That is a rock solid machine you got there, we had 2 Thompsons in the Machine Repair shop on my first Navy ship. My neighbors are cat people. When they come out in the morning to go to work he always opens the hoods on both of their vehicles, checks the oil etc. while making sure there are no cats in the engine bay. I asked him about it. He grew up on a farm, every morning it was his job before school to check the oil levels and fuel of whatever equipment was going to be used that day and start them up and idle them to warm up. One day his dad asked him to start his Jeep for him so he did. There were 2 of their "barn cats" under the hood, and it scared him for life. Watching your shop cats hunting for vermin reminded me of that!
I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd spend my lunch hour watching a spirit level bubble wave around. Let's hear it for RU-vid! And it's Friday I have boatbuilding, antique restoration and wheelwrighting to come!
Your Landis surface grinder sounds like the rack and pinion is bottoming out on its self and needs to have some shims or bearing surface for the table raised up
My two grinders are 220/380 (English) [380 is power lighting ] My table moved up/down - head solid. Built like a tank. Liquid and dry-with vac that will suck 1/2" x 2" steel off the magnet when the magnet is off. I had one (got two) shipped from Southern CA production house. Hydro x&Y manual vertical. I cut the disks from plasma table and use up scraps into circles. I have some in AR400 which won't wear out. I like to keep the moisture off the leg. Concrete is water based 'solid'.
Happy for you Keith! I have the same grinder for 20+ years and it's a rigid beast. My pointer for you would be to keep an eye on the coolant pump and hoses down there. Crappy design, if the carbon seals in the pump leak, coolant goes straight down into your hydraulic oil and will roach the hyd pump. Also, (perhaps stating the obvious?) there is an oil cup at the very top of the elevation screw to not forget about. I have the factory manual if you didn't get one, be glad to share.
Omg, I ran one of these years ago. back in the 60's, along with a Chicago 6-12. We did some pretty close work with these machines, close as in .0001 tolerances. We built injection molds. CNC machines hadn't hit the small tool and die shops yet.
I have a slightly older version of that grinder, when you go to change the wheel that is on it you will find another spindle start switch behind the wheel, that switch is for small diameter wheels and engages the high speed mode of the grinder.
The plunger on the wheel guard cover is to engage the high speed function on the motor when using a smaller diameter wheel. I ran a similar model for about 43 years at the machine shop where i worked.
I agree with you Thompson made great machines . We had a Thompson automatic broach grinder at Goodyear Aerospace. A very nice and well built machine. I have run universal tool & cutter grinders for a long time that had ball bearing tables. If not properly leveled the tables will coast down hill and into your work. It doesn't take much out of level for it to do this. An old millright told me that the ways of a machine will not wear evenly if a machine is not leveled properly.
Nice addition, Keith. I have the same mag chuck on my Jones & Shipman 540P surface grinder. It has the auto hydraulic feed in it, with Z axis graduations of .00005 inch. I enjoy using it very much. I’m certain you will enjoy the Thompson as well.
While you did a very quick job of getting the grinder leveled I was still thinking just give the wrench to Adam Booth and tell him it's a 4 jaw chuck. Five seconds later it'd be level. Great channel and congrats on the new toy.
This thing is a marvel of mechanical ingenuity! Really cool machine. I assume that these days it would be much more cost effective to put in some servo motors and let a computer control it. While there are advantages to that of course (and programming is my line of work), I miss some of these amazing old solutions.
That's an awesome level. I think I saw some grit left over from the stoning of the chuck as you placed the level on it. Just a positive observation from an old toolmaker. I love your channel. I am trying to acquire an old B&S No.1 universal cylindrical grinder. It has a war production plate on it from WW2. It still works.
Many years ago, my high school had a very nice metal shop. Among the machines was a large lathe salvaged from a WW2 sub, and a vertical and horizontal milling machines. Cast into the base of these two was a plaque stating” War finish, DOD 1942” . Awesome machines, very accurate, to within 0.001 inch.
