DoAll G-1 Hydraulic Surface Grinder restoration

Heya Dogs !

This has been in the works for a few weeks now but I've finally got the newest addition to the shop transported home so I thought I'd share.

She's an early DoAll G-1 6x18 with a fully automatic hydraulic table.

I've been FLAT broke do to the purchase but I got her for and song paid cash on the spot. A few cashless weeks is a small burden to bare for such a cool old machine. A friend of the seller even took care of the moving with a nice sized Bobcat with a boom attachment on it. We settled on a REDICULOUSLY low price of $200. The fella just wanted to see this old girl get a good home and not end up being sold for scrap so we made the deal.

The seller got this grinder in a package deal along with a beautiful Bridgeport mill but never even put the grinder under power. He had it stored outside for an unknown number of years so rust is significant but the table and column all move through their movement ranges. The On/Off switches and reset buttons are all rusted solid, the chuck is broken, and no test run at all but for the price I figured I'd get it even if it ends up needing a major overhaul to be functional.

Here She is in the shop :happy:



I spent a couple hours tinkering with it last night. I have spent the last couple weeks mentally preparing for the worst imagining every screw and bolt rusted tight with nightmarish work to free them all.

Rusted and painted over for sure but I managed to break them all free without even stripping a head.

Got the stone guard removed without any real grief and I managed to remove the stone adapter from the spindle taper with a bit of effort. The spindle turns smoothly with ZERO noticible play in any direction so I've got my fingers crossed that the spindle bearings are in good shape. Angular contact bearing are very exspensive so I'd rather not have to open up the spindle unless it's absolutely necessary. Replacement bearing are still available though so a spindle rebuild could be done if mandatory.

The spindle adapter is rusted solid so I may have to give an attempt at electrolosis rust removal on that and some other smaller rusted parts like the switch covers. Spindle adapters are availible of needed so it's a matter of attempting to fix what I've got or aquiring a new adapter.

The machine has an automatic oiler built in to lubricate the table ways but it is powered by the hydraulic unit so I manually lubricated the ways with way oil so she won't be sliding on dry ways until I get her powered up.

Having all the access panels on the cabinet removed I don't see anything thats raising any alarm flags inside the cabinet. The pump & motor shaft spin freely and all the hydraulic lines are piped in iron pipe. The oiler lines are copper with no kinks or dents that I could see. The electrical all seems pretty straight forward and all wire is run inside flexible conduit. It's a little oily inside the cabinet but there's no puddles or indication of leaks anywhere. Also no evidence of bugs, rats, snakes, or any other critters taking up residence inside or evidence of shoddy repair work so in a nutshell things are looking quite good :1971_dancing_dog:

I was anticipating that all the seals in the hydraulic cylinders would be dry rotted but the system appears to be air tight still. When you manually move the table and the cylinder compresses you can hear air bubbles being blown back into the hydraulic tank. Won't know anything for sure until she's pressurized and running under her own power but I'm thinking the air being forced into the tank is a good sign.

Planning to do a mild resto on her so here's my rough plan

-finish going over her

-wire up a plug and then mechanical test

-Fix anything broken and confirm the auto oiler is functioning properly

-Strip off the rust and paint and re-paint Not sure what to paint her with. Was thinking about Epoxy Garage floor paint for it's toughness but now thinking rattle can for easy of application and touch-up. Suggestions would be appreciated

-Build a belt conversion unit. Plan to go all out for precise tracking in a three wheel set-up using Beaumont wheels.

-Not sure about the Chuck yet. It's broken but it is a Suburban fine pole chuck so I'll check into sending it out for repair vs buying a new chuck. If it seems worth it to go new price wise I'll probably tear into this chuck and attempt to fix it myself first.

It'll probably take me awhile to get this girl ready for some grinding action but she'll be a dandy when I'm done with her.

Take care Dogs !

-Josh

I almost forgot to tell Y'all how this all came about because I already have a Boyar Schultz 6x12 manual surface grinder and was not in the market or looking for another at this time.

It's kinda funny how some things in life play out as this unbelievable score can be directly attributed to two things.

