Member postings for James Alford

Yes: it really was simple to do the conversion. I cannot recall which colour wires I joined, but I did join two together. I used a modern, solid state rectifier instead of a zener: the two wires from the alternator went in one one side, 12v DC comes out of the other, ready to feed into the rest of the bike. I did change the coil and bulbs whilst I was at it.

I originally used a standard lead acid battery, but after twoof three kept going flat with standing. I was given the gel burglar alarm battery, which fitted neatly inside the original battery carrier, and simply leave it. It came charged a few years ago, stands all winter and keep sperfect charge.

I bought my bulbs and indicators from Paul Goff (lives about 5 miles away): pleasant chap and very fair prices.

Good luck.

JAmes.

I converted my C15 to 12v by pairing the wires as suggested, fitted a solid state regulator and a gel burglar alarm battery. It works perfectly, never goes flat and runs indicators and a bright halogen headlamp. Externally, it looks standard, apart from the tiny bullet indicators.

James.

I rebuilt one of those a few years back: currently sat in the garage pending a new MOT.

Regards,

James.

Brian,

I doubt that it is any consolation, but I found exactly the same when setting up my Flexispeed. The carriage would be either too tight by the chuck or too slack by the tailstock. Similarly, it took me forever to get the adjustment correct; half a gnat's whisker of a turn would make all the difference between slack and tight. I persevered, like you are clearly doing, and eventually got it set.............. only to go out of adjustment again as soon as I used the machine because I forgot to tighten the lock screws.

Good luck.

James.

Doug,

I used boiling water. I had a mixture of fresh polymorph granules and a roughly moulded lump that was left over from making a plastic hammer head. The fresh granules melted perfectly well, but the formed lump proved much harder to soften.

Regards,

JAmes.

Martin,

To be honest, I had never even considered that, which seems like a good idea to me, especially as I imagine that it will make to polymorph easier to file and shape. When this version of the nut expires, or if I use the polymorph for anything else that is similar, I shall try adding some powders.

Regards,

James.

I have now had a go at using polymorph to make a nut for the leadscrew, albeit not half nuts.

The leadscrew nut on my Flexispeed is a small, rather narrow, casting with the thread cut into it. Over time, this has worn and there is a lot of backlash in the nut. To try and remove this slack, I moulded some polymorph around the leadscrew and, once set, sawed and filed it square. I then screwed this plastic nut to the exisitng metal nut to bolster it. It has worked well and removed all of the slack whilstremaining loose enough to operate.

However, the impression that the material gives is that whilst it will last for a while, it is unlikely to cope with a large amount of use. Mind you, it was so quick to make the nut that even it has to be replaced each year, it is no hardship.

Regards,

James.

I ordered a new 65mm od, 14mm threaded chuck which arrived today. Over the next week or so, I shall have a good look at it and see which suggestion I feel most capable of doing successfully and which suits the particular chuck. I shall update on my progress.

Regards,

James.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. The one which I originally favoured was turning off the existing thread, fixing on a sleeve and threading it to fit the new chuck. However, having looked carefully at the spindle, the wall between the inside taper hole and the outside, once the thread has been removed, will be very thin, especially near the end. This rather puts me off the idea.

I have decided to buy a chuck anyway and just have a good look at the fitting. The pictures of it give the impression that it has a very deep, unthreaded 15mm register. If that is the case, I may be able to make a spigot, but use the depth of the register to reduce the increased overhang introduced by the spigot.

If, on the other hand, it does cause a large overhang, then I shall have to think again. Mind you, seeing this set up, I wonder........

Regards,

James.

I believe that it is a 1/2" by 16 BSF thread.

Thank you for all of these suggestions, each of which clearly has its merits.

Realistically, if I rethread the spindle, assuggested by Gordon, will a 14mm die held in tailstock die holder be accurated enough? I do not have screw cutting facilities.

Regards,

James.

