Member postings for Alan Waddington 2

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

I managed to work out how the feed button mechanism is supposed to work, but elation was short lived.....stripped it down a little further and found one of the small gears is missing some teeth, guess it's had a major crash at some point interestingly enough both the larger ring gears it engages with look in perfect health.

Will try to follow up the kuroda avenue, and see if spares are still available, otherwise it's probably scrap

Please bear with me, this might turn into a long winded post............

A good while back i bought a Kuroda KKS UFB 3S auto boring and facing head via fleabay, have only just got around to having a play with it, and couldn't for the life of me work out how it was supposed to operate.

Watched a few videos of people using Wohlhaupters, which are very similar and began to smell a rat.

Anyhow, stripped the thing down this afternoon and I've definitely bought a 'wrong un'. It's been in bits before and bodged, with at least one part missing.

i suppose my first question to those in the know is, do we think it's fixable or have i bought an expensive paper weight.

The main problem is with the buttons that determine the feed rate 'B', the pawls which they operate 'C' and the cylindrical bearings that engage the drive 'A'

There should be two feed rate options selectable .008" or .004" when the appropriate button is pressed it shoves a pawl up inside the main shaft which in turn pushes the cylindrical bearing out of its hole, meshing with the drive ring.

In my example, at least one of the pawls .008" has been messed with by grinding/filing and the cylindrical bearing is missing, so no way is that going to work as is. The other pawl .004" looks unmolested and the drive bearing is present, however when i push/pull the button nothing happens, and looking at the shape of the button end and the pawl shape i can't see how it should/would work.

anyhow enough of my ramblings, a picture or three paint a thousand words.

Blimey, sounds like he's been quite lucky.........Its usually the innocuous little jobs that get you.

My mates wife gets out of hospital today after having surgery to remove the end of her finger, infected bone from a spell she got in a month ago while sanding skirting board.

Last year my brother nearly lost an eye after getting a tiny piece of wood imbedded in it whilst using electric hedge trimmers in the garden.....he fells trees for a living with a blooming great chain saw !

At tech college in Leeds as an apprentice, one of the lecturers wore an eye patch, lost his eye at 18 using a cold chisel, so we had it ingrained into us that mushroom heads were a big no no.

Hope your pal makes a full recovery

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 08/07/2016 18:44:45

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 08/07/2016 18:45:04

I tend to buy Heller cobalt twist drills from my local merchant, have found them great for handheld drilling, generally using an 18v cordless. For 8mm I pilot with a 5mm first.

Yes you did read the title correctly......not sure this boiler would make it past UK inspection judging by the welding on the rest of the job **LINK**

Just put the lathe in the lowest gear mate, you won't turn it by hand trying to remove the chuck.

Wow, amazing craftsmanship, maybe it should be called a 'Bough' Superior

Colchester Student 1800 runs quite happily on an inverter. Pretty sure it will easily pass through a 33" door, but will throw a tape over it tomorrow for you and confirm.

Not quite in that league, but my first Gaffer had a 16lb sledge hammer with the shaft sawn off short. He was only about 5'-6" tall but as broad across the shoulders and forearms like Popeye. He would wield the thing with one hand quite easily. As a skinny 16 year old I had all on to use it two handed for more than a few blows. " is that your name and address lad " he would say, referring to the marks I inevitably left on anything I attacked.

As Dave said above, those old oil cooled welders are a bit strange in that they only use 2 phases + earth of a 3 phase supply. You will be able to hook it up to single phase, the live will go to the 240 v stud. I run mine on a 20amp supply, but don't expect to burn much more than a 3.25 rod, I usually use 2.5's which is big enough for most home use.

If it's the original Tom Senior 3 phase motor, chances are it will be wired 440v star, you will need to disassemble the motor, dig out the star point and convert to delta to run it from a VFD, or swap the motor for a delta wired one.

Have a word with Gavin Oseman 01684 574966, he sometimes advertises on Homeworkshop.org.uk. Bought the inverter for my Colchester from him, it came pre programmed and had a remote pendant wired up. Very reasonable price and he tends to sell quality name brand inverters.

Saying that, my pal bought a 5.5kw ebay special to run a two post ramp and it has worked faultlessly, although the manual/ instructions were a touch sketchy to say the least, and it took a bit of messing around to set up.

I

Turn up early and don't be the first in the clocking out queue.

Keep your hands out of your pockets.

Don't rush any given tasks, concentrate on doing them well, speed will come with experience.

Don't be scared to ask questions. Especially if unsure of something, better to ask twice than balls something up.

Keep your work area neat and tidy, pick up a brush if things get quiet.

Keep your fingers out of spinny things.

Make sure to add an extra teabag for the pot.

Sounds like a great opportunity, try to enjoy the experience and best of luck, hope it works out for you.

Wise words from Doug. I was building a car when I got my first lathe so the 3.5" Grayson I bought was on the face of it an unsuitable size choice, however i learnt a great deal on that lathe! often working at the absolute limits of its capacity. Most jobs were doable with a bit of ingenuity, but in hindsight painfully slow. Spent many a happy hour in front of it though, in between thumbing a greasy copy of Mr Spareys most excellent tome " The Amateurs Lathe"

I eventually upgraded to a Harrison L5a which brought a wealth of automation and convenience to the workshop. The ability to take heavy cuts without stalling the lathe, Norton screw cutting gearbox, 4 way toolpost, powered feeds etc, made jobs that would have taken hours or even days on the Grayson a doddle to complete. It also had a very useful boring table which I used for milling duties until I could afford a dedicated mill.

After many more years I was offered a Colchester Student 1800 at the right money, so reluctantly passed the Harrison on to a friend, the Colchester is another step up in convenience, DRO, QCTP, Cam lock chucks, inverter drive etc, however unlike the Harrison it doesn't feel like wearing a pair of old slippers yet.

Like many people these days I'm time poor, so appreciate the speed and convenience a more industrial sized machine affords, but to be honest it's not a necessity for many jobs, and in some ways I miss the challenge of making things on the little Grayson.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 23/01/2016 12:32:29

It might be possible to use the static converter you have already bought as a base to build a rotary converter.

Loads of info and wiring diagrams free on the net.

I did exactly what you are doing on my tom senior and used normal soft solder as described by John, I over sleeved the heat shrunk joints with heatproof sleeving from some old down lights I had knocking about. it worked perfectly and gave no trouble whatsoever.

Alan.

In my experience the insurance company will only pay out for any damage caused by a leak, not for repairing the leak . Unfortunately i suspect you will be on your own with finding and repairing the problem.

If i were you i would be thinking of replacing the whole lot, either by cutting new channels in the concrete ( messy) or surface mounting (unsightly)

There are some commercial concealed skirting systems available, but it might be as easy to break out the woodwork tools and do your own. 10mm speed fit pipe is arguably easier to hide than copper. Its a lot of work though if you want it to look good. And you will probably encounter the odd doorway etc that presents a routing obstacle.

Quite often concrete floors are quite soft and making new channels might not be as difficult or messy as you imagine. Only a test dig will tell you.

Alan

Once had a similar situation in a very posh house that had the downstairs floors fully tiled in very very expensive tiles.

The owners hired an outfit with a thermal imaging camera to pinpoint the leak.

Worked a treat, and only one tile was harmed in the fixing of the offending pipe.

The tilers had used nails that were 6mm too long to ply the floors prior to tiling and despite using thousands of the buggers they only hit the one pipe.

Camera team cost in excess of £500 though !