Member postings for Andrew Tinsley

Right, I now have my Arrand Boring head with a 3 MT Taper. I also have the Arrand 2MT Taper.

However I am blowed if I can undo the 3MT Taper from the head. There must be a simple way of doing this, but the mind is blank.

Andrew.

The topic of cheap inverters has been well aired. I suggest you do a search on the forum. Some are dead against cheap VFDs and others claim they are just fine. I think it is a case of making your choice and paying your money.

I have gone for second hand Siemens 420 and 440 VFDs and have been pleased with the result.

Andrew.

I have a Drummond round bed. I have graduated the hand wheels and cleaned and fettled the lathe. I find it surprisingly good, once you have got used to it. I don't find it difficult to set up either.

The one thing that lets it down is lack of a back gear. I wished I could find one of the aftermarket back gears that were made for the old round bed.

I have more modern lathes than the Drummond, but it gets used quite a lot, so that must say something about the lathe. Clive would probably say it says a lot about me!

Andrew.

Hello Chris, thanks for pointing out that the bar is not faulty. I didn't realise that the cutter was secured by a wedge. That makes it even more difficult to adjust, unless you know of a good way. I would not give such a boring bar house room. The micrometer type is much, much better.

As an aside, I have a mill as well as a lathe. When boring cylinders. I much prefer to use the lathe and a between centres boring bar, providing that you can fit the cylinder on the cross slide. If the cylinder is too big to fit, I then use the mill as second best.

Andrew.

I have a set from the chap who made them for the old Myford Company. I always thought that they were excellent, until I started doing more hefty work. There seemed to be more movement in the tool than I was used to. I reverted to the old Myford standard tool holder and this was better, if not really perfect. I borrowed a Tubal Cain Gibralter toolpost and was stunned at the difference A solid toolholder at last, that didn't move under heavy loads.

Now QCT holders have their place and are very useful, but they do have some stiffness problems. Just something to be aware of.

Andrew.

Hello Mark,

It looks as if your boring bar is faulty, as others have said, do talk to Myford.

I don't like that type of boring bar, as I find it terribly difficult to adjust the tool accurately. I much prefer the type with a micrometer adjustment to set the tool protrusion. GHT gives a good design in his Workshop Manual. Another type is marketed by Hemingway Kits and doesn't take long to construct. In fact the kit makes up three boring bars of different diameters. If memory serves me correctly, the kit for three bars is about 50% more than the single bar from Myford.

I made up the Hemingway kit and was given a GHT boring bar as well! They are a joy to use, much easier than the Myford offering. Having said that, I am sure someone has found an easy way of adjusting tool protrusion on a simple between centres boring bar. It is just that I have not worked out how to do it!

Andrew.

Maybe it would have been a good idea to have solved this problem BEFORE you built your layout. Sounds like very poor forward planning.

Andrew.

Excellent suggestion Baz! I have just reinforced my loft floor and it was a straightforward and surprisingly inexpensive job..

The obvious way to go, simpler and cheaper than complex weight bearing devices that must weigh next to nothing. Makes me think of skyhooks!

Andrew.

Hello Steve,

The stuff I use is in the form of brown flakes. It was used in making the cement for fixing the caps on GLS light bulbs. I liberated a coffee jar full some 20 years ago and I still have enough to last me out.

Andrew.

Hello Nigel,

I have used aluminium and even mild steel for a "chuck". This is bolted onto a faceplate for the turning operation. I use just straight shellac. Although the real Tubal Cain does recommend mixing in some beeswax with the shellac. Strength of bond has never been a problem. So I expect the modern version of this technique would be just as trouble free.

I don't like cyano type glues because the fumes upset my eyes. Shellac is rather comforting and old fashioned!

Andrew.

Thanks Steve, I might have expected that it was more complicated!

Andrew.

Thanks very much Brian! I thought someone would know.

Regards,

Andrew.

Does anyone know if Arrand boring heads have replaceable arbours? If so does anyone know if they have a common thread?

Regards,

Andrew.

Hello Dave,

All of my CS taps have come from Tracy Tools and the HSS versions are Draper, Presto or Sherwood. I know now that Sherwood is probably Chinese in origin, but never the less I find them every bit as good as Presto or Dormer.

Maybe you are correct in subconscious care with CS and not so with HSS. But by now I would think that I have learned my lesson.

I always use a tapping guide if at all possible and I use Rocal tapping compound. So I must just be an odd man out.

Andrew.

Interesting that most people seem to think that good CS taps are probably the best way forward. It is certainly my experience. Everyone says that CS taps are more brittle and break more easily than HSS versions. This is the exact opposite to my findings. I have never broken a CS tap, but plenty of HSS ones! I wonder why this is? If I didn't have the contrary experience, I would have surmised that CS taps were more prone to breakage.

Having said all that, I bet I get lots of CS taps breaking now. The workshop gremlins will see to that!

Andrew.

If you believe in quantum theory, then there is a very large amount of free energy in the vacuum. Anyone that can extract it will make a fortune.

A good many startling advances in science have been made by people who are not experts in the field. maybe they have a wider perspective than blinkered specialists.

Andrew.

I am not sure about intensive use, but CS taps that I have (Tracy Tools) cut better in most materials than similar HSS taps (again good quality ones!)

I have never broken any of my CS taps but I have managed to break an awful lot of HSS ones! Maybe it is just luck, but I don't think so. If I were using them day in day out, then perhaps the HSS would prove the better bet, but for occasional amateur use CS taps seem to be the ones to go for.

Now I shall probably be shot down by the more experienced folk.

Andrew.

I renovated a 9x20 lathe for an disabled and impecunious friend of mine. It came on a ridiculously high stand. Lathe centreline was 14" higher than my Myford on maker's stand.

Do you know what, it was a joy to use, because I did not have to bend!! I now think that most lathe stands are much too low.

Andrew.

Could well be a small glass lathe.

Andrew.

One Norwegian railway blows down the boiler with a little bit of fire left in the box and then opens a convenient aperture and inserts lighted candles to remove most of the oxygen. The boiler is sealed after putting in the candles.

I have seen this done and helped put in the candles, so it isn't a joke on my part!

Andrew.