Member postings for Neil Lickfold

You can drill the stock with one end in the chuck, and the outer portion in a steady. The important part is to get the start of the hole correct. Drill as close to 15 as you can, and then use a reamer. Use a longer piece than you want to finish with. Then using a centre at each end, turn the outside true to the hole.

Or you can get a 15mm gundrill, do a start drill, bore to size, then start with the gun drill. You don't have to have high pressure coolant to use a gundrill. You can peck and retract clear the hole, then drill a little more. Just try to gauge the feedrate at around 1 thou per rev feedrate.

Neil

21.6mm is the hole size from a Mazac mill for suggested hole size for tapping M24X3 thread. So I would suggest indicating the outer of the Bar, bore to 21.6mm, then start screw cutting the 3mm pitch thread. You can make the threading with wither a dedicated 3mm pitch threading insert , or make one out of a triangular insert. Being a course thread, I would suggest putting the top slide on the angle of the thread flank, and cut essentially only on one side of the thread groove. Then finish with the Tap.

Depending on the steel , it will take strong arms to Tap that from a drilled hole.

When I trim pistons for model engines, I set the top slide at the same angle that the taper is for the crown, about 0.7 deg. It makes my Myford top slide , 1 notch is 1um on diameter or so. The steel liners with iron pistons, the liner wants to have at the bottom below the exhaust port , about Ø0.05 to Ø0.06mm bigger than the piston diameter. Then from the exhaust port to the top dead center mark, wants about Ø0.01mm then parallel to the very top of the liner. All the liner tapers can be lapped from a parallel bore.

The piston wants to be turned to fit ideally, with a slight crown taper, for about the thickness of the crown. On cast iron pistons, I recommend that the top slide be set to about 0.5 deg. Trim the piston until it just enters the bottom of the liner. Then only using the topslide to make the next cuts until it fits where you want it. To get the last little bit, you can use a light grey scotch brite on the piston.

I like the Kyocera ccgt type of insert in the PR1425 grade. I have a picture in my album of the insert.

As for cuts, clean the piston with break clean or any other degreaser and trim the piston dry. The amount that a lathe can cut is down to a lot of variables.

I have recently done up an old Record vice. The thread is 60 deg 5/16x26 TPI. I found Tap that suited , and cleaned up the damaged threads with that tap. It was available here in NZ. it was called a Bicycle 5/16-26 tpi, different to the Brass being 55 deg pitch angle.

I made the screws from long M8 capscrews. Cut the M8 thread off, trued the head diameters to the shank. Put in a small centre, and then held onto them from the head and a steady, and screw cut with a 26 tpi partial form 60 deg threading insert, until the diameter of the thread outer diameter was 8.87mm diameter.

I couterbored the existing jaws, so the normal caphead screws would fit. I plan on makeing other jaw sets for this vice, so using a ball end hex key makes them easy to install..

Neil

Make sure that the backlash of the cross slide is set to the minimum. Any movement in the cross slide causes issues. The leadscrew and nut are normal replacement service items. Also make sure the gibs are not too loose on the topslide or on the cross slide. Once you have those done, your lathe will be fine.

My S7 can is totally fine just grooving with the Dickson tool holders. I am after 36 years, thinking adding a rear tool post to save changing tools as much from just working on the front.

At work they were having trouble with parting and grooving on a Cohlchester 1800 lathe, the leadscrew and nut for the cross slide, were worn out. With it replaced and the gibs all good, everything is fine with it.

With parting and grooving tools, they are normally right on centre height, or just very slightly above, maybe 2 thou or so, 0.05mm for metric.

Worn 3 jaw chuck or worn can also cause issues when grooving. You can change to a 4 jaw, or sometimes hold the part with card thin card can help with the vibrations from a chuck that is stressed and is holding tighter on the back than evenly along the jaw length. Worn 4 jaw chucks can have the same problem as worn 3 jaw chucks too.

You can use the steady to hold the end of the bar, assuming it fits in the length of the lathe. Part off to about 4 or 5 mm, then use a saw for the last part. Pull the extra length away, and face the parted off end thats in the chuck.

You can also part off from the steady rest end as well, but I make a plastic disc to stop the chips getting into the area of the steady.

For my cnc router that has an ER20 spindle taper, I got tired of the tool length changes etc. So I made a series of solid holders that were ER20 and then either a standard tool size like 8mm 6.35 for 1/4 inch, 6mm and 4mm. These were bored at the time the holders were made from the bar.

I also made a series of ER20 solid holders that have an ER11 taper and thread on them. The ER11 holders, have a thread in the back for length stop adjustment, so that the cutters etc can be the same length.

So the tools can be changed and not have to scan and reset every time. They are very handy to have on the mill when wanting to change out a cutter to another size. The collet nut, does not need to be any where near as tight compared to holing the cutter in the collet. But not as quick as changing in 10 seconds though. But is quicker than changing with a loose cutter and a collet.

There are companies like Big in Japan that make nose fitting tooling for high precision milling.

I am sure that there will be a way of making something up to get repeatable tooling lengths, but the Cutwell System is very slick , and the 3k rpm limit is ample for manual machines. I am sure that you could play with the installation to get the best possible run out with your machine.

