Member postings for BW

Hello,

I could be interested. Is it ME or MEW magazines ?

How many cubic metres do they occupy ?

I live a couple of hours from Melbourne.

Bill

Thanks for the replies,

Have been skirting around buying a bandsaw for ages.

I've got an old approx 16" electric hacksaw and that is better than the 14" abrasive chop saw but not as good as a bandsaw.

Gotta admit I was hoping somebody would say something like "I've tried all ways of cutting steel and replacing my 14" abrasive blade with a 14" diamond saw blade on my chp saw was the best thing I ever did" However, that didn't happen.

Bill

Hello,

Got an email from Total Tools yesterday promoting these things

https://www.totaltools.com.au/113391-evolution-2200w-355mm-multi-purpose-cold-cut-saw-rage2

So was pondering ........ would you invest your money in one of these or a horizontal bandsaw (similar prices in Australia) or a big 14" Lenox diamond blade for your existing abrasive chop saw ? Much cheaper approx $160 vs $500

https://www.totaltools.com.au/110903-lenox-357-x-25-4-x-3-8mm-diamond-metal-cutoff-disc-1985500

They make a complete range of sizes for these diamond wheels. \https://www.lenoxtools.com/pages/lenox-metalmax.aspx

Bill

Hello Mark,

There is a Hercus forum here that might be worth looking at and searching previous posts

http://metalworkforums.com/f189

You might even find some neighbours with similar lathes.

Bill

I have seen a note somewhere where a chap made a diy version by drilling a hole through the screw and depending upon size of hole used some fishing line or whipper snipper cable as the plug.

A letter in one of the recent magazines ? Cannot remember.

Bill

Hello Again,

Yeeha ! I got a reflection in Aluminium ! Chuffed !!!

Rong Fu 30 Round Column Mill 2HP Motor

Aluminium Block Unknown type of Aluminium, Plenty of WD40 whilst cutting.

400 rpm approx 2.5"diameter cut 8 seconds per 2.5mm so = 80 seconds/inch = 0.75" per minute approx 0.001" doc - thats extremely slow feeds/speeds comparted to Jason's . WIll do some variations to better understand things.

Shortened the stickout to approx 0.5" (and yes I was getting chatter on the long stickout and shorter radius curve on tool - some interesting patterns & could hear it squeal). Need to do something about those 2 nuts before shortening stickout further.

Re-ground the tool to a much flatter curve as suggested by Jason.

Wasn't able to get as nice a finish on black bar - although it looks horribly corrugated it is actually quite smooth to the touch - cannot feel the corrugations with fingertips - do the corrugations indicate I am feeding too quickly ? Haven't quite got a reflection on the black bar.

Nevertheless, this is the best finish I have ever achieved on my mill with both black bar and aluminium. Think I just need to play around a bit and better understand speeds feeds and grinds.

Will try the "conventional" flycutter next.

Many thanks for all of the help/tips/photos in this thread.

Hey Ron Laden,

I cannot figure out which part of your cutter contacts the work and cuts it, your bottom edge looks almost horizontal to me.

Thanks Again,

Bill

Hello Again,

Tried to copy what John Baron did. Didnt get any mirror finishes - more like a dirty smeary streaky mirror.

Think I am feeding too fast (2.5mm in 8 seconds ? ) and not enough rake on tool, tried 2 different tool grinds but didnt seem to make any difference. Slight difference when I slowed the feed right down _ am using manual feed is that ok ? Finish on Al (short squat lump in photo) seems better than finish on hot rolled steel (long thin lump in photo)

Tried varying rpm from 125 to 300 but not much effect - cut diameter is 2.5"

Will have another go tomorrow - reminds me of my initial attempts at getting a nice finish on the lathe - took me a couple of years to get a good finish with a round nose tool - shear tool and turning a knife tool around to rub worked fine but round nose tool was always awful for me. Maybe I gotta go back and learn how to grind tools properly.

Thanks a lot for all of the tips and especially the photos - really helpful to see what others have done. Especially that one by Mick, thats amazing - would never have dreamed of trying that.

Went up to the shed yesterday and came straight back down again .......... 38C+ thats almost 100F in oldspeak and its the same today so I wont post anything more until its cooled down a bit. Opening the doors and windows doesn't help.

At the moment you can feel the tin roof acting like a giant radiator as its dark green exterior absorbs the sunlight and it radiates out heat on the inside of the shed. SWMBO doesn't want me to paint the shed roof white - I guess it would turn into a dirty grey and look awful.

Bandersnatch - cutting up to a shoulder ? Am gonna learn how to cut a flat surface first - do you chaps commonly cut up to shoulder with a flycutter ? I'd be a tadge nervous.

I have seen that german website metallmodelbau - he makes diy flycutter dovetails see here

http://www.metallmodellbau.de/pictures/Ausdrehkopf/FRW-26.jpg

I guess thats cutting a shoulder rather than cutting up to a shoulder.

Waiting for the cool trough that the weatherman promised.

Bill

Edited By BW on 07/12/2018 03:40:59

I"ve often wondered about that.

Bazyle Hopper and Paul - thanks for your help - am off to the shed to see what I can do.

Bill

Hello,

Could you please give me a hand to better understand these 3 different types of flycutters ? Have become confused and perhaps misinformed by my internet searches. Would appreciate any commonsense comments debunking any known urban myths that us newbies may not have the skills/knowledge to dismiss.

