machine tool reconditioning

Machine Tool Reconditioning and Appications of Hand Scraping by
Edward F. Connelly

I know that list mom must have a copy of this book. He doesn't
respond to my email's anymore though.

So that too many here do not go down the looooooooooong road of
trying to scrape in an old Brigdeport or Southbend let me offer the
following from experience.

Although our resident professor Watts will differ with my opinion,
and I have seen his machines, and they are as tight as a date for
the junior prom, he has the patience of Job, and has scraped all his
machine surfaces.His methods are different from Connelly and Les
shares only portions of his technique.

Scraping is an art. The first 100 or so hours of manual scraping
will instill that idea quite clearly. Power scraping ( with a $2,000
Biax power scraper will only get you in serious trouble faster).
That is after one has either purchased or fabricated a v way
spotting tool with a bearing of 15 to 20 spots per inch. ( no small
feat there either)

The first plateau is to scrape something flat. The next, and more
important is to scape something that will fit together according to
factory specs. That one is really difficult. Rescraping is no
fun.... Nor is a ruined casting.

Even though I have all the tools, and have made most ( I think) of
the mistakes, I would pay someone to do the scraping and fitting for
me now if I had the need.

I have seen the pros come in and strip a BP, lay her on her back,
and scrape her in and fit to specs in 3 days. For the $3500
including new screws ---- why bother???

The book is still a good reference.

Cheers
Frank