What I really liked about this video is how Wes repaired that thing.
🙌 Hooray! At last a machine tool fixing video again. I absolutely love to watch you fixing/restoring old machine tools and different kinds of old vehicles. Although I'm deeply and always impressed by your diagnosis skills with the computerized newer cars, it's definitely not as fascinating to watch as for instance this video. By the way: 👍👌👏 Very well done again (video and work). Of course I'm eagerly looking forward to watch the next part.
Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing.
Best regards luck and especially health to all of you.
I like the thought processes he discusses. I wish I were that intelligent. Great video!
Hurray, machine tool content! Just like the old days that brought me here. Thanks!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, You are unbelievable! Keep up the good work Wes. Always a pleasure to watch whatever you do, auto mechanics, truck repair, tractors, machining, knife and tool repair welding, electronics, everything. You are one of a kind, keep going, love watching and learning. Thanks Man.
Hey Wes. I love when you work on machine tools and other cool stuff.
Loving the machining content Wes, I'm glad to see you decided to share it. I hope the analytics gods are kind to this content.
They are not, but it's OK.
Thumbs up, everybody! Help the YT gods!
I had my doubts about watching this video because I thought the content would be boring. It wasn't - thanks for the entertainment Wes!
I'm always impressed with your knowledge of stuff that moves or zaps and the tools used to work on stuff that moves or zaps.
Next Guy -- Somebody has been here before - thank goodness it was Wes !
Love your machine videos. Brought back memories when I worked maintenance and follow night shift on a teardown. Turns into a Japanese jigsaw puzzle. Ready for the second part of your adventure I know you got it 👍
That little hand held impact driver is such a great tool. I've only seen a couple of folks, besides me, use one. Forgotten tool of the past.
Love seeing old iron being resurrected. Being a machinist myself, I know the feeling of a good slip fit and nailing that on the first go. Thank you for breathing life back into the ol' girl, they definitely don't make them like they used to!
I am curious.. why not a bit of weak loctite to prevent under rotation? Thinking about loctite purple.
Extremely expressive sighs of Wes.
A good machinist, doing repairs like this is truly a wizard!
The gems we get while Wes is narrating are priceless. Like “Those teeth are harder than a nine dollar jaw breaker” 😂
Absolutely love anything to do with you working on machine tools. Wow what an impressive repair!
Man what a repair job. Cool to see you avoid spending $1500 on that shaft
Definitely enjoy seeing the machine tool content again, Wes! Thank you for sharing! Keep up the amazing work!
I'm glad you decided to expand, based on that poll I saw. I personally love the variety and the fact that you, a single man, have so many different skills to put to use and let us learn from you (and your mistakes!) through the different journeys.
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more impressed with your skill...
Making precise stuff out of a lump of metal is so satisfying.
I have a Taiwanese BP clone and it’s 3 phase so I just wired it up using a VFD, about $100 delivered so now speed changes are just the turn of a knob and reverse is the touch of a button. Sort of brings an old machine into the digital age. Also being Taiwanese most replacement parts are cheap through Aliexpress ect. My whole machine was absolutely covered in some kind of gunk when I got it and it turned out to be the dried Wurth cutting fluid. The remaining fluid came with it. I tried everything to get it off and the only thing that worked without removing the paint was gasoline. I spent many hours with Scotch Brite pads, paint brushes, tooth brushes, toothpicks and gasoline removing it.
Im really looking forward to see the finished machine. Cheers, Stuart 🇦🇺
Impressive to see yet more talent shining through that quiet relaxed persona..
Wes, while I sympathize with your struggles it just would not be as interesting without your struggles. Your troubleshooting and thought processes are both great inspiration and learning experiences for me. I am not as patient as you seem to be, so I tend to break things to see how to fix them...if that makes sense.
Tom here from New Zealand. Really love watching your clips. This latest one is the type I especially like. Fascinating and inspiring to watch.
Wes, is there anything mechanical, electrical, electronic, metal working, sausage making that you can't do?
*Thank You* for the videos. They are greatly appreciated and educational to boot. 👍👍
Brilliant ending to Part 1. Very cinematic IMO.
Still haven't figured out how to make a lot of money...
@@WatchWesWork Work twice as hard, deal with lots of a-holes, die of a heart attack when you are 50. As my mom says, nice people never make a lot of money. That's fine by me, there's more to life than $$$.
That sleeve process turned out great!
