Member postings for Pero

Hello Dave

Your set up sounds much the same as mine, although I have a made-to-measure stainless steel tray made up locally to catch the chips and errant fluids (lubricating oil in my case since I don't use coolant).

Assuming the Myford tray is flat bottomed and can't be engineered (beaten into submission) to provide the required fall, I can think of two possible options:

Adjust the level of the stand so that the coolant flows in the right direction. Easy enough using leveling feet (hopefully of the vibration absorbing variety). However you would then need to shim each end of the two Myford mounting blocks to bring the the tops back to level before mounting the lathe.

Option two would be to buy a smaller SS tray from the local cookware shop and place this under the lathe bed to catch the bulk of the coolant and have a wipedown of the main tray at regular intervals.

I favour the second myself, but as I say my only issue is with lubricating oil so I omit the secondary tray and only go with the main tray wipedown.

I will be interested to hear what other solutions pop up how you get on.

Pero

Keith

Thank you for your response. I have been mulling this one over in my mind for some time without reaching any conclusion. I became quite good at silver soldering very small joints in stainless steel when making fittings for radio control racing yachts but haven't yet attacked the bulk of a boiler. I think my largest efforts to date are on 20 mm plumbing fittings using 15% silver rods. These were all successful so I think now is the time to step up to a 50 mm boiler!

A bit far to get to the shows (I am in Perth, Western Australia) but I may take up your kind offer to phone if I get into difficulties.

Regards

Pero

I hope I am not taking the thread too far off course here but can someone advise on how to get the required gap for silver brazing of boiler end plates?

I can readily measure the recommended 2 - 4 thou gap when cold (room temperature) but how do I translate this into a gap at brazing temperature? In the case of fitting a boiler end plate, will this become tighter or looser when heated and is there any empirical formula that I can apply?

I could do a test run or two but with the cost of copper I am hoping to avoid one potential source of error.

I haven't been able to find anything on this in my reading on brazing so am hoping someone can assist.

Thanks in advance

Pero

I haven't tried rehabilitating cross head screwdriver tips but on occasion have had to grind a little off the tip of Phillips drivers, mainly of less than #1 size, when I have found that they will not seat securely in the screw head.

I'm not sure whether the problem lies with the manufacture of the screw or the driver, or possibly both, but unless the driver is sitting firmly at the top of the screw head a stripped screw head is almost inevitable.

As for slotted head screws, if you are trying to get a decent finish on the work, it now seems almost inevitable that you will have to grind a driver to fit the screws you are using. There seems to be no standardisation of any form here, the most annoying being large wood screws with very narrow slots which will destroy even a well fitted driver in no time at all.

End of today's grumble.

Pero

Hi John

Yes, but not a goose neck wrecking bar. The item in question is about 6 ft (1800 mm) in length and used by waterside workers and those involved in moving heavy machinery, which is how I learned about them. Unfortunately they seem to be known by different names in different jurisdictions.

On the subject of grinding I have found a piece of concrete breeze block (the heavy variety) plus water is very good for flattening small irregularities in a concrete floor. Dipped in water regularities to remove the cuttings they seem to be very efficient (and cheap).

Pero

One other option, depending on the design of the stand, would be to lift the machine and fit it with adjustable vibration dampening mounts. As per the description, these will make height adjustment very easy and account for any variation in floor level, and also provide some isolation between the machine base and the floor reducing noise and vibration.

For moving machines around in tight spaces (found in all home workshops) I use a goose neck bar rather than a pry bar. It works in small spaces and is good for swivelling machines around. A bit expensive to buy for a one off move but should be available from a local hire shop.

Pero

Hi

First the drawn out history to the problem.

A while back I purchased some ball bearing collet nuts from a well known supplier (name suppressed for protection of the only slightly guilty) and not intending to use them immediately was happy to leave them in their sealed plastic bags as supplied. Sometime later on giving one a wiggle was surprised to find that the inner ring would not rotate. On opening the bag and applying a little more pressure I found the ring could be rotated, but I stopped after a couple of millimetres, due to the sound and feel of grit in the bearing. Further investigation - poking around in the back of the nut with a toothpick, yielded grey grease and half a pound of metal cuttings.

