Saving the Machine the World Forgot

I never thought I'd find myself packing for a cross-country road trip chasing an obsolete piece of

machine

ry that no one wants. Lathes Mills Shapers Grinding

machine

s are all relics of a different era of machining, not only are they large, heavy and difficult to master. It takes a long time to master this movement and, furthermore, this workshop is packed with equipment of this type, there is literally no room for nothing more, but when you find out about something you've always wanted that could be destined for the junkyard, don't ask questions you drive a truck, pack your bags and leave, people are recovering, of course, just when I'm going to start recording, we stop in some traffic, so I don't really know what I'm going to say about 12 hours in. in the car with you anything could come out of my mouth I was going to say we were making our way through Indiana um but right now we're not crawling we're going to pick up a machine I've wanted for a while A very nice man named Mike near Miniapolis saw my wish list video and offered me their machine and I have received several of these offers basically for free as long as I can move it, it gives me the opinion that this is a machine.

Nobody wants that so maybe I don't know 3 or 4 hours halfway between Indianapolis and Chicago I think I always liked road trips, a lot of the road trips I took with my grandparents the only thing you had was the radio and if no You didn't listen to the radio, you would think of things to talk about or one of the things I remember my grandfather doing was he knew exactly how many miles the gear ratios of his transmission were and the final drive ratio of the differential and back he calculated exactly How many times did the safety valve go up on the entire trip from Cincinnati to Oklahoma?

Oh, I think my favorite thing in the

world

might be the traffic. I wonder how many cars I've passed going the other direction in 5 hours of driving. probably about 10 per second 3600 seconds in an hour 5 probably over 150,000 cars 150,000 different cars and I'm only in a small part of the US, there are a lot of cars now there were a lot of logistics to consider on this trip for the first time We tried to schedule it , we ended up snowed in, apart from the rental, the moorings and the driving, luckily it was a little hectic, although the only thing I didn't have to think about was my luggage thanks to today's sponsor, Ridge, everyone probably knows the product by now Ridge badge, their wallets and yes, they are cool.

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It allows me to keep track of exactly how long it took for my butt to go numb in this seat or in your bolt pen, which was a big help when a police officer asked me for my autograph on this really strange piece of paper with the Day of the Father around the corner. Visit ridge.com and use code inheritance or follow the link in the description to save up to 40% on top products this Father's Day. Thanks to R for sponsoring this video and making this road trip a little easier. Mike, how are you doing? How are you?

A car trip wasn't so bad, right? It's not bad at all. I had never done this type of filming before. That was. I bought it in South Bend when they were still in business. Ah, so you are the original owner. Yeah, wow, I love the way the slats are in the tool room. I don't know if it's a tool room lathe, but I love how they come with the solid base, doors and cabinets, that's what the hard ones look like, look how old Sal looks. Ben, they had that iron bottom cast, yeah, I mean, everything is practically new bearings.

I had to replace a bunch of bearings okay so yeah it doesn't have a feed shaft oh I didn't even see that. it's back here, yes that's the leblan which is a 15, that's the servo motor, it looks almost dead, exactly the same size as mine, yes this is the only lathe I have digital readout on, you're really doing everything the rest manually, that's impressive, how long ago? you've been collecting for a long time since the 80's 86's you say you have some really mint condition gear, it's hard to find anything in this kind of condition, yes this is the Beast, yes have you ever heard of the Shapers, Oh yes, yes, do I want one?

I don't need one, but I want one that cost me more to deliver than it did. That's the thing about a lot of this equipment, especially the older ones, is that it costs more to move than to say, it's all cast iron, you know? Beautiful this came from a high school I don't think it's been used much it still has all the scuff marks okay we've driven 12 hours you've waited in suspense while I toured Mike's amazing store what are we really? Get a Pantagraph A Pantagraph is a special type of milling machine used for duplicating and engraving and has basically become obsolete since the advent of the CNC.

In fact, that's exactly why Mike is parting ways with this because he got a CNC machine, but I'm kind of resistant to CNC. and I also found these machines cooler than cooler. I couldn't pass up the offer. A few different companies make these types of machines, but the ones I've always kept in mind are decals. This is a gk2 model and I never expected to do it. Find one in the US because they are made in Germany, but here we are, luckily for me, among Mike's collection is a tractor with forks, so it shouldn't be a problem getting this piece of cake loaded, obviously not I can't thank Mike enough for his generosity and allowing me to tour his incredible facility, a tour that continued for several hours after loading the machine, but after a full afternoon of fun and sharing a meal, it's time to make the trip 12 hours back to Kentucky to stand in front of it. and what I'll do is pick some up and slide it back, since they say it takes a village to build a machine shop and after some much appreciated help from my well-equipped neighbor, the panograph is safe at home, well, almost which it is.

