Member postings for Peter Sansom

I did the conversion on mine 5 years ago as part of a bed regrind. Put a piece of ground steel to fill the gap between the rear face of the bed and and the carriage as per George Thomas. Also had part of the old front guide on the the carriage milled to provide the necessary clearance.

Over the years I have had 2 HP inkjet printers, and an HP B&W laser. The inkjets printed well, cartridges expensive and did not like intermittent use which was a real problem after the laser, which was supplied by work, arrived as we rarely used the inkjet. The inkjet was disposed of and we lived with just the laser.

The laser died early 2022 and my them employer did no provide printers for home workers. Purchased Kyocera Colour laser. Excellent printer and driver support. Print quality is also excellent.

Most modern printer will work under the Universal Print Driver, may not support all the features, but will print .

Red Back spiders are fine. I grew up with them and you know where to find them, under bricks or similar. They might kill a small child? but adults are fine.

The spider to watch out for is the Sydney Funnel Web, female. There is an anti-venine for the last 30 years. Prior to that people regularly died from the bite. Often found in shoes etc. in areas close to bush.

Peter

I was just talking to an epoxy manufacturer yesterday about temperature and setting time. Using Casting epoxy resin to fill cracks and knot holes on a hardwood bench top. They specify an ideal temperature of 28C.

We are max 19C today min 4C, I was told it will not set when the temperature is below 15C, but when the temperature gets above 15C it will resume setting, I was told just wait or bring it in the house where it is warmer. Did that with the smaller piece, but the other is 4m long so not easy to move.

So just wait and you can apply a bit of gentle warmth.

Peter

I bought a 2nd hand hoist about 5 years ago. Shortly after purchasing it I was lifting a cast iron bath, had lifted it ca couple of days previously, no problems., It would not support the lift.

Pulled apart and found the ram seals had failed, Found replacement seals online, about 3rd the cost of a replacement ram and much cheaper shipping.

Peter

The cheap Chinese VFD's seem to expect a latching switch, a relay can be used to turn the momentary switches into a latching Switches.

I have a Bosch Rexroth VFD's to install and they can be configured to use latching switch or momentary contact switches.

Fwd to Fwd VFD,

Rev to Rev VFD

Gnd to Gnd Vfd

I have one of these installed. The remote switches are not latching, they are expecting an ON/OFF switch and a FORWARD/REVERSE switch.

I got round the problem by adding a double pole relay where the coil is energised and latched by the START button and the STOP button breaks the power to the relay coil. One Pole of the relay is Forward and the other is Reverse. The FORWARD/REVERSE switch powers the correct relay pole. Output contacts of the relay are connected to the VFD Forward and reverse teminals.

There is no emergency stop on this VFD, but you can tweak the parameters for stopping by reducing the time delay.

If anyone in Australia is looking for a VFD, I have just got my hands on 3, 2nd hand Bosch Rexroth 1.5kw 3610 EFC units. On will be used to convert my S7 to vfd and 2nd will replace a cheap Chinese one currently on the drill press.

If anyone is interested on the 3rd unit PM me.

Peter

I had a noisy countershaft, needed to replace the 2 Deep Groove ball bearings in the Mk2 clutch assembly, noise reduced significantly.

Peter

I made the original version 30 years ago, shortly after I acquired a used S7. The main unit has been removed once from the bed during that period, to get the bed reground. The arm is left permanently attached to the cross slide. I leave the guide off the TTA.

Peter

For a 50Hz supply frequency the speed is 3000 rpm for a 2 pole alternator, 1500rpm in the case of a 4 pole alternator to operate electronics you need a stable alternator. I have never had issue with a 5.5Kva alternator that I have. I know people who have tried chinese 8kva alternator and they had a lot of issues with computer failures.

A vfd will give use a lower start current than a conventional starter fi the source is stable and correctly sized.

Peter

Do you have the exploded diagram diagram for the QC gear box to identify the part number of what you are missing. The lack of the detent pin will not stop the selector working.

I you cannot locate the diagram, or find one on an internet search, pm me.

My selector was sloppy, and was fiddly to use, turned out to be a loose screw.

Remove the cover from the gearbox and check the sliding gear works.

Peter

This one is in Charma New Mexico, there is a video of it clearing Cumbres Pass

Disconnect the end plate from the cross slide. remove the Cross slide screw fully from the lathe.

Push the cross slide back and forward. If it is tight at any point then adjust the gibs on the cross slide so it slides easily. Make sure that you have properly lubricated the cross slide with a suitable lubricant, I use an MDS grease.

When you reassemble the end plate with the screw back to the cross slide only tighten the 2 end plate screws when you the cross slide screw in ad far as it will go.

Only when you are certain that the cross slide is moving freely then try cutting and see if you still have the issue then we know you are dealing with a tooling or cutting issue.

Peter

The latest issue of ME was not in Pocket Mags. When I looked it is marked as inactive, my MEW is active. I believe the problem is related to Morton's allocating me 2 Customer Id's, one for ME and the other for MEW.

Still waiting for that to be fixed. It was identified when I could not access the ME archive and they came back with the 2nd Customer Id.

Peter

Do not rely on wooden floors, they move. I just jacked the back of our house as the, it is is on concrete stumps, the floor in its worst point had dropped 25mm. It depends on the soil and the moisture in it, clays can be very bad.

Previous house we had to adjust the locks twice a year, Some of the stumps rose in wet weather and dropped in dry, up to 20mm, +10 -10, over the yearly cycle.

Solid concrete base, bolt stand to base, then "Level" lahe on the stand. As stated previously the lathe is heavy overt the motor and potentially unstable able to tip back in the wrong circumstances.

Never trust wood floors to be stable and not move.

Peter

A bit of play on the gear on the rack is not a real issue. Normally on a S7 you use the lead screw hand wheel while cutting.

I have a 1958, Mk1 head stock, MK2 clutch and yes there is some play in the rack feed, not an issue. Sometimes I will use teh carriage hand wheel to advance the carriage when machining. The play does not matter as you are moving the carriage by gentle pressure.

I will improve rack feed slack at some point but it does not impact performance.

Of more importance was

1 fix bed wear - bed grind

2. replaced clutch bearings and headstock bearing, did tapper roller bearing conversion

3. adjusting the lather to turn parallel

Peter

Davy Bros, Sheffield was the manufacturer of the blower. . There was also a 3 cylinder Davy Mill Engine that came out of Lithgow and and operated in Port Kembla Steelworks until the mid 1980's. Remember watching it operating in the early 70's.

The Davy Blower scrapped in 1928 when the Blast Furnace was shutdown. The horizontal Thompson blower was transferred to Port Kembla.

Someone in the UK may be able to provide more details on the general arrangement of the Davy vertical blower.

Peter

Thanks, will ignore.

Peter