Rebuilding the Niles Boring Mill update

Hi guys:

We are making slow but steady progress on our Niles. Here are some progress photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/NilesBoringMillRebuildingParts#

As you can see the folks at Montaque Machine turned our Niles Table on their bigger Niles table. We are amost done with the 1 3/4 inch bolts. I have been doing a lot of degreasing and painting. The base has been primed as well as the lower bearing housing, speed drive castings and misc parts. Montaque Machine charged me $475.00 to re-finish the table bearing. I thought that was very reasonable. The friction drive disc is 2 inches thick and 13 inches in diameter. It is held between two cast iron discs. Someone had replaced the original hard rubber disc with nylon. The nylon was so slippery that in order to drive the upper works at any speed the face contact pressure was so high the nylon was melted!!! We got Flyn-Marr in Holyoke, MA to make us a new, hard, rubber disc. The flannel strips that cover the six vertical slots in the upper spindle bearing were really bad. They keep the oil from leaking out the top end of the main spindle. We found the Boston (Beacon) Felt Company in East Rochester, NH. They are making us new strips.

We are almost ready to start reassembling the base. Meanwhile I finally got permission from Mass DEP to start my dredging operation at our Indian River HEP on the Westfield River. We are draining the river on Tuesday morning. Tonight I am taking the trailer to NJ to pick up the Rockwell Shaper and bring it back to the shop. I hope Warren does not quit on me! lol!!!!