Give me a Brake

In a recent post in the Dark Chocolate and Sponge Cake series, I showed some pictures of the tear-down of the top of the milling head on my Zimmermann milling machine. Rather than add the follow up material to that thread, I thought it made more sense to put it in a separate, albeit orphan, post.

The new brake shoes - or 'break' shoes as they were described on the package - were a perfect fit:

The 4-step pulley tapped down into place the locknut can be refitted:

I tightened it back down using the Gedore pin spanner, with extension sleeve:

I've ordered a pair of M6x1 set screws with brass tips, which will be put in place to complete the fitting of the locknut. They're coming from JW Winco. Should have those in another day or two.

The housing for the drive pulley set could now be put back in place, and secured with 4 allen head cap screws:

I then winched the motor up into the air again with a come-along and got it back into place. Final step in mounting it was to tighten down a couple of nuts:

Then the wiring to the motor needed to be re-established. After feeding the leads through the box, i tightened up the compression connector:

Then the individual leads could be put back on their respective terminals:

Normally one avoids using a tool like this on fasteners cross-wise to the jaws, but these are brass fittings so the tightening torque is quite modest and certainly no strain on the plier wrench.

Connections complete:

Lastly, the cover:

I flipped the disconnect back to the 'on' position and everything was working as per usual, except for the brake, which was no longer making a clattering noise and in fact easily braked the spindle. Nice to have at least one trouble spot on the machine sorted out.

Thanks for dropping by the Carpentry Way.