Member postings for Neil Lickfold

Iain,

Put the level on the carriage assembly, and as you wind through .from end to end you will see how it is. I recommend leaving the level on the cross slide, as that is representative of the function.

Yes I called it X and Y, But in reality, it is X is the cross slide and y is vertical to the X axis, and Z is in direction to the spindle.

Neil

All that you need is the two planes in line with the Y axis to be in alignment. It can slope slightly to the headstock or to the tail stock with no issues.

You can wind the carriage down to the headstock end, and with the level placed for and aft on cross slide, adjust the head stock to level. Wind down to the tail stock end, and adjust to get that end level. A little winding back and forth and you will have it. That will get the bed running true and fairly close. Check the headstock, to see if the run of the headstock aligns to the run of the bed/carriage movement . Indicate a bar to run fairly true at the chuck end and at the end of it's length. A low pressure dti is a big help in this . Most plunger clocks have too much pressure and can give a false reading. I prefer low pressure finger indicators for this type of work. Check for parallel at the top of the bar and from one side. Your test bar wants to be no more than 10 diameters long.

After that it is a matter of setting up the tailstock to be true to the chuck and check it at a few different length positions along the lathe.. start close to the chuck , and adjust the centre to match to cut the same at each end on something that is short like a piece of 10-13mm ali bar out about 30mm. Then check with a more substantial bar over the full range of the saddle /tailstock travel. If this is out, you may need to adjust the tailstock feet a very small amount to get it in alignment. Then test the centre area of travel and then retest the front section again. When all 3 will produce the same result of a parallel cut, it's as good as it gets.

Most lathes have the tailstock up to0.05mm or so above centre when new. This is normal.

Its not as easy on some machine to get right, so expect a day or so getting it right. Others come in and are good from the get go it seems with minimal work required to get them set up. Some lathe stands are a 3 point system with 2 extra pads for taking up the slack, with the 3 main points being the main load bearing ones..

If you reduce the chamfer at the front of the reamer, ie to get closer to the bottom of the blind hole, you will need to use a flat tool of some sort , and of course will need to reduce the amount left in the hole for the reamer. When I blind ream holes for pistons to use one circlip, I have made a pre reaming tool with a 0.1mm corner chamfer, essentially sharp, from centre cutting 3 flute or 4 flute endmills, ground about 0.1 to 0.15mm smaller than the final reamed hole.

As for the reamers, I buy the spiral flute ones with un even spaced fluting. These make very round holes right down to the bottom of the hole. I stop the reamer about 0.05mm from the bottom of the hole. A lot of places make un even spaced reamers these days

For many years I used my trusty Myford without a DRO, now that I have a DRO on it, which that I had done it earlier. I find the dro to be alot more useful and time saving than I ever envisaged. I started with fitting a dro onto the Myford Quill for drilling depths etc. Been so useful to have.

The same with the Mill / Drill . Since putting the dro on to it, it has been really great. My next project is to add the Quill dro, and have it linked to the table/ column Z axis. We have a mill at work with the table and quill linked, and I really like it.

I don't think it matters which way you go for the dro, but do take into consideration coolants if you use them etc. A friend fitted the type that are based on a digital scale like a digital caliper with remote screen. It works just great for him.

Then look at features, I think they all have similar things like pitching holes, but I really like the multi point radius options, that can be used in lathes or mills etc. My dro's have a rpm feature, very usefull if you have added a VDF for variable speed ranges.

Is it something that the more you use a dro you will discover new and better ways of doing things and often more easily as well.

Neil

Edited By Neil Lickfold on 21/09/2023 11:03:29

In the plastics industry, there are many threads that are non standard, as they make the tooling nominal sizes, and the shrinkage alters it. They also make the tooling with a guess of the calculated shrinkage , and will then tune/change the one that is either easiest to either change the diameter, or to make another with compensated pitch.

Glade that you have solved this one. Often I have made a cast of the thread, then measured it. just plaster of Paris works fairly good too.

