Author Topic: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...  (Read 3136 times)

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« on: January 24, 2023, 11:08:25 AM »
The castings for my Mark 2 Quorn grinder were bought from MES / Ivan Law, back in 1982, along with the motor, wheels and dresser.  Total cost was about £170, the Mark 3 one recently offered by Hemingway kits is about £700 for the equivalent, but I don't know if I had a bargain back then or not! 

Haven't got a lot of photos of the very protracted and occasional work on the build, a lot of it was pre digital camera.  Almost all of the components are now made, other than some items like the dedicated bolts and washers that are needed to assemble the ball ended levers to correct location, and there is the final assembly and general tweaking to be done. Got all those ball levers, and the wheel collets and tool holder done this autumn, just before it became too cold.

In the last few weeks I have filled, primed and wet and dry rubbed down the machined castings, four sessions of that, then a couple of coats of Tom Senior green paint ( I had some! ), similarly rubbed down; and now a final green coat. In truth, they are not anything like perfect now, but for a working Quorn they will do, I think. Any straying paint will be cleaned up in the assembly.  With my workshop basking at around zero degrees, and the new paint benefitting from sitting on the radiators indoors for a while anyway, the putting together will have to wait for a bit.

I have a little query about the electric wiring, when I am later able to do it.    I will follow the diagram in Prof Chaddock's book, as per the photo.  I have a centre off, two way switch to suit.   The diagram shows two white leads coming from the large capacitor:  mine as supplied has a brown and a blue lead. Shown in other photo. I get the feeling, but would be glad of confirmation, that I can wire these leads as if they were just the two undifferentiated white leads in the diagram, and that which goes where will only affect the running direction of the motor.  And can be swopped if necessary to make the direction accord with the switch?

When the Quorn does finally come together as a machine, I'll bung up some pictures and some build photos .  Dave



Offline Jo

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2023, 11:59:09 AM »
Hi Dave,

That looks very smart  8)

If you read the print on the outside of your capacitor it explains that to reverse the direction motor runs you reverse the leads on the starting capacitor. You will get the same effect by swopping over the two wires for the running winding.

Jo
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Offline vtsteam

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2023, 01:43:29 PM »
Looking forward to final assembly and use. I like the color very much!  :ThumbsUp:  :popcorn: :cheers:
Steve

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2023, 04:12:19 PM »
Hello Jo, thanks for your comment, ( and the encouragement from vtsteam as well ).  What you have said about the wiring , and the capacitor printing, not that easy to read all of it, indicates to me that I will be OK to wire as I planned to do. Dave

Offline Kim

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2023, 05:53:13 PM »
Nice paint job!  And LOTS of handles!  :o

You're going to have a very nice Quorn there!  :ThumbsUp: :popcorn:
Kim

Offline Charles Lamont

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2023, 09:30:37 PM »
That all looks very fine. Excellent choice of colour, IMHO.

Offline Del_61

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2023, 07:01:31 AM »
I am not at quite at the same stage as you on my Quorn build, but as I also have a tin of Tom Senior green I was going to use that on my Quorn as well. Tomm Senior green looks good doesn't it !

I purchased a mk2 set of untouched castings and I am building mine to the mk3 instructions and drawings. I am using the split cotter arrangement rather than slitting the castings.

To power the thing I purchased from the well known auction site a parvalux 3 phase motor and will use this control speed, forward and reverse direction.

Good luck with your Quorn !

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2023, 09:25:22 AM »
Thanks for the comments, and appreciation of the colour!   If I was making the Quorn now, then I would have adopted the cotter arrangement rather than the slitting way : the big lumps were all done way back and soon after I had bought the castings, the discussions on the Quorn builder's forum and elsewhere as to the merit of using cotters had not come my way.  I did have some closure of the bores after the splitting was done, a bit of a nuisance.  When I built a second pillar tool and mini drill some years later on, I did use brass split cotters on all the bores in that, as GHT had specified, and they were very satisfactory.

  When I machined the bronze casting for the Quorn tilting base a few years ago, I did include a split cotter in that component, and also did the well-known mod. to the rotating bolt, using the conical seatings and tapered / split collets that make it much more secure. Dave

Offline Del_61

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2023, 01:04:04 PM »
Yes I did the mods to the tilting base and the rotating base was built up from two separate slabs as per Hemingway's mk3 design.

The last real big component on my build is the spindle which to be honest I have a lot of trepidation about......

I also built GHT pillar tool and drill attachment as well as the headstock and vert dividing head attachments.....all have been used on the build of the quorn

Offline Bruno Mueller

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2023, 12:13:15 PM »
#Dave#
You have created a beautiful machine.

Congratulations for the perseverance over many years to complete the construction of the Quorn.

I did not build the Quorn, but the "Bonelle". It is based on the same construction as the Quorn, with small differences. It is built without castings, which was much easier for me at that time.
In the meantime I have made all kinds of accessories for it. Most of it is from the book by Prof. D.H.Chaddock.

« Last Edit: March 22, 2023, 12:29:34 PM by Bruno Mueller »
http://mueller-bruno.de/  http://www.bosch-combi.de/
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Greetings from the southwest of Germany.

