Member postings for Andrew Tinsley

The ring main should be capable of running 16 amps, most have 32 amp breakers. The real no no is the 13amp plugs and sockets which will overheat eventually. Use a 16 amp plug and socket in your ring main. Can't remember what the max current is for a spur.

Andrew.

Maurice,

I can do no better than refer you to the Paragon Paint website. They describe in detail how to get the finish you are talking about. They have a final clear coat which gives that beautiful shine!

As I overhaul my kit, I am doing just as they say and the results are outstanding. I am a messy worker and I thought that if I gave my machine tools a thorough overhaul AND paint job, then I would be more persuaded to keep them clean and immaculate. It has worked so far, but I really am a messy worker, who loses the last thing he used! not sure how long this tidiness will last.

Andrew.

Hello Clive,

An interesting dissertation on the subject of bent toolposts. I can certainly see where you are coming from. I have always checked that my topslide is flat and the toolpost is vertical, otherwise you can certainly come a cropper as you stated.

My input was purely based on what the gentleman who made the original Myford QCT recounted to me when I asked what the "washer" was for.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hello Clive,

An interesting dissertation on the subject of bent toolposts. I can certainly see where you are coming from. I have always checked that my topslide is flat and the toolpost is vertical, otherwise you can certainly come a cropper as you stated.

My input was purely based on what the gentleman who made the original Myford QCT recounted to me when I asked what the "washer" was for.

Regards,

Andrew.

Yes indeed you can get very good stroboscopic effects, if your chuck is turning in multiple fifties of RPM. So what? If anyone thinks that the chuck isn't turning when the racket of the lathe is pretty loud, then they make a big mistake.

I NEVER assume that the chuck isn't turning if I can hear all that racket. Yes even though I have a clutch fitted to my lathe. Never assume the chuck is stationary. In all the time I have had a lathe illuminated with fluorescent lighting, I have never seen a stationary strobe effect. Sure the chuck often looks as though it is going slow, either backwards or forwards, but I have never managed to get the picture in complete stationary sync .I think it is one of those urban myths.

Right. I am waiting for the explosions to fall around me!

Andrew.

I asked the very same question of the man that makes them, so you are not alone Choo Choo! The answer was quite simple, he said that the Myford sized QCT also can fit other similar sized lathes, that have different toolpost diameters.

Hence the block was bored oversize and a damn good fitting bush was provided so you could bore it out to suit your own lathe.Simple when you ask!

Andrew.

Does anyone know what RAL colour is used on Fobco Drills? Mine needs a repaint and some fettling and I might as well paint it in the correct colour if I can find out what it is.

I don't even know if Fobco are still manufacturing?

Andrew.

A cheap model aircraft tachometer should do that , make the chuck sides black and then stick on a piece of reflective foil. In fact two at 180 degrees most props have 2 blades!

I think I paid less than a tenner for the tachometer and you can always use it for what it was sold for!

Andrew

A second bush underneath the table and connected to the table from below in a triangulated fashion, does cure the tendency for the table to deflect.

I have done a lash up to prove the point, but it does mean two devices to tighten when you alter the table height and also you cannot drop the table as far. I am not sure I will do a final version as it seems to give other headaches, must be a better way out.

Andrew.

At the risk of making a fool of myself, was the thick shiny washer part of the QCT? I had a very similar "washer" with my QCT which came from the bloke who used to make them for Myford.

It isn't a washer, but a bush which is a damn good fit into the base of the QCT block. You are supposed to bore it out accurately so that it will just slide over the Myford toolpst. It should be bored accurately, so that there is no shake of the QCT block on the toolpost. Something to do with accurate machining or rather repeatable machining.

GHT had a thing about 4 way toolposts not being accurate enough because of this shake. He designed a 4 way toolpost with a huge plain chamfered bearing to seat the similarly bored 4 way toolpost block. I never did understand the reason for it!!!

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 11/07/2017 21:57:14

You can still get a decent Myford for a reasonable amount, provided you have someone with you to examine the lathe! Local buys are better, Ebay seems way overpriced!

