Member postings for Neil Lickfold

Is there any way, that the magazine can be downloaded so that I can have a saved complete copy of the magazine on my Laptop.

That way, I do not need Internet access and can reference at any time a particular magazine. I want the adds in it, as often they advertise stuff and its becomes a useful source to support those who support the magazine.

Maybe the version that is downloaded can have a water mark added to the subscription owner or something to deter the odd ones that will share instead of getting a subscription.

The current system of being only online is so annoying, I am thinking of cancelling the electronic and only getting the physical magazines.

There is a trick to making thin wall parts for sure. It is best if you have a tube of metal to go inside the bored hole for support back into the main piece of material. Then you can turn down the OD to suite. If it is a long bush say 50mm long, then a long bar with a centre support will be needed. Make sure it goes into the solid part by about 5mm or more if using a centre, and about 1 /2 diameter long if not centre supported. Then the OD can be measured as it is internally supported. Dont use the same grade of metal for the sleeve support, ie free cutting steel sleeve with a free cutting support. It can pick up. I use castor oil between the inner and support sleeve. With this method you can make parts that have a wall section of around 0.1mm, is the thinnest wall I have made. But with a 12mm sleeve and 12.7mm od, with sharp tools, the outer can be turned in 1 final pass of 14mm down to 12.7 . The heavy wall will self support the part for about 2 diameters long. After that it will want to fail. If the tools are not sharp enough, it will deform and make the inside smaller.

Neil

You can make adapter bush, and hold other cutter sizes using a close fitting split bush. The bush needs to be in your case 12.70mm diameter or slightly larger at 12.75mm OD , with an ID of 12.00 max and a min of 11.96mm. The bush will need to be split.

Neil

I have a 3 layer read and also want a scale on the column. This will be useful indeed. Thank you so much for sharing.

Neil Lickfold

With a DRO, look at what you are requiring from the unit. Some have a much nicer and user friendly interface than others. If it is just to pitch holes and replace the normal dials on a machine tool any dro will do. If you want to cut curves, or put a row of holes on an off square axis, then look for a dro that has the lines of information that will show a radius value or and inclined layout. Some cheap dro that have these sort of features are like this one.

**LINK** You will have to do a search for the tech-3i manual. Anyway one feature I do like about it is the Radius feature for the odd job that does not require the resetting of a rotary table. My kit came with the 5um glass scales and are very happy with it. There are cheaper units, but I have not seen a cheaper one with the data line.

Most will have the reference thingy in them for if the power goes off and the axis is moved while the power is down. This will set back the reference again, assuming you used it to start with.

The one I really liked the best is from Newall DP1200, but that unit and scales is work more than my mill, but is really user friendly, and has a great graphic interface when the tool is approaching the zero point etc. It is what is on the lathe at work.

Neil

Like been said, more is needed to be advised correctly. Does the detail require any radial alignment?

So simple sliding fixtures can be made to hold and support parts that need detail at the end of a long workpiece.

There is numerous ways of indexing a length etc.

Neil

Dave, here is a link to info about gas struts, **LINK**

Anyway, it does appear that there is no Logic to Nm on the labelling. The strut is pressurised and that is measured in N force , or KG force or Lbs force.

Nm is a torque measurement, like ft lbs is a torque measurement as well.

Hope this helps people in the future.

Some struts are adjustable in their pressure, and have a pressure bleed off screw at the fixed end of the cylinder. It is about a M3 or M4 set screw.

I changed mine around and now have it correctly mounted. Also made 3/8 hex adapter to use with my battery drill or the 3/8 ring spanner. No need for the really long handle that can sometimes get in the way when the table is close to the column.

