Restoring the Great Pumpkin

Jeff Horton

Member
Messages
4,272
Location
The Heart of Dixie
Well today was the easy part Tear Down! I have been soaking EVERYTHING in with PB Blaster since it hit the shop. BTW, Kroil is the best stuff I have ever used, but PB-Blaster is a close second. WD-40 is a joke. It may lube but it does nothing for rusted in place bolts.

Took about 3 hours but she is down to the naked casting. Parts are laid out on the bench in order. And Man are those tables heavy! I used the lift to take them off and I am so glad I did! Couldn't have done it safely by myself.

d1-teardown1.jpgd1-teardown2.jpg d1-teardown3.jpg

The parts and pieces all lined up in order. Along with a few photos on the computer to help remember!

d1-parts.jpg

Now the cool thing. Babbitt thrust bearing?? :huh: :)

d1-babbit.jpg

Now the bad. The break was worse than I expected. Not horrible but it broke out right through the threaded hole. That means it's going to be harder to repair. Assuming I keep the square head on it. Haven't decided yet. Wanted to get it torn down.

d1-break.jpg

Jeff
 
Last edited:
Hey Jeff,
That is a beautiful machine. You will be able to rabbet the heck out of the big stuff now.:)
Looks like you need move those saw horses a wee bit closer together with that weight.
My 8" is a real trooper but that 12" is a champion! Keep us posted of the "GREAT PUMPKINS" growth.:D
Shaz
 
Aw Jeff, don't worry about that broken casting, just send it over to Stu, and he can weld it back together for you. He's got recent 'Sperience welding CI.:D
 
Better yet, buy a good quality MIG and learn to DIY :D :wave:

Really Jeff, not like you could not use a welder in your shop ;) :thumb:

Looking good, where are you going to make a pond for the soaking phase?

Lose the square head, it is just trouble waiting to happen, I noticed that Grizzly has these on sale :D:D:D

12_inch_cutter.jpg

ONLY $695 ..... :eek:

Just think, you would have a near perfect jointer, 12" capacity, no tear-out cutter head........:headbang:

Looking forward to the rebirth!

Cheers!
 
View attachment 7281

ONLY $695 ..... :eek:

Just think, you would have a near perfect jointer, 12" capacity, no tear-out cutter head........:headbang:

I have a little Ace up my sleeve.
head.jpg

I got this and 3 sets of knives for $50. ;) Just saved $649! :)

I ended up putting one of the tables back on last night. Of course after cleaning the moving parts it adjusts now! I realized I need the table in place to size up the round head. Long story but if I do decide to use it, and it has a LOT of advantages, I need to do some measuring to know how high to mount it and where, etc. So I put the table back on it.

And talk about heavy!! No way could I put one table in place without the lift! I can barely stand it on edge without loosing it. There is more cast iron in that one table than most new machines!

jointer.jpg

Welder is on my list Stu. I have my dad's old stick welder and acetaline torch. Just need to get new cables and relearn how to weld. Been years! But yea a mig would be much nicer.
 
You will love the MIG, it is really easy to use.

I love the bolts on the base of the Pumpkin......what, it was going to move around.............?? :rofl::rofl:
 
I've been thinking about those bolts! Someone went to a lot of trouble to put them there. What in the world were they jointing that they were worried would tip the machine over? An entire oak tree? It'd have to be 6" thick and 15' long... and even then... ;)

Not sure I'd want to bolt that thing to my floor, anyway. If it *did* tip, it might take the whole shop with it... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
I've been wondering about that bolts too. And the ones in the end of the tables? What he heck were they for??

I do have one guess on the base. I have never worked with line shafts so it's just a guess and this machine doesn't appear to have ever had a motor on it. But I wonder if the machine might want to creep towards the overhead shaft which would loosen the belt and let it slip? I can scoot it around on concrete and the trailer (wood) floor so I could see how it might move some. :dunno:
 
Actually the line shaft idea makes sense, them long belts in themselves must have been heavy, and with them pulling, and vibrating.......... yeah, I could see how they might move that large a machine.

Bill, I have no doubt they did do some major jointing of larger chunks of wood, things were not stick construction back then, but mostly post and beam, so if you had a nice beam in the middle of your great room, you would want it smooth, right :D

I just had another thought (wow, two in one day!! :wave:) could the bolts on the base be for leveling? :huh:

Cheers!
 
Got to spend the afternoon working on the Great Pumpkin. Still haven't got my game plan in my mind so I spent some time cleaning the base Thats something that has be done. As much as I dreaded it I decided that wire brushing was the best option. Even if I had a tank I couldn't swing it over into it with the engine lift. So the wire brush won. And I completely wore out an almost new cup brush on this thing. There is nothing left but a nub!

