Beauties of the sixties

[Skogsgurra]

There's something about the fifties and the sixties.

Cars were monsters, but many of them were also beautiful. I happen to live in a district where lots of people restore old "Yankies" and meet to show them to each other and to the broad public. It is a feast for your eyes.

On another plane - but similar - there are the huge electronic instruments of those days. The HP, Tektronix, B&K and many other makes of instruments. Built with a certain engineering aestetics and also with a "cost is no objective" philosophy with a lot of attention to details.

I have always admired those monsters. They may actually have contributed to my deep interest and involvment in electronics. I now try to keep a modest collection of such instruments - my heart can't see them go to the scrap heap. But, most of them have deteriorated. Screws and knobs missing, scratches. Dirt and ink marks that still wait for the ultimate detergent. Dents and broken plastic details. In short, not so beautiful any more.

And then - I found this Tek 575! Untouched, in its original box, with its original manual. Not a single screw missing. No dents. No ink markings. Pristine! Happiness!!

I just wanted you all to know - and share.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...

 

[ozmosis]

or change the motor and fit a VSD (with a good filter between the VSD and the home supply if you're connecting it at home).

 

[ScottyUK]

Thanks for the thought. I'm already doing that - 415/240V motor in place of the original. I did manage to get it running from a 415V drive with a step up transformer at the input just as a trial, but I'd rather do it properly.

I am told I have been behaving like a kid on Christmas morning, getting up at strange times to work on my new machine. My wife has found me in the garage after 2300hrs, up to my eyes in oil and dirt and with no concept of how time is passing. Also my wife does not like the smell of old oil: I will be sleeping in the spare room (or in the garage) soon.


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[Skogsgurra]

You are getting it your way, then. Sleeping with your new darling

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...

 

[GregLocock]

Scotty

I just rejoined my old solar car team...

and here's what I found lurking in the corner (sorry, obviously operated by pigs)

http://www.geocities.com/greglocock/holbrook.jpg

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[GregLocock]

Actually I've just burst out laughing. No coolant.

Hmmm. I don't think it's been ever USED in its life.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[ScottyUK]

Hi Greg -

That's a beauty - looks in better cosmetic condition than mine. I've just spent a couple of days stripping the headstock and replacing some of the worn bearings and taking up wear on other places. I'm wondering whether to rename this thread 'Beasties of the Sixties' after the number of times my fingers got nipped! I had it turning over yesterday for the first time since I started overhauling it and it sounds much smoother since I replaced the broken oil pump and cleaned the hardened grease out of the bearings. I've managed to mis-align something in the feed gears for the lead and power shafts aren't operational at present, but it should be a quick enough job to sort out.

If you're ever scrapping yours I would be interested in the screwcutting changewheels. It is desperate times when I would consider shipping a hundred pounds of cast iron out of Australia!


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[GregLocock]

Ours is ex-guvverMint. I want to make something!
Preferably involving the nicest (imperial) screwcutting gearbox I've ever used. Man, I am out of practice.

On the little Myfords, the ways used to wear, I haven't really seen that on big lathes. I'm more used to Colchesters, which are built like tanks.

You've got a Rolls Royce. Yours has done a few miles, but, they are designed to be rebuildable. I'm sure Model Engineering has a hundred articles on refurbing old lathes. Scraping being a lost art...





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[ScottyUK]

I'll post some photos of The Black Pig when I get it put back together. At the moment it is still in a lot of bits. I have a new (to me) leadscrew and a complete saddle assembly in kit form from which I can hopefully build up an almost-new one. I've just got a taper turning attachment too which I'm told is as common as rocking horse poop and is supposedly one of the best designs of its type. I've had the good fortune to have access to a younger machine which was being scrapped but which I couldn't salvage whole.

I'll strip the paint which has been badly applied some time in the previous 50-odd years and see about getting it back to a half-decent cosmetic condition, but not until the mechanical side of things is sorted out. At current rate of progress that may be next year!


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[70AARCUDA]

..."FINS" were "IN"