Member postings for Kiwi Bloke

Is the 'yellow coating' in fact passivated cadmium plating? Not the best anti-rust treatment, unfortunately.

Al-alloy pulleys may be OK, but I have seen enough cases where moisture in the belt has caused the metal to corrode, leaving white material on/in the belt surface - presumably abrasive aluminium oxide - and pitted pulleys. This may be less of a problem with modern 'cut' V belts. Just make sure you get a corrosion-resistant alloy, if you go down this route.

SOD said "A starting hole rather less than ⅓ the diameter of the main drill seems about right. (Do others agree?)"

No. Or yes - it depends on the length of the chisel point relative to the diameter...

When a larger drill is fed into an existing smaller diameter hole, what tends to happen is that one cutting edge 'grabs', stops moving, and acts as a pivot, around which the drill orbits - for part of a rotation. Then, the 'pivot' lets go, and the other (or the same) cutting edge grabs again, and the cycle repeats. Eventually, things tend to settle down, but lobed holes are often produced in thin sheet, where the 'settling down' can't happen, because the side of the drill may never engage properly with the side of the hole. This is perhaps the most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon, but 'orbiting' drill bits can be observed when drilling from the lathe tailstock, as they engage an existing hole in the workpiece. In this case, it may be helpful to employ the very old trick of starting the (follow-up) drilling by holding or restraining the free end of the drill, using a bit of metal in the toolpost. This temporarily deflects the point of the drill, which then acts as a boring tool, with only the rearmost cutting edge initially engaging. (Try to set the drill bit's cutting edges horizontally).

This phenomenon varies with the drill stiffness and the relative diameters of the starting hole and the following drill. I suggest the best size of a starting hole is the same diameter as the length of the non-cutting chisel edge of the following drill bit. This, of course, assumes the machine is powerful and rigid enough. The often-advocated idea of using a series of bits of increasing diameter is just asking for trouble.

120 degree, four-facet spotting drills make ideal starting dimples and four-facet drill bits (no chisel point) make drilling so much more civilised, often allowing drilling without the need for any centre-pop or spotting drill dimples.

Having said that, millions of holes have been drilled successfully using all sorts of techniques, many of which are passionately held to be the best...

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 02/10/2019 11:27:05

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 02/10/2019 11:28:36

Thanks Neil and Joe. I need to clarify. I think I need something that plots the frequency response, given the component values, rather than a component value calculator. The schematic does not give the intended filter parameters, just the component values, and these seem strange. From memory, pairs of Rs and Cs are supposed to have identical values, but not in this schematic, so I'm wondering why... Sorry to be vague, but electronics isn't my field, and I'm, perhaps rather cheekily, only posting because the original post piqued my interest.

Interesting. Anyone know of a simple to use* online simulator/analyser that can cope with a 'Linkwitz transform' filter? I have a schematic with some funny component values - different from what the text-book formulae suggest. Not sure whether the differences are typos or intentional. The circuit's designer is not available for interrogation. I'm using Linux, hence the request for an online app.

* I'm far too lazy to learn how to use a Spice clone.

Take the advice above to learn to grind (and hone) your own HSS tool bits. There's plenty of advice and instruction out there. You can easily experiment with shapes, angles and tip radii. You'll learn how surface finish, stock removal rates, chatter, etc., etc. alter with tool configuration and you'll understand why things are happening. You're then only a few steps away from being able to make tools from gauge plate or silver steel, for odd and special jobs. However, if you start equipping yourself with tipped tooling, it'll cost a lot, you'll need to navigate the arcane coding system for tips (most are unsuitable for lightweight, low-powered machines), and you'll need to understand what tip parameters are required for each application. Also, you'll cry when you find out how fragile they can be, especially in the hands of the inexperienced lathe operator. I'd also suggest that a tipped-tool-only user won't understand anything like as much about cutting as one who has gone through the HSS-grinding apprenticeship.

If you're determined to go the tipped-tooling way, I'd suggest going to someone like Greenwood Tools (no connection) who supply amateurs with a pre-filtered, small selection of holders and tips, which are suitable for 'our' machines and materials.

Another important consideration is the cost of a handful of toolholders and a selection of tips, compared to a bundle of HSS blanks. The considerable difference can be put to good use - on beer.

Had to have a rant about misuse of centre drills... Now, back to Eric's question.

Hopefully, all the good advice that has been given will result in success. However, it hasn't been mentioned that if swarf is packing in the hole, horrible things can be expected to happen. Are you trying to drill the hole in one pass, or are you 'pecking', i.e. very frequent complete withdrawal of the bit from the hole, to clear swarf? With a drill that size, you will need to peck every few seconds. It's tedious...

I wish the 'tradition' of using centre drills to start drilled holes would die. Centre drills are for making centres - that's why they have the little bit on the end - the bit that breaks off easily. Spotting drills are robust and stiff and make good drill-starting dimples. One with a 90 degree point angle can pre-countersink or chamfer the hole too (if it's going to be less than the spotting drill's diameter). Try to get one without a chisel-edge, i.e. four-facet grind, and you don't need a centre-pop (which is a bit of a problem if you're working to co-ordinates...).

