Member postings for Nick_G

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Before you get too excited about the excellent 254 check what comes with it and be aware that compared to the ML series there was not anywhere near the number made.

As such things like change gears, fixed and traveling steadies etc. will be very difficult to find and when they are will command a very high price.

Nick

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Yes. ............. Possibly.

Check that the motor when it departed this world did not also drag off the control board to meet the grim reaper.

Nick

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HSS tools ground to a smaller section where required solve the problem for me on a similar sized lathe to the 254 when needed. You can always also put packing under a 6mm tool and use those.

Smaller extra chucks fitted. I managed to fit an 80mm one to a D1 - 3 backplate which is the same mount as the 254 also help small parts not getting swamped by the chuck and an ER collet chuck is also handy for the same reason.

For one lathe in your shop I would go for the 254. Having said that a second lathe is always handy if you have the room.

Nick

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I think you are right.

Nick

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Oh come on now Jason be fair. That's not very nice or accurate as I really cannot see how using the wrong 'metal glue' resulted in something that looked like this.

Nick

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Nope.

Besides the slipper clutch should have taken care of it.

Nick

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He was not accelerating hard when it gave way. (he would have told me the truth) But even if he was that is not the point really.

I should add that with these bikes you cannot just slam the power in and it be delivered instantly through the drive train and to the back wheel. The electronics will not allow you to do this when set. They have traction control and anti 'wheelie' sensors fitted. But these can be switched off.

Without these they would be virtually unrideable on normal roads to all but the very experienced. That may sound as if it's taking some of the point of these machines away. But even when fitted they will still hit 0 - 200 mph in under 10 seconds.

Nick

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Not easy with these photos I admit. I did not take them and the actual chain has been returned to Kawasaki.

But what was the cause of this failure do members think.?

Story is that it's the chain of a Kawasaki ZZR 1400 Performance sport edition that has just 1200 miles on the clock and was serviced by the dealership at 600. And yes he has kept the chain lubricated.

My mate had been out on it the other week one evening and by his own admission had been giving it some stick. - But then close to home on a dual carriageway cruising at about 50 in top gear the chain let go. - Anyone that knows anything about bikes realises that a snapped chain can very often result in a very serious accident. Very, very fortunately and unusually it came off clean and this was avoided.

The dealership did not want to know and told him he must have been riding it too hard.!!! His argument to them was basically. "Sell me a bike with 200bhp and of course I am going to ride it hard. It's what they have been designed to do. And that a chain with such low mileage on it should have caused the tyre to break traction long before it snapped."

Argument progresses over several days with the dealership not giving ground. ............. So he contacts Kawasaki themselves. They present a totally different attitude and show great concern that if they have bikes snapping chains they need to know about it and investigate the cause. They contact the dealership and tell them to fit new chain and sprockets pronto FOC and send the offending chain to them.

They eventually do as told and return his bike to him 2 weeks later with a damaged front mud guard. - But that is a different story that they then also had to sort out. As you can imagine he is less than a happy chappy with that dealership even more so considering he buys a brand new bike every 2 - 3 years.

But what to the guys here think has caused the failure. Not easy I know without looking at the actual chain. I should add that it was also not the 'soft link' that failed.

Nick

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Same reason in pubs years ago there was often a sign (usually in the bar or 'tap room' side) that stated words to the effect :-

"No talk of religion, politics or money lending."

Reason I suppose without a great deal of imagination it often led to fall outs and fisty-cuffs.!

As a side note and off topic I know. Why were tap rooms in pubs called such.???

Nick

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For anyone that is interested (it's been on many times before) on 'Eden' channel this afternoon is the NASA story.

Nick

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Are you saying there are Nazi rocket scientists hidden in our midst.??

Even Neil Armstrong was 1/2 German.

Nick

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Did anyone ever see the clip (probably on youtube somewhere) where a reporter was hassling Buzz Aldrin about the authenticity of the moon landings. I think from memory the guy had a history of doing such. He ends up calling Buzz a coward I think.

Buzz in spite of his age now just thumps him.

Reporter then calls the police to arrest Buzz. Police don't want to know and basically tell him he deserved it for insulting a national hero.

Nick

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I would say yes.

Main reason out of the many thousands of people that NASA employed at the time somebody somewhere would have blown the whistle on their death bed.

Also independent nations have photographed in high resolution from moon orbiting satellites the landing sites.

Nick

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Bit of a quiz for aircraft buffs. **LINK**

Nick

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It's sold. - So fess up now. .............. Who bought it.?

Nick

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On the subject of 4 jaws.

While not for the OP but for the Myford user this looks like a very good buy. **LINK**

Nick

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Do they have Chinese takeaways in Poland.?

Nick

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And I happen to know he paid only £100 for that 125mm chuck brand new.

Nick

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3 jaw / 4 Jaw. It all depends on what you intend to make.

For me :-

1st project was a James Coombes engine. - Used a 4 jaw quite a bit on that.
2nd project was a No.4 - Used the 4 jaw a bit but not as much as for the JC
3rd project was a Hoglet - Used the 4 jaw very little.
4th project (98% finished) Hit and miss engine. - The only thing from memory I used a 4 jaw for was to drill and tap the valve push rod and some work on the cylinder head that could have been really done on the mill.

I have 2 4 jaw chucks. A 100mm and a 150mm. There have been times away from model making when I have used the 150mm as my 125mm 3 jaw was not quite big enough.

As I said previously if I were to buy a 'mini lathe' I would probably have an ER32 chuck fitted to it most of the time. Or if I wanted to be really posh like that Jason bloke I would buy a set of 5C collets with a morse taper to fit straight into the spindle. But he has a larger machine so uses a chuck not the spindle taper. 

Nick

Edited By Nick_G on 23/05/2017 13:31:51

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Hi Brian,

You don't mention if you are experienced with a lathe or not.?

As a relative 'newbie' myself with about 2 1/2 years since I started this it's still reasonably fresh in my mind.

So if you are new to this I (personally) would buy a 3 jaw chuck, some good quality tooling, some various material types and some cutting oil and start practicing turning. Spend countless hours doing this. Preferably to loud music. But basically just turning metal and making swarf.!!

You will have good sessions doing this and bad ones. - No time doing this is IMHO wasted.! You will learn more when things go wrong than when they go right. (perhaps just my view)

But what more than anything is still fresh in my mind is that cheap tools are expensive tools as it's often money wasted and false economy.

Also consider if it's possible to purchase the lathe at a reduced price without any chuck and put the money towards an ER32 one and a set of collets from the likes of ARC

Nick