Member postings for pgk pgk

I suppose if you really wanted to get silly with visual accuracy you could play with some of the rigid endoscopy I had in my past life. Smallest scope I had was 1.7mm (they do go a bit smaller) and the newer ones have the camera at the tip onto a large monitor. But then a DRO would work out cheaper

I've just got to ask if that's a right hand (or missing right hand) prosthesis: hook up or hook down? 'Cos doing it up would be easier with the laces inside.........

... it looks a right handy bit o' work....

And far too late I just recalled an old surgical system i found 40+ years ago that was illuminated by a tiny bulb from 'the chicago miniature lightbulb company'... and google tells me they are still about...

could be a source if you want to go back retro

**LINK**

(but I was all for leds too)

That posted link is interesting ..did I read correctly that they charge less for the set of collets with the chuck than for the collets alone?

If fixing as you go then I'd have thought that the head of the last fixing supports it's hole and you would need a flat drift and light hammer for the next segment before fixing so predrilled holes shouldn't be an issue. Most difficult would be the theoretical need to tension the free end as you go round.....

<<thanks, but as Michael says it is functional as well as decorative>>

Ah! (me hearties)..

In which case since you have trial spare I'd turn another timber rod, pre-drill the tack holes on a length and form the bend by tacking it around as you go.. perhaps for a better hold using screws unless you are prepared to use the upholstery tacks close together as in their furniture use. Once done remove, ease any springiness out of it and mount.

Have you considered the thickness of the leather? If your band is to cover the front edge then the wood could have been rabetted

That's an impressive weapon and nicely made.. but for a panto where the audience never gets close I'd have thought a bit of copper hammerite would have been expedient. Or recently I was playing with a slice though a fallen tree here - made a nice coffee table but did have one partial split. To fill that i mixed epoxy with gold coloured glitter powder (nail art on ebay) then sanded smooth. You could have turned a groove into that handpiece and done the same.

Whoever is wearing that steel hook needs to be careful. In danger of being a killjoy but I'd have gone with plastic.

I'm in a similar position to yourself.. in as much as thinking about it but no real engineering experience. The advice here was to go look at soem lathes. Chester machine tools isn't too far from me..probably about 2 and a bit hrs from you if you're in harrogate.

I was quite suprised to find that the smaller lathes were even more dinky-toy than i expected - not designed for a club hammer. Having said that clockmakng lathes are even smaller. I used to own a tiny woodturning lathe that ran from a dremel type tool and was suprisingly good for a naff-looking object although turning out 120 tiny wood bullustrades for a doll house hit the height of tedium.

Depending on what you already own I'm sure this is a hobby designed to suck you in - after the lathe and some metal we're gonna need some tooling, a way to sharpen it, Marking and measuring, polishing, cleaning and lube.. then it's soldering, pickling. painting, a compressor.. more tooling. (yeah, I know a lot can be done by hand - I'm just the devil's advocate )

You can get heat shrink and cold shrink end caps for sealing cable ends but I'm guessing you want something a little thicker and ordinary ferrules should fit the bill either a tight stretch fit or a dab of adhesive. **LINK**

Not sure if this is helpful or not...

You can file off the surface of leds to diffuse the light if you want to use the reflector.. but that seems a bit counter productive. More sensible perhaps to use more that one led or use a surface mounted type which are less focucussed.

Also if after miniature bulbs then those sold for use in auriscopes and ophthalmascopes are tiny.. but you would need a different holder, Heine is one supplier.

pgk

Just a newbie's curiosity.... but couldn't you mount a dremel cut-off disc (or even the tool) and cut the majority of the slot with that, then file up the ends?

To give a context a Myford ML7 was £70.75 and a Super 7 at £102.35 , both as bare lathes (but probably including an electric motor).

Interestingly if you put the figure of £102 into the two inflation calculators I chose at random from google then the forst gave a figure approx £1800 and the second £1400. A starting salary in the profession i retired from would have been circa £1500 in '64 and £28-30K now such that 18-20x values are reasonable.

Now if myford was selling new super 7's at £2K retail now ..........

<<How do you find the EXACT centre of the piston in order to drill it for the con rod ? I have tried doing it by eye but do not even get close. There must a be a trick or a tool to do this ?>>

Measuring for the centre of a circle the manual way is a centre finder.. a tool that is simply an angle around 90degs with a ruler edge that bisects that angle. Mark from several points around the circumference to allow for inaccuracies of the tool. Woodturners use a cheap plastic device or an engineers combination square set.

I needed to make some simple thumbscrews recently without access to lathe but I do have a bench pillar drill of dubious accuracy. To bypass marking for a centre - The solution I came up with was to drill a hole in a scrap of timber clamped to the drill shelf the diameter of the large end, drop a piece of stock into the hole and drill the centre hole without adjusting anything but the drill bit change. My fit was tight enough to get away with it or you may need to glue the stock in to stop it spinning. Most glues will soften with heat.

