Member postings for Neil Lickfold

I bought through the online auction site a Sunnen PG800E precision bore gauge. It has a range of 5 thou total on diameter and each division is 0.000050 inches in diameter. From the sellers photo's I could see that it was all in good condition and working just fine, although failed inspection in 2017. The failure was due to many things it turned out. It had worn carbide measuring buttons, and also had a build up of oil and stuff and just needed a really good clean out and lube. On it's way to NZ from the UK, it has big thump and the 2 needles/indicator hands were very bent the same way.

They are designed to be serviced by Sunnen, and have a clever little latch that prevents you from opening them up. I made a key to go through the top cap screw holes to move the locking lever out and push it back to the opening position. Care was needed as there are on one side some very fine wires in the vacinity of the path. So care is needed to follow where the screws go. They are a rather simple and clever mechanisim inside. Then the 2 outer casing shells can come off. As it is a delicate thing, I used a piece of 3/8 UNC threaded rod to hold the mechanism as I took it apart. Did not take pictures of everything, but did take some pictures reassembling the unit and some of the mechanisim as well. pictures to follow. After the clean and straightening of the Needles it all works perfectly well now, and compared a known ring gauge setting with a mic and got the same result. Yes my work shop is air conditioned and is very close to 20c all year round. It was my treat in building the new house 2 years ago.

Hi Robin, I use a low speed in the bandsaw for cutting G5 Ti, I use around 40ft/min to saw off. I don't use an older blade that has dulled. Use a new or new or new blade. You want low chlorine water and coolant. It only catches fire if it gets really hot and often there will be sparks or something like that. Never seen it catch fire with plenty of water based soluble oil coolants. I use the concentration of 8% to 12%. Where possible I use deionised distilled water for mixing my soluble coolants in a bottle. I drill with new centre point style drills. An 8mm drill I use 300 rpm or so. I use as a drilling speed of 8m/min surface speed and just use the squirt bottle for the coolant. Ti will work harden if you take too fine a drill feedrate, and if the drill dulls. I use about 1.5mm to 2mm pecks. For outer turning I use the coated CCGT inserts , with a coating for Ti,/ Nickel/ tough to turn materials. Ti like cutting with the positive very sharp inserts. I use R0.4 for roughing, and the R0.2 for finishing. As for turning speed I use 15 to 16 m/min surface speed or no faster than 720 rpm that my lathe is speed limited to. So for the 20mm bar , can take 0.5mm cuts/ 1mm diameter at 19mm I would run around 250 rpm, and feed at around 0.2mm / rev or so if you have the power and coolant from the squirt bottle or from the coolant tap.

Neil

There are coatings for some quite specific materials, so new coating for Al, other coatings for Stainless, others for Ti and others for steel. Then there is the coatings for cutting very hard materials as well.

Do you have the original bearing, or is this another bearing you have purchased?

Bearings can be made to order, and quite often for various reasons are made to a non standard outside diameter. It is often seen in model engines where the bearing may have a 23.03mm diameter outer race, or a 10.5mm inner race or the inner being 13mm and the outer being 23.5mm.

0.5mm wear on a cast iron housing is a lot and I would be looking for the real reason for the failure instead of the quick fix. Loctite does make a bearing repair material for taking up the gap of a bearing in a worn housing. But relies on the rest of parts to centralise the bearing as it sets.

As for being tolerances it is a mine field to look through. You have the concentricity of the inner race to inner bore, the outer race to the outer bore, the centre line of the race to the bearing width (can be ordered offset by specified amounts) the roundness of the bearing balls, the cage type etc. Then the internal clearance as well. WIB bearings make a lot of special order bearings for very reasonable prices. They have a lot of info about bearing tolerances etc

Anodising has an electrical insulating effect as well. It is used as the insulating medium for aluminium made glow plug bodies. The post must have a non anodised area for the plug wire and for the electrical connection. Like wise the body needs either on the threads or the body seating area no anodising as well. An interesting benefit from the anodising.

Been on the bay to find used or near new hone mandrels and adapters etc. Now I know why they are not so popular. There is a conversion for the Superior honing system as well. None of it is cheap. Then the small 4mm to around 6mm are in increments of 5 thou or so in diameter, and they all need truing sleeves for good results. Then there is the selection of stones required as well. So I just got a few sizes that I will use for now.

The Superior system looks just great, but turns out , you need truing sleeves for almost every size if you want really good results. Like 3.98mm uses a different sleeve to 4.01mm , that sort of thing, even though it takes the same stone set. More suitable for doing larger volume of the same thing compared to the Sunnen or Delapena type of honing systems.

Also picked up a Sunnen hone gauge PG800E . It has a range of 5 thou in diameter and graduated in 0.00005 inches of diameter. They don't come up for sale very often so got it anyway. An extremely useful tool for model engine cylinder liner checking, for roundness and for checking taper etc. It measures from 3/8 to 3/4 (9.5mm to 19.05mm )and then the other side is 3/4 to 1-1/2 (19.05mm to 38.1mm ). The metric version of the gauge is the same gauge, but has a metric 0.001mm diameter graduations for the back ground strip and a range of Ø0.13mm. Mechanically is still the same machine. Next is to get the PG400 setting Fixture if I can find one for a hobby price. They are after all , really just a comparator device to make life easy while honing sleeves or car engine conrods etc.

Saw an engine recon shop, and they are getting the stone and rebonding to the older shoes for the sizes that they do not use very often and are more difficult to get. Some stone sets are only available is packs of 6 or 12 etc. SO I can now see why people are opting to just lapping and sticking at it. I also now see why the actual machine is the cheapest part of setting one up too. In saying that, I don't know where all the old machines and mandrels etc have gone to from all the engine reconditioning shops and the places that used to recon brake master cylinders etc.

