Member postings for Absolute Beginner

Good evening gentlemen.

Based on the success of my last thread, some great ideas. And problem solved. I wonder if I could ask the general consensous ref threads and bolts within aluminium.

I have a need to secure one piece of aluminium to another. I am restricted by the width of the material I need to secure. Eg 8 or maybe 10mm Aluminium bar.

I need to try and create the strongest joint possible.

1. Would I be better.....Tapping the aluminium to take a 6mm bolt ?
2. Tapping the aluminium to take a 6mm helical insert or similar and using the same 6mm bolt
3. Drilling a clearance hole and putting a nut onto the bolt thread?
4. Moving up a bolt size to say 8mm bolt tapped into the aluminium?

The tapped hole could be up to 30mm in length.

I am sorry if this seems a trivial question, but I am still learning.

Again Many thanks in anticipation of your help.

Gary

I must say....I have dealt with the Tap and Die company on a number of occasions and found them to be excellent!

Gary

Jason

I think I have answered my own question above. A boring head.

Now why didn't I think of that...........Many many thanks

Gary

Jason, thanks so much for your reply what cutter is that in the mill. How have you achieved such a large diameter?

Gary

Hi All,

I just thought I might ask some of you clever chaps your thoughts as to how to produce a slightly "rounded/hollowed" surface to a flat piece of aluminium bar.

So I have a piece of aluminium tube 2 inches in diameter and I want to mount a pice of flat aluminium bar onto its circumference/surface. The mating surface is only 10mm wide, I would like to make the bar joining edge 10mm reflect that of the diameter of the bar 2 inches. I was thinking of using a ball end milling cutter to try and mirror the circumference of the tube but to get the correct dimensions I guess I would need a cutter to be 2 inches .....not easy.

Any thoughts as to how I might be able to achieve this consistently ?

Many thanks in anticipation of your suggestions,

Gary

Gentleman, Thank you all for your replies. I am beginning to love this forum.

Its like having an engineering reference book at your fingertips, with some good, some average, and some irrelevant information at the press of a button. No I am not going to say whose answers that specifically refers to, read the question and the answers again and I am sure you will be able to work it out.

What I will also say is that this reference manual (Forum) comes with a great many years of experience which I can only say is priceless as far as I am concerned. Thank you all for your replies. I am now researching taps a little more, I understand "thanks to David" what HSSGT means - a real thank you, and will be purchasing some cutting compound with my new taps as per my follow on thread,

Again thanks for all your help. Now the search for Gary's new lathe continues.........

Just a short note to thank you all for your kind replies. Especially Mark, great explanation the sort of thing I was after.

Ok answers absorbed and committed to memory.

Looks like I will be purchasing some of the branded stuff after all, now which one to choose is another question ...but to choose is a must.

Thank you

Gary

So...........thanks for all the replies ref tap and dies this now raises the question to a beginner like me as to what advantages a branded and specific tapping oil/compound/lubricant, call it was you will, has over say WD40?

When using my die to increase the length of threads on my stainless steel bolts in my previous post I just used some silicone spray from WD40, then I tried some actual WD40 original, and some oil, I could tell no difference with my limited knowledge on tapping.

So could anyone answer me please as to how does specific tapping compounds work, what do they do except lubricate and reduce friction? What advantages do they have over say oil or WD40 please.

Gary

Michael G

Thats what I thought, it would appear that they have some impressive clients, so you would think that their quality was good.

Gary

Hello all, and Happy New Year.....

I was playing in my workshop over Christmas where I needed to increase the thread length on some partially threaded stainless steel bolts. I wound my die down the thread and continued to cut the thread a little longer. All good for the first three or four, and then I noticed the die cutter I was using was cutting poor threads and assumed that my die cutter had become worn rather quickly i.e poor quality.

I googled cutting threads in stainless steel and then realised that perhaps it was a harder material to work with than I had assumed, and that there are some issues with cutting threads in stainless (material hardening etc)....... Anyway this made me think are my taps good or poor quality.

So my questions to you all are these..

1/ I have a set of taps from the Tap and Die co in London Can anyone verify if they consider them to be of good quality?

2/ What are the best quality of taps on the market and who are they made by?

Finally I would like to say that I liked the Pic on the Jan issue (Front cover) of the Model Engineering Workshop mag ....Brill, Silly old duffer keep up the good work.

Gary

I Would have to agree liquidation auctions are probably a good bet for a bargain, where no reserves are in place.

