Member postings for thaiguzzi

Get a Mitutoyo, excellent verniers and the battery lasts for years

Works well for tramming in a vise also. use one all the time.

Jeff

The current edition of "Workshop Techniques" includes 'Dividing and Graduating' (£12.95 in '94) and 'Building the UPT', (£10 in the same year)so the price isn't so bad in my opinion. It's well worth a read.

Cheers

Dave

Just looking for a 1" reamer that will fit my pedestal drill or my Boxford tail post.

If all fails, I can visit my friend who had a Bridgeport mill.

Mike.

Paraffin is Limey-speak for kerosene -- not to be confused with paraffin wax. Spray can degreaser or brake and parts cleaner from the auto store is probably the modern equivalent. I suppose in Myford days they used hand-plucked pig bristle brushes but I imagine any common brush would do the job. I use a paint brush.

Edited By Hopper on 02/12/2019 07:00:46

Edited By Hopper on 02/12/2019 07:02:09

Guards do get in the way - the price of having them is they often slow things down. It's all a matter of balance though. What's the benefit of keeping a machine well fed compared with the cost of an accident?

In the UK the taxpayer mostly picks up the cost of injuries via Social Security and the NHS. Explains why the Nanny State is so keen to reduce accidents! From their point of view the world is full of clowns determined to hurt themselves!

Although it's impossible to make any process completely safe, surely it's worth minimising the risks?

On my lathe:

• Taken the tool-post guard off - it gets in the way a lot for very little benefit. Risk low, benefit of removing high.
• Kept the chuck guard on - makes sure the motor is off before the chuck can be adjusted, stops things falling in, and catches flying coolant and swarf. Risk of removing moderate, benefit low.
• Kept the leadscrew guards on, even though they reduce saddle movement. Not because I'm worried about getting caught in the leadscrew, but mainly because they keep it clean Others may find removing them useful. Risk of removing low, benefit of keeping moderate.
• Kept the change-gear guard interlock. Stops the gears powering up whilst fingers and loose clothing are anywhere near them. Risk of high impact accidents. Benefit of removing would be saving time adjusting the change gears 'just-so'. In my case the exposed gears are next to a walk way, it would be less dangerous to disable if the headstock was against a wall. But I'd still think twice about doing it!
• Interlocks would be repaired rather than bypassed if they went wrong
• Took the trouble to fire an airgun at my Chinese screens to prove they are polycarbonate rather than cheap and nasty. The pellet bounced off, no damage to the screen.
• Don't have long hair, or wear a tie, gloves other than latex, rings or loose clothing. Steel toe-capped boots, and eye shields. And even though I'm a messy toad, I keep the floor clear of trip hazards. The electrics are all within code.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 28/11/2019 14:17:49

The Chinese 0-25mm micrometer I bought from Ebay turned up on Thursday.

As you can see, the box didn't survive the journey in the standard grey plastic bag. The micrometer was inside a sealed plastic bag as supplied. There are no makers markings & no paperwork was included. From a distance, it doesn't look too bad - the markings are clear against satin chromed backgrounds, clean knurling & the ratchet is all metal.

Thre seemed to be some kind of preservative on the bright parts, so first off I removed the spindle & cleaned it with IPA. Removing the spindle revealed that the female thread is cut directly into the body & has no wear adjustment

Sorry for the OOF picture - phone pics ! - but you can get the jist I'm sure. Further examination showed absolutely no attempt to finish the spindle end face or the fixed anvil face. There are burrs from the O/D grinding on the faces of the both the spindle and anvil. Neither face appears to be carbide as claimed and visible in the close-up pictures on the listing.

Replacing the spindle in the body revealed that the spindle is a loose fit in the front of the frame & the only bearing provision is via the thread - the spindle can be moved (wobbled) about +/- 0.25mm when extended close to (but not touching) the fixed anvil. It is not possible to get a reapeatable zero due to the rough, unfinished faces of the spindle and anvil & when brought together, the spindle and anvil are not aligned.

I don't propose to waste any time doing any accuracy checks on this thing - from a distance it looks like a micrometer, but it really isn't fit to use if you want any kind of accuracy.

A bit of searching for "Chinese outside micrometer" suggest that this is a product of the Conic Industrial Co. Ltd of Fuzhou, who appear to do many types of micrometer. The pictures form the Ebay listing suggest that the item supplied is this one

but what seems to have been supplied is a lower specification

model.

I have requested a refund form Ebay of the basis that the item supplied is not as described in the listing.

Nigel B

Please tell me the two thimbles and locking lever are metal and not blue plastic

Blue is just so garish - less obtrusive to use grey plastic for the ratchet & lock lever like Mitutoyo do.

Nigel B

Nope, best quality blue plastic. Seems to work OK though I have had it for a few years and no sign of deterioration on the plastic bits.

John

I picked up one of these Moore & Wright basic range (200 series) micrometers when at a show from Machine DRO.

Current price is around £26.00 so quite affordable. All I can say is it works only odd thing to get used to is that the big blue collar on the barrel is the ratchet rather than the more usual small knob on the end. I must admit I find reading the metric mike more of a challenge than the imperial one. At least you don't have to keep putting batteries in it!

John

I bought a D1-3 TOS 125mm 3j SC chuck from Rotargrip many years ago and it is still going well, not super precision but as good as you get with a SC 3 jaw.

Emgee

I've been using lathes on and off for over 50 years, but all the lathes I've used were old ones - my lathe at home is circa late 1960's early 1970's. No lathe I used ever had a chuck guard fitted, and I've lived happily without one, most of the time. The only time I would like one is when I'm using coolant, so save on the mess going all over the shed floor, but otherwise I've never felt I needed one. I never stand in way of the swarf coming off, never leave a chuck key in the chuck - my initial training left a huge impression on me - and don't use two chuck keys on 4 jaw chucks.

But I see new lathe increasingly have a guard fitted in front of the toolpost as well, and for the life of me cannot understand why. In my shed that would be the first thing to be binned, but there is only me in my shed.

My mill/drill had an interlocked guard fitted in front of the quill action bit. That got binned very quickly, it interfered too much with setting up processes. Too often guards fitted to machines prevents the operator from seeing exactly what is going on too. A temporary screen gets put in place to stop chips and coolant getting flung all over the shed, but is quickly able to be removed out the way when required.

The important thing about guards is that they should be designed with the operation and maintenance of the machine in mind, so that their interference with the discharge of both tasks are minimised. This should be borne in mind when guarding is designed, but is very often not, guarding usually seemingly being designed by someone sitting at a desk far away from the shop floor, who has never had to operate or maintain (or even seen?) the machine they are designing guarding for; if they had, that guarding would have surely been very quickly redesigned!

If a guard interferes with the natural operation of a machine by its operator, human nature being what it is, then ways will be quickly found to circumvent the guard - and from experience in production industry, that is a proven. Guarding design is not the walk in the park designers often seem to think it is. Anyone can slap a secure 'screen' around a machine or tool, but can you then operate it?

Remember also, whether in your own shed on your own or in the firms shop, an accident only ever happens due to there being an unsafe action taken or unsafe condition existing. It therefore the responsibility of all of us to ensure unsafe conditions do not occur, neither do we take unsafe actions, however we operate our machines or provide for our own safety.

Have a nice day!

Chris