Mystery dividing head restoration

[justin1]

I figured someone maybe interested in seeing how the dividing head I acquired recently is constructed and or repaired maybe even inspire someone to get around to finishing a project or 2 left forgot in a box somewhere lol.

As some have maybe already saw this is the dividing head to be "restored" hopefully.


Anyways toke it apart cleaned it and inspected the parts for wear or damage. Few signs of something crashing or abuse once in its life. But overall not too bad.



The cast quality of the body isn't perfect few little flaws that need to be covered back up and it's almost like they casted some extra bits into the base looks like Lego almost.

Then lastly kinda of a neat dividing method. Double sided plate and the main gear is also divisible.

Anyways that's all for now will post more as I progress. Still don't know anything about the maker or date it was made but it looks almost like 1900's era. No off shelf parts and Babbitt thrust bushing in front and only flat head bolts. There is even 2 oil filler nipple holes I that seem to be 28 tpi tapered threads. 1/8 BSP threaded holes I think.

 

[justin1]

Not much done but got a few things done and even screwed up some too so win win lol.

Did some weld build up with some arctic 139 cast rod I had laying around. works good few times I've used it but I haven't done any real structural repairs with it. But for cosmetics works fairly well doesn't color match but it's fine for sticking stuff back on. It's very similar to nickel 99 or other high nickel rods but with very light flux. Also claims no heating required but I still sweat the piece out before welding.
Just milled the slots back in eye balling against the other square edge of the non damaged teeth. Probly good enough for this application. Would of been nice to use rotary table for this so I didn't have to put in lathe later and could maybe cut the teeth accurately. But work with what I got for now.



Did some lead tinning to fix the hole in the body as it was just thin enough I didn't want to weld it and it's only a cosmetic. Just needs to keep the dust out and lead doesn't look to bad aslong as it sticks good.



And for the last thing I did today. I removed the gasket they had put in the groves were the slot cut for adjustment shaft play. I did a silly and forgot to remove the Babbitt wear surface and hammered right threw the whole removing the gasket. I'm not sure if I want to re pour it or just make one out of bronze that will probly last longer. I'm currently leaning toward the bronze ATM unless someone knows more about Babbitt and any benefit of keeping it.



Anyways that's it for today hoping to bondo and paint it in next day or too after finishing the last bit of machining and replacing the gaskets.

 

[RobinHood]

Those are very good repairs!

Maybe use bearing bronze iso of brass?

I think the advantage of the babbitt was that the molten metal would conform to any irregularities and also it did not matter so much of the axial tolerances during manufacture as the metal would take care of any differences between parts made yet still gave good thrust bearing performance.

 

[justin1]

Thanks trying to make it better then how I found it.

and ye bearing bronze I think is way to go I'll have to scrape it to the bearing surface but shouldn't be too hard to do but maybe I'll luck out and be good bearing contact as machined on lathe.

The dividing head looks like it has a Morse taper so I could use a test bar with it and see how true the spindle is to the milling machine table and maybe re mill the bottom of the dividing head to be true again or at least true to my mill.

 

[justin1]

Been busy working on thy old homestead so haven't had too much free time to play with projects. But I was able to knock some stuff out last couple days.

So here is what I've been up too.


Got around to removing some broken bolts then I filled some random holes that got blown out at some point of time with JB weld. I also used some JB weld to hide some of the casting defects and sanded all surfaces to remove some of the roughness and improve overall finish. Then wiped down all surfaces and taped off anything I didn't want to get paint on.

 

[justin1]

Forgot to take picture of the paint before I started on bearing and reassembly. But it was s'pose to be hammer tone gray but I guess I did not spray on thick enough to get the desired finish but it still turned out nice I think.

Anyways more pictures. This is my Babbitt pouring set up. I filled the screw holes and a oil channel with red hot silicone to keep the babbitt from just running out everywhere and it seemed to work good. And the rough bearing came out ready to machine.

After it cooled off which didn't take long as it melts just slightly hotter then lead. I set it up in the milling machine to get it too thicknesses and add some clearance for oil to get to bearing surface.





After I finished the matching I drilled some holes and countersunk the screw holes with 6mm end mill so the screw head would become part of the bearing surface. And filled in some oil groves with chainsaw file. Then the last thing I did was deburr bearing and put it together so I could lap the new bearing in. I used the lapping compound pictured and check with some blue just to make sure it was making good contact then I started the assembly.
Then bam more or less finished just need to make new locking handle and figure out what style of selector arm and dividing knifes to make to finish it off. Aswell as picking up smaller chuck as the one it came with hits the milling machine table and is probly just as old or older then the dividing head which would be fine if didn't hit table lol.

 

[justin1]

I guess the last thing is I'm looking for a source for finding replacement oiler caps that match what was originally on this dividing head. The one that was left on dividing head seems to be British tapered pipe thread. Can't remember what it was off top of my head but will edit post when I figure out exactly what it was.