Author Topic: Alba 1A Restoration  (Read 8682 times)

Offline Joco

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Alba 1A Restoration
« on: September 21, 2019, 09:58:09 AM »
It's finally arrived! The new-to-me Alba 1A Shaper.  This is my little restoration project that I plan to beetle away at over the coming months.

Its not going to be a fast project as I also have to completely reorganise my home shop to make way for a new Lathe.  I decided to take the plunge and do the garage workshop as I should have done it not the compromise it currently was.

Anyway, some pics of the little lady as she is, coming home for the first time.  I have seen her running. She could be just cleaned up for rust and ready to rock but I want to do a good a paint job as well.  Maybe a nice classic machine grey.  Something not so dark looking but shiny and "classic".

Any advice on these machines gratefully received.

General overview pics - while there is obviously rusty and some crappy paint things are not looking too bad.  The table box is very clean with no dings. Even have the original handle and feed ratchet system. All the knobs are in place and none of the plastic parts have been broken or damaged.











Some specifics:
The feed system needs some love and its so painted and messy its hard to tell if there are any graduation collars in amongst it all.  Not the end of world as they can be made or a magnetic backed indicator can be added in.  Something I will probably end up doing anyway. I have included a pic of the serial number in case someone can help with how I would identify the age of this wee machine.






The head moves ver smoothly even though it looks a bit worse for wear.  The clapper seems to have no sideways movement that I can detect. When its seated flat there is no wiggle at all.




Motor looks to be original as well.  I'm probably going to power this with a 230V-1ph to 380v-3ph inverter.  I have used that approach successfully on the mill.  The other advantage is that I can improve the speed range and get some very slow cutting speeds.  Worse case is I might need to add a fan in the case to get enough air flow over the motor.


The bull gear and the rocker/eccentric setup looks to be in very good condition.


Belt has seen better days and will need to be replaced but the clutch system and belt wheels all look to be in good condition.


Cheers,
J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2019, 12:42:57 PM »
That looks like a very well made machine that will deserve the extra attention that your restoration intends to give.  Have always fancied a small shaper of this sort, Boxford or similar, for the novelty and also the ease of tooling as compared with milling,  but have had to forgo a few opportunities due to lack of 'shop space.  Just wondering if it could be better to move the stop switch, if that will be retained, to a location easier to access in event of a panic...   Dave

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2019, 01:16:50 AM »
What a nice machine Joco. Should be a fun and rewarding restoration.

Bill

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2019, 01:30:05 AM »
Nice looking shaper Joco.
Looking forward to seeing the restoration process.

Dave

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2020, 11:12:51 PM »
After a long pause I have finally gotten things going on cleaning up the Alba.   At the moment I'm in the phase of tearing it all down cleaning and painting parts and noting where there is wear that I would like to address. The eventual game plan will be to scrap some key parts in.  But I need to spend some time learning that skill on some straight edges and practice parts.

The only part I am going to have to repair, from what I can currently see, is the table cross feed nut.  It's been smashed at some point and has lost about 30-40% of its size.  There is still plenty of thread so it will work, but a new one should be made.  I'm not going to try and repair it in case I bugger up what could be my backup.  So a new cross feed nut it will be after all the cleaning/painting is done.

Here some pics of the current state of things.

pic 1: painted parts stack ready for eventual assembly
pic 2: some WIP painting drying
pic 3: parts either cleaned, stripped or waiting on either
pic 4: a bunch of the parts relating to gear train and clutch linkage.  In need of a good clean and some need stripping and painting
pic 5: the base castings separated and waiting on some attention

Cheers,
J.

James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2020, 06:08:01 AM »
Hi James,
 Looking good. Shapers are wonderful machines to loose yourself watching them chomping thru metal!
Dads got a 7” Ammco, can watch it for hours! He recently got annoyed enuff to sort out the cross feed, it would advance then partially retract. He not sure why the light bulb went on but he put a leather washer under the adjuster nut on the cross feed, it gives just enuff grip & now feeds as it should. I had a hunt on line, the parts info I found didn’t help any, so I contacted the guy that runs the shaper website, he didn’t know either! Anyway it worked, maybe something to look out for when you get things together.