I would want to get quite a few of the different holders for sure, and like you mentioned, that becomes real money very quickly when the main adapter, and then the various holders. I am sure that you could make your own holders, but won't do it for the price they are selling them for.

Removing the tooling from the spindle every now and then is a good thing, as you don't want frozen or jammed tooling in the spindle.

Our older house was painted in Antifoul marine paint in 1971, we only painted it in 2013, because we had the windows and the sliding doors replaced with newer double glazing units. The paint was still good after all those years. Since it was repainted, we now get all the usual insects like prayingmantis nesting and spiders etc. The cost to buy the newer version of the antifoul paint was nearly 6k.

So in 40 years, it was actually a cost effective option, especially if you work where it's used and can buy a hose lot alot cheaper than paying full retail.

The repaint, was done in a water based elsatomeric membrane paint, it's now been 10 years since the work was done, and the paint is in excellent condition. So this is a very viable paint, and being that it has lasted 10 years now will be very happy recommend this type of paint.

Neil

They are quite hard. The ones that I have are around 58Rc, a lot harder than I thought they should be. On one of the ones for an ER11 that I shortened , 16mm diameter shank is a very good Ø16.00 , was I think a case hardened material, as it was hard and soft then hard around the centre hole. Unless there is a form of induction hardening that will harden on the outer as well as the inner and then leave the core soft.

To take it down to 5/8 diameter, you will have to Hard turn the adapter , which is not as bad as it is made out to be.

Just need a sharp geometry carbide insert, like these for an example, Kyocera CCGT060202MP-CK- grade PR1425, or PR1225 . It will work with a light dab of cutting oil, will smoke of course, and will cut the shaft down in a couple of passes. Just make sure that the top slide is locked so no movement, and the the gibs on your lathe is not too loose. If you are using a lathe lighter than a Myford S7, like a Sherline or Taig type lathe, then I would do it in 3 passes. I use these Kyocera inserts at my work for hard turning, and for home when cutting the diameters of bearings. You will want the lathe to be doing about 500 rpm, no more than 600 rpm, and try to feed at a rate of 0.05mm/rev, but anywhere from 0.02mm/rev to 0.1mm/rev will still work fine.

If when you start hard cutting, and it chatters, then just go to slower rpm. Make sure you are using a support on the end, like a tailstock, and shorten the length, after you have cut down the section that needs to be Ø5/8 or what ever is actually needed.

The hard turning, works on my home made Taig type lathe that I have put together.

Neil

EDM wirecut is getting to be very common these days, and the price is about as low as it will get too.

You can supply them with the 12 blanks , with or without a centre hole, won't make much difference.

The outside shape can be cut and then set up and the inside shape cut as well. They can get the cutting very accurate for alot more money, but done within a couple hundredths should not be too expensive.

I am making some bearing rings, for a bearing size that is no longer available. They can cut the inner race blank and outer race blank from the same stock. I am leaving .5mm diameter inside and outside to clean up, as I do not want any stress from the wircutting in the parts. The other advantage is that the material can already be heat treated before being cut too.

Wire cutting , with 3d printing , is making alot of changes to how things are being made. Especially the electron beam printing capabilities.

All this aside, if it is actuating a valve, I am sure that the parts could be made as section with a slot through it, and the other piece with the radius on it, and then brazed in place , with a simple fixture to keep the distance correct. If the heat from brazing or soldering is too much, it could be pinned and glued in place with a high temp glue, of which there are many brands now, that can sustain a temp of over 250c.

The outer bump or cam part , could also be made from a segment that is then cut into the shape, and then also glued and pinned in place.

There are many ways to make something, if it is not stressed to the maximum or is not having to always operate at a very high temp.

When I started my apprenticeship, one of the training exercises was to be measuring a bearing on the outside, and then using a telescopic gauge and micrometer, until I got the correct dimensions. My last measuring exercise was to measure the bore of a ring gauge , not seeing it's exact size, and then writing down on paper those sizes of the measurements. Then measure a gauge block without seeing it's length and writing down those sizes, all under observation for the test.

It was an exercise well worth doing. In those days we had a temp controlled measuring and inspection room. It taught me 2 things, when dimensions get bigger than 100mm, temp of the part and measuring gear matters. As well as the materials they are made from etc. The other was, when using a telegauge to measure a bore, take two measurements at 45 deg to each other. Otherwise you can not tell if the part is slightly oval or lobed.

Proper bore micrometers in a workshop , will pay for themselves just in the measuring time savings alone in a year, depending on how many and how often a bore is required to be measured etc.

The spindle will need to be heated some, which will help. This happens when a cold tool goes into a warm spindle. It takes alot to get the initial movement to happen. So apply heat carefully to the spindle, with the tension already onto it. Around 80c will make a big difference to get it apart. A hair dryer could be used.