On the other side of this pile of clutter in the garage, so bear with me after my latest nightmare of maneuvering a not-so-small little lathe in the workshop. I realized this and bought something that would have made everything much easier, a workshop with the appropriate name. Some assembly required, well it looks like I did it right. I mean, I followed the instructions, so let's see if it's up to the job. H, wait, first I need to make a decision about where the hell I'm going to put this when I brought the last lathe here. I maxed out the capacity of this store and these walls aren't going to move simply because I have no self-control, so something is going to have to go.

Can you guess what you're probably also wondering how I did it? I'm going to run the machine through the door and the short answer is: I don't see my years wiser when I built this workshop, I made the decision to make this wall removable, so once all of this is out of the way, I just have to remove this outlet and the cord and this whole segment of the wall will just come out, but before I let all the spring moisture in, I want to make sure I can lift the panograph well which puckered my button a little bit, but we're safely off the pallet , so let's get the wall out of the way to cover just over 1,600m in 24 hours of driving and the panograph is safely in its new place and I must say it looks right at home among all my others. machines, but there is a small problem: this belt pulley needs some space, otherwise it will just make a hole in the wall, so I will try to turn this at an angle to give myself more space.

Yeah I really like it, that gives a lot more room to go around the machine to reach everything I need and overall it looks nice sticking out like that. Now I'm doing some cutting to clean up and play with this, but first I'll do the responsible thing and put the workshop back together and stuff. It also means saying goodbye to the drawing board. I'm afraid the older panographer loses rank in this situation. Don't worry. I'll try to find a way to get him back here soon. I mentioned that this thing is old by my estimate. The documentation that comes with this, I believe is from the 1960's and usually with old machines comes dirt, rust and grime, but this thing is in amazing condition, a little surface rust here and there and a little bit of old grease and grime, but overall it's in great shape so this cleanup should be pretty easy.

I'll start like I did with all my other cleanings and work on the important surfaces first with some scotchbrite and penetrating oil. Now wait, wait, oh yeah, that's good. Scotchbrite works perfect for all metal surfaces, but I don't need it to remove paint, so for all regions I will use a mild degreaser and a rag. Last but not least is to make sure all the waves, screws and bearings are properly lubricated, we don't want this thing rubbing against a pile of metal shavings. This is also a good place to point out the incredible condition of this machine.

I mean, look at the flakiness in the wave. I could be completely wrong, but I guess. It is all original, which would indicate that this machine was lightly used, which is music to the ears of the second hand owner, okay, okay, let's play with this thing. I'm going to start with something simple in part because I've never used a panorama. before and largely because Mike gave me buku letter templates and I think it's obvious what the first engraving should be. The letters are traced by a stylist who rides on this end of the arm and then I raise the platform so the stylist actually lands. those letters are now slotted for business purpose or should I say business expense purpose.

This engraver isn't going to be very useful without engraving bits, so I bought several nice ones, oh stupid, it may have been a business expense, but it still hurts. Don't let go of the damn cutter until it's tight. The good thing is that I bought several just when you thought we were ready to surprise more configuration with this panorama. I can reduce things from any template by moving these joins, I think. I'll start with a half scale of 1 to 2 for my American viewers, the last thing I swear and this is important, we need some material to record.

I'll go with some beginner friendly aluminum, the cutter shaft retracts quickly so I'll get this in the down position and raise the deck until it's almost touching the material, then I can retract the shaft and set the depth of cut using this little guy and elegant gadget. A final check to make sure we're focused on the test piece and, more importantly, we're not going. crash into anything and then we're ready to rock. The rest of this is best explained by seeing it in action, so let's enjoy these first few chips. Okay, I love it. It's incredibly cathartic to trace the lyrics and see them materialize. on the other, platinum and my excitement at finally making a panorama for the first time isn't even diminished by the fact that I broke another engraving bit.

I mean, look how pretty the results look, but what I really want to see is how uniform it looks. smaller, let's try quarter scale in case it's not obvious how this panograph can scale movements like this, it's really just a matter of proportions, the closer the cutter axis is to the main pivot point, the more They will reduce movements, just like With this key, a large distance at the end is reduced to increasingly smaller distances as you reach the head. It may seem more complicated with the extra arms on this machine, but they are basically just to make this reduction in both possible. dimensional space is it just me or does it look even better well now I have to know what it looks like in the 8th scale okay I hate to sound like a broken record but I'm in love with that it looks so fucking good maybe now I can finally I put my maker mark on some of the tools I made, but not now.

I'm not done playing, while this hgraph is spectacular for engraving lyrics, it's likeusing your Bugatti exclusively to receive mail at the end of your driveway, so let's record. something a little more complicated like this little frilly one on my grandpa's retirement plaque, very cute, let's turn it up, not yet, we've already talked about how this can be duplicated in two dimensions, but what if I told you that too Can it be duplicated in 3D? Done because it does this in 3D by removing this bolt it frees up the arm to move up and down giving that third axis that makes it possible to duplicate almost anything so let's try something with a three dimensional profile like this engine valve cover from motorcycle.