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2020, 09:43:02 PM »
Thanks Kerrin. I’ll watch out for that.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2020, 10:11:32 PM »
Found this video I did before pulling things apart.  I was proofing the 220v  1P to 380v 3P VFD I had purchased was going to play ball nicely.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwmzzB-P4oQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwmzzB-P4oQ</a>
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2020, 09:46:01 PM »
Have been quietly working away and pondering things.  Got the base onto a 450kg rated moving dolly.  Best purchase ever! It has made moving this inside and out for cleaning soo much easier.

Anyway, when cleaning the top chip tray I found a hole    :facepalm:

What to do.  So after some pondering I took to it with a carbide bur to get the worst of the junk out of the way then JB Weld to the rescue!

Pic 1 - the top chip tray, you can probably see the hole post cleanup

Pic 2 - the HOLE.    :censored:

Pic 3 - JB Weld to the rescue - I hope

Pic 4 -  :censored:  :cussing:  :Mad: More sodding holes these ones put there on purpose by previous owner(s). Oh well, some steel round as plugs, JB Weld as putty/glue and they will get solved.

« Last Edit: November 26, 2020, 10:03:37 PM by Joco »
James
Wellington - NZ

Online Jo

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2020, 07:39:31 AM »
It can be amazing how many holes, dings and marks can be found under the paint/filler on machine tool surfaces.

I am not sure what the standard filler/smoother is they use but JB Weld seems to be over kill (expensive) I suspect they normally use some sort of Epoxy resin like car body filler.

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline Bob

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2020, 11:40:09 AM »
Hi Joco

I see you asked for some advice re Alba 1a shapers. I used one a lot 30 years ago and they are good machines. First bit of advice is don't overtighten the nut that adjusts the position of the ram. (The one on top of the ram). It is possible to break the casting that the stud threads into. Second look after the machined surface in the chip tray that the table support legs runs on. If this has any 'dings' they will leave ridges in your work as the support leg rides over them.

Bob

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2020, 06:59:01 PM »
Jo - yes JB Weld is OTT but it is what I had to hand.  I have since bought some body filler type compound to help with some larger dings in the original filler. 
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2020, 07:03:40 PM »
Bob - thats really helpful. I’ll definitely watch out for the nut over tightening.

The table leg support surface does have some pitting on a small section at one end.  I have been wondering what to do about that.  Otherwise it seems to be smooth. 
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2020, 08:35:46 PM »
After some filling of holes and associated sanding I have the stand casting primed. Surprising amount of area to paint.  There are a few minor dings that the "painters putty" stuff I have will fill in.  It required a primer coat to be on before use.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2020, 06:48:48 AM »
After a lot of painting things are finally starting to come together and a bunch of parts are starting to look like a machine again.

Cheers - J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2020, 07:53:31 AM »
Hi James,
 Looking very nice!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2020, 05:33:49 PM »
Nice paint job  :cheers:

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2020, 12:49:09 AM »
A little update as I keep chipping away at this.   Tool head and clapper installed as well as the table crossslide and vertical screw.

James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #18 on: December 23, 2020, 09:35:43 AM »
The next real challenge I have to solve is making a new horizontal leadscrew nut.  The original has been munched at some point as you can see from the photos.  This will entail making a suitable ACME threading tool, shaping this part, dilling and threading it so that things are correctly aligned and centred.

The attached photo show its had a dang good bashing at some point.  You can also see that there is some special shape to this part that is needed to achieve needed clearance.  The circular "pin" section that actually drives the box table horizontally needs to be a very close/smooth fit to minimise backlash.

While I have done a reasonable amount of metric threading I have never done any ACME threads. On that basis I think I will do some practice threads on some simple round first.

But with the xmas holiday season I'm not going to get much traction until early Jan.

Cheers - J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline pgp001

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #19 on: December 23, 2020, 01:30:55 PM »
I would make the new nut in two parts if I were you.

The threaded part can be made as a round sleeve that fits into the shaped part with the drive peg, it will be much easier to hold a round sleeve for threading in the lathe.
The two parts can be loctited together with 638 retainer to make the finished assembly, that way you can always replace the nut portion again if ever you need to.

I have repaired a few leadscrew nuts by boring the original worn threads out and inserting a threaded sleeve.