Neil

The 1st question, what do I intend to make or resharpen?

2nd, Which machine is the easiest to use for what I want to make?

For myself, the Deckel type will make the form cutters etc for what I need, like internal or external special threading tools, or single point D bit type cutters of many geometries etc.

The little Clarkson's are a very capable machine and there is a huge range of accessories .It then becomes a learning curve all be it a very satisfying one, learning to make various cutters or regrinding them etc. Diamond or cbn wheels allows many things to be done as well in carbide or HSS or stellite etc

If you have the room etc for the Clarkson, I would recommend the Clarkson, but that's because I have used one years ago and enjoyed making things on it that were not available at the time.

If space is a problem, and you only need single point cutters or basic geometry single lip cutters, etc then I would recommend going the Deckel clone route. I do like the D bit grinders alot, and it is really nice if you can have both machines.

You really do need to be vigilant these days. On Monday, a guy turns up at a place with a work crew and got all ready to do a bunch of yard work, on over grown tress etc. The lady said , no I don't want you doing the work, and also said that I have no money to pay you, if you choose to ignore me. They packed up so much quicker than they unpacked and off they went. We reported them. They have been going around doing the scam and many have fallen for their rouse.

I had one last week called my cell number. I asked where did they get my number from, and then click.

The scammers are relentless and are doing a very good job of copying a legitimate agency , like the drivers licencing , or the tax department, and the only clue is in a very slight font change in the name or the return address somewhere is not quite what it really should be. But if you are not really sure of what these really should be, and just look at the first part of the return address, can be easily deceived.

At our company where I work, they do test emails etc, and on average 20 to 30 people fail to spot the spam test account, and either pay the bill or enter enough details to make some sort of vulnerability for the the next attempt. To be fair, they get so many a day, and are under the pump in processing payments, or approving payments, that these things can really happen. And that is what the scammers rely on. The few percent who they catch out.

Now it is at the point where people do not return phone numbers that they do not know, or in some cases will not answer a call from an unknown phone number. It has gotten so bad, that with some, unless a text is sent with a reference friend in the message, they will not answer the phone. Its a real pain to say in the least.

The phone companies are 100% complicit in the scams, and yet they still sit by and do nothing about it. They only time that the phone companies block a scam number is when they have been threatened it seems. But they will bill your account, and pay the scammers then plead innocent. I once called out my phone provider over it, and they did refund my money lost, that they paid to the scammers on my behalf. So I did not pay them directly, the phone company will pay them, then that amount is added or deducted from my account. As my phone was a prepay account, it put my account into the arrears and my phone stopped making calls etc.

I have not been able to stop the scam calls coming, but do have an extensive scam list of blocked numbers.

They are awesome on wood, especially woods that is in the harder range, not meaning hardwoods. They also work well on finishing brass, and most non ferrous materials. I have not used them on copper. But do work really well on Oak, Maple etc. If you get the feedrate right, you won't need to sand what you have turned. They do last alot longer than carbide, assuming you don't chip the insert. Holders are fairly cheap and can be modified to suit your tool holding system.

Neil

A hard chromed liner can handle the oil content down to 12% castor with a cast iron piston. But the cast iron piston and steel sleeve, like the materials used in a PAW engine, the synthetic oil fuel will ruin the piston liner fit after about 6 or so flights. Castor oil is one of the few oils, that will allow oversized parts to assemble. It is also very good when assembling the contra pistons to liners or heads depending on the configuration. After running the engines, I recommend that the engines get flushed out with some kero or other similar solvent , and then oil with AFT oil or after run oil. The washing out is to get rid of the castor oil, as it is hydroscopic, and can cause the bearings to rust. Some never have issues with bearings, and others do.

