I'm not a machinist, but I came here to watch the tally ho project. I find your channel entertaining and informative. Thank you for the content you're doing great.
Keith, wife and I just got back from the Adirondack experience and while there I looked at the vintage train drive link and it’s the same design s the one you repaired in your video. It was nice to see it oat the train engine first handed before we left the museum.
Well Keith, I'm a novice when it comes to Cane machines but not when it comes to wasp stings. My old Dad was a doctor and he taught me a trick - and by golly it works. If you are stung or bitten by an insect, (after first aid - eg. if a bee sting, wipe the sting sac off with a card edge), cut a small square of sticking plaster and place it over the sting or bite site. Press it firmly and keep dry. In moments it will neutralise the pain of the sting, and if renewed will prevent the long term itchiness which can accompany an insect attack. Good luck, Bill B - UK.
Oh I have no love of a job in a box. Double the $ needed to figure everything out. Works for me eh. It will be fun and great to see how this all turns out. Comingn from you it is going to be an interesting happening. Possible to see if the net has a full parts drawing tucked away for you. If not a real puzzle eagerly awaits. Thanks a bunch Keith. ONWARD EH !
Tool Recommendation! You should get a "load leveller" for your hoists. They are quite cheap and allow you to securely strap odd shaped items and adjust the center of gravity with a long lead screw. They also act as a spreader bar at the same time which helps with stability and spinning. The 4 chains allow for 4 independent connections which gives some redundancy. As a person who works alone in the shop a lot it has been a great help.
I believe the reason the baring blocks were only bolted on one side is; the pully was to turn counterclockwise, so the downward force would be on the unbolted side and then the other shift would turned clockwise which again apply downward force to the unbolted side. That how I see it but I'm old now and can't see so good anymore. Love watching you work.
I'd bet there were cast steel dogs that clamped down on the end. If the main shaft blocks were reversed the dogs could go between and clamp both at the same time
Not to mention that between gravity and the mill's own pressure, all the force on that bearing is downwards, and there is no lifting force at all. One bolt is enough to keep it from moving around, and it is automatically self-aligning to boot!
... Which is fine until one decides to run it in reverse. Maybe they had the rollers backwards or for whatever reason decided they wanted to reverse the feed?
It’s possible that those brackets are actually one piece and just broken in the middle. A close look at the edges should be able to make that determination.
Someday, maybe, industrial designers will once again create machines that are as beautiful as they are functional -- fitting for a confident, forward-looking civilization.
There is one you tuber that I follow that repairs old watches. He takes them completly apart, cleans and lubricates everything and puts it back together and they run great. He shoots silently then narrates with no background noise as if he were doing it live. So he narrates what he is thinking and speaks just as if it weren't done in post production. If you have an audio foul up or a hard to hear portion, narrate it in post.
Hi Keith, Interesting project. John Deere had a hardware parts book which listed square head bolts (and all their other hardware and bearings) by size when I worked at a dealership in the 1980's. It might be worth looking to see what you can get off the shelf.
For the square head bolts, you might check the bolts used for the wheel weights for the older JD tractors. The weights on my 1967 JD 4020 and 1959 JD 630 are attached using a pretty big square head bolt that is captured in the cast rear wheel centers.
Never a dull boring day at Vintage Machinery when you have challenging puzzles to figure out like this restoration. Another great video Keith. Thanks for sharing!
Keith I will tell you about the paint you can buy the yellow John Deere paint from the dealer but on the green make sure it is for antique Green, Just by painting it those colors that thing will bring another 150.00 I used to work for them!
This is really impressive. XXXL size rollers. Will be interesting to see what it's superpose to do. The sound was fine btw. Callback to earlier days, but fully understandable. Looking forward to the more technical stuff. Thta Mr. Rucker pretends to be disappointed there are bronze castings to mill... I can't really believe it.
Never mind production defects, like audio, focus or lighting. When there is actual content, the audience will overlook minor inconveniences. Nicely done. Thank you for sharing. Wish you well.
Keith, there is no perfection in the world. We all just thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills. Some people just record non-verbal, then add the voice-over in post-production. It's all good, and as always, thank you!
It is going to be fun watching you put this puzzle back together. Maybe somewhere in the Vintage Machinery library there are some documents to help. Nice video.
Fabulous vid. One day Keith, I'd love to see what you would suggest as a design for a cane mill , to be fabricated using modern day readily available materials, I think that'd make a fascinating video. Having seen quite a few of these classic machines being lovingly restored now I think it could be an interesting exploration 😀.