The advantage of a Myford is that there is a huge range of tooling you can get for it. No other lathe compares in this respect. Are Myfords the best? No they were built down to a price, but then so are the majority of Chinese imports.

Boxford are also a good buy, but these can be as worn out as a Myford, or indeed any other second hand lathe! Boxfords do not have the huge range of tooling made for them as the dread Myford.

I would not buy a mini lathe, they are too restrictive in what you can do on them size wise, unless you are only going to build very small models. I have a Norwegian friend who built a Rob Roy 3 1/2" gauge loco on an old bar Unimat, so it can be done, but I would not want to try it!

Andrew.

Andrew.

You can still get a decent Myford for a reasonable amount, provided you have someone with you to examine the lathe! Local buys are better, Ebay seems way overpriced!

The advantage of a Myford is that there is a huge range of tooling you can get for it. No other lathe compares in this respect. Are Myfords the best? No they were built down to a price, but then so are the majority of Chinese imports.

Boxford are also a good buy, but these can be as worn out as a Myford, or indeed any other second hand lathe! Boxfords do not have the huge range of tooling made for them as the dread Myford.

I would not buy a mini lathe, they are too restrictive in what you can do on them size wise, unless you are only going to build very small models. I have a Norwegian friend who built a Rob Roy 3 1/2" gauge loco on an old bar Unimat, so it can be done, but I would not want to try it!

Andrew.

Andrew.

Hello Jason

I have had the filler about 3 months, so I don't think it is out of date (depends how long it was in the car accessory shop!).

I knifed on a goodly layer, maybe 3 or 4 mm thick on the iron casting as it was very rough, maybe a couple of mm on the aluminium casting which was much better for surface finish. I really don't like using knifing putty, except as the merest smidgen, where you just need to finish off. I find the stuff will shrink if it is applied in anything other than a very thin layer. It seems to act like dope on model planes, it is forever shrinking, even if you use banana oil!

What bugs me, is that I filled in some dents on my old MG a couple of weeks before I used it on the castings. That filling was spot on and showed no signs of delaminating even when feather edged. Never used to bother much about prep work when I used Trimite. This time I was very fastidious about prepping the castings!

Never seen or heard of U-Pol, is it a car accessory shop job, or is it marketed for something else?

Thanks ,

Andrew.

I have used aluminium eutectic material and pinning with JB weld, I am a bit dubious of either method for this particular problem. It broke in use and this makes me a bit suspicious that it is underrated, unless I have a flaw in the casting.

Standing back and looking and thinking, made me realise that I could substitute the offending casting with a steel fabrication. This is perhaps my best bet as it won't break there again!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions,

Andrew.

I purchased from the guy that supplied the original QCT to Myfords. I cannot for the life of me remember the name and company, but he often sells through ebay. perhaps someone with a better memory than mine can remember who it is, I think they are located in the W Midlands, maybe Coventry?

There is a problem with virtually all the QCT for the Myford. That is the holders cannot drop fully downwards because the inside edge of the holder fouls the top slide. The problem can easily be cured by milling the inside edge of the holder, taking out maybe a 1/10th" off the inside corner of the holder. It then allows the holder to drop that little bit more. On my ML10 this represents the difference between having to use 6mm square tooling and 8mm square. This is perhaps what Tim is referring to? Arc have always provided first class value for money tooling and their offering is likely to be as good as the ones I purchased a year ago.

Andrew.

I have been filling and sanding some of the castings for the Quorn. Just as I was getting somewhere near getting the castings finally sanded down, chunks of the filler broke away from the surface. This happened with both iron and aluminium castings.

All surfaces were cleaned by ultrasonic bath and the final treatment was a wipe down with cellulose thinners. Once thoroughly dry, Isopon was knifed on to the castings. The correct ratio of hardener to filler was used and the temperature was 17 C in my workshop. The first Isopon used was the normal type. I then tried the elastic type. Same problem with adhesion!

If I fill in dents in my car, this material sticks like the proverbial to a blanket. So why it isn't working with the casting, I really don't know. I never had this problem with the old Trimite filler, long since unobtainable!

Has anyone who has done this job on castings had a similar problem or did you use another type of filler that worked for you?

