Member postings for daveb

I would go with photo etching, if they are a standard size you could do the artwork once and print them as needed.

There are different grades of brass, some alloys are hard, some are ductile. It could be bronze. There are different grades of bronze. Sometimes difficult to tell one from the other. Daveb

Most of the small bench mounted horizontal mills lack a backgear, that and the small motor makes them suitable for slitting saws and not much else. Daveb

Emco motors are a bit peculiar and their schematics leave much to be desired. I've had two of the 4 speed milling heads, one 3 phase and one single phase. The single phase motor was actually a 3 phase delta connected motor with the line and neutral connected to (any) two of the wires and the capacitor connected between line or neutral (depending on which direction you want the motor to run) and the other wire. To confirm, use a multimeter to check the resistance between the 3 black wires, 1-2, 2-3, 1-3, they should all be the same. Daveb

In the 60s/70s Myfords got a touch of flower power and produced some lathes in interesting colours. I particularly admired the bright orange. Hippies with lathes, whatever next? Daveb.

Started taking the motor off the Super7 to replace noisy bearing. Disconnected wiring, slackened screws and then found motor pulley was loose.

Nice and quiet now!

I get worse as I get older!

Daveb

You need to search for PARALLEL MACHINE FILES. Good luck with that!

I had the same problem about 12 years ago, easier to get bull feathers! I eventually bought some from Federal file co in the USA for my bench machine (files, not feathers), they are a similar size to Swiss files. (I have an unused set of these PM if interested). I could not find any new or used files for my large filer so I bought a set of Swedish files (no particular reason for buying Swedish except the shop had a set in stock that looked as if it would do) 12", round, flat, square, tri, half round, etc. I cut off the non parallel parts and ground the ends to fit my machine, 60 degree point at bottom, 1" square tang at top to fit chuck, cuts on down stroke. Medium or coarse files are better, you will die of old age if you use fine files on these machines. If you haven't used a filing machine before, hold downs are essential if you value your fingertips.

Harold Hall designed a small filing machine some years ago, he made some suggestions on modifying standard files, should be some info on his website. Daveb

If you take the levers off the machine and remove the knobs, the plungers and springs can be pushed through and a full size screwdriver used to remove the slotted caps. These screw down against a shoulder and are often very tight.

Not sure about ML7s but you have to change the output gear on the tumbler if retrofitting a gearbox to the Super7. You will probably need a shim between the gearbox and the mounting point on the bed. As far as I know, the shim is needed on all lathes except the PCF models.

Edited By daveb on 14/10/2018 11:00:38

Swish, CRACK!. Har, har, har. Very satisfying too!

Many years ago I was driving home and felt a strange sensation in the front of my jeans. A quick look revealed that they were on fire, not only on fire but the fire had consumedthe entire fly section and was working its way down my legs. I was a smoker at the time, I supposed a spark had ignited the cord jeans which smouldered away until I became aware. An Australian colleague commented that bush fires were common back home. Cord jeans were made of interesting material, biological washing powder caused it to disintegrate and it also made an excellent wick. I believe I narrowly avoided a SHC incident. I no longer smoke, smoulder or wear cord jeans. Daveb.

This is where you learn the difference between a cheap Allen key and the others. It helps if the Allen screws are good quality too, unfortunately, there are poor examples of both, either of which will make you wish you were doing anything, absolutely anything else. Daveb.

Hakon, if you intend to tilt the lathe down for storage, bear in mind that the gearbox has oil in it and is not sealed. Too much tilt will result in the oil running out of the gearbox.

Daveb

Nice work, Limpet.