Thank you for all of your suggestions, which have given me plenty to think about. It seems that no one thinks that using a screw-on adaptor is a sound idea due to the overhang, which was my initial concern.

Rod has previously, kindly, offered to fit a threaded insert to a three jaw chuck for me, which is tempting. However, using Gordon's idea, I would have the opportunity to fit a wide range of chucks and accessories, which was my reason for thinking about the adaptor.

I cannot do screw cutting on my lathe, but can buy a suitable die. If I hold this in a tailsotck die-holder, will it be suitable?

Regards,

James.

l

Mark,

You are correct in that it has a 0 Morse taper, but it is a shortened one, not a full length taper. I have looked around a fair bit, and read threads by other people, and it seems pretty much impossible to locate a taper that will fit without a substantial overhang.

Thank you for the replies. I do not yet feel confident enough to try making a new spindle, primarily due to the the Morse taper for the centre. This is the sort of thig which I had in mind.

:

Regards,

James.

Edited By James Alford on 03/10/2015 10:25:22

It is nigh on impossible to find chucks and other fittings with a 1/2" thread to fit the Flexispeed, but there is a plethora of equipment threaded 14mm. I have been considering turning up a spigot, internally threaded 1/2" and externally threaded 14mm to screw onto the spindle. This would allow me to fit new chucks, faceplates and, possibly, collets.

I was wondering, though, whether the overhang which this would introduce would be a problem, leading to avoidable flex and inaccuracies. Any thoughts?

Regards,

James.

Rod,

Thank you for your reply. I had the same apprehension regarding the overhang. I have considered a temporary lathe spindle, just using a length of 1/2" bar, and turning the temporary spigot on that, clamping the new chuck onto it for boring. However, I am not sure quite whether that may upset the headstock bushes for when I refit the proper spindle.

I am in England, in Bucks, and may take up your offer, if you do not mind.

Neil,

I confess that I have only found small chucks with the thread bored into the chuck body. Do you remember where your bought your chuck with the backplate? I am happy to have a go at turning a backplate myself instead of troubling Rod, if I can avoid doing so.

Regards,

James.

Roderick,

Do you think that the Flexispeed itself will be sturdy enough to use to turn out the thread in the chuck? I am tempted to buy one of these chucks for my own Flexispeed.

Regards,

James.

Having played with a both carbide and HSS tools on my Flexcispeed, now that it is up and running, I confess that I prefer the HSS. I sharpened a tool using a new, healthy bench grinder and wheel which I used to turn the oilers which I made using nylon. I then tried the same tool on aluminium and on steel. I have no idea of the angles on the tool, but it does have a knife edge and no rounding to the end.

I am pleased with the results and am confident that when I regrind the tool with proper angles, a rounded tip and set the tool height more carefully, I shall get a really good finish.

Regards,

James.

Edited By James Alford on 20/09/2015 20:04:39

Edited By James Alford on 20/09/2015 20:05:45

Thank you for all of the replies.

I can confirm that the verniers are old, cheap and, having had a good look at them, worn, with the jaws wobbling a fair bit. They were the first pair that came to hand last night, but I had not realised their condition. I have a digital set (Silverline or similar) and a manual set (Mitutoyo), so shall stick to those in future.

I like the idea the "plug" gauges and can see me using that idea on other things.

Regards,

James.

I have been making a simple set of drip feed oilers for my Flexispeed to save constantly dripping oil into the headstock bearing oil holes.

The first one went well, with a simple, push-fit lid that pulls off with a satisfying "pop". A while later, I made the second and two ill-fitting lids later, wondered why I could not turn the lid to fit at all.

Having used a dfiferent set of verniers, I decided to check their accuracy, out of curiosity. Using the inside jaws to measure the bore of the oiler, I then measured the corresponding gap on the outside jaws: different, by a fair margin.

No wonder the lid did not fit. I shall consign that pair of verniers to the junk cupboard.

Regards,

James.