Member postings for Russ B

I wonder if the wheel is from a series 2 Bridgeport, or just a random gear made to fit, the gear profile looks wrong to be a used with a worm but I'm not clued up on these things.

You photos make its size look quite reasonable 😂 I remever installing a Bridgeport J head in my domestic single garage - blimey, it was half the width of the whole garage!! (if I'm not mistaken, quite small in comparison to a beaver mill)

Good luck with the project!

Edited By Russ B on 09/10/2016 00:49:39

Alan,

Send me your email via private message and I'll send you everything I've got (I've got the manual that covers the belt and varispeed VS model)

And while we're talking about it, I'm selling one on behalf of my employer, it's not been used much throughout its whole life, so wear is negligible. We just don't need it and I want to raise some cash for some equipment we do need. everything we design arrives made to measure, and if we change or repurpose something, it is lathe work anyway. I would guess she has less than 250 hours use since new, possibly, significantly less.

I need to drag it out, clean it down, lube up the slides and then I'll do what I can to measure backlash along the screws (I anticipate no variation from left/right to middle) and I'll check very carefully for any wear on the slides that might result in the table being tight at the ends when properly adjusted - again, I'm hoping for negligible wear.

This could be a great opportunity for someone in need of a quality unworn vertical mill.

I had an old Myford Super 7 (a 1953, one of the very first)

It didn't have power cross feed and the clutch was problematic, in addition, the glass sight oiler could very, very easily allow dirt to be washed into the spindle nose bearing (luckily, mine had been cared for). The clutch I just had to live with as Myford soon completely redesigned it and spares aren't available (I didn't have the skills/confidence back then to reliably attempt to make new parts, although they were simple enough).

What I didn't appreciate, is that it's bed was like new and capable of easily making very accurate parts!!

So it strikes me, that the Myford 7 wasn't the golden wonder it was made out to be, and its "aura" made parts expensive, however it could cut though some serious steel, easily knocking 5-7mm off the diameter of a 50mm high carbon steel in a single pass without making a sound or vibration, it could be talked over while doing it) - if you tried that with a far eastern machine, If the tool post didn't tear away and the something in the drive didn't shatter, I would expect the bed to snap at the headstock (seriously) - I would guess taking 2-3mm off the diameter of a similar steel would be the limit. But what's the rush.

What matters is not what make/model you buy, it's what sort of condition its in. With the tool post and topside locked, will it turn parallel over 100mm by advancing the saddle using power feed, criteria number one for me, and not a straight forward answer, since it will have to be sat levelled, maybe have its tailstock feet shimmed to remove any twist in the bed and generally be in fine fettle to achieve this.

Second are it's spindle bearings in good condition, and if they're not, can they be easily replaced? Myford ML7's have white metal bearings, which cannot be replaced, you need to upgrade to a hardened spindle and phosphor bronze bearings (which is around £300-£500 for the parts alone if you can find someone who has one!) - other things, are more easily adjusted/replaced so long as the bed is straight and spindle points in the right direction!

If I were to do it all again, I would recommend to myself, to go and buy a new simple cheap lathe that will do screw cutting and learn how to get it setup and turning parallel, learn how to align the tailstock and get the hang of general machining operations etc.
If you decide it's not for you, you'll hardly lose a penny in value if you look after it! They cost £400-700 new from SPGtools/Chester Hobby Store/Warco/Amadeal/ArcEuroTrade, Amadeal had put a package together which included all the basic tools you'll need to make something to a tolerance, it came with cutting tools, measuring tools, and I think the magnet bases and dial indicators that you'll need to ensure the lathe is turning true and make the required adjustments

- Just to add to that, depending on what milling you need to do, a vertical slide for the lathe might cover all angle, and with a small bench top pillar drill you could be well on your way to easily creating whatever models you might want?

Edited By Russ B on 07/10/2016 14:12:02

David Colwill, and Russell

I have a "cheap" aldi/lidl cleaner (I don't remember which one it came from)

If I put tin foil in there, they'd whizz all over the place - it gets quite a buzz going in there, even larger heavier items like keys will buzz and move slightly. I can see bubbles hovering in there too where the water is presumably shearing from the internal forces.