There's recently been some discussion about Dewhurst reversing switches in MEW and this forum. In MEW No. 283, Glyn Davies advocates the only sensible solution - throw the Dewhurst away! There's no need for these expensive abominations these days.

We all owe it to ourselves and our families to take basic precautions to preserve our health and well-being. Serious machines really should be controlled by a DOL starter / no-volt release. I don't believe the Dewhurst switch was designed to switch machine motors on or off - the make and break action is too slow and the contacts are rather feeble. It is fine as a switch to select forwards or reverse*, but not to start or stop the machine. Unfortunately, this seems to be its most popular application, and so the poor thing eventually burns out...

* Well, clearly it wasn't in Glyn Davies' case.

I've just received MEW No. 285. The idea of incorporating relief into single-point gear cutters by using conical milling cutters to make them is superficially attractive. However, it seems to me to be an unnecessary elaboration of a simpler technique, and it comes with two problems: 1, the need for conical cutters, depth-setting collars, look-up tables (or real maths), etc., and 2, most serious, the resulting cutter is not form-relieved, thus it can't be sharpened without changing its shape.

If, as the author suggests, it is acceptable to make a cutter with profiles that are slightly part-elliptical, rather than part-circular (and it should be), then a form-relieved cutter can be made using cylindrical milling cutters (rather than conical ones), by tilting the blank nose-down (or -up) in the way that has been suggested for providing positive rake, towards the end of the article.

The advantages are: 1, it's easier; 2, the resulting cutter can be sharpened by grinding its top surface and 3, there's no need to buy conical cutters, so you can spend the money saved on beer.

OK, this method also comes with problems: 1, the form-relief is not arcuate, as, for example, a Eureka device would produce, but, providing the 'tilt' chosen for its manufacture provides enough heel clearance in use, that doesn't matter; 2, the correct diameter cylindrical cutter will probably have to be made, but that's easy; 3, you still have to look up or calculate the diameter of that cutter.

'Cleverer people than me will know the whole answer, but I believe modern engine oil is not suitable for your lathe. Those oils are designed to work at a much higher temperature. I suspect that the various additives in them wont help either!'

What he said!

'Hydraulic' oil is the stuff to use, eg Nuto 32, in gearboxes and nipples, with 'way oil' on slideways.

Decades ago a bottle-cutting gadget was marketed. It was simply constructed from strips of flat stock. One end had a lump that was able to rotate in/on the bottle's neck, the other held a glazier's wheel. The bottle was scored, then the score line tapped until the thing broke into - hopefully - two pieces. Presumably any other means of guiding a wheel would be as effective.

I think I read about another technique in which the bottle was filled with oil (of some sort) to the level required, then a red-hot poker was plunged into the oil. The bottle was supposed to fracture at the oil-level. Sounds like Health & Safety might not approve...

No experience of either. Good luck.

Probably originally coated in one of Shell's Ensis oils.

Morris Ankor Wax and good old Waxoyl also work well. Vaseline could be considered too.

It's often worth scouring dumps to look for discarded appliances which need only a replacement capacitor to be restored to health. The suppression caps across the mains, especially if paper dielectric, often let go too.

Close... I think you're implying a parting tool. Thanks to the set-up pic, you've provided the clue - it's a travelling steady. Clever design for its simplicity.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 14/08/2019 22:24:55

Perhaps the same helpful folk would send you two 3mm dia end mills if you ordered one of 6mm dia.

...or, if appropriate, you might consider a through hole with an inserted plug - secured by your favourite method.

Barrie: thanks for your encouragement and offer. I've no idea when I'll get one of those round tuit things... Where did you go for Bellville washers?

I see that Simply Bearings (from whom I've had excellent service) have 15mm ID bearings in 20, 21, 24, 26 and 28mm OD. Perhaps this makes a nose-end bearing swap practicable. What do you think? My spindles have a lot of radial play at the nose end, so I'd want to attack that end as well.

Apologies to anyone who finds pedantry tiresome. The correct usage of the word means the only person practicing floccinaucinihilipilification in this thread is the person who considers content to be worthless. The two accused did not.

If the forum were to restrict content to important, worthy and non-trivial content, there would be far, far less to enjoy.

Well, I'm full of admiration for someone who fixes a problem so swiftly! In disgust at their bearing slackness, I packed away my Unimat milling heads and tried to forget about them. Perhaps motivation will now return...

When you had the quill apart, did you investigate whether a standard-sized ball bearing could be fitted into the nose end of the quill as well? Presumably, it would need to be bored out, as at t'other end.

'And there the Forum Falls Foul of Flexiloquent Folk partaking in a Floccinaucinihilipilification process...."

Our grandiloquent friend is surely mistaken: there was no ambiguity nor worthlessness opined. Pedantry perhaps, but correct usage of vocabulary seems to be a vanishing ability.