Grinding & Repair of Lucas CNC Floor Bar Machining Center

 Part 1

A machine tool customer contacted us because their Lucas horizontal table and saddle were significantly misadjusted, and the headstock was falling. We ground the top, master, Gib site, and binder areas, then applied turcite under the table to restore the centerline after material removal. The heavy table takes time to flip, and once complete, we’ll return to the customer to ensure the saddle is perfectly aligned with the machine base to prevent tapering during end-to-end machining. If your facility faces similar issues, contact us for a quote.

 Part 2

We scraped the master way, requiring us to replace the turcite for full adjustment, but material removal shifted the table inward, widening the Gib gap. This necessitated pushing the wedge-shaped Gib further to secure it against the master. After scraping and remeasuring the Gib, we scraped it back into the machine to ensure complete adjustment. We’re nearly finished, currently indicating and regrinding the binders for a perfect fit. Finally, we’ll align the headstock to the column to ensure a proper sweep, preventing the headstock from leaning forward and causing shingling on the part.

 Part 3

After determining the material size needed to fill the previous void, we glued it in place and set heavy plates on top to ensure the glue bonds tightly. Tomorrow, we’ll trim the Gibs, remove excess turcite, and hand-fit them back into the table and saddle, restoring full adjustment to the machine and making it like new again.

 Part 4

The bedways are perfectly ground, still showing Dyken Blue from a rub to ensure a proper fit, with binders securing the table to the surface below for strong clamping and excellent contact, finished smoothly with a grinder. We ground the saddle and table top upon receiving the machine, carefully scraping while accounting for the three to four thousandths of glue thickness between the two walls on each side to achieve near-perfect alignment, as evidenced by the Bloom’s ideal contact. Using a Gelbox and our precise way grinder, we’ll add the lubrication system, measure heights, and sweep the spindle to ensure it’s square with the column’s master, preventing shingles during cutting by avoiding a hanging spindle that could cause uneven cutting with a 6 or 10-inch cutter.

Part 5

We’re working on a Lucas horizontal boring bar with a clean bed, using a fixture to support the back end while gluing 90,000 material on the flats and 45,000 on the master. To ensure smooth sliding with turcite, we sweep the setup, repeatedly removing the component to hand-scrape the surface for good contact and scraping the center to fit 4.0. This precision is critical to keep the spindle square to the column, preventing a shingled finish on large parts due to a hanging spindle. The process is time-intensive, requiring careful setup and scraping to restore the machine to like-new condition. For questions or guidance, including turcite suppliers, feel free to contact us.