I also cleaned the ways up. They still need some attention but they are much better. They are sort of shiny again instead of rusty.

d2-base%20cleaning.jpg


d2-base%20cleaned.jpg


It's cleaner that it looks in these photos BTW. It's funny how the camera makes things look different than they really are.

d2-base%20primed.jpg


The base is primed and my back aches! Next time I will do something like this I will get the base up off the ground. I REALLY fell for anyone that has back problems.
 
You missed a spot :rofl:

Looking great, you are really getting it done!! :wave: :thumb:

When the paint starts to go on, it make such a big difference, even casual observers do a double take and says stuff like "Wow, there really WAS a tool under all that rust" :D

Keep it up!

Cheers!
 
WOW, Jeff.. That is starting to really look nice! Have you decided on a color scheme? A dark color with some gold or silver pin striping would be cool! Kinda "locomotive" looking...
 
Thanks, it does look better. It's sort of like watching you kids grow, you don't notice the changes seeing it ever day. I look at the photos and go OH! That looks better!

Greg, still thinking on color. Tossing a few things around and will probably paint small sections on the base to look at. I am leaning toward a dark color. I have considered dark red, dark green (not likely) and I saw a color last week on OWWM that I really liked. Cummings engine beige

ts-16.jpg

It created quite a stir on OWWM. Most of us are pretty traditional in our color choices. There are a couple of guys know for there rather bright color choices, but typically most of us stick to the original colors. But lots of people really like this color, me included. So it's on my short list. I was thinking maybe a dark brown on the lettering and perhaps on some of the smaller parts?

Tod, I haven't totally made up my mind but I looking at how to adapt the round head to it. I spent at least an hour yesterday measuring and looking for problems with adapting it. I am going to try drawing it up today and see if it will work and how it will look. But the round head has a lot of advantages. # blade vs. 2 blade. Jack screws for adjusting the blades. 3 sets of blades that came with the head and replacement blades are much cheaper. The original blades have to be custom made. ($$) Not to even mention safety!
 
jeff, if you opt for the round head will you be able to find bearings and saddles? or will you have to make `em? or would you addapt the babbit boxes?
 
Jeff, it's looking Great already.:thumb: I'm curious about one thing though. As much restoration work as you do, it seems as though you could/would save a lot of time, work, AND wear and tear on the old "Body", if you had a Sandblaster to use on some of the parts, (like the bases and heavy CI parts). If you are concerned about the Sandblasting Medium, (ie; sand) cutting too much into the surface or Details like the names, etc that are cast into the metal, you could use another Blasting Medium, such as the nylon pellets they use to blast The aluminum on Aircraft to remove paint and corrosion without damaging the aluminum, OR even crushed Walnut shells, like they use on the blades in turbine engines to clean them up without damage. This is just a suggestion, in case you were not aware of these methods. To keep the "Mess" to a minimum, you could contain the Blasting medium and rust/paint that is removed by the blasting with a temporary frame and some heavy plastic sheeting. Keep up the good work and progress reports.

PS: I kinda like that paint you showed too, and I might have to consider it for an item or two down the line.:thumb:
 
Norman, I would love to have a media blasting cabinet for the small parts. A big unit would be nice but I don't have a big enough compressor to drive a good blaster. It would pricey to get all that. So I just do it some other way.

Tod, this will answer your questions.

I was concerned about converting it over to the round head. It's not as simple as just slapping on pillow blocks and away you go. The round head will not work on the babbitt bearing housing. Shafts are too short. I did sketch up drawing today to see exactly what I had to deal with. Well there are problems, not that they can't be overcome, but it's going to cost to do it.

I wanted to use pillow blocks. These are standard units in the turquoise. If you look you can see that the bearings are larger than the cutter head. Not a lot but just enough to put them above the top of the outfeed bed which is set even with the cutter head. But that means that it will be even more above the infeed. And it means I couldn't use the rabbiting feature either. And I don't like compromising on a machine!

jointer_head.jpg


So pillow blocks are out. Next option is standard roller bearings in a solid block. The problem with this is going to be the price of having the blocks made. Machine shop work it not cheap. And most shops don't want to do small jobs like this. It just gets in the way of their good clients work.

My original thought was to just build a pork chop guard and always use push blocks and that may be the way to go. Will look at this some more, probably design the blocks and get prices to be sure but I have a pretty good idea of the costs.

Jeff
 
Last edited:
Not to be fussy Jeff, but your sketch shows flange mount bearings. I might be wrong, but I've always considered pillow blocks to be mount where the mounting bolts are perpendicular to the shaft rather than parallel. I guess another name for pillow block might be saddle mount? If I could sketch like you do I'd do a picture, but I can't. Might a pillow block bearing rather than a flange mount have enough clearance at the top?

just a thought

cheers eh?
 
True, it is a flange mount, depends on what catalog you look at too. But no, they are bigger. at least the ones I saw. Cutter head has 1-1/2" shafts and that is a big bearing!
 
Top