Member postings for Nick Wheeler

I use Fusion 360, and do the opposite; top down, where each part is modelled in place which leads to one complete thing per file

That does require careful use of components, but you should do that anyway, and I find it much easier than trying to join up lots of separate parts. You also have to consider the 10 editable parts restriction on free Fusion use.

£3k on a Myford plus all the other sundries just to get an 11 year old started on his own is ridiculous. One of the smaller benchtop machines is probably more suitable, and much cheaper but spending a grand would still be easy.

So how about a 21st century approach?

Get him started with basic hand tools making/modifying parts, what they are doesn't matter. Learn how to work safely and well. That's what an apprentice did at the start of their career. A vice(one of the cheap workmate copies will do), hacksaw, small files and a means of using drills won't come to much if they're not already available.

Working on things like bikes is useful.

Meccano, LEGO technic, or similar are a good way of learning to assemble things that do something.

Download Fusion 360 and learn how to design things. Add a 3D printer to make some of them.

If he shows aptitude and is still interested, that is the time to be looking at small machine tools.

Linking up with like minded people in person dramatically reduces the learning curve, although that's not currently an option.

How about linear rails?

This is what I've been considering for the last couple of weeks, combining the sliding/tilting table of a Worden, a modified version of the tool slide for an ER32 spindle, and a Quorn style post mounted, brushless motor grinder-head. That's all modelled in Fusion 360, so I intend to start on it when I can afford the parts:

I think the table and endplates are ideal candidates for laser-cutting, especially as I don't have the 3 and 6mm steel required, which should speed up construction time.

The whole thing sits on a 400mm square baseplate, that will probably be an offcut of Corian.

That picture is actually a previous version, the latest has simplified it a bit more.

Edited By Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 14/02/2021 20:04:49

Several colours of overspray smudged around with brake fluid and thinners soon takes care of that....

It's a bit of both. If you don't have a Myford, then it's not such good value.

They're meant for sanding wood. If you intend using one to shape metal, as a belt-grinder, you'll quickly discover that they don't have enough power. Like trying to use an air-tool off a small compressor.

Anyone who has made custom exhausts will know that mandrel bent stainless bends are easier to find and much cheaper than mild steel.

That's most of a header for a Vauxhall V6 in an MGB

That's because the important dimension for pipe is the bore that carries material, and tube is for structural jobs so the exterior matters more

Veeing that out with a Dremel will take about as long as ordering a proper die-grinder and burrs, then waiting at home for it to be delivered. The cost is likely to be similar.

Dremels are like the tools from salesmen at shows; the well thought out spiel makes you think it's worth having, but experience proves otherwise.

I bought a Clarkson clone when I first got the mill. But it didn't come with a full set of imperial collets let alone metric ones, which was limiting. And you need threaded cutters. So I bought an ER32 chuck and set of collets for about what I would have spent on the rest of the collets.

I soon gave the original chuck away as it wasn't just limited in size, but is more of a pain to use.

other things to consider:

the ball-bearing nuts make tightening much easier

square and hex collet blocks make lots of small workholding easier, and their indexing capability is equally handy

ER collets are cheap enough that it's worth having some extras to match your commonly used cutters

The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman

Structures or Why Things Don't Fall Down - JE Gordon

The New Science of Strong Materials - JE Gordon

Could you machine a 1mm deep slot in the part it, or the slide block bolt to?

I have both 123 blocks, and the smaller metric Stevensons blocks which have sensible threads in them.

My only use for a 123 block in the 15 or so years I've owned them is to square the lathe toolpost against the chuck...

They live in the toolbox with the 'essential' machinist's jacks that are so useful I converted one into a centre height gauge when I broke the digital one.

You seem to want a lathe for the exact reasons I bought a mini-lathe. If you're going to use it on and for car parts then you want one of the bigger machines. This is for a number of reasons:

Most parts won't fit a Unimat!

They tend to need a lot of material removal, or fairly large holes drilled. To me, an M5 thread is small. That isn't the case if you're making model steam engines! Shaving off 0.5mm at a time gets old really fast.

That material will be steel, or similar, so power and rigidity are required.

Bigger lathes tend to cut a wider range of threads.

Buying a worn out machine as a beginner who wants to make parts is a terrible idea: you don't know what is and isn't working properly, you don't know what you're doing wrong, rebuilding it requires a range of skills you might not have, how do you make the parts the lathe needs, the machine might be cheap but fixing it won't be, your real projects get delayed.