I use (very) hot tap water with a dash of fairy liquid - I've had very good results.

Russell, is your cheap Aldi unit as noiticeably active as this - I'm wondering if yours is a bit of a dud, or if I could achieve even better results with a proper unit.

Regards,

Russ

Mines Taiwanese, I would be interested to see some Korean stuff, so far everything I've had from Korea has been excellent quality (rifle scopes, engines, electronics)

If it's the one I'm thinking of, very similar (probably the same) machines were also branded as (roughly chronologically) - Pinnacle, Nutools, and are still sold as Clarke.

Clarke parts diagrams are freely available online, I would perhaps start looking there. I expect minor cost saving over the years will have removed some parts but it could help.

Not done it yet,

Thanks, that has opened my eyes a lot but it doesn't change anything, I wasn't running the compressor, I have only run it for the purposes of diagnostics, and now it doesn't run at all.

I have an optical tacho but I wasnt savvy enough to use it, I just assumed it was running up to pressure quickly enough as it was able to fill the 100 litre tank to 9 bar very quickly first run, and only started steadying up seemly on the 2nd/3rd fill. Obviously that performance rapidly diminished as per the descriptions in this thread.

I will sell the whole things as spares repairs and clearly describe the fault. I'm having a clear out and this had to go. I naturally wanted to fix it to maximise its value but I'm also equally happy to sell it as scrap if that is what it is - if the buyer gets what they expected/wanted I'm happy. If I sold something I wasn't 100% happy with it be playing on my mind for ages.

Well the cap didn't change anything, but considering how easy it was to change, it was well worth a shot.

I'll get the meter on to it. Neil, If I check the voltage at the capacitor, I presume that is sufficient? I doubt the mass of that rather large motor would be able to heat up to over 100 degrees if it weren't getting the full 10amps - but my fingers are crossed non the less.

Neil,

Do you need a Dropbox account to get the files?

If this is the case, I will remove the link, I assumed anyone could view and save the pdf without any sort of sign up, free or not.

Apologies in advance.

Edited By Russ B on 30/08/2016 11:22:58

J, As I understand it, even the original creator cannot change the licence terms or revoke them. Therefore I'm unsure if they can give permission, since that would sort of be changing the licence.

All of Ron's CAD drawings "unless otherwise expressed" were made under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (as outlined in the header on ModelEnginenews.Org homepage) I think as Rod said, Ron's intentions were clear, and these drawings can be shared easily from individual to individual and will provide many years of fun for anyone with the passion and determination to follow them.

Maybe, you could host a list of volunteers who are offering to share the plans?

I have just been given (for free) a very modern colour laser printer that I'm hoping will be of high clarity so potentially I could also extend that to include hard copies printed on A4 for a transparent fee based purely on paper, toner, envelope and postage costs. The time and fuel spent driving about is my contribution.

You'd have to read in to the licence Neil, I think it would difficult to say it didn't profit the website as it enriches content and you have paid advertising - but in the spirit of non profit sharing under creative commons you might just squeeze it though? I would say that's a job for you legal team (aka oneself where I come from!)

I have nothing to do with Model-Engineer or The Motor Boys, so I can easily share the plans without infringing on the commercial side of the licence.

The above credit is taken directly from the plan book, page 1 without modification. Since Ron is apparently no longer with us, I dedicate the link I shared at the bottom, to him. I can't promise it will work forever but we'll see.

Andrew, I would suggest you save a copy of the above post should you ever wish to send a copy to anyone. It will save you 5 minutes typing

The Motor Boys Plan Book (Second Edition)

Licence under creative commons,

(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) **LINK**

Ron Chernich did all the CAD work for the plans and Tim Dannels arranged the introduction.

The Boys are:

Gordon Burford (Australia)
Ron Chernich (Australia)
Tim Dannels (USA)
David Owen (Australia)
Randy Ryan (USA)
Les Stone (USA)
Vincent Chai (Australia)
Ken Croft (England)
Eric Offen (England)
Stan Pilgrim (Australia)
Roger Schroeder (USA)
Bert Striegler (USA)

The Motor Boys dedicated this edition to their absent friends, Don McClusky and George Aldrich, both founding members of the group.

