Different Kind of Old Iron

Bruce Page

Member
Messages
1,099
Location
Albuquerque, New Mexico
This is for those that appreciate fine iron regardless of race, creed, or color. :biker:

This is a 1962 SIP No.1H Jig Borer that I rebuilt about 15 years ago. I picked it up at a government auction for $500. New, this machine would have sold for about 80K. Having spent the last 31 years working in the National Laboratory research system, I've seen a lot of good equipment sent out to salvage, and I was hopeful that this was a diamond in the rough. :dunno:

The Swiss made SIP Jig Borer is the Rolls-Royce of Jig Borers. A Jig Borer is an extremely accurate milling, drilling, and boring machine. When new, this machine had a guaranteed positional accuracy of 40 millionths of an inch throughout the entire work envelope (8”x8”x12¼”). It uses a quartz veneer optical system for positioning that you read through the yellow tinted windows on the front of the machine. There is a precision microscope built into the head that you use to locate the work-piece being machined. It has a separate motor that blows cool air on the spindle assembly to prevent any thermal expansion/movement. The cool air is also blown into the front optical housing. Tim Taylor probably wouldn't have liked this machine very much because the spindle is only 1/3 hp. These machines are used only for miniature high precision work.

It had a few missing parts, but I was fortunate that Sandia's precision machine shop has a SIP exactly like this one and I was able to clone up the missing pieces. Other than having about 20 coats of paint and some ugly but light surface rust, the machine was in fairly good shape. The sealed table ways were rust free thanks to a good coat of oil. I completely disassembled the machine, cleaned & reassembled. I re-flaked the worktable by hand. When I had it complete, I was anxious to verify the machines accuracy, I machined a 16 hole pattern into a 8"x12"x1" piece of tooling plate and had it inspected on our Zeiss High-Precision Coordinate Measuring Machine. The inspection report showed a total "True Position" variation of 35 millionths in the 16 hole pattern - well within the original machine specifications. With the advent of the modern CNC machine, these machines have pretty much become dinosaurs. They're just as accurate but not nearly as fast.

It took about a year to complete. I traded this machine to a local machine shop for my Turret mill and lathe, plus some accessories. The machine shop probably got the better end of the deal but for a total outlay of about $750 and a lot of work, I was happy.

I get a kick looking at these old pictures. My garage was actually empty once!:rolleyes:
 

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Bruce:

Now this is pretty cool.....

We get to see your garage with nothing in it!!!! lol and that thing-a-ma-jig isn't bad either.


sorry couldn't resist. thanks for the story...

Joe
 
The jig borer is very cool, and looks like a sweet restoration job. It's also cool that you actually know how to operate it. I can't help but wonder if my 20-something machinist nephew would know how to even turn it on. Something tells me the machinist trades curriculum at TVI in Albuquerque (oops...Central NM Community College) wouldn't cover how to run something like that.

Wow...Bruce's shop before the garage door became the clamp rack. :D
 
Nice Bruce...wish I had seen that befor you traded and you would have priced it....those are really handy if its in a machine shop.
Reg
 
Wow, what a "Restoration". How about a little dissertation on the ""re-flaked by hand" .......for us folks with only a smattering of Machinest background? I don't understand though how you could concentrate on the restoration with all that "Room" in your Gar...er..shop.:dunno: :rofl:
 
Wow, been a long time since I heard heard the term "jig grinder". Nice restoration for sure!

Jeff
Who misses working around and with machinist that really know what they are doing.
 
The jig borer is very cool, and looks like a sweet restoration job. It's also cool that you actually know how to operate it. I can't help but wonder if my 20-something machinist nephew would know how to even turn it on. Something tells me the machinist trades curriculum at TVI in Albuquerque (oops...Central NM Community College) wouldn't cover how to run something like that.

Wow...Bruce's shop before the garage door became the clamp rack. :D

They had a great editorial on the subject of manual machine tools in the latest issue of Machinist Magazine. Basically the editor was saying that there was no way manual machines could be profitable in todays CNC dominated industry. I thought for an editor of a Machinist magazine, that was pretty narrow minded.

Now I will say a lot of negative things about the quality of Lie Nielsen tools, but since their shop was comprised of 50% of both CNC and Manual machines, they seemed to be pretty profitable. Unlike CNC's that are meant to do cycling of parts or machining parts that require multiple tooling operations, manual machines are great for one-set-up machining, and quick set-ups overall. In short it behooves any machinist to know how to use CNC machines and manual machines alike.

I am in no position right now to have my own machine shop, but in the future I want to add an old milling machine and lathe to my arsenal of woodworking tools. Nice jig borer in any case!!
 
“Something tells me the machinist trades curriculum at TVI in Albuquerque (oops...Central NM Community College) wouldn't cover how to run something like that.”Vaughn, not only were these things high dollar, they were delicate too – it didn’t take much to knock them out of alignment. I used to run a larger bridge type Sip when I worked at Los Alamos. You had to “prove” yourself before they would let you even near it. Apprentices need not apply.

“How about a little dissertation on the ""re-flaked by hand””
Norman, flaking is a process where you remove a minute amount of material from the table surface (see example pic) with a specially ground chisel (I modified the end of a bench file).

“I'm sure that machine will be working for a LOT of years to come!”
Stu, the machine shop still has it in use. Taken care of, these things last almost forever.

Thanks guys, this was a fun rebuild. I really didn’t do much to it mechanically other than clean/repack some bearings, change some bulbs, replace some wiring and make a few replacement parts for it. The rectical for the microscope was missing so I had to order a new one those.:( The rest was mostly cosmetic.
 

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