In addition to simply assembling the piece and some material, a little extra planning is required here as well. First, the stylus. I'm going to use a 3/16 ball end mill on the turning so I need a stylus to match the shape but it also needs to match the scale so I prepared a ball end stylus and a bit of nylon that is 1.5 times larger than the ball mill or at least close enough for this little exercise, the second piece of setup is that the stylus and cutter should be in a straight line with the main pivot back here , factory original.

This machine included a so-called early stand to help set this up, but unfortunately this panograph was separated from its stand a long time ago. so I'll use the next best option, my right eyeball. Just kidding, well I made a ruler with the kingpin and then used it to set the height of the cutter and stylus, okay, let's try it. I will say one thing: this is not a quick process, but it is quite satisfying to see the full shape emerge from the raw aluminum block and it is actually very interesting to feel the feedback from the cutter as it works through the material that you can actually feel. the difference between climbing and conventional milling, but I get a little carried away if I don't limit the depth, so I'm using this stop on the pivot to work progressively deeper and deeper while keeping everything as manageable as it seems. a little better than I thought it would be the finish is not very smooth but considering I don't know what I'm doing I'll say it's pretty fair, the only real downside is that it's not a one to one duplication if I wanted to. making a 2/3 scale replica of the engine I bought this from is perfect, but a similar copy just doesn't happen on this machine unless there is a way to modify it.

I'll save that guesswork for now because I have a visitor I know will appreciate this new addition to the store my wife I made the panag I made the panography you made the panography I have to go looking for them all that time and you're not prepared I had to hide them, right? as? about that one, oh, it's small, oh, look at the small one, which is very sharp, which is the eighth scale, the eth scale, how small is this, the tenth really, so you can make it even smaller, that looks awesome so I was doing the big one first and I got to the last e in inheritance and I broke the bit oh no so I broke my two 30° bits and then I did a quarter scale so that's half of that and then half of that, is this your Makers Mark or are you just testing?

I'm just testing. I wonder how hard the r was if you cut something, it's like it doesn't do a double cut, it's not like a spring pass or anything where it takes off a little bit more. I mean, maybe, but it's so small. I'm not going to see it. I guess it doesn't really matter. I want to do the IM. I am like the Box. Look, you could probably do the Box reasonably well. I guess it's a store rule that all foods are placed at 45° so yeah, well it looks really nice it's like a number two tool specimen stadium oh you're in trouble you're in so much trouble you know How many things am I going to make you do that have swirls? girls on them was this on one of the templates no that's my grandpa's license plate it's in the corner literally just clamp it with C to the table and trace to the oh that's so pretty okay this worked much better than I thought, oh my god.

So it's a 3D panorama, so you can literally follow contours and shapes. This was done with a ball mill and so, all of that took about an hour to do. Next, you're going to do some, no, no, what do you have this? planned yes, I don't know what you're going to do, you can choose the words you want to make, there are all kinds of letters there, okay, I'll set this up while you think, I haven't had to think that much about spelling since I have a smartphone, do you? what scale do you want, tiny, tiny, forget about the polka dot bikini, ignore the fact that I'm using a wrench because I don't have the right wrench.

I don't know how to read I don't know how to read and write apparently so we're tied I can't put them in order and this is pissing me off so I'm going to literally use use that one, that one is in order This one is in order, yeah, what do you want to make it in brass? I learned from the best brass was the first thought, but I want it in a block and I don't want to use up your entire expensive block of brass. I need to do something. steering wheel stuff I would venture to say that this machine has never been operated by someone wearing a dress.

That's probably a pretty fair assumption. I'll help you set the depth on each of them, so don't worry, it's okay, so I just have to do it. I like the B the one that says I did it right let's turn it on look at them all smug it actually looks pretty good it looks pretty good that's the smallest I can use with these letters if I had small ones The letters could be even smaller, but the lines are a little thick so I don't know if I would use them. It's also soft, it doesn't stay like a strawberry or something.

You are natural. I'll do some tests on steel. before engraving anything on any of my existing tools, it's a good idea because it would be Philly, are we selling these? One critical feature is missing, this block has no champion, you can't have a champion block that doesn't. It doesn't have chamers, yes you can because it is part of the project. Ah, this is here. I'm going to make the blocks to say # # chamfer them and it's up to the buyer to chamfer them yes, it's a command. limited run limited run in the description you can get your own project block yeah you made a block where you're going to put it I thought it would stay down here yeah where you're going to put it we're going to put it right I think That concludes this whirlwind of a project machine purchased by my wife, approved and we even had a little moment of it and I have to thank Mike once again for his amazing donation to the store.

Honestly, it's so surreal to finally have a panorama. and in such good condition at my disposal, I'm looking forward to using it in my projects and seeing what this machine can really do as always, thanks for looking and until next time, who wears shorts, I wear shorts I think. I would get used to that camera being on that porch. I pound my noodles all the time. Don't you tempt me with your seductive ways? I think you're working at the wrong crank if you're trying to deal. being tempted you have business things to talk to me about yes okay can we go talk about business things let's go talk about business things horizontally yes yes yes?