Member postings for ronan walsh

The 2mt collet chuck i use in my tom senior mill vertical (knuckle type) head keeps sticking in place. Normally on any mill (usually r8 tools) i have used i slacken off the drawbar a couple of turns and give it a light tap of a brass or copper hammer and the tool pops right out no problem. I have tried the same thing with this morse taper tool and it stubbornly remains in place. If i have to resort to hitting the drawbar harder it knocks the head out of alignment. I have tried leaving the taper dry and with a very thin smear of copper grease but it makes no odds.

Is this something you just have to suffer with morse taper tools, it doesn't happen with the tailstock on the lathe or my pillar drill. Any solutions ?

What thread form will the nut be ? Any of the engineering steels (en19t en24t) are ok to turn and thread and are very tough.

Well if a design or style of something doesn't grab you then its hard to have interest in it. For me the bikes of the 50's and 60's are far more appealing. As for the insurance companies knowing what the bikes are worth, sadly thats because the lowlifes also know what they are worth. A certain well known auction website is a god send to them as these old bikes are sometimes worth even more in bits than complete.

Edited By ronan walsh on 10/10/2013 22:49:56

Ian here is a link to the Tom Senior manual on the Denford website. Don't know if you found it yourself.

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I have found much the same, or some people who get "kicked upstairs" are those who have not got hands to bless themselves, one guy i worked with drilled a hole right through the middle of the palm of his hand through sheer stupidity, a few weeks later he was made a foreman or supervisor or something equally meaningless. When i asked how this could happen i was told he could do less damage off the shopfloor.

That bike looks great shaun, its a credit to you. I sort of agree with you shaun, too many people in the worlds of home engineering and old bikes (the only hobby's i am interested in) are the sort you would run a mile from in real life, the anally retentative know all types - "oooh , your magneto lead clip is nickle plated when they were chrome plated for 1956" type bores.

For this reason i keep my distance from clubs and certain websites. This one isn't too bad.

Thanks Michael, i was more interested in the pulse edm rather than the more simple sparker. They are useful for broken tap or stud removal certainly, but i was wondering if the pulse version would be more useful for some actual intricate metal removal,

Has anyone made a edm (electro discharge machining) machine at home for hobby use ? There are several books available and several websites dedicated to this method of machining, as well as a yahoo group. I was just wondering what results can be obtained etc.

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Yes the universal capability of the table being able to swivel , when used with a universal dividing head , it being geared driven by the x-axis leadscrew can be used to cut helical spiral gears etc

http://youtu.be/vyg0Emz4Vx4

I have a tom senior universal. It is a true universal machine as others have explained, it has horizontal and vertical capabilities as well as a table that will swivel up to 45 degrees in either direction. I have never had to use this feature , but its nice to know its there if i need it.

The software to go with this printer is cubify invent, its a bit like a very simple version of solidworks. a free trial version can be downloaded from their website.

**LINK**

I think the tom seniors are very well made machines and a nice size for home workshop use. Just one point i wanted to make about the footprint of these machines, the suds tray is often quite a bit larger than the area of the base, i was able to cut the back off the tray on mine and tig weld a piece of flat steel on the back. This allowed me to push the machine back a bit further against the wall to save space.

en16 maybe ? I know from working on the gearbox of my old bsa 650 that they made the gears out of en36 and case hardened them, maybe a steel to consider too. alternatively you could use a nitriding steel as distortion is low (or lower) with that process.

**LINK**

Hello Terry

I have a tom senior, and two different size horizontal arbours for it , 3/4" and 1". Both have keyways running along their entire lengths, 1/4" off the top of my head. No way would the pressure of the nut hold a horizontal milling cutter in place while cutting , even with light cuts.

Edited By ronan walsh on 24/09/2013 01:00:39

Hmmmm, those screwless vices look interesting. How do they measure up for squareness, jaw parallelism, quality of machining etc ? Not expecting high end swiss engineering for that money, but i don't want to settle for junk either.

Thanks for the replies, i had considered the vertex ones, didn't know what to expect quality wise though. Might give one a go.

When i bought my tom senior universal i also bought an abwood 4" milling vice. The abwood is a little bit small for some of the jobs i have been doing and it doesn't open very wide.

Can anyone recommend a decent 5" milling vice that won't cost the earth ? i have been offered used 6" vices but they are far too big for my little machine.

You can't blame people for being careful when it comes to firearms , after all inner city naval cannon shootings are rife at the moment.