"This machine conforms to the order of the war production board." "The casting finishing and cosmetic treatment do not reflect the normal level of quality of the xyz machine company"
There should be some place where you can see part of the ways, at least on the table, to get an idea on the condition. We had to take table and spindle motor off of mine before the loader we used could handle the base. It turned into a pleasant surprise, I could see that the machine had little use (undetectable to my eye) on a scraping in. The man said he was told it had been reconditioned in 1993, and had seen hardly any use since then. Unlike yours, you can't see that any work like that had been done on it by the outside appearance. No new paint. I do need to go through the hydraulics (something I hates working on), components that will deteriorate over time whether the machine is in use or not. It also still has the original tube type power supply for the mag chuck. Surprisingly, it works ... but I'm keeping any eye open for a replacement
Ran one nearly identical to this one. Would leave an absolute mirror, very level if i did my part. They always seem to grind more level with the head on the way in than the way out though! My 1-2-3 blocks were ground on that Thompson grinder.
Looks great- one thought though, mounting the transformer below the coolant pump could be problematic if it were to ever leak. Might be wise to fashion some kind of deflector over it, just in case, to channel the coolant away. I imagine if it gets into/onto the transformer, it might be damaged.
I remember back in 1974 a fella was running a Thompson with a 6 " wide wheel, the table travel was kind of aligned with a entry door from outside. That day just as a steel delivery man walked through that door, the Thompson grinder threw a 6" compound sine plate off the mag and it hit the wall just above the door! Scared the bejezzes out of the delivery driver.
Great buy! Used to run one of those. Awesome grinder. The one thing I had to becareful of was running the head cross slide in and out. On ours if you accidentally hit end of travel feeding it toward you the head would drop a thousandth or so.
Thanks for introducing us to your new machine. I believe the next step after leveling is to grind the chuck in perfectly true with the machine, then test grind some parts.
Keith, I'm not sure how to say this... but have you lost a fair bit of weight? If so good for you! Yours is one of the few channels that I watch without looking at the title because I know it will be great. It's a bit selfish but I want you to be around as long as possible and I know as someone who is working on it myself that dropping the pounds is hard work so thank-you.
Keith is being trained by the cat... Knock stuff on floor. He picks it up,over and over. Ha Ha Kitty Kalistentics for Keith. Toe touches and stretches. A one and a two
Would have been interesting to pull the chuck, clean up the table top, and level that, then clean up the chuck bottom and level the chuck. How much rust jacking is there under that chuck? Also might have been interesting to grab a corner of the machine with both hands and try to shake it a bit to see if vibration made it settle a bit on the foundation. After all, it vibrates and weight shifts during use.
Very nice score Keith. Having been a tool and die maker, the one thing I would absolutely miss is having a variable magnetic chuck. They are so handy when you have a die that has a very small amount of twist to it. It does however become a game of chicken. LOL. How low do I dare turn the magnetism down to. For me the variable chuck is an absolute necessity. Great machine though Keith, I know you will love it.
I got tired of recovering parts from under cabinets so I put a masonite barrier strip that seals to the floor. A couple of self drill screws and you're done. It comes off easily if you need to.
To my knowledge the dresser which is attached to the machine gives a worse dressing than when your diamond dresser is on your table. Haven't proved it myself, but it does make sense
Yes, we never used the attached wheel dresser, we always dressed with a diamond block mounted to the magnet table. The attached dresser was always a PIA.
When I was an apprentice we rebuild several hobbing machines and a Butler open sided shaper. We were told not to be to fussy about painting just get it done it's for us not the show room for our manufacturer
I see Ginger has approved the leveling of the grinder. It's amazing how precision cats can be. Just ask them, they will tell you. Thanks for the video, and I'll see you at the Bar-Z. Jon
That's a nice machine. I'm sure many would love to have one of there own. ( I don't even have 220v so I would have to just sit and stare at it. lol) I enjoy your videos.
Wow! That level is amazing. Finger weight movement. Question from a woodworker: is the goal level or is that just the easiest (relatively speaking), most precise way to achieve planar? I assume the problems with an unleveled machine are caused by tiny distortion in the massive frame. Love listening to detaching from “the old” and “the other” Landis grinder. Thanks for the video.
How many were shouting at the screen, put a dial gauge on top of 3 of the feet, once you know what a graduation on the level equates to at the corner, you can dial it in real quick. (I’ve spent far too many hours levelling laser kit)