Phil

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #20 on: December 23, 2020, 06:56:14 PM »
Phil - clever idea. Just looking at the cross section in photo 2 and wondering if there is enough meat there for such an approach? But perhaps my inclination to “brick shit house” engineering is getting in the way.   :slap:

Cheers.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2020, 12:19:44 AM »
Hi James,
 Coming along.... on the threading front ask around your club somebody may have an acme tape the right size you could borrow. My Dad brought a tap some years ago...sorry can’t remember what size....for a job he was doing. Not cheep but did the job, he said it was nerve racking cutting the thread as the force needed to turn it was high.
Hope you had a Merry Xmas

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #22 on: December 27, 2020, 04:02:29 AM »
A little proof after reassembly of the gears, clutch, pulley, motor and ram linkage. Definitely feel like progress is being made.


https://youtu.be/sRl_3Sdpq-M

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRl_3Sdpq-M" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRl_3Sdpq-M</a>
« Last Edit: December 29, 2020, 07:53:38 PM by Joco »
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #23 on: December 31, 2020, 12:59:05 AM »
Kerrin - I think I will need to single point this thread as it needs to be quite a close fit. I am not sure a tap will give that control over the level fit.
Unless I use a brass or bronze threaded insert with some clamping flexture that will allow for tension adjustment.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2021, 12:31:51 AM »
Hi James,
 Hope you had a great Xmas & are enjoying the New Year!

Just been to Dads, he made new cross slide nuts for his Myford using the Acme tap..... the picture shows the old lead screw with the “new” original  size nut (spot the price..... bet you can’t buy one at that price any more!!) made from the usual rubbish metal, total length 22 mm, with the one he made, total length 35 mm. The increased length gives way less movement on the thread.....remember that the screw is old....probably original.

An old friend made me a new crossslide nut for my Emco, as he was making one for himself at the time, it’s held in place with a screw in the spigot like you have, the second picture. There is then a pointed screw thru the top slide that you use o adjust for play, maybe you can sort something along those lines

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #25 on: January 04, 2021, 11:49:50 PM »
After some measuring up did some plans for the leadscrew nut that needs remaking.  I still need to finalise some of the dimensions but this covers the bulk of things.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #26 on: January 07, 2021, 10:43:28 PM »
I managed to get some time to prove to myself that I could make a HSS ACME threading tool for 6tpi threads and use said tool to internal thread a nut such that it would get a good fit on the Shapers horizontal leadscrew.   Overall I think I can call this a success.   The boring bar is a bit hacky but seems to be working and so long as a I take things slowly and accept that I need to do 3-4 spring passes for a final depth it looks like things have come out pretty reasonably.

It is worth noting that this test part was already metric threaded so I cleaned out enough to get approx the hole needed.  You can see the remains of the original threads in the 3rd pic.  However this is really only cosmetic and for testing purposes not relevant.

Cheers - J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #27 on: January 08, 2021, 07:01:37 PM »
Update on the acme threading - I had another look at the pics and thought I should clarify the topslide (compounds) position that can be seen.   It is CLEARLY not set at the proper angle and that is for a reason, it wasn't used. I treated this more as a forming operation and just controlled the depth of cut via the cross slide.  I took things very slowly with 0.1mm depth of cuts and cutting oil.   While this is not what you would do in a job shop as it takes some time to get to 2.1mm depth that eventually lead to a nice screw engagement it did work with no noticable chatter on the sides of the thread and nothing I could hear.

Given this was a through hole I was able to use 130 rpm no problems and could probably have gone to ~200.  The lathe manual states not to exceed 240rpm when threading to avoid excessive stresses on the leadscrew/half-nut.

Anyway, thought that clarification was probably in order.

Cheers - J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #28 on: January 08, 2021, 11:53:40 PM »
Nice work James!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #29 on: January 12, 2021, 09:32:12 AM »
More progress on constructing the replacement horizontal leadscrew nut.
Pics 1 and 2 show the prep work on the cast iron round into a rectangle of suitable size.  I then drilled a couple of reference points to support setup in the mill.

Pic 3 shows setting up the offset using an alignment bar and DTI.

Pic 4 is after a LOT carefull threading.  We have a finished 6tpi acme thread.  It's perhaps not as good a fit as I might like but it doesn't seem to have much if any slope down the axis of travel.