Unfortunately, even though it would appear that the company who was in fact auctioning the equipment, on paper do not appear to be in good shape, the equipment definitely had reserve prices on at this stage and so were not great bargains in my opinion.

Whilst I agree that £2300 + 39% is a good price for us enthusiasts, I would suggest that the actual lathe was in fact not sold.

Anyway....lets all keep keep looking for so called bargains

Gary

Yes Malc,

And we have to remember the prices bid for the auction are + 39% ish

Gary

Well I have certainly learnt a few things today, ref the on line auction. I don't really think their are bargains to be had.

Having spoken with one of the auctioneers I discovered the machines all have reserves on them. It was also interesting to note that most of the machines in the action were also listed on West Point Machine tools website as discussed earlier in the thread

From the prices listed for sale its not rocket science to work out that the reserve price is going to be close to the for sale price on their website.

I was bidding on the VS3100, the XYZ 1400 and the Master 2500, which has only just finished. the one thing I will say is that I like the idea of the auction being extended by 10 mins each time a bid is placed within 10 mins of end, stops bid sniping

The VS 3100 finished at £2300, the XYZ at £1500, and the Master at £2100, I bet none of them are sold as I can't imagine they would have reached their reserve price

Gary

Edited By Absolute Beginner on 28/11/2017 16:46:49

Edited By Absolute Beginner on 28/11/2017 16:49:16

Hi Ian,

I hate to sy it is but I guess it is really!

When I start looking at 7.5hp motors I can't help but feel its starting to get silly for my needs.

I am even struggling with justifying 5hp. I am trying to research how easy or difficult it might be to change motors out to around 3HP, that might give me a greater option of decent machines....at least at what I might consider to be the right cost.

Thank you for thing of me Ian, Gary

Hi Ian,

2.4A per phase...Thats correct I am sure.

Gary

Hi Ian,

Like your style and meter. I have a Digital Drives deice to supply my 3 phase at 415v. I see around 2.4A per phase on the supply when running. So I guess similar to yours.

Having the pound and pence in front of my face with the smart meter display just got me thinking

Gary

Hi all,

Just had a smart meter put in today - Don't ask. Anyway am glued with interest to the usage display. Believe me its as addictive as my curry.

My question is simply this, I have assessed possible lathe purchases based on a few things as contributors to some of my earlier posts will know. One of those things is size of motor - 3hp my thoughts are the maximum. P.S I am also not trying to take10mm (you get the idea) large cuts......

Putting wiring aside for the moment as I have a 60 amp supply into my workshop, I have always shied away from motors larger than 3hp based on running costs........am I being to frugal ?

What would you expect to pay typically when running a 5hp or 7hp lathe per hour......would my smart meter reading scare me to death?

Gary

Sorry the curry has gone to my head.  My Electrickery cost is 12p per kWh x 3.7 approx 5hp = £44.4p per hour on full load......

Edited By Absolute Beginner on 24/11/2017 18:53:44

Edited By Absolute Beginner on 24/11/2017 18:54:49

Hi Dave,

Interesting comments. However whilst I take your point about off-loading machines due to being in poor order, there is a large number being sold so he would have had to have bought a lot of c--p. Not to say he hasn't! Hopefully will find out.

I can't be bothered to get on the car and drive up there from here, at least not for the money I am prepared to take a punt for on this machine - I will take a chance.....what could possibly go wrong??????

Worst  case I will strip it, and sell it for spares like everyone else, they seem to sell at such ridiculous prices, I might be able to make a small business out of it.  HI HI

Gary

Edited By Absolute Beginner on 24/11/2017 12:28:07

Morning David,

Strange how the company was dormant for so long. They must have traded under a different name before.

"The company was dormant for many years, had a change of directors 18 months or so ago (It looks like it changed ownership from parents to children), and in the period since then have been on a buying spree for stock, and I reckon have overstretched themselves - probably the bank behind the selloff. "

I totally agree with this statement. Will see - I am just going to set myself a limit and see where we go.

​Its not perfect, would have preferred Gap Bed, but I guess that wasn't an option due to the speed, would have preferred a longer bed.....I will live with it for a while if it turns out ok, no tooling offered

Will have to be on the look out for this. According to Tony's website the tooling is interchangeable with the standard Student 1800 - I will need to be sure the chucks are OK at that top end speed, not that I will use it up there that often.

Gary

Hi David,

Yes overstocked and little cash....I just took a look too

Gary