Repair Ideas for mill ways?

[bborr01]

No lead. Lead is too soft and will have swarf embedded into it in no time, causing further damage.

Brian

What about melting lead into the gouges like old time hot rods?

[Rustybolt]

What about cleaning it up and putting it back together and then see what is worn so bad it needs fixing. If it's doesn't effect the tolerance of the machine let it be.

[Carm]

Edited
I'm looking for cheap ways to improve the condition of the damaged ways.
I do not want to spend much money on this thing, and it does not need to be perfect.
I have a full size mill already and pretty much bought this for drill press duty.
It will fit in my full size mill, but set up will be very difficult.
Any ideas?

Do you have the equipment to verify wear and geometric truth?
What size is your "full size mill"?

[Rosco-P]

What about cleaning it up and putting it back together and then see what is worn so bad it needs fixing. If it's doesn't effect the tolerance of the machine let it be.

+1 to the above.

Lightly stone down any high spots the gouges have created and put it back together.
Another mill used for drill press duty? Lot of small jig bores sitting around collecting dust that would be better suited to being re-purposed as a drill press.

[QSIMDO]

Here's everything you need to know about Moglice; http://www.moglice.com/

As I mentioned earlier they have sample kits for like maybe $20 ea. and a couple might have enough for your repair.

[Hoplophile]

A free book on way repair and resurfacing: http://www.moglice.com/handbook/handbook.pdf

When you save the .pdf change the file name from "handbook" to something a little more informative. Makes it easier to find the file later.

As for the OP's machine, if there is enough of the original surface intact, and that surface is still square to the bearing on the other side, stone down the high spots, clean out the gouges and either fill as suggested, or just leave alone. The gouges will trap dirt and oil over time; sort of like scraping does!

[jhe.1973]

Do you have the equipment to verify wear and geometric truth?
What size is your "full size mill"?

This is my question too.

If you already know this then just disregard.

Unless your full size mill is very large and robust, it won't accurately machine the knee you show. If it is is a knee type mill, the table moves in an ever increasing arc towards the floor as it extends out the side of the saddle. Mounting something heavy (your knee) to the table only makes this action worse.

When castings like your scored knee were originally machined, planers or horizontal boring mills were usually used because their tables are supported for their entire travel and the surfaces they machine stay flat.

The better quality DROs have a means to average the error that I have described, not eliminate a design characteristic of knee mills. The following is from a DRO manual and only mentions wear. The flex of the knee casting, vee vs. box ways, column mass all affect this:



I cringe when I have seen people mount a big block V8 casting on a B-port and deck the top surface.

I think you have gotten some great advice on working with what you have vs. trying to re-machine/replace the entire scored surface.

[Carm]

Post #37 is the nutshell of my question, the second.

[Boostinjdm]

Do you have the equipment to verify wear and geometric truth?
What size is your "full size mill"?

If you mean a surface plate, precision square, scraped straight edge, etc. No I do not. I don't normally do work that requires it. I mostly fix farm equipment. Welding and fab work.

My mill is a Jet knee mill with a 9"x42" table (Bridgeport clone). It is in good condition and turns out work plenty accurate for my needs. I don't work to tenths, but I do try to keep dimensions withing a thou or two of the target.

This knee isn't too heavy. I have been moving it around by hand. It might even weigh less than the vise and rotary table I have mounted right now. I am aware of the sagging issues with knee mills. Some of that can be mitigated with placement of part, head, and maybe counter balancing. Also, taking light cuts.

Like I said, this doesn't need to be perfect. I have no intentions of building parts for the space shuttle. I just can't make myself ignore the gouges. Something needs to be done to improve the surface. I'd prefer it to be something that could later be undone, or improved on. Like if I were to machine it down a bit and add some type of filler (cast iron strip, moglice, turcite, etc.), get it machined close enough for me, and then be able to come back a few years from now and scrape it correctly if I feel the need.

[Carm]

I would not attempt any sort of rectification unless you know where that would be required.
For welding and fab work, drill press duty, put it together and keep it oiled. That would be a luxury for many fab shops.
Anything you apply to build up the surface will require scraping, and it sounds like you aren't set up for that.
It's possible that a minor re-scrape (less than 10 thou) is all that's necessary, and any milling with your other mill can easily make things worse. Remember any machining you do will also stress the job.
The cheapest, easiest and least invasive thing you could do would be an epoxy fill as mentioned. There is often shrinkage on curing and that could work to your advantage as oil retention.
Another thing not mentioned is filling with Babbit, which does not contain lead (though some formulations could have small %). The heat required for application is not excessive, and it has been used in many precision applications in machine tools.
Moglice will require some prep and might not suit time & expense requirements.

[JRouche]

I would just clean and check for any raised burrs. If burr is located knock it down, clean her up and use it as is. Gouges wont hurt anything. Heck... My 10EE has "gouges" built in And I added some to my RF-45 clone JR

[J Tiers]

I would just clean and check for any raised burrs. If burr is located knock it down, clean her up and use it as is. Gouges wont hurt anything.JR

You wish.

Mostly they collect swarf, trap it, and drag it along the mating way surface, gouging deeper. Don't ask me how I know this.

You are best off to fill it for any surface that is ever exposed to swarf falling on it when in use. On the underside of a slide, never exposed, no chance of falling swarf, no danger, call it an oil retainer if you want to.

Filling with epoxy will NOT require scraping, just a burr file. And it does not wear significantly. All it does is fill up the gouges so swarf doesn't get in and get dragged along gouging up more stuff.

You surely can lead a horse to water, but there is that bit about the horse having to do the drinking..........

[vpt]

Run some 308l down it and machine flat again?

I as well would probably just stone down any high spots and run it like it is.

[vpt]

You wish.

Mostly they collect swarf, trap it, and grind it along the mating way surface, gouging deeper. Don't ask me how I know this.

You are best off to fill it for any surface that is ever exposed. On the underside of a slide, no danger, call it an oil retainer if you want.

Spend the time making up some really good way covers?

[Boostinjdm]

Saddle appears worse than the knee. Most of the gouges in the knee are less than .005" deep according to my depth mic.

The saddle has visible machining marks on the ways. They were not ground, scraped, or even flaked. So despite objections here, I'm not ruling out milling the damaged surfaces.