Member postings for Nick Wheeler

I'm with you on the brush; anything I do looks like it was done in the dark, by a drunk holding the brush with his feet. Spraying is far better.

And 2k paints add a similar improvement. You need far less of it so it's cheaper, it's much higher solids so 2 coats is enough to provide a good finish that withstands polishing, and it goes off in far less time - so much so that you could filler-prime in the morning, block sand after lunch and top coat the same day. You do need to upgrade to a proper filter(although an air-fed hood is cheap enough), but you ought to be using something similar with cellulose.

I use Fusion360, and make all the parts of a 'thing' as components - bodies are very different things - in the same file, so this

is saved as one thing even though it contains most of the parts necessary to build a working engine. It means each part can be built where it's going to be used, using the actual geometry that it fits which saves a great deal of extra design work. To me, saving each piston/rod/camshaft/throttle spindle/etc as a separate file would be like saving a novella as separate paragraphs.

I'd suggest that somebody who knows what he's doing - and how to explain it - could use those pumps to help Nigel pull himself out of the hole he's dug for himself in a couple of hours. That would involve suggestions on which profile to extrude/cut/revolve the initial solid from, use of additional planes/geometry, why constraints are important, using existing parts to create new ones directly in place, joining the parts to create an assembly and proving it moves as intended, and how to produce the drawings Nigel considers to be so vital.

They're not confused but ignorant. And that leads to the self-perpetuating frustration repeated here.

I've mentioned this several times, but Nigel needs some one-to-one teaching to fill in the gaps in his understanding and reset his faulty thinking.

Get a bolt-on ER collet chuck and a full set of collets. That will hold any type of milling cutter and be useful for small round stock.

If I had just spent £600 on a fairly small bench, I'd expect to be using it as is for the next 25ish years.

You can't turn predictive text off because it's ready for you

And me. But mine is double ended so it drops in both sides of the QCTP. That way one tool can be fed along , or across, the axis of the lathe and deburr bores and any other edge created, saving on tool holders

Noted. That's even better than my suggestion.

That was my experience when I tried it out of curiosity. Considering the cost of both ATF and acetone, I'm not convinced of the monetary saving either.

I've only ever found penetrating fluid(of whatever type) to be of any use when the parts were only just past coming apart with the appropriate tool. In those circumstances it's used to get the screw/bolt/nut/pin out quickly so that more drastic methods aren't necessary. It's particularly irritating to be told after you've used heat, violence, hammers, swearing and grinders/drills to get out an already rounded off fastener that Scammer's Miracle Snot would have worked instantly.

Is there a worthwhile time saving parting off under power on a small lathe?

For the actual operation - maybe, although it's pretty small.

But there's a big time saving in having to sharpen the tool less, or replacing it because it's bent or broken. Not to mention the time and material cost from having to remake the part because it was damaged when you broke or bent the parting tool. Having both hands free to either catch the part or add cutting fluid can be a really useful too.

I'll keep parting off under power; it's less hassle.

Weld a couple of suitably sized/spaced blocks to a piece of steel strap to make a custom spanner. That's what, five minutes work in total?

Edited By Nick Wheeler on 24/03/2023 22:34:29

Rear toolposts purport to solve a number of problems that should be a long way down a beginner's list of things to worry about. The only claim that isn't mostly subjective is that they add another tool position for complex production work.

As a beginner you need to concentrate on making whatever tools you are using - which is another can of worms - work as they are designed to. Rear toolposts, quick-change toolposts, complex insert holders etc etc are expensive distractions from achieving that.

How can a tightened threaded fastener not be in tension?

In a world where Loctite exists, is the second nut still necessary?

And I wonder why the OP couldn't have quickly made some temporary shaped nuts with a hacksaw and file. Spend a bit more time on them, and they could have been permanent replacements.

Caravans are a flimsy steel chassis, then a thin ply floor, a basic wooden structure and aluminium or plastic panels stuck over the top. The cabinets, bed base and other features are structural. There isn't much room inside them considering the space they take up. This all makes them a poor choice for storage. Buy a shed instead.

I spent an afternoon making a floor pan with all the grooves, panels and folded edges. Matched the template, and looked great until I held it in the hole. It was upside down.

I've been told that templates and marking it and the part with up/down/inside/etc and using different colour markers for which way a fold goes is a waste of time. It isn't...

That's an excellent example of why you should avoid converting, and work in what you're given. Although the insistence of having both fractions and decimals on the same part is tiresome. I've yet to see a machine dial marked in fractions.

How does an Imperial howl compare to a metric moan?

Those drive tools are a Snap-on invention, and were originally available with American sockets. Would you really want to buy new ratchets, extensions and all the other bits that could only be used on metric sockets?