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Thanks to all for comments and suggestions. I overcame my shyness yesterday and took it apart to see for myself. It looks easy, now.

There are three elements to the original system. The moving channel, with magnetic strip A milled aluminium base, normally concealed behind the gauge. And the plastic box housing the encoder and gauge display.

The solution looks like, swap out the magnetic strip on the existing channel for an M-DRO item. Retain the aluminium base, as it is machined to contain the channel anyway. And simply replace the electronics case with an aluminium block, providing location and fixing for the encoder, and held by the same six small screws holding the plastic case at present. Simples.

Which also leaves the potential, if I need it, to add a z-axis encoder, connected by a summing adaptor. And is reversible too.

Wish me luck, I'll be calling the Allendale chaps next week. And, again, many thanks for those insights.

Cheers, Colin

Or, thinking about it, could you reuse the magnetic strip of the original readout, combining it with an appropriate decoder?

Going CNC is not on my cards. But I am enjoying reading a nice big DRO display, more than peering at dials.

Any recollection of ease of making that switch to u-axis DRO? Did you retain parts of the caliper to hold the strip?

Cheers, Colin

Reviving this thread a little, I see that Dave and Roy have both already done, what came to me in a flash last night. That is replacing the little integrated caliper used to provide a U-axis readout on a Sieg SX2.7. I find its display difficult to read, I alway forget to turn it off, and it can be shoogly. But I have a spare axis on my DRO, and it certainly looks not too difficult to swap in a magnetic strip....

So, Dave and Roy, can you spare a few words on how you effected that change? Or if anyone else has ideas....?

Many thanks.

Cheers, Colin

Dear S.O.D., any chance of a piccie or description of how you fix the guttering in place. Profile cut adjuncts to the top of the brackets, maybe?

I ask, because I am going to embark on the same project soon.

Cheers, Colin

Don't suppose you took any pics, by chance?

Cheers, Colin

Alan, I'm in EH4 close to the Dean Bridge. And have a thing about historic race cars.

If you ping me a number on a direct message, I'd be happy to show you what I have squeezed in. And, more importantly, why.

Cheers, Colin

Can I ask politely about which auction house this is? That's a Centec 2A with a mk3 vertical head, unless I am mistaken?

And the word 'steal' comes to mind...

Cheers, Colin

I must admit that I am stuck, imagining how to rejet a DCOE at the back of that engine compartment? You could be in the position of a major, multiple dismantling exercise as you work through the possibilities - the world's longest rolling road session could be your record.

Might be worth reconsidering your choice, simply on that basis?

Cheers, Colin

Ask, and you shall receive. DCOE flanges in aluminium £25 from the Bay of Fleas....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334223741773?hash=item4dd149934d:g:rgQAAOSwKIpWFPuM

Sure, but it'll never heat-treat EN16....

This just popped up on gumtree in an unrelated search. A very cheap Amolco on some kind of home made base, for very little money.

No connection etc etc...

Cheers, Colin

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-power-tools/milling-machine/1422787278

Edited By Hillclimber on 04/01/2022 11:27:27

Neil, this stuff is your answer. It is a water-based low VO epoxy floor paint. At least they have 3 different shades of grey! And a green and a red to boot. I expect you can colour the lightest grey to something else.

It is what I use on garage floors - cement and wood. Works a treat, hard, and no big VO problem (after the first couple of hours).

https://www.johnstonestrade.com/product/2-pack-epoxy-water-based-floor-paint

Cheers, Colin

For sheet metal (aluminium and mild steel) I swear by a Gabro 2M2 nibbler, and a pneumatic nibbler for curves. A Shetack saw can also be useful in some instances.

Above that, a cutoff wheel in a grinder of one sort or another.

Cheers, Colin

What's the difference?

I have thinned Paragon enamel with white spirit perfectly successfully for immediate application by brush from a cup. But have found that thinning a greater quantity in a tin, sees the white spirit separate back out over time - leaving a goopy enamel below.

So my advice is to use PT8 if you're adding it into the tin and expect to put its content back on the shelf.