Keith - Simple solution for the pulley is to get some 1/16" or 3/32" plate of the same width as the pulley, long enough to make the two pieces for the two pulley halves, and either roll it yourself or have a local metal shop roll it. Clean up the pulley half faces, apply rust converter, and apply a good coating of weld through primer. Clean the backside of the rolled pieces, apply weld through primer and then stitch weld each of the pieces to a pulley half. Since the pulley face isn't under great load, this should be more than good enough for a fix and is likely the lowest cost fix you can do.
Good morning sir! I think something like the Deity PR-2 recorder (or an equivalent from a different manufacturer) would let you avoid this kind of audio headache. I considered one for myself but I decided to wait for an equivalent with XLR and phantom power, because of the type of mics I use.
Keith, Southern Cross Farm and Sugar Mill has an Amazon #2 mill which looks very similar to your #3. They are located in Hilliard, Florida. They may have information or pictures that could help put the puzzle back together.
Must be a special customer to take on a mystery box job. I hope they supplied pics or videos before they took everything apart. Tis a good way to start a week.
This mill certainly has the fanciest acorn nuts I have ever seen. Assembling the box of additional parts, some of which are "homemade," could be challenging. Keith is on it!
Looks like you aren't the first one to repair this cane mill to put it back in service. She's had someone elses repairs done to her at some point. That frame surely isn't original or the rubber feet? Beautiful old cast frame work holding the rollers though. I'm sure you'll get her functioning again.
I'm continually astonished by the quality of old castings. The cast iron pieces of this cane mill have an Art Deco feel, akin to the famous NY buildings of the '30s - not just utilitarian but with a feel of design and flow. Are there any original 'patterns'? Does Clarke have any original patterns? I'd love to see him reproduce an Art Deco casting from an original pattern.
I like the insulation you have on your roll-up door. I did the same after years of wanting to insulate from the south facing side of NC sun. Certainly one of my better projects.
Great video,interesting piece,like you said may be a rarity,for a JohnDeere piece of equipment.you had few issues,but more than likely caused by previous owners,just trying to maintain the machine.you have some great patience but in your line of work,I’m sure it’s all part of the process.just keep on doing what you do best.be safe.continue on.😎😎😎👍👍👍
I really literally hate basket jobs. I've turned down a lot of jobs where the person decided to take something apart and either couldn't fix it or it was more then they could handle. Sometimes it's almost impossible to figure out how some things go back togeather if it's brought to you in a box. The bad part is the extra time it takes to figure out how something goes back togeather if it's already taken apart and you have to pass that expense onto the customer. One great tool I've used if I'm stuck trying to resemble something that someone else took apart is utube. Some of those videos have saved me a lot of frustration.
Wow. I would have a hard time keeping up with what went where. I hope the sand blaster can keep the parts grouped together. Good thing you have video. I would have to take lots of photos too.
Can you have a two piece steel band rolled to fit the OD of the deteriorated pulley and bolt it on? The crate of mystery parts reminds me of Dave Engels' manure spreader.
Since the sound was weak, I have been supplementing it with the closed caption that YT supplies. Works fairly well but it perceives the sound of the impact wrench as applause.
When I used to work on stuff, when I got a mess of parts like that the price just tripled. One time I worked on a car. Part of the engine was under the hood part in the front seat. Some in the back seat, the rest I picked up off his garage floor. I got it together and he drove it for another 25k before he sold ot.
Have you looked into getting one of those laser rust removers? It would allow you to even remove the rust on machined parts that have a surface finish that would be damaged by sandblasting like shafts. Not to mention the exposed part of rusty bolts during disassembly.
...I can only surmise that those bearing blocks only have one bolt because the shafts are intended to turn in the direction that keeps them forced down under load - looking at it from the pulley end, the driving shaft would turn counterclockwise and the driven shaft would turn clockwise, which would push down on both sets of blocks as the shafts turn.
Hi Keith can you maybe have a piece of plate metal rolled into a sleeve that could be fit over the outside of the existing pulley and then pressed on the pulley and brazed along the outside where the 2 pieces meet they could be machined to be reasonably true and look good?
Going to agree with the comments below about the way the pillow blocks were held. That said, it seems most likely that the entire drive has been remuddled along the way. The main frame is not original. The hooks were added to make it portable. As for the pulley, my guess is that a cast iron pulley was used to do double duty as a flywheel. Those parts with the rubber were, I believe, washers that used rubber pads to dampen vibration and/or allow for some shock movement in the mechanism. The original power for this was either a hit and miss engine or, my guess a small steam engine.
I'm sure you've figured this out while working on the machine. The bearing block only bolts on one side because it's the only side that tries to lift (torque) when the machine is working. The other side torques into the base. I think... 😀
Bolted on one side because they are designed to turn so the torque pushes them into the frame instead of lifting off the frame. Someone used it with a backwards rotation on the power input.
