Diresta Bandsaw Restoration 12: Making a Fixture to locate a Shaft for Pouring Babbitt Bearings

[@waikanaebeach]

Keith, we have always got to play with our favourite toys. What separates the men from the boys is the size and price of their toys 😀

[@rexmyers991]

“Why the Horizontal Mill?” “Just because.” I LOVE it.

[@jimmydiresta]

This is great solution. Need to make this happen on my little giant resto. 🙏🏼👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼

[@homeryoung7436]

Had a fall and broke my shoulder. So, I’ve been watching the entire restoration of the Monarch. Enjoying it very much again.

[@clypeum5063]

hope you get well soon! Might not be the best time to break some bones.

[@denniswhite166]

@@clypeum5063 Is there ever a good time? LOL

[@harlech2]

Heal fast, man!

[@clypeum5063]

@@denniswhite166 when you are Young i guess. Cant miss Out on the learning Experience but breaking stuff while getting older sucks lol

[@denniswhite166]

@@clypeum5063 I suppose you are right. I'm 68 and I sure would have broken something when I was younger than now. Even if it means I wouldn't miss any work now.

[@wallaceknifeworkshomestead]

Great video ! I would send those brackets with the machine when its done in case the owner ever needs to re pour them. Looking forward to the next one!

[@WhatAboutTheBee]

I had the same thought. Nothing stopping Keith from doing just that. But after consideration, its probably a waste of time. The saw is very unlikely to see enough usage to ever develop enough wear to justify repouring the babbit. Reason 1: there are no guards, anywhere, on that saw. Given that a bandsaw resaw will use a very wide blade, that is a lot of scary sharp metal slinging around. Likely that Jimmy turns it on, films a video and then, with all due respect to Mr. Diresta, changes his underwear. So either blade guards are added or the saw gathers dust. Reason 2: Large modern bandsaws move the blade, not the block of wood. Moving the block of wood large enough to justify the use of this machine is a challenge, in and of itself. I can see using the saw for demonstration, but not for production. If it is for production, the moving carriage saw is far superior. Reason 3: Babbit doesn't wear out rapidly. If it did, the old timers would have used something else. Wikipedia states that in old automotive applications, babbit would last ~50K miles. That is > 1000 hours of driving. Jimmy isn't going to run it 1000 hours in his lifetime.

[@railfan439]

Thanks for the video, Keith. I may not comment often, but I watch every one. Jon (transition planes)

[@TheUncleRuckus]

Love that you have a shop kitty 👍👍

[@mikemoore9757]

A few extra hours to make some one time use fixtures for a machine that will last another 100 years is what I call a pretty good investment. Thanks Kieth!

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

You always have a great video and great work. Thanks for the video.

[@guubagaaba8391]

pretty sure you can solve every problem that comes your way , really nice touch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@terrycannon2061]

Just love these old iron restos. BTW that vice weighs more than some of the hobby mills. LOL

[@Yackhammer75]

It's funny I watched a couple of your videos a few years ago where you where pouring babbits on some train parts. Funny part is I don't care much for trains. However your work and the way you present everything, well I'm still watching and I don't even own any machining tools nor have I ever done any machining. Keep up the great work my friend.

[@davidbaumer1724]

Thank you Keith. I am learning loads of stuff.

[@jameskilpatrick7790]

For those asking about the horizontal alignment, I'm sure he'll mention that when the time comes. First you do one plane, then you do the next. Probably reference the bolt holes, is my guess. .I love these restoration videos. Lots of interesting problems, and interesting solutions. The end result is a great old tool brought back to life and good as new, or better. Thanks, Keith, for sharing your passion with us all.

[@earlye]

Nice. Seems to me these fixtures need to live with the saw. Perhaps in a little box mounted on one of the feet, along with a note: "Howdy person in 2122! Thought you could use these now that it's time to re-pour the bearings."

[@ianmurray2637]

Elegant solution: simple but effective with a touch of style :)

[@deanehill9730]

Keith playing with his machines. Makes for a good day. Thanks for the video.