1. Volunteering to make a WIP for Bossdogs kit knife.

2. Bruce Bump.

After volunteering to make the tutorial I did quite a bit chatting with Bruce discussing tool choices for my build and picking his brain as to what he thought would be most available to the brand new knifemaker. The use of a run of the mill bench grinder was Bruce's suggestion and I don't think I'd have come up with that idea on my own.

The problem with the bench grinder was that I didn't have one but didn't mind picking one up for the tutorial so I hopped on my local Craigslist, clicked on the tools link, and typed "grinder" in the search box hoping to find a cheap used bench grinder. One of the results was this surface grinder.

Had I not volunteered for the tutorial I wouldn't have been chatting with Bruce.

Had it not been for Bruce's suggestion I wouldn't have been on Craigslist either.

My thanks out to my friends BossDog and Bruce Bump !!!! Without them I'd still be a one surface grinder man

-Josh

I hope all works out for you,it sure looks bad in the photo. You will love it when you get it working,in a little while you will wonder how you got along without it.
Good luck!

I'm finding a surface grinder is up in the "must have's" for a knifemaker. I'm using the platen on my KMG, a granite tile, and elbow grease. You look to have a very solid classic unit that will pay back the labor you put into it in very short time. In my opinion, I'd go with the best paint you can afford to put on it, that's a very classy deco style old machine and the hundred dollars in primer and paint and extra hour masking will look good for years to come and be very small investments compared to the labor you'll spend getting it running.

Man Josh , I love that old stuff . Im sure you're gonna get that thing going. and when its done , its probably gonna be the best 200 bucks you ever spent. Now that Im looking at these pics , I was delivering a bunch of snow blowers to a building sight the other day and when we unloaded the snowblowers into this garage I noticed way off in the corner a combo disk grinder ( horizontal ) and a belt sander both in one .. It looked like a heavy duty piece white in color , old looking . It also had its own stand . My friggin wheels were rolling when I saw it . I had to ask the question. "Would you be intersted in selling that machine ?" He said he needs to ask his father , its been laying back there for years.. I guess Im gonna give it a few days and give him a personal stop by follow up .. Ill keep you posted if I can score this one .. Hey man , great find on your grinder, I syked to see what it looks like when its finished .

Josh, It sure looks good except for the little bit of rust from exposure on the non painted parts. The internal parts are probally still great because of the oil. Even the paint looks decent IMO.
I painted my grinder Detroit Aspen Green because its the same color they use at Burr King. Its easy on the eyes and I love green.
Looking forward to more progress. What a steal!

Rusty? Come to Nova Scotia and I will show you rust! Great looking grinder Josh, I'm sure you will get your moneys worth out of it

Good buy, Josh. My last big project was my giant disc grinder but it was no where near the magnitude of yours. By the way, Boeshield T-9 is great to keep rust off non painted surfaces.

The seller assured me that the grinder was a perfectly functioning machine when parked but he couldn't put a # of years it's been sitting. I got the impression it was probably at least 4 or more.

Super cool guy too. He's an old biker that used to build racing engines for jet-skis and do repair work and such. We had to move a waist deep pile of old engine blocks and cylinder heads to get access to the machine. I went over and took care of the sorting aluminuim and steel scap into bins and he did the supervising. Really cool guy and his shop is fantastic. He's got a J-head Bridgeport, an MSC bridgeport clone, and a GIANT metal lathe along with a couple bandsaws welders etc.

Stopped at the local hardware for some supplies and spent some time tonight working on her tonight. I picked up this tip from Youtube today. Easy Off oven cleaner for paint remover... Who knew ? I picked up a can to try out.



Even let my Lil helper assist a bit. Wore himself out after a minute with wire brush but I managed to catch him working in a pic



Here's the saddle after the first run with the oven cleaner



I wanted to pull the hand wheels for rust removal and one came right off. The other took a redneck gear puller to get loose. I got them both off and threw them back on with some Anti-sieze on the shafts so I can pull them later for the cleanup.



