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Enterprise 1550 Rebuild
- Thread starter Sailor
- Start date
Well this is the last pics. Put the last colour on and now I wait for parts plus Christmas and family coming. Still lots of assembly so hopefully I will have some pictures of it running by late spring.
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Chipper5783
Well-Known Member
Looks good. ModernTool sold a lot of those. I've had my 1550 since 1983 (I really like it). It has been a great machine (the small spindle bore is the only issue I have to complain about). I posted in the above refenced thread on PM (I also posted a manual and product brochure - either on PM or HM). Once you get everything sorted I'm sure you will enjoy the machine.
Let us know when you start making chips. David
Let us know when you start making chips. David
Chipper5783
Well-Known Member
I must say Randy, that you sure can progress quickly. I've been cleaning up a Huron mill (the smallest one they offered - still a sizeable chunk) - after a month I still have not got it to the point that I can power it (probably another month).
What condition are your aluminum indicator plates? On most of the Enterprise machines I have seen the plates are in poor condition. Mine have never been beaten up, yet they are getting pretty faded. David
What condition are your aluminum indicator plates? On most of the Enterprise machines I have seen the plates are in poor condition. Mine have never been beaten up, yet they are getting pretty faded. David
The plates are in fair condition except for some nicks and wear around the edges and handles. I’ve been looking at obtaining an engraver to redo plates. I would like to redo my Dad’s old Martin which I’ll start after I finish this one. Also have a Czechoslovakian lathe I picked up to fix up and sell so I would really like to do this but still learning the best machines and programs for this plus would it pay for itself doing this for others. I priced out having it done and it ranged between $600 and $1000us for one of the larger plates. Right now I’m on idle with Christmas and takes a lot of heat in shop to do decent work.
Chipper5783
Well-Known Member
Fixing machines to sell seems like a tough gig. I've picked up several "boat anchors" for cheap. I think I have done real well at bringing them back to life - however with the time and effort I've put into them (time that I really enjoy), I'd be lucky to make $5/hour. I'm working on a "baby" Huron mill right now. In good knick it is a very nice machine (back in the day it was a very expensive machine). That was then, this is now. At the moment it is just scrap metal. I'll probably spend a couple hundred hours disassembling, cleaning, fixing, making tools, making parts - if I'm really lucky there will be nothing truly wrong with it (the main issue seems to be that it sat outside some - got rained on). Then I'll have yet another mill that doesn't do anything that my other mills can't do, takes up quite a bit of space, does not have any of its' own tooling (though common to my Cinci), will be hard to sell on (#8000, 575V, 3 phase) - but is really cool.
On the pricing for your indicator plates - it that with you doing the graphics? I though there were places around that would generate the plate fairly cheap, so long as the file was ready to go? Some of the guys on Hobby Machinist seem to have it figured out.
On the pricing for your indicator plates - it that with you doing the graphics? I though there were places around that would generate the plate fairly cheap, so long as the file was ready to go? Some of the guys on Hobby Machinist seem to have it figured out.
I've always wondered about making replacement nameplates. I think there are different techniques depending on the colors, embossed/raised vs flat & other variables. This link shows some info but seems like folks go about it differently.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=323165
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=323165
They said it would be cheaper if I did the graphics but by how much I’m not sure. The lathe I might fix up was cheaper than the scrap price so if I change my mind. . . I hear you though it’s a love interest not a get rich enterprise. I just have a hard time seeing a once functioning piece of machinery going for scrap. At worst I thought I could strip it down and perhaps cut the bed which sits on 3 massive legs and make a great work or welding bench .
Very nice. I feel the fastest results appear to be a diamond drag, having said that, for me, the chemical etch may be the route I take for now as my wife has a high end vinyl cutter that does very fine detail. It can cut the masking material used in etching. But this guy took it to another level and doesn’t explain anything.
Thanks Dabbler, very kind. I was just reading the process that Peter T sent from garage journal and the price is very reasonable. Just watched the Clickspring one with narration and I’m impressed. I need to make a list of materials and see how available these chemicals and waxes are here. Thanks again. I really like this site and the willingness to share. That only comes with self confidence and a desire to be life long learners.
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I watched the Clickspring several times and made a list of stuff. Most of it I can find on Amazon. The slivering products are from the UK and very pricey. I also watched another fellow that was the source for Clickspring’s video. He does the lettering with different material and didn’t appear to bother with the slivering, finishing only with a coat of lacquer. Now I just need to remove my plates and start to copy them. Is there a way that I could photocopy them and turn that into a vector file?
Scan them with a scanner, import picture to cad, and then trace the scanned photo with line tools. That might be onerous if there is too much detail. There are ways of turning pictures into vectors with various drawing tools. I can’t make any specific suggestions though. Adobe had software for this but it’s been an age since I looked at it.
From my experience the 1-step direct scan to vector file conversions don't work too well in detail applications. Too much noise in the scan, distortion, aspect ratio. As Janger suggests importing it into a cad/drawing app & using that as a high resolution guide (ie human drawing over top) is a better cleaner result. But a lot more labour intensive depending on the detail & how authentic you want to replicate lines & font. I think that's why the 'decal' method gets employed. Its more like a high res picture but might be good enough to fool the eye. More like a picture of the original, no vector behind the scenes. But vector is required for any kind of machine cutting/engarving.