[@bcbloc02]

That endmill was a singing!

[@waynephillips2777]

Well that was pretty slick. You always seem to find a sensible way to proceed.

[@crabmansteve6844]

Keith, it looks and sounds like you have more pep in your step now, glad to see you're feeling better!

[@maggs131]

I love the cat walking on his workbench. This is all mine now lol

[@jimandrews8047]

Always enjoy watching how you solve each problem you have on these jobs.

[@bin_chicken80]

Enjoying this project a lot. Heaps of interesting problems and solutions that you are working through and explaining. Thanks Keith.

[@passenger6735]

I can foresee a couple of problems here Keith unless there is a method of aligning both shafts to each other as well as to the machine. 1. I think I would have turned an accurate outside diameter whilst the jigs were in the lathe so when you referenced off they will be identical on both fixtures. You may be lucky but it's worth checking before the pour. 2. The axle will be good in the vertical sense but there is no method for lateral adjustment. It needs to track true in two planes. 3. There is a lot of mass to heat up before the pour and you've already painted it. Great project all the same. Thanks for taking your time to do the videos.

[@MatthewScott]

Great thinking on that. Should work great. I hope one day to get a lathe and mill for the shop.

[@Dudleymiddleton]

1:30 cool cat strut! Great video thank you for sharing!

[@newton366]

KITTY AT 1:31 !!

[@robinghewitt]

Another fun video, keep up the good work, very entertaining. If your drill is trying to start off-center on the lathe there is a wicked trick. You bring the toolpost up against the drill near the end and bend it. The drill tip can no longer wobble, it cuts oversize but it cuts concentric which straightens everything out.

[@migueltorres6073]

Very interesting method to ensure an even pour.

[@wayneclark7048]

Simply, if it works! Sweet! 🤓

[@tomp538]

Can't wait; another babbitt pour!

[@aner_bda]

I love all the little subprojects that comes along with a big project like this. Really cool to see it all come together slowly. Can't wait to see the babbitt pouring.

[@charleslambeth4358]

That was a good one, Thank You.

[@michaelryan6884]

Good idea...nice job!

[@claytonpalsson3104]

A little mud will do it. Thanks for the video. It's wonderful to see it come back to life.

[@olevjorgensen]

Yay, new and clean apron for the 2022 season as you promised me two weeks ago Keith. :-)

[@RB-yq7qv]

Nice Job

[@kejay74]

Hi Keith! As with ANY Sunday morning quarter-backing....I believe I would have approached this a little differently. I would have left the two pieces as one until the "shelf" was machined out of the middle with the vertical mill. Then would have split them apart. Possibly with a slitting saw in the vertical mill as well. My $.02 worth. Ken

[@martineastburn3679]

You could line bore the Babbitt Bearing to the perfect size. In his lists he does it a number of times. Something you and the Museum to get.

[@WilliamTMusil]

Hiya Keith

[@justinl.3587]

Loved drilling the bushing with the center hole running out like crazy. Good way to stress your machine out. Another “Don’t do what Keith does” moment.

[@pbysome]

Don't understand why he didn't put a boring bar through it to true it before drilling?

[@justinl.3587]

@@pbysome Most machinists would do that. I mean it’s the right thing to do.

[@amandaklapp1171]

@@pbysome besides the hole not being through? Thats a lot of extra setup time

[@pbysome]

@@amandaklapp1171 not really, he has a quick change toolpost and you can bore to a blind hole no problem plus no measurements needed, five minutes tops.

[@billmckillip1561]

This kind of fitting work was a major part of producing and installing machinery back before modern precision production processes. Very interesting!

[@ksingleton101]

Very happy to see you are back to good health, Keith. God Bless, hope this year is better than the last.

[@jeremycable51]

Much appreciated for the speed and feed info on what your actually running the machine for those of us just learning it’s extremely helpful especially for those just watching videos and doing it to figure it out

[@TERRYB0688]

Nice one Keith , only ever pored babbit bearing’s once, on an old 1901 Herbert lathe, wonder how you are going to align the shaft laterally 👴🏻👍

[@johncollins2037]

I am thinking exactly the same, and tune the feed and RPM in a touch more.