I think the main reason for going to the smaller front bearing was to get the weight down, and to also make the front of the engine narrower for aircraft designs. I don't think there is a problem with the cars for the front bearing diameter, but I do like the different sized bearings, as it makes it easy to control the spacing. I once made some changes to a diesel F2C team race engine, and made a special shaft spacer, that locked the rear race inner to the flywheel and the spacer, and it locked the front inner race at the same time. It worked really well for what it was intended to do. The front bearing outer was retained with a small threaded ring.

It is always satisfying running an engine that you have made, and the more of it you make, the better it is.

I mainly use the DCMT11 size and I really like the Sumitomo ones with all the positive geometry formed into the top of the PCD insert. The smallest radius is 0.2mm and they do 0.4mm as well. Either of the 0.2 or 0.4 mm radius will work.

I only use them for finishing. The simple geometry ones, like in the link, are ok, but are not in the same league as the Sumitomo ones especially when taking very light cuts.

They can be used either dry or with oil or with coolants. When used with IPA or IPA gel, like hand sanitizer, they will also give a great finish.

I always hear that alot of high surface speed or high rpm is needed, and I have found that is not the case at all. Ona 14.6mm diameter, you can get a really good finish at around 600 rpm or so. Cuts can be as small as parts of a micron with patience and a sharp insert.

There are now quite a few different grades of PCD these days, including coated ones. Some work well on the lower silicon Aluminum alloys, and the ones I use are for the high silicon Aluminum alloys . They also work on regular Aluminium as well. I have used then on brass and BeCu at work.

This is what I like here showing the positive geometry. Not cheap, but for certain things it does give a competitive edge.

Neil

Iain, Some lathes do get delivered with the headstock, not running true to the run of the bed of the lathe.

When a lathe is not turning true, there are many things to check to identify the actual issue. It will require some measuring equipment and dial indicator or 2. Some have adjusters for getting the headstock true to the run of the bed. Often these are not easy to access at times. Check the manual for seeing if yours can be adjusted a small amount, note it will require access to the headstock hold down screws/ bolts as well.

Look up about doing the basic checks as it is a long typing exercise, and has been covered here in the last couple of years.

All that is required is something that allows the bed to be set up so that it is in the condition it was in when being ground etc.

Neil

The most often cause for the heat build up is not enough clearance in the liner below the ports down to the bottom of the liner. They want around 2 thou or 0.05mm in diameter clearance in that area. The fuel make up can make a difference and overloading the engine with too much pitch or too large a diameter or trying to run too much compression. The piston fit must be good as you have it running.

The bearings normally are open for the rear and the front. Rubber shield bearings cause drag and will slow down an engine. The number of balls in a bearing won't make any difference. What does is the shaft to housing clearance, around 0.04mm to 0.05mm on diameter is often used. Often C3 bearings are used to allow for the small shrink fit that is used to keep the bearings in place. Sometimes bearings that are a little tight on the diameters from using standard clearance bearings can increase the friction and then make the lower and front of the housing to be hot. Diesels often run around 45 to 60 c on the bottom of the crankcase, and upto around 170c to 195c on the heads.

I have never seen harmonics on bearings ever being an issue in model engines and the number of balls in a bearing being a problem. At some point the ball size , can have an effect on the longevity of the bearings though.

Neil

I am sure, that the 797 oil is a turbine oil and ISO32 grade oil. We use DTE ISO32 oil for the hydraulics and use 68 slideway oil for the oilers, except for the DMG mill, that uses a special grease for the linear rails. The Mobil 732 for example, is used in turbine type oil compressors and will replace what you have been using. Talk to your Mobil oil rep or local distributor , and they will give you the advice you really need.

The Mitutoyo and some others do have the rubber type insert in them for the soft stop. Some plunger indicators, have the stop mechanism on the end of the plunger, making them a hard fixed stop for the return of the instrument. My older Mitutoyo only has the rubber insert on the inside and the full extent or Zero is done by the end of the plunger stop that is inside the end cover cap. Somewhere I still have a replacement rubber bellow for the front shaft of the indicator to keep it clean from workshop dust etc.

I find the Insize stuff to be fairly good, but not as good as the Mitutoyo over several years of daily workshop use.