Some time ago, around 2014, was a guy in Morrinsville , Waikato, NZ, was working on a very high temp burning wood burner, that used water vapour tubes, to transfer the heat from the fire to create steam. One thing about the system, that the exhaust was only around 10 to 15 deg above ambient, and the system recovered as much energy as possible. It did not make a boiler of hot water steam, but only turned the water needed to be steam as it ran through what I imagine as being a flash boiler arrangement. I only saw part of the system, and never got to see the whole thing in it entirety. He did say, that it could never over heat and explode like conventional steam boilers. He also said that instead of making steam, it could be used to make hot water for a home heating system, and the water would never get above 50c , aiming at the retirement home heating market, he thought.

The most interesting aspect I saw of the part they were testing, was the wood went in down a chute, and you could not see the fire at all.

I have my 5c collet chuck now mounted into a cast iron Myford blank plate. The register area is about 0.1mm diameter clearance to the chuck body.

Made from some long M5 screws, recut the plain area to M5x0.5 thread. I used M5, then I could use a pair of 4mm keys to adjust the runout as needed.

The 4 clamps are made from the shank of a damaged M12 cap head screw. There is a step on the side of the backplate of about 0.2mm , so that the chuck body is always in contact with the small clamps. Their total movement is only 0.1mm, just enough to get the cheap collet to work.

So far am happy with it's functionality. I was going to leave the backplate at it's full diameter of 135mm , but cut it down, and the small clamps allow easy use of C snapper or strap wrench to remove from the spindle.

Neil

Some machines are just very difficult to get any where near to right. On a much larger machine , I got the quill hard chrome plated, with hindsight, should have got it over chromed and ground. Anyway on a ZX45 mill, the quill bore is a long way out to the casting of the dovetail side. So will get it bored and sleeved from the local engine reconditioner . He said he was willing to hone it to size for me to fit the existing spindle diameter. If it works out well, he will do their own little mill as well.

I see that you are trying different shims etc, on some machines, leaning the whole machine base , forward or backwards a little , can allow the casting to move enough to correct what you are chasing. Sometimes the base casting needs to be shimmed against the frame it is being held on to as well.

Sometimes the base of the castings require fitting or scraping in to correct for the mass produced finish on the parts too.

Once you get it all sorted out, I am sure that you will be happy with it.

Neil

I recently replaced the lights in the old workshop. So at the time with the special on, it was nicer to replace the whole assembly with new batten lights with a very nice diffuser . It was so good, I changed the other 3 and the electrician added another switch, so I could have only 2 at a time going over the main work area. In hindsight, could have just installed 2 and got rid of the other 2 all together.

Neil

On older gear, it is sometimes easier to make something, and identify which end that it was in when cut. Then it will always be Parallel. Making a set of jaws that can attach or replace the jaws and then cut into them, the recess depth required. It is one advantage of the vices with the bolts going from the outside of the vice to retain the jaws, compared to the ones where the retainer is inside the vice holding area. I make temporary jaws often out of extruded ali, or just black bar m/s and use a thin 1/8 or 3mm ali jaw protector. all made from 1/4X1-1/2 or what ever is available. I don't use the extruded drawn bright bar, as that will curl if cut on one side etc.

Model engineering is often making just one of something, and sometimes having expendable jaws makes that part just the bit more easy.

I am going to be putting mine onto a S7, so no D1-3. For me, the issue is with the lower spec collets that I do have. Some are better than 0.01 while others are around 0.05 tir error, when tested on a Hardinge lathe. The emergency collets will be fine, they have the pins to close the collet with and then just bore out to suite. On the ones that are a long way out, I may set them up and then regrind them true again. This will have the added advantage of putting spring into the collet like a Hardinge collet is. Instead of being basically sized and causing scratches on soft parts.

My adapter will be used for second ops of parts that need a higher level of precision that I can get easily with other means. I like the use of the plates that allows parts to be the same height under a shoulder, like for making sleeves with the same flange thickness, or for making the second side with a simple detail to being concentric with the first side. Like the glow heads of engines where the clamp ring is screwed into the case instead of the series of screws holding it all down.

My other thought is to make the backplate that goes onto the S7 spindle, have 4 temporary outer clamps, that can be used as a means of micro shifting the body around the backplate , then tightening the screws in place. Remove those 4 clamps and use away, until it requires an adjustment again.

Neil

We had this happen back in 07, with floppy discs in a Hass milling machine. The issue is the FAT is all used up. I found no way of clearing this. We were able to extract all the files on the disc and although it had a couple thousand small text files, the disc was less than half full.

Another issue was reading a file, making changes to the file and then saving that file and allowing an over write to occur. In most cases this was just fine, but in some cases, it created a corrupted file in the processes.

There was a free program to extract the files from 3.5 floppy discs , forgotten what it was called. Some of the very old discs, the media itself was failing and created an issue in the drive on the machine. After another was found and the unit replaced, I took it apart and carefully cleaned it, put it back together and all worked well. The discs were discarded and new ones were purchased. I have not seen them for sale recently, but have not been looking either. The machine has since been upgraded to RS232 , so no programs on floppies anymore.

Neil

Mine arrived today. Took it apart, cleaned and deburred. To my surprise , the back half is just as hard as the front half. So gor me it will be a loose fit and tgen gental taps to get whst ever collet I'm using to run true. Its very smooth to rotate and I aligned both of tje dockets to be in the same situation.

Neil