I am impressed with your machining skills. When I was in the Navy I was waiting for Nuclear Power School to start and was assigned to a machine shop. I learned a lot but nothing like the guys that were trained on the machines. Those guys were good and you appear to be in the same league as them. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
I ran a machine shop for 5 years or so, and worked in one for 5 before that, but I'm far from a master.
as someone who has worked in maintenance and mold set up in a rubber factory and repairing plastic injection molding machines at a plastic factory and at both places was told to fix them as cheaply and quickly as possible, i feel your pain and probably caused some for others. that's why most old machine tools get abandoned or go right to the scrap yard. they have been repaired and/or rebuilt so many times with varying degrees of success, that when finally replaced, it will cost more to repair them than they are worth. the phrases "buying someone else's headaches", and "there's nothing more expensive than something you got for free", come to mind.
Wes my friend you are a brave man tearing that thing apart i would never get it back together 😂😅 great video man you are the Bob Ross of the mechanic world I'm a maintenance engineer but I know my limits thumbs up buddy
The Bob Ross of the mechanic world....Gotta like that!
BOOM..."A man has got to know his limits" Clint Eastwood
Finally we are back to having fun Wes!!!!
Glad we have Wes to do these tough jobs, so we don't have to. Thanks Wes! 👍👍 😁
You Sir, are a highly diversified and skilled JOAT , master of 98.899% of em !! Thank you for sharing this gem.
I literally just got finished towing my new old Bridgeport back from the Chicago suburbs to the mid Atlantic yesterday. Perfect content to help motivate me to get into the head where mine has some issues too
When I first started watching Wes, he was doing lots of machine repairs. I really enjoyed those old videos.
Nice to see another one pop up
Cool repair. Definitely better than spending over a grand for a replacement shaft. I hope you will give us all an update on how well it holds up over time.
A cliffhanger! Its like a 2 part episode of any 80's show. Cant wait to see the rest.
Good to see you working on machines for a change 😀
Your commentary always crack me up.
Wes, if for whatever reason this doesn't work out, you could also fix the surface on the narrow end on the other shaft instead. Ditch the variable speed control all together and put a VFD on it. You can also get the 3 phase output as well if you need it.
I was thinking about a VFD as well!
@@97marqedman You will still need some mechanical speed change . VFD has low torque at slow speeds.
Yeah a VFD would work, but we still have to fix the shaft.
What does VFD mean
@@neilmurphy845 Variable Frequency Drive or Variable Speed Drive (VSD).
i miss your heavy machine tool work vids from back in the day, i see why they are a pain. either way, love the content
Can't wait for part 2 !!!! Awesome job !!👍👍
Last shop I worked in had 2 or 3 Bridgeports, and one Lagun . The Lagun and the operator was our best prototype guy ,
Had the exact same issue on my Beaver with a vari speed setup...I ended up building a thicker shim to place between the bearing and the Bottom splines of the shaft to help with the preload issue.
The bottom shaft bearing play is a bigger issue as you pointed out with the heat treating, but I ended up doing exactly what you did with the sleeve and grinding it back into spec. If it goes out again in my lifetime I'll have to build the entire shaft from scratch anyways so figured it was the lesser of the terrible options I had before me to choose from.
Something very satisfying about watching you take the machine apart, diagnose and thern repair
You never cease to amaze me. Thanks Wes
The captions always put the word applause in when Wes is making a lot of noise with tools, and sometimes it lines up in the video when Wes gets a part that's stuck, and it makes my day, because everyone watching is applauding.
Shaft rebuilding is an Abom79 specialty - might be worthwhile to consult with Adam Booth. He's in contact with Brian Bloc, whom you know.
Just a thought, but there's some brains to be picked...
There is something satisfying watching you repair these type of machines, like the welders you picked up. I guess it is taking the old machines and making them useful again. I wish more people still turned rotors and drums around me as the new drums for some reason go out of round for me. and no one will turn drums even though I have 6,000 miles on them.
Hi Wes what a fantastic fix on that wouldn’t know where to start with all of it, you have great knowledge and talent and if you can’t fix it no one can I really hope people admire what you can do as this is defo not a job for the faint hearted awesome man with phenomenal skills take care and all the best to the family and max look forward to part 2 👍👌🔧🔧🔧❤️
Your sleeve was a thing of beauty; what do they say, "Improvise, adapt, and overcome"; nicely done.
Really enjoyed this one. Before you solved the problem with that sleeve (well done, by the way), I was going to suggest a bearing with the same dimensions, except for a narrower inner race. Assuming one even exists. Looking forward to part 2.
Wes, it's very rare I look at a mechanical thing and not have a clue, not only how to mend it but to even know what's wrong with it; cap that off with I wouldn't even know what to do with it when it's fixed and you will have an idea how bewildered I'm feeling watching this.
I have a little machine shop, good repair work Wes, a cylindrical grinder would have been nice on the hardened shaft and your close tolerance fits.
I wish I had one.
Close headed fasteners like that are a great candidate for a socket head cap screw makeover.
Thank you Wes! This is great content. Your description of how and why you are doing each step keeps it interesting. Mixing in the different content is always entertaining! Keep up the good work!
