Member postings for Howi

Don't be put off buying a clone of the arduino uni, the board is open source so anyone can produce them. They probably all come from the same factory in China anyway. I picked one up via ebay for £4.25 and is actually better than the one I got in the Franzis tutorial kit. Don't be misled by tales of bad soldering etc ebay has lots of boards many direct from China, Hong Kong etc and most things I have bought from there have only taken about a week to arrive ( where do you think the uk suppliers get their stock from?) most are post free as well.

I have bought lots of add on boards including shields, various sensor/timer modules for peanuts compared to uk prices (although some uk prices can be as cheap - an example 4x4 membrane keypad for less than £1.00 inc postage)

dive in and have some fun - a little advice - if the sketch (software) won't compile and gives strange error messages, first place to check is the library.......... Enjoy!

Well and truly mugged I would say Neil, once again a beginner is given totally useless advice. He is unlikely to have the experience to know the difference between a good second hand lathe and a total piece of crap. Note: if he had this knowledge he would be unlikely to be asking for advice.

As a relative beginner myself, my advice (for what it is worth!!!!!) Is to go for a brand new lathe, minimum size 7 x 14, more practical size as bigger is usually better would be 9x20 but this will be much bigger and a lot heavier to manipulate into your workshop space, a compromise would be an 8 x 14, harder to find but are available from Amadeal amongst others.

Any of these will give you a good start and give you experience in using the lathe and learning if it is big enough to handle the work you intend to do on it. If you buy toobsmall , you can always sell it on without losing much money and buy something bigger/better. With some experience under your belt you can then take on board the advice from the glitterati re Myford and larger English made lathes.

Ignore any advice that Chinese lathes are not to be considered, there are plenty of us on here who are very happy with our Chinese lathes, as they have improved enormously over the past few years.

Good luck in you quest for a lathe, let us know what you decide on.

Regards

Howard

My wife used yodel to return unfit goods, 24 hrs later her card details were used fraudulently, coincidence or what?

Fortunately the bank picked it up straight away and money refunded back to account (eventually). Goods had been ordered from play.com and amazon, buyers address would be different to ours and could be traced. Goods should only be delivered to card holder address ( I know that can be inconvenient, but would stop this type of fraud).

Also nobody seems to want to follow up this type of crime.

completed my division controller electronics, just need a rotary table and make suitable coupling bits.

Controller is based on PIC18F452 chip firmware by Steve Ward web address [email protected].

Although I have facilities for production of own PCB and programmer for PIC chip, it was easier to get a ready made PCB and electronic bits including programmed chip for board from Steve Ward. The 4 line 20 character display was from Ebay ( about £5.00) , keyboard also Ebay about £3.50 ( I did also get a membrane keypad for £1.20 inc postage but preferred the other one), stepper driver board again from Ebay via China, decided to use one with a much better chip than the one Steve used, cost £11.00 inc postage and took a week to get here. At £11.00 it was dearer than the earlier chipset boards but still cheap against similar driver boards in the uk which seem to cost £40.00 upwards. Check out ArcEuro site for prices of there driver boards, not saying ArcEuro are expensive, just typical prices here in the UK.

I hope I do not come across as having a go at ArcEuro, I have and will continue to buy from them as there service is second to non, I am just using their site to illustrate typical cost here in UK for these stepper driver boards.

some photos below (I hope! first time trying to upload photos)

Just to let everyone know, B &Q have boxes of 5 x 4 watt led lamps gu10 fitting for £16.00, that is £3.20 each.

They seem to use 1 x 4 watt led rather than multiple led of lower rating.

Supposed to be equiv to 35 watt halogen but both the wife and myself think they are brighter than the 50 watt halogens they have replaced..

Energy saved = 4 watt x 10 lamps replacing 10 x 50 watt = 460 watt saving

If you have bought software as a download only, surely you will have a licence key, what is wrong with re-downloading the software?

Did the software download fully prior to installation, if so why not save it to a cd /DVD or another HD?

You need an AS06 diaphragm compressor, they give a good volume of air at up to 40lb pressure, run very quiet. You should not need more than about 5 to 15 lb of pressure on small steam engines up to 1 inch bore.

There seems to be a lot of scaremongering regarding LED bulbs, buy from a reputable source in the UK and you will not have any problems. Buy this sort of thing from China at your peril, why you would want to, I don't know. Have a look at CPC prices on LED bulbs, they do a vast selection.

One thing you will notice is that LED bulbs come in all shapes and sizes, mains voltage, mains voltage dimmable, 12v DC, 12v ac/DC.

I have used compact fluorescent bulbs in my small workshop as I had plenty in my lamp collection, I have recently bought a clip on led light for the mill and lathe which gets light where I want it without burning myself on a similar sized halogen bulb type lamp. I have also just installed a 10 watt LED flood lamp (mains powered) directly above the lathe which gives me a superb spread of light. The compact flourescents will be replaced in due course with LED bulbs as will all the bulbs in my house.

Just remember, like most things in this world, you ( usually!) Get what you pay for, cut corners/cost at your own peril. LED bulbs being no exception, just use common sense.

