Hymac 580BT 1969

[Jeremy Rowland]

I finally managed to get up to the machine yesterday and had a good day working on the machine; Tony Wilson who works for Andrew welded up the oval bucket cylinder eye and the corresponding pin for me and I used a carbide burr in a 110V die grinder to get the hole back to a circular shape as best as I could.
The last part of the broken bearing in the back of the cylinder was also removed and finally I took the front of the arm back to bare metal before priming and then top-coating with paint. The bucket link has also now finally been repaired I have posted just the one shot of this after being bored out; so now I need to rub down and paint the cylinder then assemble it when the newly chromed and sealed rod come back from repair.
Finally I have two new steel feed pipes to fit along the top of the boom along with new flexible hoses that I will get made up should finish this part of the machine restoration.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Just a quick update; here is the finished bucket link, just got to get it back to the machine and painted now.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

I finally got up there last Saturday and managed to get the bucket ram assembled; I fitted the new 'rose' bearing in the end of the cylinder after having first drilled and tapped the hole for the grease nipple 1/8" BSPT, then I lifted the cylinder on by hand and put a screw driver to hold it while set up a jack to jack it into position.
The rod looks like its had a new chrome bar but the chaps who did it for me fitted the wrong size bearing in the end so it had to come out; they fitted two and a quarter inch when it should be two inch mind as there was virtually nothing left of the old one because it was that badly shot I can excuse their error, anyway with Andrews help I managed to get the thing back together, to top it all off it rained so that just about stopped play.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

I had a fleeting visit up there today for the first time in what seems like an eternity; well there was more to the 'Rose Linear Bearing bush' than meets the eye, to cut a very long story short the eye on my crowd piston rod is an odd-ball size which is now obsolete my supplier located one in the States but at a cost of £208 that was a none-starter so far as I was concerned. Tony Flint suggested getting a standard eye welded on the rod but after having already assembled the piston/cylinder assembly I was loathe to strip it apart again.

I decided to fit the bearing size that I had been given but to press an oil-lite bush into the actual bearing to bring the inside diameter down to the required 2" I drilled through the lubrication hole so greasing it is no issue; if it falls apart after only a short time I will know my idea was not the best

It was far too hot to work today but I did manage to get the bucket linkage back together and painted the last part of the cylinder so just got the hydraulic feed pipes and hoses to sort now.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

I can't recall if I posted this first photo on here or not? One of the things that was bugging me when I first bought this machine was the nearside steel bucket feed pipe that runs along the top of the boom had been bent downwards by a previous owner and it looked a mess mind you the rest of the digger did too
Anyway as you can see from the first photo I did a temporary bodge job to try and straighten it out a bit until a good second hand one became available, to cut a long story short I got some made up by Julian Carder when he got some new ones made for the 580BT he rebuilt for one of his clients.

Having done the bucket linkage and ram I wanted to get these two steel pipes swapped over so this last Thursday I got up there and set about changing them, Tim Brown gave me a hand to undo the connectors (see red arrow) as they were solid, even with the 'hot spanner' they were tight but I got both of them changed and got to paint the left side of the boom where the bent one had prevented me from painting Alas rain stopped play so I was unable to complete the job by fitting the rest of the bucket ram feed hoses, that's a job for next time.

Jeremy

[essexpete]

Jeremy do you hand paint or do do spray in small areas?

[Jeremy Rowland]

Jeremy do you hand paint or do do spray in small areas?

Pete, I am brush painting the machine, I use an angle grinder to fetch the old paint and rust off all the way back to the bare metal then prime it then top coat it, never been brilliant at bodywork or painting and not got the budget to pay somebody, besides if the whole machine had been painted in one hit then the paint job would have been inevitably damaged as I carried out further work on her, really I just want the machine to look tidy and carry on from there.
On a more somber note I paid for a chap called Spencer Digby to paint the name plates and 'HM580BT' plate for me; he made a smashing job of them, the company he owned makes the signs for the company where I work, I found out last week he had died back in October last year of Leukemia at the age of 42 so RIP Spencer.

Jeremy

[essexpete]

That was bad news Jeremy.
The Hymac looks tidy. Can you roller larger flat areas after cutting in?

[Jeremy Rowland]

That was bad news Jeremy.
The Hymac looks tidy. Can you roller larger flat areas after cutting in?

Pete, I don't like to apply oil based paint with a roller so it is all done by brush, the paint is quite expensive but generally leaves a good finish, it will never be a Julian Carder or Tony Flint restoration but it will look tidy and be the first digger that I have ever restored.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Taking advantage of what could be the last nice weather we see this year I booked this last Thursday off work and headed up to my 580BT Thursday 19th also happened to be the third year to the day since I purchased her.

My plan was simple; fit the two steel pipes to the front of the dipper arm and the flexible hoses that join the boom and dipper then the smaller ones that fit to the bucket ram itself, all easier than said. As you can see from the first photo a ratchet strap and wood was used to help fit the two small flexi hoses while the steel pipes were bolted in place.
I had already previously tapped out the two holes for the securing bolts they are 9/16" UNC and had two new zinc and yellow pas bolts ready to secure the brackets into position. My thanks also to Tim Brown who helped me out with the fitting of these bits.
The sharper eyed among you will spot that the two armored hoses that take the feed down to the bucket ram are crossed; at some time in the past somebody has bent the steel pipes over on the spool valve alas there was just not the time to mess about swapping those over, anyway she is back together and works okay, I also just had time to fit two new air-filter elements to the Poclain.

There is some welding to do on the Hymac boom but once that is done then I will probably break off work to do the leaking bucket ram seal on the Poclain, all and in all I came away feeling happy that good work had been accomplished.

Jeremy