Member postings for Hopper

Using AI to check the veracity of YouTube is way above my pay grade I am afraid.

What clearance did they ream the guides to, between the valve stem and guide? A lot of those old engines ran massively larger clearances than what modern automotive machine shops are used to providing. Same with piston to bore clearances, which have caused problems for several restorers I know over the years.

Those old engines with exposed valve gear and no positive lubrication could run .003" to .005" (0.075mm to 0.125mm) exhaust valve guide to stem clearance, which would be considered "worn out" in a modern engine.

The stainless valves I have used in bike engines all had hard-chromed stems, presumably to prevent "picking up". And usually not phosphor bronze for valve guides as it is said the phosphor can tend to leach out under extreme heat in an air cooled engine. Aluminium bronze such as Ampco 45 is more commonly used. But that factor is unlikely to be causing you problems at such short mileage. Probably has more influence over length of service life. So I would look first at what clearance you have.You already found that more clearance lasted longer before seizing so I would look at trying a bit more.

Edited By Hopper on 16/02/2023 21:57:48

Edited By Hopper on 16/02/2023 21:59:09

If you contact these guys, they can probably sell you the exact condenser your car needs LINK

One size seems to fit many different cars LINK

Edited By Hopper on 16/02/2023 13:47:14

Yes some are rated at a few hundred volts so there must be some spiking due to inductance or some such electrickery. Definitely not for the 25,000 volts or whatever on the high tension side of the coil.

I think if you get a condenser from one 1950s car it should work OK on another. Plenty of that old Lucas stuff is still available, and a lot of it is still being made. Ditto the American points ignition stuff. But trying to find a match from an electronics supplier relying on specs could be tricky and may not be up to the heat and vibration as SOD says above.

Can't tell you the value but I have been told by old timers that all points condensers are the same value and can be interchanged, provided they match 6 or 12 volt and positive or negative earth . Never tried it myself though.

I have moved my ML7 Myford with myself and one other bloke. Pulled the electric motor off, the cross-slide, tailstock and chuck in about 5 minutes flat. Unbolted the lathe from its bench and then loaded the components into the back of my small Toyota hatchback, bench included. It is a very easy lift for two blokes this way.

Didn't have to wrestle it up a spiral staircase but I am sure we could have if needed. Are you moving to a lighthouse?

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 23:39:31

Thanks Ady.

Mate, the only dancing I do is when a bit of hot swarf lodges between two toes when I am wearing flip flops in the workshop in summer!

And one on eBay for 650 Quid. Ambiguously labelled as a tailstock though. LINK

Not sure if it might be a bit big for a mini lathe though?

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 10:20:07

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 10:22:22

Sorry Doug, I missed your post until now. The distance between the hole centres on the link is 2-1/4" .Yes I think you could adapt it to the Speed 10 with minimal changes to suit the diamter of your tailstock body.

The final section of the article, along with the drawings for the link, handle, clamping ball handle and the stop are all in the next edition of MEW, Issue 324, February, which is out now. I did not realise the article had been split into two until just now because they take months to reach me in rural Australia.

Glad you might find it useful. I am sure you can get away without cutting that Acme thread, as Myford did in later years and just use a plain hole relying on the clamping force of the pinch bolt. Or leave a little step at the far end of the hole so the tailstock barrel can't pass all the way through. It has the added advantage of being quicker to take on and off too. Although, once fitted, mine has stayed in place. Yet to find a situation where I want the old handwheel back.

Yes the original Myford lever attachments seem to bring high prices these days, hence the shopmade approach! Cost absolutely $0.00 out of the scrap box. That's my kind of project!

PS I just found my copies of the plans for the Potty Mill Engine by Stu Hart. PM me your email address if you would like a copy.

I think Julius De Waal may have done CAD metric version drawings but don't know anything about them.

