mark in portugal
Silver Member
I wanted to rebuild my FEL for a long time; it痴 more than 50 years old and all the pivot holes are egg shaped, the pins worn out, and generally it was a shake rattle and roll situation.
When the top mount cracked, it seemed time to get into it.
I don稚 know if any of this will be useful to anyone, but thought I壇 share it anyway
After welding and reinforcing the upper mounts, it was time to rebore the holes; but how? The holes need to be accurately bored and inline. Also more or less parallel with the lower cylinder mounts, bucket pivots, and bucket cylinder mount.
I had a couple of pieces of straight round rod, 25mm and 30mm. So I put a ball bearing on a router mounted cobalt burr, and made a template on my lathe oversized so that the burr would cut a 30mm hole. The template is pinned to the lower holes of the rops so that dimension will be ok, then clamped onto the FEL with bolts and a backing plate to hold it after the long rod is pulled out.
The burr can only cut for about 10 seconds at a time before it overheats. So I count to ten, than do something else for a few minutes. The cut comes out nice;
I made an error on my first try and had to weld in one hole and recut it.
better;
the rops had t be rebored too, because the pins are going up to 30mm. It was built 1" [25.2mm] but the holes were so sloppy I'd previously put in 27mm pivot pins.
This came out really nice, no noticeable slop and the bar slides through the 4 holes.
The lower cylinder mounts were steel bushing welded into plate. I cut out the old ones by cutting the weld with a holesaw, and made new mild steel bushings to fit into the old holes.
The upper mount bushings are new, and now have bronze liners pressed in.
I made a boring tool for my drill press, but it痴 a crude thing. It made the holes round again, and the cut was close enough if I ream the bushings after I press them in. I honed the holes with my home made hone to get the worst of the scoring off. Originally it was all steel on steel.
I painted it with black Hammerite The FEL is all nice and tight now, but I still have to make proper pivots for the buckets.
One of these days?
When the top mount cracked, it seemed time to get into it.
I don稚 know if any of this will be useful to anyone, but thought I壇 share it anyway
After welding and reinforcing the upper mounts, it was time to rebore the holes; but how? The holes need to be accurately bored and inline. Also more or less parallel with the lower cylinder mounts, bucket pivots, and bucket cylinder mount.
I had a couple of pieces of straight round rod, 25mm and 30mm. So I put a ball bearing on a router mounted cobalt burr, and made a template on my lathe oversized so that the burr would cut a 30mm hole. The template is pinned to the lower holes of the rops so that dimension will be ok, then clamped onto the FEL with bolts and a backing plate to hold it after the long rod is pulled out.
The burr can only cut for about 10 seconds at a time before it overheats. So I count to ten, than do something else for a few minutes. The cut comes out nice;
I made an error on my first try and had to weld in one hole and recut it.
better;
the rops had t be rebored too, because the pins are going up to 30mm. It was built 1" [25.2mm] but the holes were so sloppy I'd previously put in 27mm pivot pins.
This came out really nice, no noticeable slop and the bar slides through the 4 holes.
The lower cylinder mounts were steel bushing welded into plate. I cut out the old ones by cutting the weld with a holesaw, and made new mild steel bushings to fit into the old holes.
The upper mount bushings are new, and now have bronze liners pressed in.
I made a boring tool for my drill press, but it痴 a crude thing. It made the holes round again, and the cut was close enough if I ream the bushings after I press them in. I honed the holes with my home made hone to get the worst of the scoring off. Originally it was all steel on steel.
I painted it with black Hammerite The FEL is all nice and tight now, but I still have to make proper pivots for the buckets.
One of these days?