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2023, 08:51:19 AM »
Hello Bruno, thanks for putting up the pictures of your very well equipped Bonelle, that looks very capable.  I know that they tend to be popular in the USA also, here in Britain the availability of the castings for the Quorn makes them a rarer option.  See that you have made the spiralling head : I machined up the casting bores while making the work head, but as I've not much thought of making cutters from scratch, I'll leave that for now, see if I want it at some time...

   Right now, after a rather cold spell, I have got back in my workshop again and am doing some work on trying to get the Quorn assembled, making the special bolts for the ball levers and fitting them to the specified positions, and finding a few things that need a bit of fitting work. When I tighten up the "tilting lever" that sits on the end of the sliding workhead base, the fit of the lapped bore and the precision ground bar is such that the thing locks up, so I will need to locally relieve the fit where the lever squeezes...   I can see that there might be a fair amount of playing around with discoveries like that.   Dave

Offline Bruno Mueller

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2023, 08:07:25 PM »
#Dave,
Even after many years, you will still find places that can be optimised. At some point, a sharpening device for drills will be added.
I made this not too long ago.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2023, 08:10:44 PM by Bruno Mueller »
http://mueller-bruno.de/  http://www.bosch-combi.de/
Whoever talks shit about me behind my back is in the best position to lick my ass. 
Greetings from the southwest of Germany.

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2023, 09:17:06 AM »
A very nice set of finely sharpened drills, Bruno, a pleasure to use, I'm sure.   Looks from the picture as if some of them have been sharpened by the four-facet method that Prof. Chaddock gives some details of.  I might try that somewhen, though as you have found it worthwhile to make the drill sharpening jig, I'm thinking that they are better done in the conventional way? 
 I spent a while doing some more odd jobs to bring the build along yesterday : though I have made loads of notes and lists over the years of building, and scribbled stuff all over the drawings , I was caught out by a few items that I had overlooked and needed doing. Two steps forward and one step back...!  Dave

Offline Bruno Mueller

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2023, 10:31:30 AM »
Yes, Dave, that's how I usually feel about such projects. You look at the drawings and think you have understood everything. You start working and then you reach a point where you look at the drawings again and discover things that you hadn't noticed before.
As long as you notice these things in time, you can still react to them. If, however, the insight only comes after the parts have been finished, then you have to make one or the other part again, or live with the mishap.

Bruno
http://mueller-bruno.de/  http://www.bosch-combi.de/
Whoever talks shit about me behind my back is in the best position to lick my ass. 
Greetings from the southwest of Germany.

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Quorn grinder build finally coming onto the home straight...
« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2023, 02:04:13 PM »
Here is a bit of update on the Quorn tool grinder, down the final straight now and maybe with the chequered flag dimly in view...

  Just to preface my very long term messing about with things Quorn, which explains a little why it has gone on for far too long.
  Some years ago, 7 or 8?, a friend who was, and to an extent still is, equipping a very comprehensive model engineering workshop with excellent tooling ( so far none of it ever used at all...! ) bought not one but two s/h Quorn grinders , Mark 1' s, via the well known auction website.  When I saw them,( and they definitely looked a bit dodgy, "curate's eggs.." ), in my naivety and optimism, I thought that, with my Quorn a long way off, it might be a route to usefully getting milling cutters sharpened if I spent a few evenings sorting out a useable Quorn from the bits of the two..
 
  It was a nightmare, as soon as I sorted out one problem, including re-machining some castings,  I found a bigger one. Even the electrics disintegrated later on! I should have stopped after a short time, but ended up too deeply in to feel like handing them back and saying, "best of luck!"  Eventually, weeks later on,  I got the conglomerated and largely re-built machine working pretty well, and set it up and experimented. Quite a lot..!

 After that, I reground every end mill and slot drill needing a tweak that I had here, along the flutes as well as doing just the ends. That was about 250 cutters, and I did a little batch for another model engineering friend while set up.
 Made up some screwcutting tool blanks also. That machine went back to my friend ages ago, for the spiders to explore... Don't think that I ever took any photos of it.
 So the position now, with my Quorn nearly ready to be used, is that I haven't really got the need to use it all that much!  What with having a fair quantity of other milling cutters that were new or sharp to begin with, I would need to be pursuing the hobby with much more fervour than I have generally mustered, to be blunting a good proportion of the available cutters...

 But, it will freshen up lathe tools very helpfully, deal with items like home-made S/S counterbores, and do the other bits and pieces that Prof. Chaddock gives details of.
 I'll make a few accessories up in a while, setting pins and cutter holders.  As I mostly use "Arrand" style of home-made holders for the milling cutters, ( the 2MT Autolock that I have having a pretty large overhang, nice though it is ), I will probably make simple 1" arbors, double-ended, with closely fitting bores for holding cutters to be ground. Not worry about a collet system; I have quite a lot of 1" precision grd. steel bar that may be useful.

The machine still needs setting up and aligning, and the several index lines marked for the scale protractors.  I'll bung up some photos, and maybe add a bit more later.  Dave
« Last Edit: April 21, 2023, 02:09:05 PM by Chipswitheverything »

 

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