Member postings for Kiwi Bloke

Apart from the perceived danger of nefarious use of ether, perhaps the health and safety enthusiasts have a point, although, like pretty well everyone else who made up 'diesel' fuel, whilst at school, ignorance was bliss, and we survived unscathed. The point is that ether, if exposed to air, will slowly form a peroxide, which is dangerously - and apparently more-or-less spontaneously - explosive. It seems unlikely, however, that 'diesel' fuel is dangerous in practice, if in a sealed container. Another area of innocent fun which has been interfered with by the killjoys...

If the dovetail arrangement is used only for static location, there's no need for a gib strip. A gib strip comes into its own when accurate sliding guidance is required, and allows play to be adjusted out. (I suspect you know this already, and were just seeking confirmation that your decision to omit the gib strip was OK...).

Anthony, if one's stomach doesn't secrete 'intrinsic factor', one can't absorb orally-delivered B12. Therefore, B12 is injected in cases in which intrinsic factor is deficient - as in classical 'pernicious anaemia'. If oral B12 is working for you, you presumably can produce sufficient intrinsic factor, and your need for B12 supplementation is because of one of the many other possible causes.

[pedantic footnote: B12 = cyanocobalamin]

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 05/05/2021 12:00:23

Q: 'How have most overcome this?'

A: Well, by getting the right sized tooling... If you insist on using over-sized toolholders in a system they don't fit, make them fit! Mill 2mm off the bottoms off the toolholders. This is probably the most commonly-used solution, and, as you know, far cheaper than buying replacement tooling.

Oh dear, I promised myself I wasn't going to get involved in this thread - it's a health hazard...

I'm a committed repairer and restorer and hate what is happening to manufactured goods.

Designed-in obsolescence has been with us a long time. Look on the 'Tube for 'The Light-bulb Conspiracy', but be cautious if your blood pressure is unstable. This cynical attitude to business is a disgrace, but it's not going to go away. The public is required to conform, comply and consume. Simple.

Of course, if the consumer wants to buy cheap, that is what he'll get.

The problem is more widespread than manufacturers' reprehensible practices. It's now getting difficult for the privateer to perform legally many DIY tasks that were routine only a couple of decades ago. Here in NZ, legal DIY plumbing and electrical work is made stupidly difficult by legislation. This is effectively policed by the relevant trades' associations, so the poachers are now gamekeepers. I understand that In Oz, it's even worse - the householder can't even legally loosen a wall light-switch surround to make decorating easier. This is all in the name of 'safety'. So, conform, comply and consume, and snuggle down in the nice cotton-wool wadding the government wants to smother you with. It's for your own good.

Interesting that this albeit somewhat dated counsel of perfection relates exclusively to (as far as a quick skim through reveals) tin-lead solder. None of this troublesome lead-free stuff!

[edit: typos, typos and more tpyos!]

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 22/04/2021 10:15:01

I suggest you mill the spherical surface. With the milling cutter axis normal to the workpiece's axis, if the workpiece is rotated, a 'hollow' rotating cutter - or a single-point tool - will produce a sperical surface. (This is because any slice through a sphere is a disk.)

In this case, the cutter diameter has to be the distance between the shoulders. The cutter's form (in this case) has to be hollow, internally bevelled, with effectively end-cutting teeth. Think of a 'solid of rotation' formed generated by a tool like the one on the left of Jason's sketch, or think of a hole saw, with its teeth tapered so it gets as far into the aforementioned corner as is required; a single-point tool works also, of course. The workpiece is slowly rotated as the cutter is fed radially. Perhaps a good idea to remove the bulk of the material with a more hefty cutter - you can use a single-point cutter in a boring head. Milling spherical surfaces is fun, and a good talking point...

This idea, with a little elaboration, is really neat for things like 3-ball handles.

Matthew, I'm sorry to hear of your loss. It's a wretched business disposing of someone's treasured posessions, and even worse when you don't really know what you're dealing with. This is a problem that comes up fairly frequently on this forum. Model engineers' clubs can almost certainly be relied on to assist, but my experience (in NZ and UK) is that model engineers are a stingy loty. I have got many bargains, but have at the same time been saddened by the low prices achieved at club disposal sales. You'll find a good home, but perhaps not a good price.

Perhaps there's an opportunity for this forum to offer some sort of identification and valuation service for this scenario. You really need people who have no vested interest in the equipment, but who know the local market. I suppose the 'Bay sets prices, realistically.

Anti-sieze products will help prevent corrosion-induced seizing and possibly 'cold welding', but I don't think either is a real concern on a well-cared for machine. Make sure the male and female threads are really clean, then lightly oil. However, I can't think why a smear of anti-sieze compound would hurt.

