Textima skiving machine restoration - Making something out of nothing

[gigi]

Couldn't resist buying this 'boat anchor' for the price of a piece of leather. Made probably in the 50's in former East Germany - Textima was an old brand of machinery, related to CLAES brand, part of VEB Textima Co. 

LW users helping with this project directly or indirectly: 

- @Constabulary - who did most of the work: all the mechanical restoration. @RockyAussie  and @Trox - very helpful tips along the way. Also @CampbellRandall (Dan) - very helpful videos regarding skiving.  Thanks a lot!!

The machine was badly rusted as you can see in the pictures (in the left is an original photo from the ad, before restoration). Couldn't find any documentation, didn't know if it's complete, if we can find parts for it, or if this thing will work again. But definitely looked very robust and seemed it was worth restoring.

It is a bit different from other modern skivers: all the active parts (bell knife, feed wheel, sharpening wheel) are moving together with a ratio established by the gears (feed wheel moves slower). They all start/stop moving when the clutch is engaged/disengaged by the pedal. Machine is ALL gear driven (no belts inside) and the original clutch was on the outside. Found out: the old, heavy, wide-belt external clutch needed to be replaced with an external clutch motor. 

Only one part was missing: the feed wheel drive-rod (and a cover). We ordered the missing rod but realized it was too short, so Constabulary adjusted this by cutting, gluing and pinning on a tube (photo).  

Machine needed to be stripped to the last screw, every single bit was taking care of. That included: electrolysis bath to break some parts loose, de-rusting, hammering some parts out, heating them with a torch etc. Many components were all gummed up. Original paint was very thick, pretty difficult to remove. 

Following was the painting and partial assembly, greasing, shipping. 

[gigi]

After receiving the machine we set it up with a table. Mounted the main shaft and the clutch motor. To adapt the clutch motor we used a bearing, a straight-bore pulley for V-belt and an elastic ring. The bearing is used here to isolate the rotating movement from the hub. Luckily the DDR guys used standard parts for the machine and we were able to fit the bearing. 

My husband set up a VFD to control the motor for the household power. This allows me to vary the speed of the whole thing: VFD sets the motor RPM and the clutch engages/disengages the machine to/from the motor. 

After about 2 months from purchasing we were able to make the first test: machine worked! I was not sure I would be able to control the leather feeding speed but there doesn't seem to be a problem. 

Next we needed to modify the machine a bit in order to accommodate the presser feet available on the market. We made another presser foot spring (photo). I've replaced the foot with an wider one used for skiving and splitting. Basic adjustments are the same like any other skiver: the same principles.

This is a video of some skiving using the old bell knife and feed wheel. The noise comes from the straight-cut gears. Meanwhile noise level improved: we moved the gears a bit. (maybe in the future we will use a special grease to improve noise level even more): 

 

[Constabulary]

That really is an amazing chunk of metal.  Was not always fun to restore but turned out quite good. Actually the first skiver I ever have touched and I really was impressed by the well designed gear drive system. Some sticky heavy duty grease should reduce the sound a bit. Glad it is working well.

[Matt S]

That looks fantastic. Good job everyone in bringing a fine machine back to life. I'll bet it can do another few decades of work now.

[jimi]

Yes good restoration job lads, well done. looks very sturdy. good to see it working again. C´mon Folker, silver paint AGAIN!

[RockyAussie]

Beautiful restoration. Now it has to start paying for itself I think.Roller next then extractor adaptation?

[Constabulary]

8 hours ago, jimi said:

silver paint AGAIN!

sure - it´s timeless and always looks good and the hammer tone paint is covering small surface irregularities very good and - I ran out of pink and purple.

Gigi - you forgot to mention "Dan the Picker" who drove this thing all the way across Europe. 

[gigi]

14 hours ago, jimi said:

C´mon Folker, silver paint AGAIN!

'Make Textima Gray Again!'    

[gigi]

Thank you everyone for your kind words!