I wasn't really attempting the full stripping at this point but wanted to try some spot cleaning to see what I'm up against with the paint and rust. This was about as long as I could take it without a test run so I swiped the cord and plug off my mill for a temporary wire job. To my amazement she is a functioning grinder. Both the spindle and hydraulic systems are working. The beast is ALIVE !

I've got a fluid leak in the hydraulic reversing valve that changes the direction of the tables travel but I'm speculating it's just a gasket. The leaky fluid looks milky though like a car with a blown head gasket so I'm guessing there's water in the fluid ? I'm also thinking that not all my oilers are working but the ways are getting some oil just not enough.



I took a little video of her running just got to get it uploaded

-Josh

Here we go

http://youtu.be/cVGJIDxz9c0

-Josh

Wow Josh, that's just the sweetest thing I've seen all week! Congrats man!
Looking forward to seeing this thing all dressed up.

Really cool to see how that works. You have gotten a great deal on that grinder, if I bought something like that for 200 I would not expect it to work.
With tractors if the transmission/hydraulic fluid takes on a milky look like that it is from water in the system.

Brad,

I've got precisely ZERO experience with hydraulics. So I've got a couple questions.

New fluid is obviously in order. Will I need to flush out the system somehow after draining this contaminated oil ?

It seem odd to me that I cannot find a filter in the main hydraulic system. The only filter It appears to have is one that is on the oiler system only. It looks like a carburator filter on an antique tractor with a glass bulb and a wire loop to hold it in place. I took that apart and rinsed the screen filter thats inside but I'm wondering if maybe there's not a filter inside the hydraulic tank ?

I'm going to have to investigate my oil and the automatic oiler a bit more. Now that I'm thinking about this there is no milky oil on the ways so either the oilers aren't working or the fluid in the system is good and the water contamination is happening at the spot of the leak.

Now this is bugging me now I'm going to run out and pull the dipstick and check for milky oil.

-Josh

Oil on the dipstick appears to be clear. Might just get lucky

-Josh

I would flush it man , dont take any chances . Because that fluid came out milky would bother me that there is water in the system .. You got a hell of a machine there , Id hate for it to die because of not replacing the fluid .. Stricttly my opinion. Good luck and great find bro !

Mikey is a mechanic so he knows more than me but we share the same opinion, I would try to flush it out. I don't know anything about these machines so I can't say about where or if there is a filter. Hydraulic oil is cheaper than parts in my experience.

I forgot to add dipsticks don't always go to the bottom of the tank so the top level could be nice and clear with all kinds of nasty stuff in the bottom. Just my experience but the pump usually draws from the bottom of the tank.

I'll definately be changing the oil out.

I was curious if an actual flush in needed after draining this oil and before filling the tank with the new stuff or merely drain this oil and fill'er up with the new stuff.

Any hydraulics I've seen typically have an in-line filter somewhere in the system so I'm wondering if there isn't one perhaps I should plumb an aftermarket filter into the system. Maybe only the oil going to the ways gets filtered. Hmmmmm.

Still planning to pull the table and saddle also to remove rust and paint and to get at the oilers.

Sure glad I picked up that engine hoist ! I have a feeling I'm going to be needing it for working with these monster castings

I was scoping out the paint at the hardware store and they had some Epoxy Appliance paint in rattle cans which seem very interesting. It only came in Bright White and a light Tan though I'm thinking light grey for the machine but we'll see.

-Josh

You may wanna google up a parts breakdown on this machine just to have it and to see if you can see if it has a filter on the machine .. I would think there should be some kind of filter in the system somewhere .. Real important to find the filter if there is one . If you flush system and then run new oil through it without changing filter or cleaning it (If it is a cleanable one ) you'll be back to square one with the milky white. Good luck .

I already downloaded a manual but it's covers a later version of the G-1 and the G-10 machines. Not sure what was changed from the first version of the G-1 which is what I have.

It'll most likely be some time before the oil change but I don't intend to run the machine in the mean time so I'll figure it all out.

Even if there is a filter I may end up converting to run something like this instead-

http://www.tractorsupply.com/lenz-hydraulic-filter-with-housing-assembly-1822609

I have a feeling I'll have far better access to the inside of the cabinet from the top with the table and saddle off. Time will tell

-Josh