I didn't want to be reliant on friends to make things like bushes, spacers, adapters, tools etc for my car projects. I don't have a lot of space, so a small bench-top machine was a requirement, especially once I'd actually seen a Myford in the metal. I had never used a lathe before, so a working machine was necessary. I looked at several used Myfords, that were both expensive and knackered - they're just machines, and a mechanic should be able to recognise abuse and damage. After some months of looking I bought a Clarke C300 from Machine Mart, took it and the cutting tools home, plonked it on the bench and an hour later had a couple of simple bushes on the car. My next job was to repair the freezer handle I had broken years before.

Over the next 13 years I learnt to make more complicated parts, but found that I was often stretching the size limits of the machine - a job that came up a few times was to reduce a Capri hub by 5mm, which the lathe would swing, but wasn't big enough to get a tool on - and the time taken was frustrating. Acquiring a vertical slide quickly proved inadequate for my milling requirements, so I filled up space I don't have with a mini-mill.

That's why I upgraded to a 10x22, which does all of my jobs better, easier and faster. Because I had proved that I had a frequent use for it, it could take up space at the end of the bench rather than get moved around. I sold the C300 with most of the tooling(I kept the QCTP and collet chuck) for what a bare machine cost, which I think is a pretty good return.

Not being able to finish a job because you're missing a basic piece of equipment is very frustrating, so a lathe needs 3&4 jaw chucks, several cutting tools ready to go, a drill chuck for the tailstock and a fixed steady. I've used the face plate once, so far. I still haven't turned anything between centres, or needed the travelling steady even though I've had them for years. I bought all this for the C300; the bigger machine came with them. All this stuff, plus the measuring kit takes up space, so bear that in mind.

Edited By Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 06/02/2021 10:55:34

I think you should stop looking at standards, and consider some actual parts.

Metric units are consistent, and relate to each other in relevant ways.

While it would be good if you could generate bolt sizes and their heads in a logical sequence, one look at the BA mess shows why that is a bad idea in practice: it leads to really peculiar sizes. Metric threads are biased towards ending up with sensible numbers, which wouldn't happen if you went with a logical 1:10 progression. Much the same applies to the bolt heads; compare a 5/16 bolt with its M8 equivalent, and you'll see that the heads are similarly comparable at 3/8 and 10mm. And it's all irrelevant, because any experienced mechanic picks his size marked spanner by judging the fastener size by eye.

The designers of metric strike me as being pragmatic enough to know when to accommodate real world values in a logical and we thought out way, like fuel economy - we could do it as km/l, but l/100km gives a much more sensible number.

Perfect example of a non-critical application - you could use just about any adhesive that will work on metal.

I have the same problem, and recently threw out most of a 100g bottle that was supposed to be more economical than buying little ones. It isn't economical to throw away 3/4 of what you buy!

I find the same with cartridges; I rarely use the whole tube, and it's bloody expensive to find the £10 tube of Sikaflex you started 6 months ago has gone off. Delays the job while you get some more, and that's unacceptable. I now buy the cheaper alternatives, and the paint supplier I use often has past its use by date ones for a fraction of the normal price. I buy those and bin the open tube when I've finished the job so I don't waste resources hoarding useless crap.

Most All of my use is non-critical so real savings are made by not buying brands: the thread lock I bought from a fastener supplier several years ago was £3, although they also had genuine Loctite for a lot more. I used to use high quality branded superglue and activator, which I got from work; we were buying 400 bottles at a time. I haven't noticed a difference in performance.

Now imagine the difference if you compared the 17/18/19" diameter and 6/7" wide wheels common on modern cars. They're bloody heavy as alloys, and a lot more manageable as steels. If you can find any.

And lets not forget how easy it is to damage a large alloy wheel beyond repair

So does a strip of masking tape on the back edge of a spanner.

If you do that a lot, one of THESE clipped onto the spanner is good.

As pointed out about 12 posts ago.

It is possible to use steering racks with solid axles, but it has to be mounted directly to the axle and you still have to be careful to make the arms the correct length. There needs to be a robust sliding joint attaching the column to the rack that allows for all the suspension movement. Steering columns aren't designed for this articulation, so its mounts or the entire column needs to be strengthened. This all looks horrible and isn't worth all the rather rough engineering required to make it work safely - bump steer is unpleasant through to bloody dangerous - compared to rebuilding the stock box. It's not as if Land Rovers are rare.