[@ProfessorMAG]

Keith, how are you going to maintain concentricity with the original babbitt bore? These supports will maintain an accurate Y plane but not in the Z axis rotational. Keep in mind the two axles need to be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the frame in both the X and Y axis. These bushings could have done both.

[@BlackheartCharlie]

I am wondering the same thing. You put it into words better than I could have. :-)

[@jonbobtrader]

They are doing both.

[@bchrisl1491]

I was also curious. The jig looks like it is solid on the vertical, but there is room for misalignment along the horizontal.

[@jonbobtrader]

@@bchrisl1491 I don't actually think the fixtures can move side to side. If they can the problem is easily solved by shimming one side and clamping them.

[@6181green]

@@jonbobtrader yes you are right he already mentioned he will be using shims

[@elsdp-4560]

Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed.👍👀

[@CraigLYoung]

Thanks for sharing 👍 Love the Cat-Booms.

[@CSWeldFab]

I enjoy hearing the technical details of your work. The speeds and feeds help me in my learning.

[@gregm312]

thank you for the solution .

[@timziegler9358]

I admire your thought process and approach in solving this issue. I am not a machinist, however I can appreciate the complexity; the study and preparation in resolving this problem. It is a valuable lesson, thank you.

[@permutatechguy]

Always interesting to me. I recently had the opportunity to turn a rod and thread on both ends for my shifter linkage on my Harley. Nothing like this but still do satisfying to have made a part from some bar stock to solve my problem!

[@don1031]

Really enjoying the restoration videos. I am not a machinist but I am learning a lot watching them. I do have a question: I am wondering what led you -- besides just enjoying using it -- to choose the mill for this operation? No doubt, there are lots of ways to skin a cat but did you consider using your Marvel bandsaw for this job? I have to believe it could have done the job well and I, for one, would have loved to see it used for something like this. Just curious to know your thoughts on it.

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Great video Keith, keep'um coming. 👍..

[@1903A3shooter]

Hope we get to see the pour.

[@brianatbtacprod1989]

Interesting and informative as always totally following what Keith is saying until 1:30. Then Ginger photobomed the background, and I lost all comprehension of what was being said until she left. I had to go back and watch that part again. As for the rest of the video, great job, and interesting solution.I do understand about using the horizontal mill just because it's fun. Made perfect sense to me.

[@nobuckle40]

Very interesting method to ensure an even pour. 👍🏻

[@brucecolgate4254]

Excellent video, as always.

[@robertbamford8266]

Clever solution. Wood, metal, for first cut, prep and setup 80% of time (if not 90%). Then, of course, there’s cleaning up and putting things away. Thanks for the video.

[@felixar90]

That's a big vise.

[@BenButler1]

Cool stuff Keith

[@kucukalika]

Hey Keith! Nice project going on, thanks for all that. Would you consider measuring the located shaft with respect to the machined surfaces you have before pouring the babbitts? Since you didn't machine the outer surfaces of the rings, the zeros you took for second operation (milling) could result in slightly different heights for the inset of the bushings... I hope the centerline comes out great. Thank you very much for all these different series!

[@pmhandymand2012]

Would be nice to see how much the rough outer edge change the centerline!

[@jbrown2553]

As for final alignment of the shaft in the horizontal plane as well as the plane through the X-axis, I'm sure he already has a solution that we will see in the next segment. I think he maybe misspoke on the RPM he ran during the boring operation ?? He said "720 RPM" which would give around 1260 SFPM. Unless that is fine for a carbide insert. But I am just a HSS hobby machinist. (He was using around 80-90 SFPM with the HSS drills).

[@transmaster]

It is interesting pouring and scraping Babbitt bearings in Ford model “T”, and Model “A” engines. Talk about a rapidly disappearing knowledge base.