If the gap is less than 4 um, and all the same height/geometry , you will not see the line on fitted parts. Like on silicon moulding tools, the ejector pins need to fit better than 5 micron on diameter clearance, or else the material will go down the sides of the ejector pin. Skim wire edm to my knowledge was the 1st to be able to achieve these sort of tolerances on shaped parts. Now with sub micron machining centres, this level of accuracy can be achieved with milling cutters even with hardened parts. The way it came about with more than one reference was from the introduction of cad cam, and the new generation of designers and machine tool users not being trained in the traditional methods of toolmaking. Now there is another generation that have almost no knowledge of making something from solid, and they only know about additive processes and EBM Electron beam Machining, and EBP Electron beam Polishing.

The photo of the tag is for the part number reference if any one else would like t make a similar support.

I think the people in China who made the strut used Nm instead of N for the strength of the gas spring. Not sure if that is the max strength it has or the force required to move it. I weigh 74 kg and that was not enough to make it move.

Thanks Howardt, Ill change it then. It's no deal to wind to the free length and to remove the Strut. I did not think about the oil inside keeping the seal wet/lubricated.

I just checked the spindle to table max height, and it is at the max the manual says it should be. So I am happy that I have not lost any height in the addition of the strut. It is no issue to wind up and down the head assembly now. It used to be a lothesome job by hand. May get all enthusiastic and add an electrical power feed to it next.

Neil

So I added a 850N Gas strut to the left hand side of the X45 clone Z axis to make it easier to wind the head up and down.

Made a couple of brackets to attach the end of the strut. The Strut is just one from an Auto parts store. It is 10mm shaft and 765 mm long with a 480 mm compressed length. So is 285mm max stroke. I set the strut when the top of the casting was 10mm above column . Max I could easily wind the head to.

When I made the plates to hold the strut ends, I drilled the holes 5mm the tapping diameter of the M6 for the casting. Then used the plate as a pattern to drill and then tap the casting. Later drilled to 6mm on the drill press. To hold the strut, I tapped M6 and counter sunk the holes for the M6 screws to be flush on the under side of the plate. These were done up tight to create a stud for the strut to be attached to.

Neil

Just awesome for sure. I like the way he has developed or got ideas and then implemented them to suite his equipment. I never thought of putting the VFD stop as a foot peddle. Neither did I think that it could be programmed with a sequence like he has. It may have some add ons or be his own version of the VFD to allow for those features. Its not often you get to see an electronics engineer with the mechanical skills at the same time.

The only thing we did not get so see is the vacuum cleaner / dust extraction system he uses. How the whole shop can stay that clean really is impressive. He must have some clever way of keeping the grinding dust from his height gauges etc.

Great ideas for tool storage and using 3d printed parts for slideway covers etc.

Thanks for the video link and the previous thread as well.

Neil

Tele gauges are not like they used to be made for sure. Some need the slot in the expanding side to be cleaned up and polished smooth or stoned smooth. Same with the pin end and a little radius on the outer edge of the pinch pin. Then the cheap ones will work as well as an expensive set. Tele gauges do take some getting used to being able to get good repeatable results. Just get a ball bearing and measure them, and keep practicing until you get the size as the bearing. You should be able to get consistently better than 0.01mm of the actual size.

By the looks of what you are doing, that steady support is not needed. Avoid where ever possible, cutting to the very centre unless it is needed. If it is not required to be flat to the centre, I use a centre drill and put a 2mm or 3mm diameter dimple in the end of the part. RPM wise, anything from 300 rpm to 600 rpm is plenty fast enough. You need a roughing out insert and a finishing insert. Roughing is often a 0.4mm radius. Using a water soluble type coolant will help reduce the heat of the work piece. Hand feed at a rate that will make little chips, not long curls. It maybe that you will need the smaller R0.2mm insert to get nice curled chips. Some where around 0.5 to 1mm on diameter will do that, but the depth of cut is limited to the power of your motor. For 1mm diameter of cut, you will need around 1 hp,/750 watt motor. If you have the 3/4 hp motor taking a 1mm cut I think is being unrealistic.