I, like most, I suspect, used to anoint wheel studs and nuts with grease or Copaslip. I was aware that torque figures for dry threads and lubricated threads are different, but assumed that the manufacturers specified the figure for lubricated threads. Perhaps they did. However, today's practice - stipulated by manufacturers - is to not lubricate wheel nuts, so the torque specified must be for dry threads. The idea is to minimize the risk of the nuts loosening spontaneously. The surface treatment (Zn?) must be far better than in the old days, because they never seem to seize.

Beware the 'professional' machine mover! I have seen some in action (in UK) - strops around handles, or anything that sticks out, seems common practice. Some are doubtless OK, but how do you tell?

It's all very well to get the massive beast moved, and dropped(!) at your front door, but what then? That's another reason why dismantling and moving it yourself is a good idea...

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 05/04/2021 11:01:48

Jan Sverre Haugjord puts interesting videos up on the 'Tube. Several are about the ELS. Quite a few on scraping, too.

My Brother HL-2250DN duplex mono laser replaced a HP LaserJet 4. The LaserJet was a serious bit of kit, but its power supply failed, and it was slow, and probably didn't have enough internal memory. It was, however, free...

The Bro feels like a disposable plastic toy in comparison, but it works perfectly, and talks Linux. It cost about as much as one of its toner cartridges, so you can see where the manufacturers make their money. Two-sided printing is a valuable feature, and didn't add much to the cost.

Hi William,

I have moved (and owned) a Tom Senior M1, Tom Senior Universal, Centec 2A and Centec 2B single-handed, using a LWB Land Rover. They all come apart easily and quickly enough. The manufacturers' bases are bulky and heavy, and the main bodies ( 'columns' ) are fairly heavy, so an assistant is useful - otherwise it's inclined planes, baulks of timber, levers, sweat and swearing. All those machines are good in their own way, but will all now be showing signs of age and/or abuse, and they are large for their capacity. Also, vertical heads, particularly with a quill, are like hens' teeth. Top speeds are also low. My view is that Seniors were no-nonsense, heavy and crude, but less refined than Centecs. Centecs suffered from small tables. The Centec C was, unfortunately, very rare, and I wouldn't try to move one of them...

The Emco FB-2 is altogether lighter, and far easier to dismantle and move.

You might also consider Boxford's milling machine. AFAIK, no quill-feed head was available for the excellent Harrison mill, which, like most horizontal machines, was very short of headroom when fitted with the vertical head.

I think the versatility of a vertical mill, with a swivelling, quill-feed head is a winner, for 'reasonable-sized' work.

BTW, Myford's mills were tarted-up (by Myford) Taiwanese machines. Apparently OK quality. The smallest did not have a swivelling head.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your quest.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 05/04/2021 10:37:08

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 05/04/2021 10:37:54

I don't think anyone has mentioned Emco's FB-2. A beautifully-built and accurate machine, which clearly inspired a number of variably miserable oriental knock-offs. Table power-feed available (at a price). It isn't the largest or most rigid machine, of course, but has a small footprint and can manage large workpieces for its size. If it's good enough for Graham Meek and Joseph Noci... (just look at their work and feel humble).

Loctite 480 is a rubber-reinforced, quick-cure adhesive ('super-glue' ) with good shock resistance and peel strength. It's also good in humid environments. It works exceptionally well, even on very smooth (not abraded or scuffed-up) surfaces. I've been very pleased - amazed even - with results. I don't know how it would stand up to contact with petro-chemicals or other solvents we use in the workshop. I think it's also known as 'Black Max'.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 30/03/2021 20:57:42

No. 4656 arrived here a couple of days ago. NZ is a somewhat backward country...

Electronics isn't my field, and I know approx. nothing about SSRs, but I'm aware that the audio folk sometimes have trouble with buzzing or humming toroidal transformers. It seems that even well-made toroids can hum, given half a chance, and common causes seem to be a DC bias on the input, dirty AC input, and sharp secondary current pulses as a result of large filter caps. An isolating transformer, or a 'DC trap' can deal with the first cause and some R before the filter cap can deal with the last cause, and both are easy diagnostic lash-up tests. Dunno about input waveform though - presumably fairly horrible from SSRs, and, if not symmetrical, can a DC bias result? Hope this helps, but it's probably far too naive...

Dave W. The affordable diagnostic code readers can cope with the 'standard' codes that are common across manufacturers, but each manufacturer appears to use many additional, effectively secret codes, which Murphy dictates are the really worth-knowing ones. It's restrictive practices in operation. It would be interesting to know whether the 'Right to Repair' movement in USA has had any success.

Since we all know that we are better-than-average drivers, who have the market researchers found who appear to want this useless-and-incompetent-driver-support technology?

Well, Howi, I wish that were true. The dinosaurs were around for vastly longer than hominids have been - or will be.