[@TheFreshmanWIT]

So not sure you mentioned it, but how are you going to keep it straight in the "other" axis? This makes sure it isn't canted up/down, but do you have something to keep it from getting canted left-right? I would imagine a twist there would cause problems as well, right?

[@Orxenhorf]

1:29 - Okay... Who put this guy in the middle of our cat video?

[@josephkrug8579]

And you can send the fixture blocks along with the saw in case they every do need to re-pour the bottom bearings, so that is a win win. Always love these videos...though I did have to wonder what havoc the cat was wandering along the bench edge to create at one point. :) ie maybe a 'what needs to be on the floor vs the bench' or who knows what. :)

[@Farm_fab]

Keith, if you are near Fort Leonard Wood, visit the local scrap yard there if they let you, you might find some interesting materials there for your shop.

[@paulcopeland9035]

Is southern Georgia near Kansas?

[@patrickcolahan7499]

Great fixture. You have solved the problem for aligning the centerline vertically, but how are you going to address the centerline horizontally, front to back? Cool project enjoy the problem solving portion very much. Thanks for sharing Keith.

[@barryfields2964]

Hi Ginger.

[@jpsimon206]

In an earlier video you had referenced babbit getting difficult to track down. I recently cleaned out my shop and turned up over 200 lb of ingots of Babbitt, two or three different grades. Would this be of use to you? It's not doing me much good, it was just in a crate to weigh down the farm truck in the snow

[@scottvolage1752]

Solving problems and having fun in the shop. Does it get any better than this?

[@millomweb]

Keith - I'm pretty sure that any cutter speed tables would be based on industrial cutting and hence with the use of flood coolant. Taking the same cut without coolant is therefore a recipe for shortening tool life (between sharpening.)

[@MyLilMule]

Really enjoying watching this project move forward. I am curious, what are you going to do to make sure that that shaft is not askew? Seems this will solve the problem of keeping if level with the machined surfaces, but what about making sure the shaft is perpendicular to the plane the wheels will eventually be in? The upper shaft would also need to be in that same plane.

[@jservice6594]

My concern also. While the table probably have some adjustment, the upper shaft does not. It is most important that the axis of the upper and lower shafts be exactly parallel in all 3 dimensions, otherwise the blade will wander off. By comparison, the table being off by a smidge really doesn't matter.

[@projectsfromtheworkbench]

That was interesting...and I see the issue...with the size of the wheel...a small misalignment on the shaft could result in significant runout of the wheel. Nice job Keith.

[@Ambidexter143]

I enjoy seeing an expert showing his expertise and explaining why he's doing something.

[@millomweb]

Keith - those 'rings' will you use them on the second bandsaw - I seem to recall you have - if so, they will get used again ! If not, leave them with that saw for when it goes to its new home !

[@felixferreiro1723]

hey man how are you ?( you're in the machine paradise , you're great hehehe) tell us more about this horizontal milling machine Milwaukee , and when I said more, I mean everything e some more about it i love all kinds machines so much, when i saw Matrix, I cheer for the machines of course eheheheh thanks for all this amazing content , all tips and everything, it helps me a lot

[@varmint243davev7]

Looks Great ! I am curious, When I slow my feeds down, I usually slow my cutter down as well. I worry about overheating the cutter and work piece.

[@johnfriend240]

Two concerns: Machined surface is painted with what I believe you said was 2 part epoxy paint. That can be pretty thick (0.010-0.030") and not necessarily evenly distributed. Second, what controls the left to right alignment?

[@markbernier8434]

I second that thought and also wondered how he plans to keep the two fixtures tight against the machine. Perhaps F clamps?

[@lwilton]

Assuming the paint is the same thickness on both ends (yea, I know, "assuming" :-) then I don't think it matters a whit if the axis of the shaft is exactly on the machined parting line of the bearing halves. It will end up moving with use anyway. It just needs to be about parallel.

[@markbernier8434]

@@lwilton "about parallel" becomes pretty precise when you are talking about a three foot shaft turning a four foot diameter wheel.

[@gfarrell261]

Keith, I can see how this will keep the shaft horizontally perpendicular to the table, but how do you make it so the wheel will run paralell to the centerline of the table, so the wheel doesn't "toe" in or out? Am I missing something?

