Member postings for Stuart Bridger

RS have always had a premium price, you were paying for pretty much guaranteed stock availability and next day service, that was well before the internet. Obviously others have cuaght up with them since.

looking at the chuck from the tailstock end, bottom right of headstock.

I have never seen HSS tooling sold suitable for brass, As mentioned I have never bothered with grinding specifically.

For the six inch ruler trick, just bring the tool up to the workpiece (not the end face) with the rule held in between and apply enough pressure to just pinch it. It should be completely vertical,. It if the top of the rule is towards you it is too low and if away from you it is too high.

As for purchase you should be looking for grade CZ121 brass which is free machining. I usually get mine from Chronos and haven't had any issues

There could be a number of things here

1) Tool needs to be very sharp for brass
2) Best practice says zero top rake (top edge of the tool should be ground flat, not tilted back like your knife and insert tooling is. That said I have never had any problems with using "standard" tooling for brass.
3) Your work is a long way out of the chuck unsupported, this is defintely not going to help. Either get it much closer to the chuck of use a centre to support it.
4) It could just be "bad" brass, some just don't machine well
5) Centre height is critical as this does affect rake if it is above or below centre. I still use the old trick of pressing a 6 inch rule between the tool and the work (not under power). It should be vertical if the height is correct,

Similar experience from GWR fasteners this week. Ordered on Monday and took the lowest cost delivery option as they weren't urgent. This was First Class Post and they arrived Tuesday morning.

I had a honda 4 stroke lawnmower that I inherited from a relative. No idea when it was last serviced. I had checked the oil level at the start of each season and replaced the plug a few times for starting issues.
it ran fine. Eventually I though probably I should change the oil. It was like black treacle and would barely drain out,

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 13/07/2023 15:29:57

When I started my apprenticeship in 1980, it was very much impressed on us to wash hands before. The message reinforced by some very graphic photos of the potential consquences of not doing so.

Thanks for all the feedback. I am using an "old school" Clarkson style milling chuck. I hadn't considered switching to ER collets. That looks to be the best way forward.

I would certainly lose the race in swapping my drill chuck for miling chuck. I certainly couldn't do it in 20-30 seconds!

Anyone have any experience with R8 quick change tooling?
I have a Warco VMC and no standalone pillar drill. I do find it a pain forever changing from a milling to drill chuck. This happens mulltiple times during a typical workshop session.

The Cutwel EZchange system looks good on paper . It's not cheap though and I could easily invest in a pillar drill for about the same money.
However
1) I don't really have space in the workshop for a standalone drill press
2) I do like the mill DRO for spacing out holes for drilling.

Any feedback would be appreciated

Simon, see Roger's post above for a good explanation, the idea is that you are trying to minimise the interrupted cut and smooth the entry of the tooth. If the cutter is larger than the workpiece you are running the cutter down the centreline. The tooth entrypoint will be at 90 degress to the edge of the work with quite a high impact. Moving the cutter off to one side so it just clears the edge of the work will result in a much shallower entry point angle for the tooth.

When you are installing your new power feed and just have to do a test BEFORE installing the limit switches AND you don't appreciate the range of the Z axis.I drove it down until it hit the bottom...

In the words of the of the late great John Stevenson "clumsy b8stard".

All was not lost, replacement "Zytel Gear" ordered via the usual auction site at not great cost. It arrived from China in good time. Spent this morning fitting the limit switches BEFORE replacing the gear.

Interestingly there is a motor overload cutout on the feed that didn't trip. So a bit of a design fault in that the gear strips before the overload kicks in. Also the the ALSGS manual doesn't mention the gear in the troubleshooting section, despite it being easy to access under a plastic cover. Youtube came to the rescue here.

Still a few tasks to complete the install of the Z feed, but already appreciating the X feed working under power.

Also have to give a shout-out to Warco who sent me a replacement Brass bevel gear FOC as the current shipping feed units are sized for the latest generation of VMC which have different diameter spindles to my 2001 model.

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 01/05/2023 13:52:37

i invested in a Mitutoyo digital caliper last year after getting tired of the sheer waste, cost and inconvenience of replacing batteries virtually every time I need to use the cheap one. Great investment, so much better feel and battery life is a magnitude better.

Newbridge (second oldest crossing over the Thames) had its rating reduced to 18 tonnes MGW after numberous HGVs were damaging the structure. The engineers calculated that one of the arches shouldn't support its own weight. The 13thC Bridge designers obviously knew better.

I do sympathise with the OP, it is a bit of a minefield getting started. I was lucky enough to have engineering apprenticeship under my belt. Although it was a 30 year gap to when I started my own workshop, the basics soon came back to me. Like others, I did a huge amount of research before getting out my wallet. I will admit to making mistakes with cheap tooling. The vice "bundled" with my mill was near to useless and I have upgraded a number of other pieces since. Is there a local ME club you could get advice from? Not knocking the advice here but a friendly face and eyes diretcly on the problem(s) can be very valuable.

I have a Husqvarna, it is excellent and does a great job. Now in its 3rd season.
They are not cheap though, mine was about £100 more than a direct replacement for the worn out Honda petrol model of the same size. I did waste a bit of money on going for the powered drive. I had that on the Honda, but the Husqvarna is so much lighter you don't need it unless you have stepp slopes

Big advantage is commonality of batteries across other tools. I also run a pole hedge trimmer and chainsaw on the same battery.

My 1963 Colchester Chipmaster is graduated on diameter.

I also checked one of my old text books. "Basic Engineering Processes" by S Crawford, first pubished in 1964.
He was the manager of the technical training workshop at Rolls Royce Bristol. He notes on the description of the Cross Slide "The reduction in diameter will be twice the value of tool movement indicated by the graduations"

I also have my apprentice journal from 1980, I learned to turn on a Colchester Student 1800, no mention there of cross slide graduations and radius/diameter. I have to assume it was aslo showing diameter as wehn i got my Chipmaster at home some 30 years later, I didn't have any surprises.

So definitely not a new challenge

How about a gravity fed system? Have a header tank, witha manifold plumbing into each oiling point with a tap to control the flow rate. The header tank could be topped up daily from a hand pump. Also have an overflow pipe back to your source, so no need for any level monitoring on the header. Just pump until it overflows back down.

I agree with Clive in that the terminal labelling is all out of line with the functions. Very scary ansd potentially dangerous for those not familiar with such devices. It can be confusing enough undertanding these devices even with a correct diagram. I have to say if quality control lets this slip though in the manual, what else could be wrong?

Hi Roger,
Back on the mill today and you were spot on. Moving the cutter to one side instead of straddling the work has dramatically reduced the noise. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the feedback, some very good points