Kitamura Mycenter 1/485 Rebuild and Retrofit Diary

[martyscncgarage]

Wow...hopefully the shields on the ball nuts are still good and doing their job.
Thanks for the pics and updates. Wish you continued luck on the project.
Marty

[travasky]

Ballscrews all seem to be in good shape. No brinelling of the screws that I can see and the wipers are a nice tight fitting style Ive never quite seen before. Almost like a piece of delrin molded to the screw. I think Im in luck here.

[travasky]

If you’ve ever wondered how much wire is in a VMc, I can safely say about 50 lbs worth.

[travasky]

Got it down to the base this evening. Next is clean and paint.

[martyscncgarage]

Christmas is just around the corner!

[travasky]

I had a feeling you might tease me about that. Truth is, as of today, Im cheating. Ive got an employee at the shop stripping and cleaning parts during the day and one or two employees with me for a few hours after work to throw in some elbow grease. Also will have all the really gross enclosure stuff sent out for blasting this week. Im not throwing in the towel for the end of year yet!

I got the Moglice ordered a few days ago as well. I got enough to redo every sliding surface if needed. The underside of the Y looks ok, but inspection will tell. The head is pretty much all toast. Not a big deal - just some careful work ahead.

[travasky]

Primed!

[martyscncgarage]

Clean....looks good!

[travasky]

First coat on!

[travasky]

Not a lot to post over the past week. Just lots of boring cleaning and prep work.

Tonight I molded Moglice to the gibs. I used the machine ways as the flat reference surface and laid in wax strips for oil grooves. Precision shims get superglued to the gibs to hold the coating thickness. Spray release the “mold” and lay the parts in.

Photos: