Member postings for Andrew Tinsley

Thanks folks,

Looks like I will be filing some cast iron. With a muscle wasting disease, that is going to take a long time!

Andrew.

I have a Fobco drill and Myford milling attachment. They both have holes drilled in them, not by me I might add!

The Fobco has one hole in its table approx 5 mm in diameter and 3 mm deep. The Myford milling slide is peppered with small holes at the bottom of one tee slot. They form a group about 1/2 inch in diameter.

As none of these defects are in areas that normally get a lot of use, I was thinking of filling them with cast iron loaded epoxy and then sanding the areas down flush with the cast iron surface.

Anyone got any suggestions for a product to use? I know there will be people who will say it won't work long term. All I can say is that I have used aluminium loaded Devcon, applied as per instructions and it has been bombproof.

Unfortunately Devcon do not make a cast iron loaded epoxy!

Andrew.

P.S. I know it is only cosmetic. but it does irritate me to see such defects.

OK Gentlemen,

The Proops tools and tips are a no go. Gap at rear of tips and apparent lack of chip breaker and top rake rules them out.

This leaves me with a lot of Google searches that turn up hundreds of possibilities. Will someone put a nail in the wall and tell me what are a good combination of 1/4" tools and tips? Lots of general advice (apart from Riks 16mm tools). Any specific brands and suppliers that you can recommend? I am not looking for super finishes, just something for the roughing cuts . I don't want the very best industry standard at mega bucks!

Andrew.

Thanks Mr Moderator! I didn't know how to provide a link to the Proops cheapos!

I wasn't suggesting for a minute that one should use the old fashioned brazed carbide tip tools. I merely mentioned them as the latest thing, thirty years ago!

I have been using some cheap carbide tips on a friends, much bigger, Chinese lathe. Depending on material and playing with cutting speeds they can yield a reasonable finish on most materials, but not as good as a keen HSS tool.

Looking at the Proops pictures, I cannot see much detail in the rake angles, but then my eyesight isn't what it was! So do I take it that they are no good for roughing cuts in steel?

Andrew.

I wanted a small lathe to get restarted in model engineering. I could not wait for various refurb projects that I have underway.

I found an ML10 (ballraced or is it rollerraced?) for £500. It was in excellent condition, with a reasonable amount of tooling and the Myford stand to boot.

Lucky? I think not! You get inflated prices on Myfords on Ebay and at the dealers. I looked at odd "for sale" lists on various forums, such as the BMFA website (model planes) and various other similar hobby related forums. In a couple of months I found several lathes at reasonable prices and finally purchased my ML10.

A lot of people say that Myfords are over rated. Perhaps they are when you pay top prices, but they can be had for a lot less, then they make a lot of sense, compared with Chinese offerings.

Andrew.

A long time ago, when I was last doing model engineering, brazed carbide tipped tools were the latest thing. I always preferred a correctly ground HSS tool as it gave me a better finish on most materials.

Now I am a retread, I am tempted by the sets of very cheap lathe tools from Proops Bros of Fleckney. From the price, they cannot be of very high quality, but they have very cheap replaceable tips as a bonus.

I am considering buying a set to use for roughing out cuts and preserve my ultra sharp HSS tools for final cuts.

Is this a sensible thing to do? Are cheap carbide tipped tools a snare and delusion?

Andrew.

A while ago, I was responsible for buying sub assemblies from China, to go into our light sources. I requested several samples to supply to a CE "Test House". The Chinese manufacturer said "Why bother?. I can supply modules with any certification that you might require" On checking this statement I realised that I was being offered a CE mark on the product, without any testing being done!

So beware of any CE mark on Chinese products that are imported directly from China or Hong Kong!

Andrew.

Hello Robbo,,

I sent you a PM. If anyone else has any MA99E collets that they don't need please send me a PM,

Thanks,

Andrew.

Are the collets for the Myford quick acting, lever chuck a Myford special? or do other collets fit?

Andrew.

Rotagrip is selling their lever operated tailstock drill on Ebay right now they are £67.50 delivered. I just ordered one, for some reason it is cheaper on Ebay than buying direct (reason being that the item is cheaper on Rotagrip site but incurs the minimum P&P of £9,60!

Andrew.

P.S. Price has been reduced from £90 odd pounds in the last week or so.

Hello Bill,

Weight for weight, I reckon Myford used as much filler!

Andrew.

Whoops, the words sodium silicate should appear after BDH! My apologies,

Andrew.

Hello Folks,

Seems to be a lot of topic drift here! As it happens, I have several 5 litre plastic containers full of BDH (that dates it, they merged with Merk twenty or thirty years ago!). It is a liquid with somewhat higher viscosity than water, so unless it is mixed with lots of solid powder it will run straight off the job. I am very dubious that such a witches brew will be anything like Trimite to sand down.

Equally all the two part body filler I have ever used is much harder work with than Trinite. The guy at Myford even let me try sanding the filled casting and it was quite amazing how easy it was to take off large quantities of material with very little effort. Filler putty is not good, you must put multiple thin layers onto the areas to be treated and wait for ever between coats,, otherwise it will never set below the surface. Even then it will shrink long term.

Sounds as though I am being finicky about this filling job. To get a good surface takes a fair amount of work and choosing the wrong filler, is not a good idea. I don't want to start all over again!

When I say that Myford's used a lot of filler, I mean that it was spread liberally all over the casting NOT just in the holes! My guess is that the surface of an ML lathe is ALL filler to maybe a depth of several millimetres!

Andrew.

Hello.

The ML7 was overhauled mechanically by Myford's. So it is a case of making the beast look respectable, all the fettling has already been done, including a bed regrind! Pity that I lost the Trimite (Thanks for that ID) although it probably would be well past its sell by date now!

I think there is a psychological aspect to making your working environment smart, including the appearance as well as the mechanical condition of your machine tools. I don't like working with dirty, ill kempt machines even if they are mechanically sound.

Andrew.

Hello Michael,

Now that is a good idea, at least I can use it for something! It is a pity about the chuck as it is built for the Myford, that is to say there isn't a back plate, the threaded nose is integral with the chuck body.

I may as well take it apart and learn a little as to how the chuck was designed. After that I can put it all back together and make up the fittings required for face plate work!

Andrew,

I was given a small Pratt Burnered 4 jaw chuck for use on my ML10, It is approximately 3.5" diameter

When I cam to use it, I found that all 4 jaws lifted to varying extent as I tightened it up on a square bar.

Looking at it carefully, the wear was in the plane at right angles to the chuck surface. One jaw could be rocked to an alarming extent and two were not all that bad the fourth was almost acceptable.

Where is the wear likely to be, on the jaws themselves(i.e. in the grooves) or is it mainly in the chuck body? I have yet to measure the slots in the jaws. I can probably use some slip gauges and feeler gauges in combination to measure the slots , measuring the chuck body is a damn sight more awkward!

Is the chuck scrap or can the fault be rectified? Indeed is it worthwhile doing? It is a neat little chuck and if they were still made, I would buy another. Very useful for small delicate work.

Andrew.

Many years ago, I had a tin of casting filler from Myfords, to smarten up my ML7 lathe. At last I am getting around to restoring my ML7. I have long ago lost the tin. It was mainly coloured black with some red and yellow. I think it had the picture of an imp on the front, although my memory may be at fault. The name was something like Trimar------?

Does this ring a bell with anyone and is the product still available? I ask because the guy responsible for preparing the lathe castings for painting, said it was by far the best product for filling castings. You might be surprised at what a Myford bed looks like before it is filled. There is quite a lot of filler used before it is passed for painting!

Am I being too fussy here and should I just use car body filler for my restoration job?

Andrew.

Thank you gentleman! It seems my memory is not as good as I thought, So what is new there! All quite obvious if you think about it.

Just one thing is niggling my addled brain. Turning a 6 inch bar (without using the tailstock) to see if the bed is level (not distorted), is this not dependent on the accuracy of the chuck to hold the bar on centre? It is early morning for me and the brain is not yet in gear. I think I see the logic of this operation, but there are a few doubts flying around. Please reassure me that I have got this one right!

Andrew.

Hello Norman,

Thanks for that tip, thinking about it, looks pretty accurate to me. Having raised the question is it the bed not level and causing the problem or is it the tailstock out of alignment. I suppose you level the bed using an engineers level. Then you align the tailstock.

So why are you told to turn a rod between centres to determine if the bed is level? I am sure that is the advice either in The ML7 Handbook or the Myford ML7 Booklet. It could be the tailstock out of alignment!

Still confused,

Andrew.

I really should know how to do this, but I don't! I suppose that one could turn a bar between centres and adjust for constant diameter?

However the first thing you see in the Myford manual is to make sure that the lathe bed is level by doing the above! So I have a chicken and egg situation here!

The engraving marks on the tailstock are very crude and could not possibly used for accurate alignment, or am I missing something here?

I suppose you could always use a couple of 2MT dead centres and see if the points align? I doubt if my eye sight is up to that suggestion!

So how is it done, please!

Regards,

Andrew.