Member postings for jaCK Hobson

I confused the author with Rupert Sheldrake. He proposed Formative Causation/Morphic Resonance; once something happens then it is easier for the same thing to happen again. A great concept for a bluffer to have under their belt. The theory was initially met with great hostility but it is annoyingly difficult to disprove - I think Tomorrows World once had a show where they asked viewers to participate in real-time with experiments and one of the experiments was around Formative Causation... I think the results were inconclusive. My google skills are not up to those of Micheal - I wonder if he can find a reference on the 'net.

I go to sleep listening to audio books or podcasts - they are great for managing anxiety I experience when I wake up in the middle of night and tend to overthink previous bad experiences.

Exactly by Simon Winchester is on an engineering theme. Recommended.

I also used text to speech - you have to learn to get used to it but eventually my mind can ignore the robot speech. I enjoyed listening to books by J E Gordon this way. (I read them as well). Although it is now old, the New Science of Strong Materials is a great foundation.

Podcasts can be great. I would recommend looking through those by Lex Friedman to see if any take your fancy. There is an excellent one on economics and Marxism that equipped me with some new bluffing skills.

80 mm sq steel. I found a way to do it wrong - I now advise against cutting oil and too firm pressure - the blade comes off Cutting dry, with 'firm' pressure worked reliably for me.

Vevor 2 axis DRO is brilliant. The 7" angle plate needed attention with an angle grinder to get it to go to 45 degrees - but otherwise great. The Ball Vice needed some slight fettling but is now brilliant. Delivery is brilliant.

The Vevor Induction forge... can be bought about £200 cheaper on ebay.

I bought a few extra that didn't fit. They were not hardened so easy to file... but it does take about 10 mins. So I wouldn't hesitate to get more.

I seem to get lots of stuff that doesn't fit my equipment 'myford' rear tool post holder, r8 collets, chuck jaws. Lots of other stuff that needs fettling - angle plate that wouldn't go to 45 degrees. I just assume it par for the course for being able to get stuff so cheap.

Yer, I had bought one cutter - 3 flute as I read in someone's book that it was a good all rounder

That is much better than the runout I measure (5x) on any of my chucks when installed in the mill and measuring off a milling cutter shank.

I'm collecting R8 collets/arbours as I need em. Great (if you tighten them up ). Some need fettling to fit at first.

Maybe there is a time saving between R8 and ER to consider if changing a lot ... I don't know which way though.

To avoid further puzzlement, I am not implying my comment about rigidity is related to me not doing up a collet tight enough. It surprised me that people should infer such. It is obvious I'm not relating it to the fact that the power feed is not operated by the emergency stop etc? Am I negatively criticizing the SX3.5 for being less rigid that it should be? I didn't mean to. I meant to imply it is not the most rigid machine and I add the qualification that I don't know what to expect.

The side pull is an issue I have also encountered; particularly in Y; my observation is that it very much seems to be related to depth of cut. One might expect it to be inversely related to how rigid the system is and proportional to load/chipload/depth of cut). If this has been encountered on an SX2 then one still might encounter it on an SX3.5.

Sure the SX3.5 can take cuts deeper than .5mm. But I wouldn't call it rigid. For comparison, I wouldn't call my Super 7 rigid. On that 2.7 example cut, how much material would be taken off if you went back over the same cut without further adjusting the depth? I feel that if I am chasing a few hundredths of mm dimension then the spring in the machine has to be accounted for?

You can mess up work on any mill if you operate it incorrectly or outside its parameters - I gave an example at the risk of my reputation. No need to rub it in.

I do not feel I am overly critical of the SX3.5 here. I think the forum should not discourage observations from owners to help people understand what they will have to feel comfortable with in order to be happy with their purchase. If I had read an opinion like this before buying then I might have had a more realistic expectation and be more satisfied with my purchase (and read that sentence again if you think I'm saying I'm dissatisfied). I guessed it probably wasn't going to be as rigid as as a VMC, or tom senior or centec - which weigh a lot more - so I am not generally disappointed - just specifically disappointed, and only slightly. But that is because I didn't know what to expect - there is little info.

I am guessing though. I would be interested to have rigidity figures from different mills. From pictures, the column on the the SX3.5 can look a lot more massive than it is - a lot of the depth is steel cladding containing the electrics. Jason has said many times that 'best practice' needs adjusting for these types of mills - the solution might be lighter but faster cuts.

I don't even 'know' what the Sx3.5 'should' be reasonably capable of. Tell me and I will run some tests if I have the metal and cutters.