Use a new sharp edge for the finishing, and take the finish cuts at 1/2 to 1 radius per side and a feed rate of 1/4 of the radius as a feedrate. So if you use a R0.2mm insert, then taking a 0.2mm on diameter cut for the finish pass at around 0.5mm/rev at around 400 to 500 rpm will work well. Using a cutting oil for steel will aid in the surface finish, or a water based cutting oil at around 10% concentration will also give a good finish. 500 rpm at 0.05mm per rev will take about 1 min to travel 25mm.

I don"t run my Super 7 any faster than the highest speed on the spindle with the low speed of the motor to the clutch. I don"t run the faster speed from the Motor to the clutch on anything these days. Some materials will give a better finish with dull looking edge insert tools, but I mainly use the very sharp carbide for Aluminium on most steel's on my lathe. The coolant I use is one suitable for Titanium and steels and Non Ferrous metals works really well.

Neil

H3.2 treated timber is OK for NZ or the equivalent. It will also pass Australian laws as well. I did not risk using Boric treated timber. No point taking the TV though, its tuner will not work in Australia, apart from the fact that the plugs are all different. No biggy, chop the end off and reconnect a new 3 pin plug. Small things like sanders etc, you can use an adapter plug for them. Sometimes its cheaper to buy that adapter plug in the country you are from, rather than the country you are going to. A real irony. Not sure with Australia , but bring a bed to NZ is not allowed due to dust mites in mattresses. So you can bring in the frame and ironically pillows with your flight luggage. Again something else to check on. Some countries also have a ban on small petrol engines, like chainsaws, weed wackers etc, again you'll need to check that as well.

Dont take, Honey, apples, or bottled water with you. It will all be confiscated on arrival.

Neil

When you pack and crate your machines, ensure that they are bolted / secured to the platform it is sitting on. I placed 75mm square around the base of the Lathe when we shipped USA to NZ back in 09 as well. Placed all the tooling into manageable sized boxes made of 16mm OSB with strip nail holding and reinforcing the corners. I packed the tools with rags and bubble wrap. Sprayed everything with crc long life. Steam cleaning is not required but you want no dirt and no oils or coolant in anything. I wrapped everything up so even an ant could not get in there.

Dont know what happened to the shipping container, but the jolt it had on the journey was enough to crack one of the 1-1/2 inch thick slates in the pool table. Quite a few other things had some damage as well. But all the tools and machinery was just fine.

Good luck on your move.

Like JasonB , hold it in a collet or a bush, drill with a tungsten carbide drill. Then you can also bore to the diameter you want with a carbide boring bar.

The ones I drilled out for my Noga stand attachments , was 7/16 ball , Spot drilled , with a carbide spot dril 1st for about 1mm deep or so, drilled with a 5mm coated carbide drill. I drilled at around 300 rpm, and used just compressed air to keep it cool and blow the chips away. Then bored it out to suite the pin of the attachment. Glued and assembled with 620 loctite, as a permanent assembly.

With Mine I just held the ball in the 3 jaw chuck, with a bit of printer paper around the circumference. Indicated the inside of the jaws true, (adjustable grip tru chuck) and did them. The paper helps with both holding the part and not marking it as well.

Neil

The advantage of the flat parting tool, is that it allows for the length of the tool out of the holder to be adjusted and the centre height remains the same. The reason for the inclined parting tool holders was to allow the chips to fall down the inclined surface. The inverted rear tool post has all the advantages as mentioned by others.

I only have the normal parting off tool from the front face. I purchased a 2mm wide inserted parting tool with 5 inserts for parting and another 5 inserts for the multi turning function. I am still on the 1st parting insert. Until then I was always using the hss blades that came with the original Dickson holder and the spare.

On the insert and the hss blade, it has a curved geometry on the top face. It curls the chip as it comes off the work piece and as it curls, it creates clearance so it can clear from the groove. I always apply from a bottle with a small spout and hole, from the front and back towards the tool holder. The chips come back along the blade. You can use water based coolant or cutting oils, it just needs something to stop any buildup on the edge of the tool.

I have often thought of getting a rear toolpost setup, but have only ever thought about it.

Neil