Cheers,
J.
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #30 on: January 17, 2021, 06:47:17 AM »
Finally finished the leadscrew nut today.   After a test fit I discovered there was no value to be gained by rounding the end over like the original.  I suspect that was done on the original casting to save material.  It is not needed for clearance.

Pics attached ...

#1 to #4 show the initial machining results.
#5 shows the relief cut into the new nut
#6 installed and ready to have the table assembly begin.   I have installed the table slide and tested things.  It runs super smooth.  Very happy.

Added link to a little video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnY9149Abmc


Cheers - J.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2021, 08:19:53 AM by Joco »
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #31 on: January 17, 2021, 08:15:14 AM »
Nice work James!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #32 on: January 23, 2021, 03:03:48 AM »
Finished.  A a fully assembled and working shaper. The only thing to complete now is some leveling feet.  I'll keep a track of progress and design on those and post here.  In the mean time here is my little youtube vid showing the fully functional shaper.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1i_2N8lQ8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1i_2N8lQ8</a>

James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #33 on: January 23, 2021, 10:31:34 AM »
Great to see it run after all the TLC you have put into it  :ThumbsUp:

Now you just need to see it work on a piece of metal  :cheers:

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #34 on: January 24, 2021, 08:33:57 AM »
 :whoohoo:

Well done James! You have done a grand job

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Alba 1A Restoration - Leveling feet
« Reply #35 on: January 31, 2021, 04:41:39 AM »
Right the leveling feet are done and installed.  I have some photos and will describe the key dimensions and parts.

Pic 1:  The main parts.  We have
(a) an ice hockey puck.  These are around 75mm OD and about 25mm thick. The hollow that has been bored out is 49.8mm diameter and 11.5mm deep. I used aluminium inserts on a boring bar to cut the rubber.  Given these inserts of rather sharp they worked a treat.  You could use a HSS tool as well, but you would want to make sure it has a super fine hone on its edge.  This rubber liked very sharp tooling.
(b) M16 x 2mm all thread cut to a length of between 100-110mm
(c) the metal disk is 75mm OD and 17mm thick. The inner circle is 50mm and has been releaved around it so it has a height of 11.5mm.  Therefore when looking side on to the part in its elevation you have two discs.  One being 5.5mm thick with a diameter of 75mm and one being 11.5mm thick with a diameter of 50mm.  The metal disk also has a through hole that is threaded M16 for the all thread rod.  I did this on the lathe but if you have a tap that would be a convenient method.  On the plus side having to do more single point threading did get me more acquanted with using the thread chasing dial on the lathe.  By the time I fgot to the 3rd one I was getting quite proficient.

Pic 2 & 3: Show initial assembly

Pic 4: All the parts having been made, the threaded rod TIG welded into the metal bases from the under side.  It's not going anywhere.   8)

Pic 5: Feet installed and working a treat.  With the gap between floor and casting I can get an oil drip tray under there. Given this is a loosely oiling system there is a lot of dripping if you are keeping key parts properly lubricated.

Cheers - J.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2021, 08:09:19 AM by Joco »
James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #36 on: February 05, 2021, 03:39:06 AM »
This should really be the last on this topic.  Anything else will be net new content and I will post on a new thread.

This is a little video showing how I set the stroke length and ram position on the Alba.  I then do what are probably my second ever set of cuts on this machine.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_oUC6ySZfA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_oUC6ySZfA</a>

Cheers - James.

James
Wellington - NZ

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #37 on: February 05, 2021, 06:34:51 AM »
Nice work James. You should be very happy with how she is working! You’ve done a great job on the make over.

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Joco

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Re: Alba 1A Restoration
« Reply #38 on: February 09, 2021, 08:54:11 PM »
Thanks Kerrin.  I have been having great fun.  There are still improvements I think I might need to do over time.  But at the moment things seem to be working ok.  I'm leanring a lot as I go and have even pushed myself into making some youtube vids for a giggle.

The wee shaper is doing quite well.   Given it's ownly a light machine I have been getting 0.5mm DoCs with a stepover of around 0.2mm on a length of cut of 127mm at 55 spm (in imperial in order of the numbers that is 20 thou, 8 thou and 5").   It doesn't sound like much until you see the chips coming off and the smoke from the cutting oil.

Check out the pic attached.
James
Wellington - NZ

 

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