Member postings for Stuart Bridger

Go to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.
I went round it a year ago ticking off "worked on that", "worked on that", scary stuff

I use Neatcut 110 from Hallet Oils in my Chipmaster. This is a straight neat cutting oil (as the name suggests). Five litres was enough to get me going. While it does smoke a bit if you push the depth of cut, I get great surface finish. Like the OP the main reason for using a neat oil vs soluble was long term stability, without having to worry about bacterial contamination or corrosion. While I am certain the cooling efficiency is not as good as soluble, it works for me.

Stuart

RS Components do a range of mini drills aimed at PCB work and a half decent stand (506-3545).
I have the stand with a MFA Como drill that I have had for years from my boat modelling days. Bit tricky to get the drill aligned in the stand, as the drill body is not parallel, but once done it does a good job. Drilled out the steam passages on my Stuart 10V no problem.

Neil,

Machine DRO have a measuring guide on their website.

Stuart

what's wrong with a 15mm solder or push fit stop end?

I have a Vertex VA-4 on my Warco VMC and am very happy with it, but it may be a bit big for a WM-14.

Excellent show. I went a couple of years ago. I also followed the advice of dropping the Wife in town, she attested that Harrogate has some very good shopping, Also got some brownie points with a weekend away. Living down south it was along haul for a day. Carrying a relatively small D1-3 4 jaw from the show to the car was bad enough...

Well, after all this discussion, I have managed to get the first serious amount of "shop time" for ages. This has made me question whether I really need a DRO on my lathe???? As always, practice makes perfect and getting good hands on time has built my confidence and I find that I am getting very good results in a sensible time the traditional way with dials.

Stuart

I remember my first IT job, we had 5, 10 and 20MB hard disks, but most work was done on floppy drives (360 or 720KB). The Sales Director was quoted as saying "20MB, who on earth is ever going to fill up a 20MB drive, we can't sell those..." c. 1987. Not sure what the cost was at that time. Also remember about 1990 shipping UNIX servers with memory boards about the size of an A3 sheet of paper (VMEbus), 8, 16, 32 or (much later) 64MB, at 1000 pounds per MB. Happy days....

Entex Stock Springs http://www.entexstocksprings.co.uk, have a very extensive range and a full guide on the website on how to specify, Not sure what you mean by "small", but their stock range starts at 1.57mm dia with 7 coils of 6 thou wire. They also have a bespoke service if your requirement is not met by stock items.

Stuart

I did look at magnetic, but based on machine DRO's specs, they quote an accuracy of +/ 0.015 mm "typical after installation" even on the 1um resolution, which doesn't compare very favourably with the +/- 0.005mm quoted for optical. The slim optical scale with cover would mean losing about an inch with the tailstock being further way from the chuck.

Just as a FYI, it is about a 30% premium on the scale price to go from 5um to 1um

I already have a DRO on my mill and there the advantage is much more obvious, no more counting handwheel turns and functions like divide by 2 are invaluable. What I am looking for on the lathe is primarily to increase productivity rather than accuracy. I am thinking that it will help on the carriage more than the cross slide. When i did my apprenticeship some 35 years ago we had no DROs then... I am relearning my lathe skills after a 30+year break, productivity is improving (and scrap rates are decreasing), but my thoughts are a DRO will really help.

All, excellent feedback, I am thinking that 5um will suffice. Experience will tell once installed with regular checking with the mic. how much spring and deflection I am getting.

Thanks

Stuart

Good point Jason, on that basis are you saying that there is little point installing a DRO on a lathe?

1963 Chipmaster, which is much better than I am.

Mostly making stationary engine models

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 30/03/2015 18:49:55

Tony, that is why I am asking In reality I guess I am concerned about accuracy rather than absolute resolution

I know I am mixing units here, but I can visualise old school better.
The comment on radius was that the DRO is going to read absolute position of the cross slide, so if I am understanding correctly any error will be doubled on diameter. 4 tenths is getting close to half a thou, which to me sounds significant. I suppose if I have to get a mic out for the finer work then so be it?

I am looking at a DRO for my lathe. The DRO vendor is offering 5um resolution scales with an accuracy of +/- 0.005mm which is +/-2 tenths on radius or +/-4 tenths on diameter, on the cross slide. This doesn't sound that great? I am currently waiting a quote and accuracy spec on 1um scales.

What is everyone else using?

Thanks in advance for your response

Stuart