Now to the question of how to deal with this problem and future maintenance requirements.

A search of the internet proved rather unhelpful. My own thoughts were to clean the nut in degreasing fluid (automotive type) in my small ultrasonic cleaner. However, once clean I could find no information on what grease to pack it with (if any), how much to use and how to apply it.

Any advice that can be provided would be much appreciated.

Pero

P.S. I didn't return it to the seller due to the time that had passed since receipt and also the likelihood that a replacement would suffer the same problem.

Jeff

You have me a little worried.

One of my (Oriental) lathes has a manual which describes it as a "Percission Lathe". I had thought this a typographical error but now wonder if it is an abbreviation for "Percussion Precision Lathe", i.e. keep bashing it until you achieve the required level of accuracy!

Pero

Further to Robbo's comments above, and hopefully not taking us too far off topic, as some of us have found out to our dismay the Myford-Dickson QCTP will actually take a 12 mm tool. Unfortunately you can't then set the tool to the correct height due to interference with the topslide - makes you wonder why they didn't just settle for 10 mm in the first place as the holders could be made slightly more rigid.

It seems however to be widespread. The tool holders for the Cowells' QCTP will hold up to 10 mm while the A2Z CNC tool holders, commonly used on the Taig (Peatol) and other similarly sized small lathes will take up to 12 mm (1/2 inch), with the typical tool in use being 6 mm.

Interestingly the QCTP tool holders for my 410x1000 lathe will only take 25 mm (1 inch), the recommended tool size for this lathe, while the standard 4 position tool post will allow up to 40 mm reverse logic?).

I guess in the case of QCTP tool holders this may be to allow for the use of now largely extinct tool shapes but I would welcome any further thoughts on why this might be so.

Pero

Not necessarily wet air in ventilation.

Combustion of fuel gases - propane and butane (or methane if you are using natural gas) generates carbon dioxide and water vapour so if you are burning a lot of gas in an enclosed space the warm air and cold machinery will lead to the inevitable.

Pero

Graham

I am more or less due west of the city - but not so far as to get my feet wet. If you let me know a bit closer to when you are coming I might just have the workshop sufficiently organised to allow safe entry!

Pero

Thanks to all for the words of welcome.

Russell - unfortunately lathes started escaping from the workshop some time ago. Fortunately half of them are small enough to sit quietly on shelves ( in the adjoining garage ) and do not take up too much room. The real space guzzlers are the big lathe (410 x 1000 mm) and 'matching' vertical mill. Once you allow for the machine footprints, operating and maintenance space around them plus room for the accessories a sizable chunk of floor space has disappeared.

However, I'm sure there would be a lot more available space if I could just get myself a little more organised. Perhaps one job at a time?

Pero

Hello – my name is Pero ( alias used for the protection of the guilty ) … .and I’m a lathe-aholic ( this looks like it should be the right forum for one with my affliction ). However I have not purchased a new lathe for a few years and while I admit to looking at the pictures of the Super Adept I have yet to be seriously tempted.

I am a three year trained engineer ( half a day a week for half the school year between ages 12 and 14 – the other half was woodwork ). This extensive training has disadvantages and advantages – I’m not always ( ever ) sure what I am doing but not having drummed into me what I cannot do (apart from basic safety, sometimes ignored at my peril ) I will probably have a go anyway. My first lathe was a Myford ML7 purchased some decades ago with the intention of eventually building a traction engine but initially used for making fittings for RC racing yachts and the usual range of repairs that come the lathe owners way. I have since owned a number of lathes, both larger and smaller, but not sold any and in my cluttered workshop the ML7 remains the mainstay of current operations.

I have been looking in on the forum on a regular basis for some time and hope I can contribute a little from time to time, although probably not on machining techniques where I tend to apply the same rule as I do with motor vehicles – if it sounds right and it feels right it is probably more or less OK.

As I am now at last officially semi-retired I plan to get the workshop organised and start on a few of the stationary engines casting sets I bought to learn a little about the operation of steam engines before tackling a traction engine. Queries of a technical nature are bound to follow…