The Potty Mill Engine sounds ideal for what you want. It is a simple horizontal mill engine with simple bobbin type slide valve gear all made from bar stock and cheap metric fasteners. Plans by Stewart Hart are available free on the net, somewhere but I forget where, and it was featured in MEW mag as a Dads and Lads project and plenty of build threads and videos around. If you google Potty Mill Engine you will find it all. Maybe in the Plans section of the modelenginemaker.com forum site.

I made my flywheel out of an old steam valve handwheel, the rest was all bar stock.Pictured here part completed without the eccentric and linkage. I built it as a test project for my newly restored Myford lathe, just to give it a workout. No milling machine required. Just the lathe and drill press, but it could be all done in the lathe easily enough.

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 08:13:08

They have diversified since your day:

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 00:58:30

No idea, but presumably there is a male thread on the white piece and a female thread in the silver piece holding the two together?

It does not look like a capstan set up would save much time over what can be done with existing gear such as form tools and lever tailstock if you start off with material of the correct OD. You might look at making some capstan-lathe style roller boxes to mount on the tailstock turret. These consist of a pair of small rollers to hold the work steady while a pre-set cutting tool turns the job down to the reduced diameter as it is feed along. Then a miniature Coventry diehead type thing to do the male thread and a tapping head to do the female thread quickly without smashing the tap into the blind hole.

The domed end on the silver piece could be put on using a combined parting tool/form tool as the final operation. Will need a bit of polishing afterwards to finish it off to such a standard but you are going to have to do that anyway.

Making bolts is definitly lever tailstock territory. Or using hexagon stock and a multi-stop carriage stop you can have a stop to set the amount of bar sticking out, then the amount of shank turned down (or roller boxed down) then apply thread with die head in tail stock. Then part off using carriage stop again, putting the chamfer on the hex halfway through the parting process, or make a combined parting/chamfering form tool.

The cross hole is a bit special, especially in the workholding aspect. Special jig required etc. But time could be saved by making a drill bit with a surrounding hardened silver steel sleeve shaped as a countersink cutter, so all done in one motion.

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 00:50:51

Be wary of secondhand book prices you see listed on Amazon and its subsidiary AbeBooks. I know from other books I have looked at that their listed prices have no bearing on reality. Sometimes they list books for several times the price you can still buy the book from the publisher for! Something to do with automated AI bots checking the net and seeing each others prices and jacking them up ad infinitum. That is why the books sit there with a high price, unsold. Most reliable price guide might be to do an advanced search on eBay and tick the "completed sales" box and you will see what they have actually sold for.

I am not an eBay seller but pretty sure I have seen listings on there that had a minimum bid or reserve price so you can be guaranteed not to sell your item for less than you wish to. Not experienced on that stuff though.

Congratulations on your new lathe!

A nylon/fabric sling under the main bed casting will work better. But don't let it press in on the lead screw or feed shafts as they are easily bent. Either put the sling inside between the leadscrew and bed, or put wooden blocks there to keep the the sling away from the leadscrew and feed shafts. Slide the carriage to the left end of the bed to spread some weight down that end.

DRO is a personal choice. I don't use one but those who do have them say they are a great thing.

Pretty sure it is a left hand thread from my notes when I made my ML7 lever tailstock attachment. LINK

Easy enough to screwcut with a shopmade HSS toolbit in a standard boring bar.

If it is a lever tailstock you are making, the full drawings and pics are in the latest two issues of MEW, 323 and 324. In the final design I did away with that thread and just used a plain-bored clamp as Myford did in later years.

Edited By Hopper on 15/02/2023 00:05:30

Possibly a woodworking chuck?

The video reveals the brand name of the the lathe Is Angelini. Seems to be an Italian-based firm producing/selling good quality industrial and CNC lathes according to Google. And this appears to be a fairly good condition example with no obvious signs of huge amounts of use. Interesting.

I have several drawers full of old UK, US and Australian made taps and dies that I inherited from my Dad and also that I rounded up from garage sales etc. They are all good. If a bit blunt they are easily sharpened with a Dremel tool by carefully grinding down the sides of the flutes.