Member postings for derek hall 1

Mentioning the "C" word in July!

There should be law against it ....

I never wear gloves in the workshop, I use barrier cream, and orange swarfega when I am finished.

I have never worn rings

As for hair…..what hair? 😊

I worked for Anglian Water for many years in the lumpy water side of things (aka sewage treatment), and you always washed hands before going to the toilet.

Mind you if you did get your hands covered in black sludge, no matter how hard you scrubbed and washed your hands you could not get rid of the smell for ages. This meant eating your sandwiches at lunch time made things challenging! The only cure was to use aftershave on your hands to disguise the pong before eating your grub!

Where I work, we employ a physicist who specialises in fluid dynamics, he has a phd in the subject...I will ask him on Monday what he thinks happened during the failure and report back.

All the best

Derek

From the pic Hopper posted, it looks like the end cover was secured by a handful of m6 cap head bolts...!

I have been using Dickson style toolpost and holders on my Myford S7 for years, ever since my apprenticeship and experience in industry. The thought of faffing with shims of varying thickness put me off that route very early on in my career.

However I am well aware that it is not the best toolpost design especially for the Myford, some of my holders never seem to hold the tool height once removed, but it is still quicker to reset the height than hunting around for shims.

Fast forward to now, I am considering changing this style of toolpost to the "piston" style as advertised by Arc Euro as this seems to be a much better rigid tooling system than the Dickson where there is a lot of unsupported overhang.

What do others think about this potential upgrade?, any experience good or bad?

All the best

Del

Well when they came up with the marketing strapline....

"The world turns on Colchester lathes"

They never did mention milling or dividing etc 😊

I think to be honest we are not comparing like with like, the Colchester, Harrison etc etc lathes are more for industry use where they would have seperate milling machines. The Myford at the time of it being introduced was ideal for the traditional man in a shed where he/she had only room and the money for one machine, and the versatility of the Myford meant that it could do more than the Colchester as there was lots of accessories to extend the myford from more than just being a lathe....

I agree with Jason's comments above, I worked for Anglian Water for many years and we had manual mills and manual lathes for the specific repair jobs needed for sewage treatment machinery and pumps etc.

Currently I work for a company that has a small engineering workshop with a 3d printer as well as a manual lathe and mill dedicated to prototyping and proving a new widget - before its sent to China or India to be made.

Loads of firms (most of them very well known food and drink suppliers) that I visit to support my companies equipment that they have installed, have manual lathes and mills to enable them to repair stuff 24/7 without having to keep loads of expensive spares in stores

So at the risk of straying off topic, learning cnc at school without having the basic understanding of a machine tool may not prepare the student for life in industry.

I suppose the attraction of cnc, suggests that programming the machine is the key interest rather than what it does and how it does it.

Perversely a recent thread was about how we in the UK dont make anything anymore, now we have a discussion about learning how to use a cnc lathe to turn out thousands of widgets !

Oh and I have an elderly myford S7 and it does everything I ask of it, but not sure I could afford or justify buying a new one.

I used my firms large manual lathe the other day (a popular make of lathe from china) and it was an awful piece of kit, it was like an old mangel and it's only 6 years old used a few times a week for basic stuff....give me a colchester lathe (manual !) anyday for big stuff.....

We used to use diesel fuel applied to rusted up or seized stuff, where I used to work, that used to work reasonably well

As an apprentice marine engineer many years ago in the mid 1970's, I once cut a 6 inch dia hole (approx 150 mm!) in the wrong place in the hull in the very bottom of a new ship.....fortunately it was in dry dock at the time....

I still have that piece of hull plate on my table as an over large industrial coaster for my mug of tea, to continually remind me to measure twice cut once !

Regards to all

Derek

A branch off this thread would be "the future of model engineering?"

Both my sons in law (in their early30's) have no idea about "practical" stuff let alone have engineering skills or the pro's and cons of metric or imperial measurement.

Houses are getting more expensive for the younger generation and those that have a garage or even a garden big enough to put a shed in suitable for a workshop are at a premium. If you live in rented accommodation then its even harder to create a workshop. Not even factoring in the cost of machine and hand tools against the cost of living and bringing up a young family for example.