John,

That's a very kind offer which I obviously accept. Apart from chores around the farm which are usually flexible I'm almost always free just say when and a postcode...

pgk

<<If you've got a front-end loader on that tractor, you could suspend a fairly heavy machine from the loader-arms with lorry tie-downs, and counterbalance with a load of stone in the rear box (if you haven't got a proper rear weight).>>

It's got ballasted rear tyres and taking the bucket off and using the bucket bar directly saves a good 200Kg and if necessary the topper or plough on the back would be a nice levered counterweight I suppose. Or possibly if it was on a pallet make up some skids for that and just drag it with the quadbike. I'm happier about the shifting now I;ve pondered that more.

<<I hope your incoming power supply is up to the job as it is no good trying to run a lathe off an extension lead unless it's a small one.>>

When sparkie wired up the shed I think he said I was good for 60amps - it's done correctly with it's own consumer unit so extra circuits shoudn't be an issue if needed. I was anal about making sure no insurance company could bitch in the event of a disaster - my r/c helis aren't cheap either.

<<Chester UK have an open week from the 1st--5th December,>>

I popped along today.. it's less than an hour away.. and had a long chat...food for thought .

Any comments about their 'crusader delux'?

I understood most lathes are going to be top heavy? Sitting it in a link box might have it;s own issues.. and the reality fact that I'm 2m tall old f*rt with some back issues..so twisting in the cab to keep a rearwards lookout isn't so good. Skating it on the ground off the loader arms and taking my time would be better and keep total CoG low. Perhaps a few tyres as bumpers?

Thanks for all your comments so far. Much of that has been rattling around in my head for many months..and serves to confuse my decision making.

Like many of you i keep an eye on auction sites and ads that pop up here, lathes uk etc but practically a second user lathe and 3ph convessrion and a transport company has got to be the extra £1K with still concerns about my ability to asses and what comes with it and past experience with secondhand dealers (in my previous life) suggest they are more interested in selling you something than how good it really is and warranties are usually meaningless.

Without question it's time to go look at some machines hands on.

Whilst I do have my 40HP loader tractor which can drive to my shed door the reality is that it's a tight turn off the sloping driveway onto a stoned short length of track with a reverse camber bend on gentle slope so swinging 750kg from the loader would be scary. It'd be difficult to reverse a reasonable tail lift down there without digging out more trackway. Practically I think it'd be a case of using tractor as a lift off the ground onto rollers down a ply runway and using it as a braking system. My neighbours around here have all sorts of fancy lifting gear and telehandlers and always offer to help- but actually pinning them down to a day, let alone time, and having them rock up - well it's rural Wales and no-one is ever reliable about actual turn up and one can imagine stuff ending up under a tarp for a while if you depend on their assistance..

This bit you have to read:

I tried to bounce ideas and facts off my OH explaining all the above arguments etc. Her attitude was 'well how much is all this going to cost?'. I told her i was working on around a £6K budget overall and over time. Her answer?

"Well make it £8K and don't mess about 'cos i want my bath'

I can't say that I see any likelihood of turning agri parts - most of those sorts of repairs take a decent welder and a very large hammer or soemone with hydraulics knowledge. Farm machinery has one aim in life - to try and kill you - and doesn't need beginner help in that regard ..

But to put it in practical terms: If one finds, say an M300 for £2K, then how extra much for shifting it and converting it to single phase (and some pocket money for extra muscle this end - it's not going to be a one-man job).

I can accept that beginner turning needn't be to the 0.001 but surely there's need for some accurate measuring stuff to set it up an check it out? That doesn;t mean I'm thinking of engineers levels - I've got good ordinary spirit levels and any smart phone can run a half decent inclinometer ap. But I;m guessing one still needs a micrometer to cut a test bar?

What are the practical snags of a secondhand larger lathe?

pgk

As I said above ... I'm not quick at making decisions and i must have lusted and cheated on a lot of lathe models so far.. from the myfords through the boxfords, harrisons and then thinking new.. something at the less fancy end of gearheads like the warco GH550 or 1236. Tales of casting sand and chinese hammered to fit parts I know would frustrate me..but then so would motor swaps or 3-phase conversions. I know my cheap wood lathe pigs me off having to move belts for speed changes so a gearbox is high on the list.

A frequent comment is that lathes are more 'important' than mills.. but my instincts suggest that a mill is actually more versatile. Without treading on toes the lathe 'just' turns and the mill can profile. Amd yes I appreciate you can jig about with either..

Back when i had my business i met enough reps with glowing tales of how wonderful their latest toys were.. and equally recall sending back 5 blood analysis machines before finally getting one that analysed to my required accuracy. But that did cost a darned sight more than the lathes we talk about here.. and didn't weight 350kg. So some idea of reliable companies to buy from would also be appreciated.( I also had a 20K xray machine blow up 2 weeks out of warranty which wasn't fun)

Powys.. about 2miles oustide llanfyllin - cwm nant y meichiaid

regards pgk