Edited By JasonB on 01/09/2016 11:46:10

Andrew,

This was licenced under creative commons and this type of licence is to ensure it is freely shared, but not profited from. This makes it difficult for any organisation to sponsor it or publish it (as that could be seen as advertising which would benefit them)

The distributed version can't be modified in any way, or have additional terms applied to it. (you are free to modify your own copy!)

And anyone sharing it, must provide a link to the creative commons licence, and appropriate credit.

Folks, as per the last post on the first page (although I admitt, it wasn't a clear as I was rambling in the moment using my phone to reply)

I have completely eliminated the starting against load by disconnecting the compressed air pipes from the heads so both cylinders are just venting to atmosphere and for the first time ever, it's completely failed to start under 0 load - even when I prodded the fan blade and gave it a good spin, it still didn't go.

So now it won't start at all. And before it would start and either start fine and run well once, then start stalling at high pressures,

So I'm a bit confused - and my motor only appears to have one capacitor, unless there is one inside it somewhere.

Thanks for all the help so far, I'll get this capacitor change as its a cheap and easy thing to do. Perhaps we have 2 faults combined here, maybe it does stall at high pressure, and it's damaged the motor?

Edited By Russ B on 28/08/2016 14:22:42

Also I noted on the thermal imaging camera the motor was around 85degress but was 100 at the top - I'm thinking it's possibly a winding issue or perhaps just the start winding not dropping out (I don't know if this is that kind of motor - I don't really do electrics beyond what I have to to get by)

Just a quick update as I'm replying from my phone.

This morning from clock cold, with 50psi in the tank (it was 90 last night?) it struggled around 100psi and cut out. And then refuse to restart. I could spin the compressor with a single finger by its fan and could hear the reed valves popping so it was compressing.

I removed (very carefully) one of the pipes between the cylinders (there are no check valaves between the 2) and restarted it, and nothing, the motor was just making angry grunting sounds while the fan wobbled as it attempted to move. Feeling brave I gave the fan a good spin with a stick to get it moving and see if it was stuck, but it didn't, and it wasn't.

It feels very much like a motor issue. It only has one 40uF cap on top, I've no idea how to test it but I think I saw a capacitor testing machine at work (I've no idea what to do with it but I'll ask).

I'll check the cap and then pull the motor apart if needed. The motor is part of the crankcase so I can't just change it. I'm hoping it's not also the crank but I've a feeling it almost certainly is - looks like a complete strip will be needed to look inside it.

thanks, I'll give this a try tomorrow and maybe borrow the FLIR camera from work over the weekend (hours of fun to be had with that thing - its quite literally a whole new perspective on EVERYTHING!

I was just re-reading this as the time (aka, the money) has finally come to get the job done.

I will get a quote to have the cross slide and gib reground at the same time/prior.

I will also mention I want it to turn ever so slightly concave, I will pull some Schlesinger specs up.

I will also quiz further (If required) about the refitting on my headstock because I have a feeling it does sit on both Vee's and so will be very sensitive to any change in the centre to centre.

The company doing the work is Birmingham Machine Tool Services, if anyone has any recommendations let me know.

Thanks again to everyone for sharing their experiences and knowledge.

I have an ABAC twin cylinder 3HP compressor (3000rpm). When I fire it up from cold, it runs and gets up to 120-130 psi and then turns off with a pop and a hiss - all sounds good.

Once I've used a bit of air and it gets down to whatever the set point is (i've adjusted it up and down between 50-80psi lately) it fires back up, but seems to run out of oomph as it passes 90psi. It will start to struggle and more often than not, as soon as the revs drop below a certain point, it rapidly declines and stalls with and angry buzzing sound.

I just wondered if anyone had any input or experiance before I start pulling it all to bits - is there perhaps anything pneumatic or electrical that it could be?

Edited By Russ B on 25/08/2016 13:58:59

Edited By Russ B on 25/08/2016 13:59:55