Member postings for Nick Wheeler

Bin the fittings it came with and replace them with standard PCL ones that are available anywhere

When you do drop something, shine a torch/inspection lamp along the floor rather than down onto it.

Paint the floor a different colour to the parts you're likely to drop - finding a small steel or aluminium part on a grey floor often turns into a party game

That's never happened to me.

What I found, before I trained myself not to be a hoarder, was that I'd spend ages sorting through piles of stock that was always slightly too small for the job, or discover that the I've got one of those somewhere was worse than the part I was hoping to replace.

Now, I bin removed parts when the job is complete, and small pieces of stock that I can't hold join them. Saves time, space and frustration.

Not enough information - was the mixer damaged?

I have a similar, although slightly bigger, machine. It's normally full of a washing-up liquid solution because I use it for cleaning jewellery, watch bracelets, spectacles etc.

But I do use it on car parts, and swap to one of the water soluble degreasers. This did a good job on 3 really grotty E-type carburetors, although it wasn't a quick job. That didn't really matter, as reassembling the whole car wasn't a quick job

How about some engineering GIBBERISH?

Edited By Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 17/12/2020 21:51:48

My electric die grinder could be mounted in a very similar way. I dislike air tools both for the noise they and the necessary large compressor make, and the hose is a nuisance..

I bought a very similar tool to David, and fitted it to the vertical slide:

which allows all sorts of adjustments, even with the motor turning. But it is a bit off a nuisance to set up, so it spends most of its time in a QCTP holder:

which I did by bolting a piece of 1/2" square bar to the clamp supplied. That slides in the slot in the holder, and the whole thing is ready to use just like any other tool.

I mainly use it for the fluted knobs I prefer over knurled ones:

but it also drills cross holes and off centre ones in the face of parts with no extra setting up or measuring. I do need a better way of headstock dividing than blocking the chuck jaws; an electronic dividing attachment off the spindle gear is the plan. That will make partial slots easy

Why didn't the drawbar retain the chuck?

Have Warco stopped selling suitable backplates?

I kept the collet chuck when I upgraded to a WM250 from a mini-lathe at an ME show. Part of the discussion with the salesman was what I wanted the lathe for, and what I already had. Two backplates were included as part of the deal.

We've still got one somewhere.

As the only wood turning I do is for handles, and that is really rare, I just use the metal lathe

Dials are good for approximate readings from a quick glance. Speedos and other instrumentation are excellent examples.

Digital is for when an actual, specific number is required. Good for precise, stable measurements, less so for changing ones.

Most of my work is done with a digital caliper. I bought a set of micrometers that got from 0 to 100mm and have never used the bigger two. I also have a 0 to 1" micrometer so I don't have to convert imperial into metric.

There was some nice pin striping on it too.

12°C is about the right temperature for me to switch to a long sleeved shirt when working. I try not to do any jobs that aren't actually work when the temperature approaches freezing.

I would much rather work in cooler temperatures than ones much over 20°C

The ER collets aren't fussy about size, so you can use them for work holding and for unusually sized tools. And a set of square and hexagonal collet blocks come in really handy for other jobs like making squares, cross holes, flats and hand finishing

A few T-nuts can be made easily and quickly with a hacksaw and file. If you want more than that, then turn as many top-hats as you need and file on the flats for the bigger slot.

Hydro isn't ignored. But you can't just plonk a water wheel across a brook and call it a power station. I suspect that all of the potential sites for hydro-electric plants in the UK already have them.

As the numbers show, none of the lauded renewable sources are replacements for steam turbine power stations. But inelligent use of them would make significant reductions in their emissions. Unfortunately, intelligent long term integrated policies are not things our governments are any good at

I bought mine from Cronos about 15 years ago.

It uses T-nuts that fit the slots well at 11 and 17.5mm wide, with M10 hardware.

The hardware and clamps are much bigger than most jobs need, and get in the way.

Every time I use them, I tell myself it's past time that I made some new nuts and clamps using M6 threads, like in Harold Hall's articles/book.

I notice that Arceuro do smaller step blocks that would be more suitable for this size clamps.

More importantly, most of them are sized to specific jobs - pin punches, filing buttons, hole punches etc - and are probably best made when you need them. Make one of each so you know how and move on. Otherwise, you burn through material and end up with lots tools that never get used. Like the machinist jacks I made when I first got the mill 15 years ago. I've never used them, and have recently converted one into a tool height gauge when my digital one died.

My suggestion would be to look around the house/car/bike/garden and see what you can improve or repair. Handles and knobs are a good bet; you could quickly develop your own house style.

Edited By Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 25/11/2020 23:01:20

Does it really matter? Designing and building their own stuff is what matters. Doing it with modern materials and techniques is also important.