The other thing I'll say is that the Paragon chaps genuinely know their paint. I called up when I had a problem with enamel 'matting' and they talked me right through it after discussion with the paint department. I simply had not stirred it to the point of pain (is that why it's called paint?). Total result, and lovely people.

Cheers, Colin

John, I can only express the deepest envy at the quality of your work here. The micrometer dials are gorgeous, and beyond my capacity and experience.The problem, as always, is time. I am trying to press on and deliver some essentials to allow me to do the 'real' projects I have. And even affording me the luxury of the minor work I undertake on my lathe is at the expense of other metal-bashing. Although I dont ever regret it when I do.

I did install one of Steamer's resettable leadscrew dials and love it. And just wish that someone was manufacturing other items such as the gearbox and dial for GHT's retractible topslide. But I guess that the designs may still be tied up somewhere by copyright restrictions?

Cheers, Colin

Any loading will be unidirectional with the topslide set normally, right? So we only need to consider each of the wafers, which are respectively about 20 thou of an inch with a surface area of about 0.4 sq inch.

I have not sought to calculate the axial load on the cutting tool, which will be transmitted directly through the wafer. But at that thickness (thinness?) and load area, it does not seem to me that it would be going very far? I certainly see this stuff being used for high-load applications, albeit that I am using what I assume to be a virgin PTFE.

But other thoughts are welcome....?

Cheers, Colin

Rod, thanks.

Tell you what though, I bet I can cut two PTFE wafers quicker than many could say 'roller thrust bearing'....

Cheers, Colin

Just finished 'the' GH Thomas S7 topslide improvements - pinning the gib and adding a little thumb-operated topslide lock. These seem useful, and good motivation to generally strip, clean and pander to the assembly.

I actually bought a complete, 'ugly' S7 topslide from the Bay of Fleas a couple of years ago, intending to try this out without affecting my original. This was prescient, as I promptly broke the original base casting and swapped it out for the newly-acquired. The tapered stub had evidently been cracked by a bit of excess 'nipping' while the left and right pressure pads had been reversed, causing the tips to dig in and induce the crack. But the topslide itself had been sitting in a drawer since.

But nothing is thrown out around here, and that broken base became the answer to clamping the topslide while drilling for the gib pin, after the broken stub was machined-off - this is the bit where GHT talks obliquely about 'clamping it as best as you can'.

The only other thing I varied from the GHT instruction was that rather than fiddle with the screw to work out where to position the thumb turn, I simply fixed it in place before trying it. I then filed down the finished tip to get it in order. The thread pitch of 2BA is about 32 thou in old money, so it wont be much - but do ensure that the leading tip is a 'full' 1/8" at the kickoff.

That ugly topslide was then cosmetically improved by rebuilding the corner collision marks with J-B Weld. And a layer smeared on the mounting surface, before being 'just' faced off with a flycutter and painted with Paragon enamel. Finally, new gibscrews added and the whole assembled on the bench.

The other thing I tried is the thin white line you might see between the end plate and the screw index dial. I added two PTFE wafers, cut from 0.5mm sheet with wad punches. I have previously ripped thicker washers from a piece of bar, but they seemed a bit clunky.

Anyway, now done. And it all feels jolly nice to use.

Cheers, Colin

Edited By Hillclimber on 25/10/2021 11:38:34

I assembled my replacement components yesterday and can now use my Gabro folder to manage interrupted folds that include angular pans and some particular tabs - it can now be operated much as other pan folders, as well as 'Gabro-Style'.

It's easy to see the general layout from the wonderfully-clashing shades of green. From the top: the bed-raising, which sits in the conventional bed and located by rollpins; a bending plate, sized to the fold and made in a number of lengths; the Packer, my own including offset holes drilled to provide finger pulls; and the Bending Plate Channel, while the Spacer is located behind and cant be seen.

There is also a picture of a knockout tab being bent on a piece of scrap, to illustrate something of what is now simplified. Looking at other pictures on the web, I dont think the older 'plain' green machines were equipped with this facility?

Cheers, Colin

Edited By Hillclimber on 11/10/2021 11:56:43