I like the overall size and power of the SX3.5 - it fits my workshop and methods. I did have cause to wonder recently... Black Friday 20% discount at Axminster suddenly made their version of the SX3 with DRO an attractive alternative if you don't need the table length.

I think you are taking my observations in a strange direction. I think I made more than one. They don't have to be related.

10mm R8 collet not tight enough - probably only hand tight after I got distracted while looking for spanner thing. Try doing yours up hand-tight and see what happens in a large chunk of cast iron at high feedrate. Mine started out as .5mm finishing cut but was more like 5 mm when i hit the stop button.

Rigid is not an attribute that comes to the top of my mind when describing the SX3.5. I don't have any experience of anything similar to compare though. I have had a few mistakes and damaged the job... including a simple 'cut a 1.8 mm deep 10mm wide slot in a myford cross slide... Milling cutters can get pulled down in the collet if you don't tighten them enough. Maybe the noises and vibration are a good thing though... like an alarm bell.. but that would still mean you have to pay some attention and remove headphones and not turn your back while the power feed engaged.

It is powerful - plenty enough to get you in trouble. I appreciate the emergency stop button. The powefeed has an over current protection but is powerful enough before it gets there. It isn't operated by the emergency stop (I guess lots of 'add on' power feeds are similar) ... it really should be for me and a is mod I am considering over Christmas!

I can imagine some people are reading the above paragraphs in combination and cringing.

Climb milling is particularly challenging in Y (across the bed). 

I am not convinced about the long bed - the SX3 'safe' operating volume would be much smaller in practice. I'm sure I will be convinced once I start milling crossbow prods. At the moment the large table is just a place to store a dividing head... which I have also discovered is a bad practice when you got a power feed... as is leaving the vice spanner on while machining.

Power up and down is great.. but coarse.

DRO a MUST for me. Allows a bodger to do rmore accurate work within the attention span.

The crate is large and awkward to move. Too big for one man to install unless you got clever leavers - like an engine hoist - in which case it easy. But once in place, the mill is quite small. I have it on wheels and have moved it a lot. This is the main reason I didn't go for a knee mill or old iron. Wish I had rigidity, but I very much appreciate the mobility.

Edited By jaCK Hobson on 10/12/2022 11:49:25

I really like wooden handled narex https://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/screwdrivers/narex-screwdrivers/

I heard Kyoto Tools are better...

I got vest, insulation, fan heater, IR, and form of exercise if I need extra 'warm up'. I recommend them all. Toasty. And all less than the price of a new milling machine every year. I still have to get to the workshop but once there, I'd rather stay than go outside again - and that is an excellent result. Banging numb fingers, getting the cuts all greasy, and wiping my drippy nose with my greasy/bloody hands... still happens but less often. And huge bonus - no rust problems.

Edited By jaCK Hobson on 07/12/2022 12:25:16

How is the pendulum support located?

There seems to be a correlation between pressure and period - so try sucking the air out.

The perfect pendulum doesn't involve a spring at all. Any hint of a spring gets it further from perfect doesn't it?

You want the suspension to be very much stiffer in every direction other than where you want it to swing. And not stiff at all in the direction of swing. Thinner section, but wider suspension.

You can get very good time keeping by having a mechanism to adjust for air differences rather than trying to eliminate the air. But I can see eliminating air is a fun project.

I think you should get a better RTC. I think you can get much better ones that the arduino for peanuts.

the 'I need this tool with impossible/unrevealed requirements' threads were a good source of inspiration for me.

Something by Starrett. Might be more of a last minute Cyber Monday deal but this looks handy for lass than £25

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Starrett-10MH-150-Square-Student-Combination/dp/B003XU78JA

My experience of tiles is they are not flat, not hard, and not stiff. Not a good place to start.

'Granite' is not all the same.

A bit of float glass is probably better... just use as is for layout and sharpening.

8x12 granite plates are dirt cheap for what you get.

Want to save money? I'd probably investigate restoring a worn out one first before going from scratch.

As an experiment/just for the experience - I would not start with tiles.

If the new blade isn't the same thickness then you will need to adjust the guide rollers. These are especially critical because they twist the blade to get the cutting depth. They are set very tight on mine - so it is a little bit of a struggle to get the new blade in. (My brand new femi came with a patch of about 6 teeth that were set back from all the others - not near the weld, and no sign of wear or damage. I replaced with a Wikus blade which is much better welded and even.)

I left the final platen off in the pic so you can see how simple the design is (I copied it)