I call them partial inserts, as the full form ones that I was used to, looked more like the Sandvik insert style.

What I am using is called now the full form insert, and will radius or put the thread form on the crest of the thread.

The V tools , I call them a generic insert, and will have a radius that only matches that of the finest pitch it is suited for. Like the 0.5 to 1.5 , the root radius really is getting too sharp for my liking for a M10 X 1.5 pitch for example.

There are ground inserts and pressed form inserts. For the finer pitches, I have only seen the ground inserts. The pressed form inserts like those from Mitsubishi, has a great geometry for breaking the chip.

For finer pitched threads and the odd ones, 0.6 , 0.4mm or 0.35 as examples, I have not seen the pitch specific inserts. For these I use thread gauge wires, but recently got myself a thread mic with a set of anvils for the range of threads I am ever likely to come across. It covers from 0.3 to 3.5mm pitches, but is only in the 60 deg form. With Whitworth I resort back to the thread wires and white grease.

My thread inserts go from 0.5 through to 3mm pitch, and I do have a few Whitworth ones and a few UN pitch inserts . I went this way just from the easy way to make External threads.

I also make truncated thread forms as well, where a partial depth of the thread is created, like a M10 x 1.5 that has a root diameter of 9.1mm and the nut has an inner diameter of 9.15 to 9.2.

Like been said, there are tables and lots of information about thread forms and root radius etc all on the net or in Zeus books etc.

I buy the partial form outside threading inserts in the pitch I want. Then cut the outside of the threaded about 0.1 to 0.15 larger in diameter. I then cut the thread until the outside is a little smaller diameter than the nominal of the thread designation. So on a 7.5 X 0.5 pitch thread will make it down to 7.48mm to 7.46mm on diameter.

There was a company on Ali, that was selling a bearing nut for ER32 and smaller. Nothing to catch your hand on if you cover the area between the nut and the body where the extra thread is. In China and else where , they are making these bearing spanners that have either a lever or switch for the different directions, or else you need to turn the spanner over. They make the matching Nuts and spanners for the ER16 and the SK models, up to ER32 or the equivalent . An ER32 nut is 70mm diameter I think it showed, I have some and they work very well. Will get some more in the future. A lot of brands are making the one way bearing spanner now. BIG make them for some of their range, in particular the mini collet holder, for holding the drills on a 1.5mm shanked drill bit and the smaller 0.8mm shank series drills or cutters etc

A search for Bearing wrench , will show up the results.

Neil

You are too funny Brian. That surface plate would take a lot of work to get it to be a surface place of any usefulness.

On a real surface plate, there would not be a hammer anyway.

I now use a vacuum cleaner with a separator bucket that catches most things. As for stopping the the fine splinters in your hands etc, I use a clear safety guard that had a mag base, and place it so it keeps stuff away. I often use the vacuum cleaner nozzle close to the drill, and catch the swarf as it's being made. Just have to be careful that the nozzle is not near the chuck or the workpiece geometry can't catch the nozzle either.

I do not recommend wearing gloves when using machine tools, but proper safety glasses are a must at all times. I am an advocate for if the chips are going in a particular direction , then make changes so they are not going towards you.

Sometimes it can be a simple deflector that is mounted onto the turning tool holder, or a plastic shield between you and the part somewhere. Cotton clothing is very good and amongst the least likely to be burnt ot have the swarf stick to it.

You can create matching splines as well. Some of the better designs, take into account different shrinkage rates of the elements being produced, so will use different things to make it all work. So instead of it bearing on 3 cylindrical bushes, one or 2 of them, may well be an oval geometry, aligned in the direction of the shrinkage, or you can make test pieces, and then remodel them, to correct for the shrinkage. It becomes a different way of working and solving problems. Of course, there are aspects of using metal rods and bushes and in moulded nuts etc to make things with as well. You will eventually sort out the method that you choose to solve the shrinkage issues with the different materials etc.