Andrew.

I have a straight break in a round section of an aluminium casting. Is repair possible without resorting to TIG welding? I do have an old US TIG machine, but the casting is around 20mm in diameter. I doubt my ability to build up weld, with an item that size.

Apart from TIG and my late lamented father abilities with oxy acetylene, is there any other way of repairing the break, short of using some sort of splints to add strength?

Andrew.

Thank you Howard for a cogently argued case of "Yes it will happen, but not yet!" May I ask how many of you on the forum have pure electric cars or even a hybrid? I bet the answer is zero (or maybe even one or two?). If you are for electric cars then why don't you own one?

The answer is simple, they are damn expensive and have limited range and the provision of country wide charging points is still years away. Right now electric cars are a bad deal unless you only travel a few miles and can charge them at home.

SURE, electric cars will be the norm in 20 years time. That will be when battery technology has increased the energy density of the batteries by at least 8 to 10 times over current units AND the infrastructure is there to service the recharging.

So energy density needs to be seriously increased and the charge rates need to be much higher than present. That represents a good chunk of innovation and development time. With a little inside knowledge of the problems involved, I would estimate this state of affairs will not exist for between 5 and 10 years, maybe closer to 10.

With this in mind, my next car will be definitely IC powered. Hybrid is the best bet at present, in terms of electric powered cars, pure electric is a very expensive gimmick and does not work for most of car users.

HGVs are another problem much more complex than people realise. If I had to bet, I would think fuel cell systems offer the best "energy density" solutions for long distance haulage. They certainly won't be around for a good many years. Yes there are many fuel cell systems around and people have been developing them for a very long time. But none are yet up to powering something like an HGV at an economical rate. It is no good spouting that X or Y is fuel cell powered and hence it is OK for HGVs. Vehicles that use fuel cells have yet to show the necessary economy and longevity required. If they did then manufacturers would be using them now!

Nobody in their right mind wants to continue using IC power, just look up the thermodynamic efficiency of even the best diesel engine. The fact that IC still has 98% of the market in the UK must tell you something (Figures taken from my "quality newspaper", I don't think they are far off either!)

Right now "hype" is the driving force that makes ordinary people buy electric. Give it a few more years and cold economics will dictate a change to electric vehicles.

Andrew.

I wish people would not put words in my mouth. Really viable electric cars will take over, of that there is no doubt. All I am saying is that the current crop of cars are not really a replacement for IC. Their range is too short and the infrastructure for recharging is not in place. Same goes for fuel cells.

The current high price of such vehicles goes some way to making the purchase / lifetime running costs not really enough to temp users. Look at the market penetration it is in low single percentage figures.

When enough development is made, electric cars will sweep the board. All I am saying is that time has yet to come, same goes for fuel cell technology.

Andrew.

I most certainly have done my research and my statement is NOT sweeping. All I am saying is that the technology available as of now, is no good for cars if you want to travel long distances or HGVs. That IS correct. The number of recharging points is pitiably few and if you think you can charge up when you need to, then you are in for a very BIG disappointment.

Ah fuel cells you say. The technology is not yet available to put these into mass production. Otherwise they would be on the road now! It also depends on which type of fuel cell you are talking about. Hydrogen / oxygen types are simply disasters waiting to happen. The explosion risk is too great for general use and again NO infrastructure to support it.

Other types of fuel cell show promise but they need a considerable amount of development work to be suitable for general use. I am a physicist who has had a hand in battery technology and fuel cell development and It will take a good few years before either technology is at a point when it will take over. As take over it will. Right now, electric cars are little more than a joke and it needs some serious battery technology gains to make them work as a practical proposition, unless you are a short distance commuter.

I often used to drive up to Oban and that is a 500 mile drive, the only "electric car" that will get me there is a hybrid, so petrol still rules for me. Hybrid cars have the same pollution problems as normal IC cars but simply a little less of it.

People are taken in by the hype, as a practical proposition electric cars are NOT there yet and will not be, until the correct infrastructures are put into place. I don't see much sign of that happening and who will be paying for this not inconsiderable sum?

Andrew.