Already used it to open up the inside of a quickchange tool post main block through hole to fit the centre post of a Hardinge lathe. Was very happy with it and how quick it was to open it up a small amount.

So keep looking for those who have them.

There are other very sharp inserts with a 0.1 or 0.08mm radius that are very good for taking most of the cut in 1 pass. I will often leave 3mm on diameter for the last pass and use the 1st pass to take the outer skin off the stock and use it as a gauge for the diameter it is cutting at. Making a Vee block polishing tool , works a bit like an external hone. Allows the polishing while keeping the part round. Often patience is a good thing and not too high a rpm. Keeping the speed down, will keep the heat lower and less distortion of the part.

They can do this if the inner thread is not cleaned out before putting the next collet or cutter in the chuck. Even just changing cutters in the same collet size, you really should should take the whole nut off and clean it all out and check that the body thread is all clean too.

There is no down side to using a small amount of anti seize grease. There are numerous antiseize compounds out there. Common are copper or graphite or nickel based greases. There are non metalic ones as well, like the marine antiseize. It is great stuff and I think a little cleaner than the metalic ones. They all have their special uses. Anitseize is good , especially when you are not using the lathe lathe often or not going to be changing the chuck for along time. I had my lathe in storage for 3 years and put some antiseize on the spindle of my S7. The chuck was not difficult to change. It may still have been the case with a light though, who knows.

A guy in Hamilton made a rotating solar shed. He used a sensor of some sort, that moves the unit when the sun has moved more than some amount of angle. When the sun shines it rotates to that angle then stops. In the evening it rotates to a place to catch the sun in the morning around 8 or 9 am sun position. Before that , there seems to be very little energy being captured. Like 2 hours before sunset, also very low energy. He found keeping the panels clean was very important.

I just got my Delapena hone going today, after getting a new motor, belt, and making some replacement bushes for it. It takes all the Sunnen tooling from the Conrod or small cylinder hone machines. Did a quick test job on it tonight and now think, why did I wait so long to get one, and get it going. It needed a lot of cleaning, and quite some time to get it all working again. But very happy with it. Now to start looking out for more stuff for it. I also have to get the pump and filter going again as well.

This was the only posting I found on hone, as the search brought up phone, lol

I use a marker pen, and the airline to make it spray to where I want it to be.

Washes off with alcohol too.

When I made an engine mount for a OS Wankel rotary engine, I glued all of the frame with Purbond Al glue. It was a 2 part, with a brown activator on one surface, and a opaque looking glue to the other part. The pieces were glued end on. The instructions back in 1985 was to lightly sand then apply the activator as soon as possible after sanding. Then sand the other areas where the opaque gel goes, again apply the gel as soon as sanded. Then assemble within 60 seconds, and hold in place for a few hours until cured. I also made a curtain rail extension which lasted until the sale of the house in 1997. So lasted at least 12 years. The engine mount never failed in the life of the model.

Neil

I make mandrels for trimming pistons quite accurately. One advantage of having a grit true chuck , is that I can hold the mandrel and check that it runs true in the swash plane. Then I can put the piston onto the mandrel and then proceed to dial in the piston while adjusting the 3 tapered screws. With patience I can get it dialled in to 3 microns quite easily. I can not achieve this if I used a 4 jaw chuck and get the swash within the acceptable level needed for high performance model engines. In the grip true chuck, the part is held once and stays in that held position. The chuck just adjusts the radial runout. In a 4jaw, when the part is adjusted, the chuck jaw is released a little then another jaw is adjusted and the part moves, but does not stay in the same exact swash plane.

Some have metric sockets for metric keys, and some have sockets for imperial keys, even though it is a metric screw. Likewise some imperial screws come with metric sockets.

I have used permabond products, who were the first to make a proper glue for aluminium alloys. Their primer works well with their cyano glues and tells you the correct clearance required for a max bond strength. In my experience the bond can not take constant shock loadings, so would need to have some mechanical means of retaining and the bonding to keep it assembled. A cue tip being glued to a delrin ferrule, will stay in place if they only did centre shots. As soon as side spin is put on, after a few, it fails. A cue tip that has a recess for the ferrule to spigot into the cue tip to mechanically secure any sideways movement, will stay adhered. Their polyolfine primer or pop is really good stuff.

Edited By Neil Lickfold on 25/03/2021 18:10:04

I still have my original Noga from 1982 and still works well. Noga works really well, and to me is worth my money to buy a quality tool that easily does a great job of deburring. The knock off blades are junk and break. So I now juts buy the genuine ones. There is loads of accessories that still work with the early handles like I have, that have a multitude of deburring knives in it's handle. The rotodrive is really great to use. I only have the smaller one.

You want to check a lot of different sizes. The scroll on some early lathes is 8tpi so every 1/4 inch size will likely be the same runout. So 1/4 bar is often the same runout as 1/2 inch. But 5/16 and 3/8 are on a different part of the scroll. Is it the same when held by the full jaw length and at 1/2 the jaw length. Older chucks can have damage to the chuck body by gripping too tight on short pieces, and racks the jaws track in the chuck body.

Another option is to loosen the holding screws, and the spigot, then put Belleville washers under those screws or nuts. It will allow you to make small adjustments to the part being held , a bit like a grip true does, but without the adjuster cams.

Neil

You can think that my thinking is flawed, but do the tests for yourself. You will be enlightened.

Many mechanical micrometers are still good after 10 years of service if they are looked after and cleaned and lubricated.

Edited By Neil Lickfold on 18/03/2021 03:42:10