About a year or so ago I snagged a very dirty K O LEE surface grinder on Ebay. It didn’t take any bids for some reason (probably the shipping). I’ve spent a while cleaning it and fixing whatever needed attention, and I’m getting dangerously close to firing it up.
I’ve been tripping over the original coolant pump, and finally got fed up enough to haul the heavy turd up to my bench to part it out. I had planned on just popping a 10$ Harbor Freight pump in a 5 gallon pail for coolant, and be done with it, but after taking a good look at this coolant system I decided to reconsider. It is built on a decent sump with a 3/4″ steel plate for a base, and built like a brick outhouse. The cast aluminum belt guard alone made me want to save this piece. I LIKE American Iron better than I like Chinee junk. Time to put my money where my mouth is.
I didn’t take any pics of the grinder rebuild, but its about done, so I’ll try to show this part of the build. Theres still some work to do on the grinder, too. The pump is real dirty……..
The permanent screen filter is a plus (I’ll try to find a replacement, and keep this as a spare)
Here are a couple of shots of a really nicely made “oil gauge, filler cap” and manufacturer’s data plate; another excuse to
save this crusty bugger.
About a week later………The completed base.
The pump apart, its in real good shape. The pump shaft is supported by roller bearings and has a grease fitting to lubricate them.
The only wear visible is on the pump cover, where the gears have cut into the cover a couple of thousanths.
Heres the cover after a few minutes on the belt sander……..
Heres a couple of shots of the assembled pump. Nothing really tough about the assembly, just keep it clean, and I used Loctite anerobic gasket eliminator. I dug up a tube of marine grease and gave it a few shots in the Zerk fitting. The pump felt alot smoother cleaned and lubed.
Onto the coolant delivery manifold……………….
Long story short: This project stalled after I realized (was informed by a viewer) this was actually the hydraulic pump for the table pistons (that aren’t there anymore), so its of no real use to me. I gave it to Rich Soby (gageteer and all round square dealer), who is going to make an elevator lift pump out of it. Hope he gets further along with it than I did.
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