Member postings for Nick Wheeler

Considering that it's just sheetmetal, and the number of parts required, I'd be more tempted to file a clamp-on jig and buzz the whole lot across a cheap belt sander.

45 degrees on a 1mm part is more like sharpening a blade than chamfering.

45

As most callipers use a pretty stiff spring between the pins and and pads to stop the pads rattling, I suspect that is one of those ideas that isn't really necessary. The disc on a push bike will knock the pads back enough for the brakes not to bind, which you really notice.

As a would-be hotrodder, I know exactly what you mean!

A couple of conversations spring to mind;

I was told that the late Mini clutch master cylinder and 155/80 tyres on my sister's daily driven Morris 1300 "spoilt the car", although he hadn't noticed the Ford Radiant Red paint on the bottom half of an Old English White car wasn't factory.

one bloke whinged about how long it took to find parts, yet claimed we made thing difficult by using more modern ones

We had another chat with some woman who was complaining she couldn't find anyone to paint her car in 'proper' cellulose paint because "2-pack always looks wrong. I want it to look like that" - pointing at a friend's Model Y. She was most upset when Jon told her it was painted on his drive, using 2-k base and clear. And being early seventies, her car should have been painted with acrylic....

The best one was overheard at a show, when an adenoidal anorak asked an owner what the car was "before he ruined it". The answer " A bucket of resin, it's a fibreglass replica" got a big laugh.

And one with a light built in.

I wouldn't bother with tapers at all: reduce each end to fit in the notch, and turn a shallow groove in the centre for the spring to sit in.

In the almost twenty years I've owned a lathe, I've used the faceplate once. I've never turned between centres. I only use the four jaw when the work isn't round. The three jaw chuck the lathe came with is fitted for nearly all my work. I do have an ER32 chuck, which I use when suitable parts need to be mounted in the mill.

My WM250 has a 3 bolt flange, as did the min-lathe, so chuck changes are quick and easy.

You need a suitably sized spacer to press against, and the old bearing is already close to being the right size. Once you've reduced the outside diameter so it's no longer a press fit, it will be the right size.

The DRO doesn't tell you where to drill, just that you're at the points you calculated. It makes the job easier, that's all.

Laying out PCDs has long been a common requirement, so the formulas used are available in all sorts of places. For example page 14 of Zeus gives them for 3 through 12 hole PCDs.

You could say the same about fitting any power feed.

My point is that a lathe is a pretty simple machine. The geartrain to make it a fully usable tool is complicated, expensive and in many cases, awkward to use due to its old fashioned nature. A modern replacement improves all of those.

That looks like it was supposed to be sold from a market stall with a set of drills-anything drill bits, fits any-size-bolt spanner, all wrapped in a miracle chammy

4. High grade aluminium knob & handwheel

Great, that will make all the difference......

I like the idea of built in scales, and connecting them to a tablet seems like a good idea.

What I would like to see is moving into the 20th century and the change gears/gearboxes dropped in favour of a factory Electronic Lead Screw. That would give instant selection of any thread pitch or fine-feed. Not having all the gears churning away would make the machine quieter and nicer to use. A stepper motor, PCB and a couple of sensors ought to be cheaper than the mechanical parts too

I found a replacement key for the chuck supplied with my X2 mini-mill 15 years ago at B&Q. They had 3 sizes so I suspect there are standards for these things

You can't blame the spell checker, as pendants is spelt perfectly.

Some time ago I wanted a better way of checking the camber on my car than sticking a digital angle gauge to a length of angle iron cable tied across the wheel.

So I turned an aluminium disc to fit inside the wheel centre, epoxied a magnet to hold it against the grease cap, and stuck some sheet steel to the outside for the gauge. I didn't use a steel disc because I only had small magnets, and already had the aluminium that was almost the right size:

stuck to the wheel ready for the gauge:

I made this the day before doing a front suspension rebuild for a customer. After fitting the new components, I spent ages looking for the tool I'd made less than 24 hours earlier. I couldn't find it, so had to go back to the angle-iron for the initial camber adjustment(these cars need a full four wheel alignment, but getting it close with ghetto methods is a good start)

About six weeks later, I moved my belt sander and found the disc stuck to the side of it.

Presumably the pendants hang around until someone makes a mistake?

Proof reading your own text really isn't easy.

The photos posted by the OP after your post suggest that he's already turning them too slow: an old, low power motor, and - at a guess - 3 to 1 speed reduction. The 300w, adjustable high-speed motor I showed works well for small drills(0.5mm for instance), 6mm drills and milling cutters. Actually attaching it to the machine is much easier too.

In order:

Joe, I've no idea what the actual RPM is, but I use a 6mm ball end mill for the knobs without any issues in steel. And ER11 is only good to 7mm so slow isn't really important. The disadvantage of this setup is that it's very long, which limits the work diameter. Cutting down some common drill bits is on my list. This is a tool that won't be used if it isn't deployable quickly. I used it last week to make a clamp-on nipple for a broken handbrake cable, and the whole job was done without removing the stock from the lathe. I've admired your grinders since you first showed them, and am very tempted to build one. But that's a bit more work than hacksawing a piece of stock, drilling four holes and tapping two of them.

A 12volt wiper motor is going to make a terrible drill, as it's nowhere near fast enough.

I could see the original plate on WM250 bending when parting off or making heavy cuts. I replaced it with a 15mm thick plate, using all of the original topslide fittings and four M6 t-nuts. The original plate needed to be done up really tightly for any clamping effect. The new one just needs the four bolts to be nipped up with a 10mm spanner for much better clamping.

The new plate was hacked out a larger chunk with an angle grinder, the cut edges filed smooth, and the mounting/clamping faces machined in the lathe. I keep promising myself I'll paint it, but that's unlikely to happen until I paint something yellow....

I can't imagine using 1" tools on such a small machine, and definitely wouldn't want to pay for them. Most of mine are 8mm shanks, used in a Myford size Dickson QCTP, and they're not the limiting factor.

Shining your inspection lamp along the floor, instead of down onto it makes a big difference.

Painting the floor the same colour as the metal objects that will be dropped on it isn't the best idea either.....