NAKAMURA TOME WT-300 REBUILD PART 19

Alright, guys, it’s Friday, so I just wanted to give you an update on where we’re at with this machine.

Right now, we’re working on the lower X-axis. We’re gluing on new material. We had to increase the material on the master, which is down below. I believe this machine originally had around 32 thousandths, and we ended up increasing it by 15 thousandths. We’re also going to be increasing the Gib—we’ll need to remanufacture a new one because, if we totaled it out, we’d need to apply something like 90 thousandths of Turcite to the existing Gib.

Technically, you can do that—but once Turcite gets that thick, it becomes spongy. And because this is a problem way, where all the debris tends to collect, we don’t want to risk it. So we’re just going to make a new one. We haven’t started that yet, but I think one of the guys is going to begin on it Monday morning. He still needs to scrape it in. We’ve glued it in at zero and all that, but it still has to be properly fitted.

One thing I did notice: we’ve already installed the wipers on all the slides. That way, they’re on the machine, and we don’t lose or misplace them.

But something strange came up. On this machine, the slide doesn’t go all the way up to the top of the way, and it’s not because of wear or material loss—it’s just how it was made. It’s unique. We also noticed there’s no wiper for this section where we’d expect one. The manual calls for it, but on this specific machine, there’s no mounting location for it at all. Let me show you—there’s literally nowhere to bolt a wiper on.

We don’t have a solution for that yet, but we’re going to figure something out. I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to do, but we’ll come up with a few ideas. It has to be protected somehow. Fortunately, the wiper does cover the lower surface down here, so we’re not worried about the front—it looks similar to the other side—but the fact that there’s no coverage across the full length is still surprising. We’ll address that after we finish all the scraping on the lower X-axis.

Once that’s all done, we’re going to start building the machine. We’re really close now. I’ll show you how everything indicates. Once I know everything’s at zero, I’ll be able to give you a more accurate timeline for finishing.

I’m sorry we’re a little behind. I just don’t want to rush this process. I want to take the time to make sure everything is hitting zero before we build it. If I have to put a cylinder in later, that’s not a big deal—I won’t have to pull the whole machine apart for that. But this part is a big deal—this is what I get paid for, so I’ve got to get it done right.

When we glued it up and set it on there, I remember thinking, “Man, this thing needs a wiper or something.” We’ll figure that out.

I’ll shoot another video Tuesday or so to show where we’re at. I know he already took one of the skids apart for the spindle—the main spindle goes up here, obviously, and your sub-spindle goes up there, and then the lower turn.

We’re working on it—we’re getting there. Again, sorry for the slight delay. Having the bed take up so much time didn’t help, but it’s all going to get done.

If you have any questions, feel free to call me. I’ll send another update on Tuesday and we’ll go from there.

Thanks.