[@robertginther9248]

My thought also. Would put a strap clamp to push down on the fixtures at each end as I saw the collar "wiggle" when you set the shaft in, which would improve the vertical alignment.

[@stancloyd]

Kieth has a fantastic assortment of machinist levels. Shim the table level at the machine base, then level the shaft in it's tinkers damn end plates. What am I missing? This is why I use a machinists level to level the welding table at the jack-screws in the legs,

[@silasmarner7586]

Stan, sir, normally I'd ask, "then show us your channel, chump!" but you have a WONDERFUL channel. And your point is well taken!

[@justinl.3587]

@@silasmarner7586 So if he didn’t have a channel you’d roast him? His post means the same whether he has videos or not. 🤣🤣🤣

[@stancloyd]

Any vid I've posted is lame compared to Keith, Abom, or Quinn.

[@lnchgj]

You really need side shields on your glasses. Granted I have one of those mini-combo lathes/mill thyngies, and that may present hazzards you won't run into with real machining tools. But I just had a chip form the mill bounce off the upright and hit me in the left eye. Umm...No I wasn't waring shide shields, but fortunatly I was only cut in the cornor of the socket, and not blinded. I do have side shields now but not terrified into using a full face shield, unless I think there is a chance of an explosion. I enjoy your show and presentation, we'd both hate to lose that because of a errant shard of steel.

[@lwilton]

Very nice! I'm interested to see what you do to make sure you have to shaft exactly perpendicular to the bearing channel so you don't have twist between the top and bottom wheels. It looks to me that the current setup can let you move either end into or out of the throat by about 0.100".

[@shortribslongbow5312]

Very nice video thanks for sharing. :o)

[@rickburris6164]

Great video, I love the horizontal mill. Could you possibly do a segment on class 1,2 and3 threads. I'm not sure I understand the classes. What class of thread do you generally make?

[@daleburrell6273]

14:18...parting is such sweet sorrow-(?)

[@anthonyfreeman5858]

Whatever happened to the Forge you made in your shop? I just thought about that today.

[@catfishgray3696]

PET CATS AND DOGS, SEE YOU NEXT TIME, GREAT VIDEO...

[@tomnugent845]

Keith, I understand how the shaft is held up, but how do you square it with the top wheel left/right? Another great video.

[@breikowski]

Thanks for the video, the horizontal mill sounds great. Looking forward to more work on it. Miss the days when you were cutting gears. Now, that’s fun!

[@leeroyholloway4277]

Will you also be referencing and aligning the shaft(s) in the perpendicular axis? i.e. looking down from above as clocked 90 degrees left to right.

[@deemstyle]

Is it typical to climb cut on the horizontal mill? I was wondering if the chatter could have been reduced by conventional milling instead.

[@daleburrell6273]

1:31...AW, THERE'S KITTY-(!)

[@EPtechser]

I always find it tricky to get rid of vibration and chatter. When the fixturing is solid it all comes down to flute engagement. In this case a 6 flute cutter might have worked.

[@danvandertorre6349]

always preheat your parts before poring the Babbitt bearings or you will get a parted poring.

[@componenx]

Would the chatter have been reduced with normal milling (as opposed to climb milling)? It can make a big difference on a light machine, but not sure a heavy one.

[@calrob300]

I wonder how the factory poured the Babbitt originally. A similar fixture? Surprised that as finicky as I've seen Keith be on other things, he didn't sweep a dial indicator across the machined surface to check the height of the shaft.

[@jservice6594]

The bigger question is, "Where do you take this measurement from?" My answer is, the upper shaft.

[@totensiebush]

Why do you step up drill sizes in such small increments? I'm used to going up quite a bit more each time, just make sure the web of the new drill fits in the existing hole, so I'd probably have gone 1" and then straight to 2". Will your lathe not handle that?

[@gregheideman36]

You've got up and down alignment covered, how will you manage front to back to ensure both shafts are axially parallel?