19 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

Roller next then extractor adaptation?

Yes, roller presser foot and a new feed wheel are next  

[Trox]

Hi and thanks, you all did a great job on this machine. Gray is a good color for it Constabulary, and gray is the color that hit you when you passed the border in to the old DDR. I worked as a truck driver in the 1980´ties and drove a lot on DDR, loaded electro motors from Veb Electromotorwerke (who was made by North Vietnamese prisoners of war in DDR captivity, I did not know at that time) and clothes for Norwegian fashion stores. I visited many factories and was always invited to "dinner" ,a spoon of mashed potatoes, a piece of meat size of a dime and some brown salat. The table fork and knife was made of a soft metal that bended on the meat. The workers did not have food but made machinery of the best quality and steel. They always wanted to prove they where Germans, and did so by putting there pride in making good products. I never forget the fog of coal and smell of two stroke gasolin, the tough, long border controls when they accused me of being a spy   Anyway, my point was that they made the world best electro motors and most of the other (industrial) stuff they made was top notch even without food.   

[Constabulary]

Trox, the POW´s in the GDR must have been South Vietnamese. The GDR and Russia supported North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. But lots of people from Vietnam worked in the GDR regularly since they were "socialist brothers".

I also have been in in the former GDR in 1994 for a few month when they build up the new German Army on the former GDR territory or as it was called at that time "the 5 new federal states" or "5 re-established states". I was around Delitzsch - Halle - Leipzig - Bitterfeld and that really really sucked - all gray, ugly, stinky, lots of rotten infrastructure....  And guess what - just recently I again drove through that era while picking up something (first time since 1994). Really a lot has changed (!!!) but you still can see the "old charm" in some areas. In some spots they really still have a lot of work to do - if you know what I mean. And back then when I was picking up the skiver (more down to the south east) we talk about here I have been in an old factory (out of business but buildings are still there) and that looked like the times have not changed since then... and the weather that day really matched the impression... let me see if I can find the pictures....

But yes, they build excellent machines, motors and stuff. I even sometime look for old GDR tools on Ebay.

EDIT:

Looks like North Korea nowadays

Edited June 9, 2017 by Constabulary

[Trox]

Hi Constabulary, 

Yes of course they where South Vietnamese, that was what I meant to say. Captured by the North Vietnamese and the Russians, I guess the GDR has "good" prisons  About a year or so before the wall fell, I was sent to Verningerode at Veb Electromotorwerke to load motors. (Norway used them in our trains and trams) We alway had to have a customs officer present when loading/unloading to open the sealed trailer. We had to come at, say 0700 hour sharp to load, if one minute past you had to wait until next day and then the visa (Kraftfahrer visa I think they called it) had expired. They you would be arrested and accused to be a spy  but they let us go after some hours and lots of interviews and paper work. We only got 24 hour visas so if something happened, and it aways does. So I was accused as a spy several times. Back on track.

I came that morning to load there was no more electro motors, I asked the customs/police officer why. He told me that all the Vietnamese POW had been issued amnesty and released. And something had changed, there was lots of aisian people selling stuff in the streets and colors everywhere. It came as a shock to me that these POW had hand wired all these big motors, nobody knew. I do not think Norway would allowed the buy of these train parts if they knew, I don't thick they still know anything about it. That city, Verningerode was about untouched by the 2WW and had old beutiful wooden buildings. Have not been there since that time, it was very different from the other gray east German cities. I was also many times in Leipzig and that factory building is just what I remember it looked like, but no clear skies; just fog of coal all over. (never as clear as on your pic)     

Tor 

[alexitbe]

hmmm, i think I almost bought this... It was from someone in Zwickau, I think and was advertised for a  while at 60 Euros...

 

I am glad I didn't take a punt as I know I couldn't have restored it to this standard...Well done guys!

Cheers

Alex

[gigi]

Thanks @alexitbe!  Kudos to @Constabulary!!

Edited July 13, 2017 by gigi