The voltage of lithium cells when fully discharged can fall below that required for the internal charger to start a charge cycle. A quick way to get the voltage up to the point the internal charger can take over was indicated in my original post. As the higher voltage is only applied for long enough to get the voltage up, usually a matter of seconds rather than minutes, it is unlikely to affect the cells in an adverse way. Lithium cells, even small ones can generate high current so pushing 100 ma through for a few seconds is less brutal than throwing the cell pack away.

When I worked for BT there was an unwritten rule called "percussive adjustment", if some mechanical device was proving to be reluctant to take the adjustment procedure, a quick look round for peeking eyes, then clout it with something heavy usually caused the offending device to cooperate.

Occasionally big sticks do work. Old fashioned valve TV's being a classic example - who (of us oldies) haven't used ones hands to to slap the thing into submission then scarpered while it was still working?

I used to reinvigerate mobile phone batteries that would not charge due to the cell voltage falling below charging threshold by applying a larger voltage I.e 12 v but limited current about 100ma from a wall wart type psu for a few seconds, once the voltage of the cell pack was raised above the charging threshold the battery could be replaced in the phone and the normal charger used.

I agree totally - It was not necessary.

I did post a rather longer rant, but it all went toes up - computers eh! Don't you just love em!

If it is bus bar it will be either aluminium or copper, easy to check via weight.

Due to cost and weight copper was substituted with aluminium when I worked for BT and we had some hefty bus bars, only 50 volts but a lot of current when BT was mainly electromechanical. The bus bars were often multi stacked near the supply input. Trying to cast my mind back a few years, it was not uncommon to have 6 to 8 bus bars 9 inches wide by 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick clamped together. All joints had to be tested with a sophometer.

Taking things apart must be part of the phsychy of model engineers, we need to know how things work and how they are made - nothing wrong with that.

As for all the false snobbery regarding Chinese machinery I have to agree with Neil, it is not what you have but how you use it, that counts.

If it were not for Chinese machinery, I would not have been able to afford to get into ME.

Yes! Of course I would like a more industrial quality lathe, but the reality of only a small space for a small workshop means this size of machinery is well out of the equation for me and I am more than satisfied with my AMA210 and Super SX2 mill/drill. Long live the Chinese imports.

I can certainly offer my services with regard to the Amadeal 210 lathe if it of any help.

Howard

I am going to throw in my 5 pence worth, being a relative newcomer as well. I got an AMA210 lathe from Amadeal, bigger than the Clarke (7 x14) but smaller than the 9-20.

Unless you really know what you are looking at forget used, do not believe everything you read about Chinese lathes.

Take any advice from this forum with a little pinch of salt, the advice is in general correct, just not appropriate for a beginner. When you have used your lathe for a while then you will be able to understand the advice given here.

I have had mine about 18 month now, it is a very capable machine ( for it's size ). I would have loved the x3 but my workshop is just not big enough ( my wallet neither!)

It worked right out of the box as I did not feel confident enough to strip it down at the time. I have fitted Igaging scales on all 3 axis and boy, what a difference, so had to strip it down eventually and was surprised at the overall quality of the machine. For those that mock the Chinese kit based on experiences of 10 years ago, I can assure you that things have moved on a great deal since then. I got mine with the R8 spindle also ( with the freebie kit as well) and tool changing is a doddle. The motor is, as you say, very power full for it's size.

Most experienced of the people on this forum quite rightly advocate much bigger, heavier and stronger machines and would look upon the X2 type machine as a mere toy in comparison - I do have to agree with them, but for it's intended usage range I find it more than adequate, certainly for the types of things I use it for. It all boils down to the space you have, the money you have and the size of things you intend to make.

Arc euro are a pleasure to deal with, I picked mine up from the shop ( more like Aladins cave), it was ready and waiting when I got there and two very nice gentlemen put it in the back of my car for me.

If the size of the X2 is big enough for you, I can readily recommend it.

One last thing, the tachometer that you can buy desperately for £100+, don't bother, you can get a tacho module complete with hall effect sensor and magnet for under £7 on ebay- direct from China (free postage) and took just a week to get here, works a treet.

If your varifocals are making you nauseous/sick then I would say your brain is adjusting itself to them. As that chap Percy Vere said, you have to stick with it and give your brain time to adjust. Nothing in life is perfect - don't expect miracles.

With lenses you get what you pay for.

I have had mine for years and would not go back, I wear them all the time, there are times when things are not perfect but you learn to live with it or adjust.

Another of my pastimes is archery (compound bow) ANY form of glasses let alone varifocals is a real pain in the ass.

You need Alreader app it will read any format.

Hi Russell - the 100ib breaking strain quoted was for ONE strand. One would normally use multiple stands to get to the thickness of the fishing line used above.

as for creep, if initially stretched to 100 lb future stretch is negligible. it is important that bow strings do not stretch after an initial shoot in period, even more so with compound bows.

As for UV stabilisation, again, not really relevant as UVB stability is excellent or they would not be used for bow strings.

I still am of the opinion that it is a far better option than fishing line.