Member postings for Neil Wyatt

Jacob,

As a rule of thumb for gliding the C of G should be about 1/3 of the wing chord (front to back distance) from the leading edge. For stability you will need about 1/4 the wing area as a tailplane a good 4 chords back from the C of G. Of course all broad generalisations are wrong so expect to experiment.

I'd go with a folding Rogallo wing that releases after a delay, myself. No stabiliser needed, suspend the bottle from it so c of g variations caused b y retained water won't matter.

Neil

Gray,

I think you mentioned it in passing when giving advice on making the dial.

Thanks for the compliments; that's one of my better jobs!

Neil

P.S. I needed a small adjustable wrench to tighten up a plastic tap nut. I found one in B&Q for 2.99 and even it has a laser-etched scale on the jaws.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 01/03/2014 19:30:41

The Adept/Super Adept was the equivalent of a C0 'baby lathe' in its time, small cheap and basic, although the C0 is probably rather more advanced.

In its time it was an excellent entry point for the totally skint to get into model engineering. Some people lavished great care and attention on them, I have read of one being brought up to 'horological' standards.

If you would enjoy working on it and getting it up to a standard as much as using it, then keep it. If you want a usable and flexible lathe of similar capacity and modest price, without all the work, consider a C0, a Sherline or an old Unimat, among others.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 01/03/2014 19:24:19

Here you go:

Typical 'newbie' questions:

"What is the best lathe for a beginner?"

"How do I machine aluminium?"

"Is stainless steel better than mild steel?"

Often, there are not simple answers - perhaps in most cases there needs to be a conversation with the person posing the question.

Neil

I have a beautiful set of carbon steel LAL BA taps that belonged to my grandfather (evens 0-8). One or two succumbed to my teenage enthusiasm. Very nice to use and well finished tap and die holders.

Neil

I recall from my A-level physics that, in theory, if you have two perfectly matched DC brushed motors and run them in parallel they will synchronise themselves. Load one, and counter-intuitively they both slow down.

Neil

Gray's advice on straight knurls is sound. Following his advice ontechnique I made a simple holder for a single straight knurl and was able to produce a 2 1/2" diameter knurl on mild steel a mini lathe (It isn't 100% perfect, but I was pleased with it).

Neil

Oddly enough I had an email enquiring about this a few days ago. apparently it's a '7/16 NS thread' and it's known as a 'lindal valve' to EN417.

I can't find detail of the thread form, but taps are available, at least form the US (be prepared for a small shock).

**LINK**

Neil

Welcome to the forum, Tim C and Bob R!

> Waiting for the body shop guy to come over with the paint camera to find out what RAL number the paint is so I can get some mixed.

I'll give you a clue John, it's blue...

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 28/02/2014 15:00:46

Looked at a MM flyer this morning:

"JOIN OUR EXCLUSIVE EMAIL CLUB"

Think about it...

> Metal or plastic Neil ?

Without a description John I was assuming you meant the plastic parts bins on a louvred metal back board?

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 26/02/2014 20:54:37

The 'credible reason' was given by a poster above:

"I guess that is why many books on the subject suggest we err slightly away from perfect in the direction that is most likely to help us produce good work."

That is the principle behind the Schlesinger limits. One other sage poster observed changes in temperature throw everything out at these levels of precision. Setting up to chase tenths without a temperature controlled toolroom is running after rainbows.

Neil

P.S. It was Edgar T. Westbury, who seems to think the machinist makes a bigger difference to the end result than the machine. Looking at my own work, I fear he's right.

I've had an email from an MEW reader who can no longer source canisters for his Ronson Variflame torch. As someone else who finds a range of small torches very useful (and less hassle than digging a propane cylinder out of the back of the shed for small jobs), I agree information on the various options and types of torch would be useful.

He's especially interested in those using screw-thread canisters, but an article could cover other tpes of small torch as well and compare butane vs. propane vs. 'MAPP'.

I'll suggest he watches this thread as I'm sure much valuable advice will appear.

If anyone is interested in writing for MEW on this subject, please email me at [email protected]

Thanks

Neil

Can anyone guess who wrote:

"Accuracy is a feature much to be desired in any machine tool, and the reputation of a lathe may stand or fall by its virtues in this respect. In recent years tstandards of accuracy for machine tools, including the well-known Schlesinger limits, have been set up to define the essential factors of concentricity, alignment etc. which are consdierd desirable in machines. Generally speaking, however these can only be observed in high class industrial machine tools; the types of lathes which have to be built at a competitive price are often sold without any guarantee as to accuracy ... In the past, many small lathes have been manufactured in which accuracy was very dubious, but in view of their low cost, their imperfections could be tolerated, and they served the purpose for which they were intended quite well. It does not follow that accurate work is only possible if the machine tool itself is above reproach ... the requirements of the amateur, to whom time is of less importance, may be adequatel;y served by a simpler and less expensive lathe."

And

"Lathe users, other than those with practical experience of machine tool fitting, are strongly advised not to attempt any modifications which might permanently affect the accuracy of a lathe. It is safer to accept the inaccuracies of the machine and learn to live with them. Even the most expensive lathe cannot be expected to remain in perfect adjustment indefinitely, and all machines have their limitations."

Neil

Hi David,

Don't fear turning iron and steel on a mini lathe. at 12 years your toothed belt was past it's best before by date

Neil

Apparently a safe working limit for PET bottles is around 85psi, as they normally stand up to 100psi or even higher..

The great aeromodeller Dougg McHard made some air-powered models using pop bottl;es as reservoirs. He had a technique for re-inforcing them using self-adhesive fibreglass tape.

Simple folding cloth wings seem to be the easiest solution to me.

Neil

Thanks foks. I have Primo on the machine with TC installed, now I just have to work out how to boldly go into 'print space'...

Stew has sorted me for now, though.

Neil

i'm not going to leap to any more conclusions unless I get hold of a decent MT3 test bar and a machine level first.

Neil

> One thing I have found decent at MM and not seen anywhere else are their small parts racks.

CPC have these at riculously low prices.

Neil

A helpful forum member (not too far from here) sent me a spare saddle for my Mini-lathe. I've always suspected my saddle of being 'out' and turning slightly convex instead of concave. (1 thou over the travel).

I discovered that the 'new' saddle lacked the finish that my old one had, largely due to 15 years use - now silky smooth, but no 'wear' apparent on the old one. I swapped the gib strips, however, as in the early days I distorted mine by not understanding the role of the adjustment grub screws.

Also the saddles were slightly different heights, so the 'new one' didn't allow thesaddle rack and pinion to properly engage.

I compared the alighment of the ways on the two saddles this way:

1. Fit a small silver steel bar in the cross-slide dovetail.
2. Lightly clamp an angle plate to the bed.
3. Lightly squeeze parallel sides of an accurately ground V-block between the bar and the angle plate, and frimly clamp the angle plate.
4. The face of the angle plate is now parallel with the ways.
5. Now swap over the saddle, and put the bar and v-block back.
6. You can now compare the alignment.

This test showed the ways on both saddles were exactly aligned as far as I could measure. I must look elsewhere for the source of error.

I took the opportunity to clean up a few things and get everything into good adjustment. I also rounded the end of the feeed nut, wihich, combined with a milled notch in the bottom of the topslide, gives nearly 1/2" of extra travel.

Neil