Originally Posted by
calmissile
Finally, success! I had purchased a 3.5 " spanner wrench on E-Bay but the pins were too large for the 1/4" holes in the top plate. I machined some adapters and they fit like a glove. Finally got the top plate to move, but it felt like it was turning against the 'return' spring pressure. I was brave enough to get about a 1/8 inch gap between the top plate and the main body. Discovered a set of internal threads about 5/16 from the edge.. With air pressure applied to close the collet you cannot turn the plate at all.
With the 1/8 inch gap I was still unable to turn the outer housing to line up the mounting holes with the cut out on the edge of the closer. Thanks to AeroKroil and about an hour of waiting I was finally able to get some rotational movement of the outer shell. Some more Kroil and patience, I was able to get the outer ring to fully rotate around the closer. This brought out a discovery that I had not considered earlier. I thought I was going to have the air fitting rotating 360 deg as the rotary table rotates on the mill. Since the outer sleeve now rotates completely, I will be able to have the rotary table go to any position and the air fitting can stay in one place.
After rotating the top plate back down to it's stop, the outside shell is still free to rotate.It works like a champ. I am so happy.
If someone knows which company in Hartford, Connecticut made machine tools 10-25 years ago, please advise. I would still like to find a manual on the closer in case I need to ever take it apart to change O-Rings, etc.
Doug