Member postings for Nick Hulme

What size, capability and price range are you looking at?
There are some UK suppliers but price/size ratios aren't particularly good.
Have you considered second hand small industrial stuff with a converter from Transwave?

Dimension standards available for all classes of thread Int. & Ext.
Look them up!

Tools for cutting Formica sheet should be suitable.

The blanking screw clamps nothing, it merely facilitates removal and replacement of the bearing balls, the inner race is integral with the handle, the outer is integral with the housing, no plate as the bearing does all the work.

In Michael's second photo there is a grub screw in the top of the casting, on my version that screw is the hole blanker for the bearing race, to remove the handle from the casting it is necessary to remove the blanking screw and get all the bearings out through the hole, a strong magnet helps!

Edited By Nick Hulme on 18/12/2018 17:52:39

I'd consider one of these,

http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page6.html

the important thing is that the head comes down to the slide, if you add spacer blocks to get your work up to the mill you are making massive compromises with rigidity

Edited By Nick Hulme on 14/12/2018 21:51:24

That's a lovely job.

Would one which switched between Imperial and Metric be possible?

Buying good quality collets and collet nuts is half the solution, ensuring your collet chuck dimensions meet the standard is the other half, then provided you don't need alignment to the last tenth you'll be fine - provided you keep your threads and tapers clean and lightly lubricated (I use a Tungsten Disulfide dry lube) and look up the correct tightening torque for your collet nut size and style and tighten to a significant proportion of that.

The most significant causes of issues with ER collets are too much tightness at the wallet and not enough tightness at the collet nut

Always use a machined in place mounting plate for chucks and collet chucks, it's the only way you can get perfect results, as any lathe user will know.

This was covered in Metalwork classes when I was at school and isn't difficult to research and read up.
I always worry about anyone who does interesting stuff in which they've proven not interested enough to do even basic research and reading.

Yes,
State the make and model of the mill you wish to transform into a silk purse, with some it's an uphill battle, with others it's a lost cause.

The big CON is anyone telling you ONLY.
HSS, Inserted Tungsten Carbide and even CBN all have their place in the tool box of any well rounded turner, (no pun intended) hobby or professional, as although there is overlap in capabilities each will enable you to do some things which the others will not.

65 Royal Mounted Police?

Cut away from the end/shoulder and use the manufacturer's recommended speed for Carbide inserts, slower will not be the answer with Carbide.

If you use decent equipment, ABB, Siemens, Jaguar, Mitsubishi etc.then this is entirely unnecessary.
It might be required if buying cheaper, lower quality drives but I only have experience with decent kit.

John,
I use a 4mm round green Polyurethane belt which is joined by melting, I've been running a 28,800rpm engraving spindle with a belt I welded using a disposable gas lighter, it's only lasted me 5 years, so far.

- Nick

Why not true the aluminium relative to the diamond material?

If 3mm ( 0.118" )  would fit you could make your own both cost and time effectively* from Gauge Plate.

*Cost and time effectively may not be as cheaply as you expect, you are falling into the trap of allowing your mind to suggest that what a part retails at when sourced from a factory making hundreds of thousands of identical parts might have any relationship to "Time and Materials" for short runs of parts.

Edited By Nick Hulme on 13/11/2018 20:30:29

+1 for flange mount, mounting on a backplate machined on the lathe ensures good alignment.

I have a Super 7 and flirted with the purchase of a QCGB but thank God I didn't, I now have to cut lots of oddball Metric pitches that would involve as much messing about with a gearbox as without and allow me a full range of Metric and imperial pitches without approximations.

Without derailing the thread are you, as a developer, able to offer a brief synopsis of why Linux CNC never has any good functional mileposts which users can choose, the exact reason why Tormach had to spend money to get to a good usable system for 3/4 axis mill users developed without the need to for said users to "eat, collate and assimilate a ream of dispersed documentation" ?