I do not want to change the direction of this thread but I think there maybe a part of imperial measurements that may turn off budding model engineers (young and old).

The days of coming home from work having your tea and going out to the "shed" to bash some metal have changed dramatically.

But the world of Model Engineering is slowly, albeit very slowly turning metric thanks to new published designs (thanks to Jason and others!) - I think this makes the design more accessible and understandable to the metric only generation......and they are the future model engineers

To answer the thread question, my answer is that perhaps many of the popular designs are still in Imperial.

I work in both, metric mill, imperial lathe. My apprenticeship was generally also a mixture of both, I convert using a calculator, not having a DRO.

One thing I always have an issue with is that new people coming into this "hobby" need to realise that there are critical dimensions in some components and less critical dimensions in others. Many waste time in ensuring, for example, that the base plate of a model engine has to be exactly the dimension on the drawing....it could be 1/8inch longer or 3.175 mm and no one would notice !

The elephant in the room though is getting new blood into our hobby, I am sure many are put off by imperial measurements. I guess as us old duffers eventually keel over with our hands around a 0 to 1 inch imperial micrometer, imperial units in model engineering like us will eventually wither and die...

The important thing is to get in the workshop and make stuff, either in metric or imperial, who cares !

Regards to all

Derek

At last Mr Dave Wootton has posted a sensible (in my opinion!) answer to the question about the Myford being an industrial lathe.....

I mean who cares if the Myford is or isn't an industrial lathe, it's a tool? I have worked on loads of lathes in the past some of them huge for turning ships propellor shafts etc, my Myford suits me for the work I currently use it for...

Regards to all

Derek

At the risk of straying slightly off topic I fully agree with Clives comments on the 24th Feb above.

I work for a UK company that was swallowed up by one of the faceless US corporations called Danaher. They were the corporation that purchased Jacobs, this corporation own lots of companies such as Fluke and Leica for example.

Since being taken over some years ago, the quality and reliability of my company's products has deteriorated drastically, whilst the product is still being made in the UK there is a mirror factory in China and it will not be long before it all goes out to China.

Dollar is Danaher's god, they look to shave anything off a product to save costs and charge more, but they are not the only ones....

Roy is correct, there was a series of articles on how to construct one of these wheel cutting machines by the designer Elliot Isaac's. I think he then allowed chronos to sell completed versions of the machine.

You will find the articles in the defunct "Clockmaker" magazine by TEE publishing many years ago (1990?).

Maybe you will able to find copies there were only ever 2 volumes over 2 years...

Hope that helps

Regards

Derek

I too bought an Optivisor about 3 years ago and it always the first "tool" I reach for. Great peice of kit, pricey though but worth every penny.

The headband on mine has also turned to "mush" leaving a black witness mark on my forehead, I will look at finding some thin leather and a way to secure it.

Mine does not have the fancy LED lights or the extra loupe lens is this an option or a home made add on I wonder?

All the best

Derek

Please correct me if I am wrong ... EN1A and EN1A PB is good for turning and milling, it is not suitable for silver soldering bits together.

All the best

Derek

Kiwi gives good advice,!

Does sound like your wheels are glazed where they are not cutting and you force the HSS into the wheel.

A simple double wheeled bench grinder is one of the most dangerous (and neglected) peice of kit in the workshop....

Regards

Derek

I recall at an ME exhibition some years ago most, if not all, GHT's tooling that was designed and described by him in the ME was on a stand run by the SMEE.

Maybe someone who is a member could confirm that the masters originals are safe...

Yes I know it's a bit off topic but I would be happy that Westbury's engines, Tom Walshaw and GHT and others work was safe rather than rusting somewhere, unloved and unappreciated.

John Wilding the clockmaker sold by auction all of his clocks.

Oh no !

That's a shame, really sorry to hear this news. It is important to remain mentally stimulated as we get older, have you thought of doing minor clock or pocket watch repair?

Personally I dread the time I too will have to make a similar decision, I am 65 this year so hopefully I have a few years to go....

Please stay active on this website Tug, your experience and advice is always welcome

All the best

Derek