This is a real education for me. I’m just a tinkerer, never had any Shop Classes but have wrenched on my own vehicles some. Thanks for another great video!!
I nearly missed this one scrolling through UA-cam since it didn’t have a photo of some broken up vehicle to help describe the video.
This video series is going to be counted as being one of the best Wes ever produced.
It’s a very welcome break away from broken vehicles, the series more or less returns to the start of the “ Watch Wes Work” channel and for some reason these machine rebuilds seem to elicit a greater richness of the Wes trade mark sarcasm I have grown to love.
I mean… who didn’t chuckle out loud when they heard “harder than a $9 jawbreaker”?
Looking past the sarcastic humor we can see Wes has skill across many disciplines. Not many can do this well enough to be competent in all of them but Wes proves he can.
There are many of these watch me fix it UA-cam channels but I only watch two regularly… Wes and Vehcor. They both are expert at what they set their minds to doing and they present what they do in a sarcastic fashion.
I’ll always be a loyal follower of their channels.
There are 2 m6 tapped holes to put threaded bar into, so you can compress the spring. Strangely, I started dismantling a Lion variable speed head last week.
"Someone has always been there before." The shop I work in has machines ranging from a 1947 King VTL to a 2014 OKK HBM. I feel the pain so much.
The variable speed pulley drives seem to be the achilles heel of just about any machine tool that uses them - actual Bridgeports included. I've seen a ton of them with rattly, blown out drives that barely work. And of course, the companies always want a million dollars for replacement parts that cost maybe $150 to make.
I totally get why the fixed speed pullies + VFD conversions seem to be the go-to these days.
No one would design something like this today. But back in the day this was the bee's knees.
Nice work, Bud. Great to see you out from under a rusty clunker for a change! Thanks for sharing.
You could have dropped a 2.2kW 3ph motor onto the head and ran it variable speed with an inverter vsd, they're not too expensive now and you would just have a pot for speed control. Sort the wobbly pulleys and it might have worked with the original head OK.
Yeah that would work. But those pulleys are not concentric or balanced. A better option would be to just buy a whole Acer E-mill head. Or maybe a whole E-mill...
@@WatchWesWork had to Google the Acer E-Mill, blooby expensive, wouldn't any good pulley (that fits (with the right sized belt)) make it work? Guessing your choice is to go old school mechanical or hit it with the pixies... You're good at both so either will make it work. And you've already spent the cash on the replacement head so might as well get some use out of it.
@@alandwells Yeah I figure fix what I have first. If that fails we can re-engineer.
Dunno, that wobble looked to be in the 0.1 inch (±2mm) sort of range, making the mill quill not that much better than a corded 3/8" drill in a vise. Milling machine ought to be accurate to around 4 "zeros" (as in 0.00001", 0.000254mm) or why bother? Ok, Wes is under happy about the table guides scaring 0.001" (±0.0005"), but, a certain precision is wanted in one's machine tools.
So Awesome! I have an FTV-2 that an old man gave me as well. Watching carefully... 😄
Always pay now or pay later
Love the Watch Wes Work played out in a This Old Tony nightmare. Good stuff Wes! It's good to break away from the usual grit.
"Its pretty old...from the 80's" I feel attacked.
I've got at least a quarter century on that machine! 😂
It used to be funny, but soon I won't remember when I last changed my diaper...
Me too...
Beware the farm kid that fixes all the tractors in the area. He knows no fear. He has no bounds. May this be the only time you have a milling machine in pieces on your table.
Those impact drivers are the best! Mine has saved my butt many times.
The Brits are too focused on figuring out how to make their machines leak oil than to worry about the service tech having to fix oil leaks and replacing parts that break.
Don't forget the Lucas Electrics too...
@@RandallFlaggNY Yea good ol' Joe Lucus the Prince of Darkness.
The cleaning most been a war!! It is looking amazing!! Great work Wes!! Thanks for sharing
It took a while for sure.
Nothing is free.
I love free stuff 😂
Space is free
Value doesnt exist purpose does.
Wrong
@@dancearoundtheworld5360 how much money you got
I have missed this content, but with the new wes personality and production it is a great addition to the youtube space
clapped out junk isnt limited to just vehicles ehh Wes. whoever retrofit that milling head put some effort into it thats for sure. A for effort, B- for execution. who needs a shop manual when there is the magic of UA-cam. hopefully ole girl comes back to life, able to earn her keep as more then a hat rack
That shot of all those parts spread across the workbench 😳
Oooo a cliffhanger! I'm perched on the edge of my seat, waiting for the conclusion!
I was half expecting you to disassemble this machine with your shoes off and some chickens in the background like the fellers do it across the ocean. !!!
Amazing how you figured out all that mess ! Fantastic job 👍👍👍
The Wes pure stubbornness and resourcefulness ❤😂