Alternately any known links or previous threads greatly appreciated.

Flycutter 1 : Utilises a standard boring head, seemed to me to be a clever idea but have read that it can wreck the dovetail on the boring head and that the total amount of stickout below the quill isn't a good thing either. Possibility of the lower dovetail block getting loose and getting thrown off becoming a dangerous projectile ? Would be fairly easy to make this from a solid cylinder of steel thereby avoiding any of the dovetail associated problems.

Flycutter 2 : Traditional shape plus HSS left hand grind toolbit. How/Why did the angled shape evolve ? Is there a best angle ? Why is this better than the orientation of the cutter in Flycutter 1 ? Does this simply relate to your preferred way of grinding the cutting tool.

Flycutter 3: Single carbide bit mounted on a bar, fairly easy to make. Could use a circular carbide insert as well to give more cutting "points". Even easier to simply remove 2 teeth from a standard facing bar , although this seems to be very rarely discussed as an option - why is that please ?. Also possible to use a piece of HSS instead of a carbide insert - this leads to the idea of putting a piece of HSS in a tangential orientation and people claim this can give a much greater depth of cut in small machines.

I have also seen Flycutter_2 using a toolholder that holds a circular carbide bit. Seems to me that if the insert is circular the angled toolholder shape of flycutter_2 isn't necessary.

OK Bob I will bite,

Any chance of a weblink to what you bought please ?

I have had magnificent luck previously when I bought some bits following a similar comment in another thread on an Aussie forum.

http://metalworkforums.com/f65/t202219-carbide-insert-experience

These bits gave me an absolutely stunning finish on daggy black bar, stainless steel, Aluminium and Delrin. They cost not much at all and I will buy some more.

WHOOPS .... lo and behold .... I can use carbide bits after all !!!! and they do a fine job as well, and you get 4 points on each bit. Maybe if I had a bigger better lathe the bits would do a better job, maybe the bits are underutilised on the small lathe, but so what ? They still do a great job.

So to answer the OPs question I regard myself as the typical market for currently produced carbide bits ie relatively inexperienced owner of a small lathe who wants to dabble with carbide inserts after being told for 5 years that his lathe is too small and underpowered to use carbide inserts. Blimey !! they work on my small non rigid underpowered underspeed Hercus 9" lathe, and I am interested in finding out a bit more about these things.

Regards

Bill

Thanks for replies gents.

Emgee, see here for the digital offer

https://me.secureorder.co.uk/MEWD/BF18E/#digital

Am puzzled by a recent email offering a digital subscription - the black tag deal - via https://me.secureorder.co.uk

It makes absolutely no reference at all to the online archive. Below I have pasted a quote from the FAQ saying that anyone who subscribes via https://me.secureorder.co.uk gets access to the online archive.

Is this still the case or do I only have access to the 13 magazines that I subscribe to ?

If I will have access can I access using a Linux system or must it be via a tablet or phone ?

Thanks

Bill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q: Who is entitled to access the Online Archive?

A: The Online Archive is available to all Digital and Print + Digital Subscribers that have signed up directly via our website (secureorder.co.uk). Access to this archive is only available with subscriptions purchased directly via ourselves because we require a subscription number in order to automatically enable your access. If you purchase from a third party seller (e.g. PocketMags, Apple, Google Play, Amazon) you will not have the required subscription number and so will not be able to access the archive.

Does that little bit of wire really hold the toolsteel securely ? Am I missing something here ?

?

Edited By BW on 11/11/2018 06:48:45

With the height setting at +0.001 being important and the groove in the top of the tool being a feature, what is the reference point for the centre height for setting the tool ?

Bottom of groove or top of groove ? Yes, pedantic, but if it saves ruining a few tips from being torn out then worth asking the question.

Does anybody run the carbide parting off tools on older slower lathes ie my 60 year old 9" Hercus would be the equivalent of an American South Bend 9" or just a tadge bigger than the British 7" Myfords - my top speed is 720 rpm.

Have successfully used carbide tool bits at far lower than recommended sfm and have managed to get excellent finish, but would like to know if its commonly done to use the carbide parting tools on the lower powered older slower lathes before splashing some $s on one.

Thanks

Bill

MEW November 2016 page 35

Fairly similar idea by a chap called Richard Smith documented over 2 issues. Have been wondering for a while now about having a go.

Bill

Thanks for the explanations and links Joe.

I believe, but may be corrected, that a hobbing cutter is normally a helical cutter, ie, it has a 'thread' the pitch of which is related to the DP of the gear being cut

That's what I understand too - I have cut a wormscrew in the past to match the 18 DP of my spur gears (just for fun) and I believe that I could make a hob from that wormscrew and it would be able to cut any size gear at 18 DP - saves me having to make/buy several different cutters to cover all of the range of gear sizes at any one given DP.

I have seen folk making a cutter that looks more like a stack of involute cutters side by side

Making that cutter and why it works is documented at the link below, I'd like to try this someday.

http://www.helicron.net/workshop/gearcutting/

This page is also pretty good

http://www.helicron.net/workshop/gearcutting/

Thanks for the comments and tips and links.

I've only cut a few spur gears and a couple of bevel gears out of delrin, using single point cutters and indexing each tooth individually so am very much an amateur at gear cutting.

When would you use hobs rather than gear cutters and why ?

If you have to gash each tooth you might as well leave the blank on the jig and then run a gear cutter or single point around, although I guess for lots of teeth hobbing is easier ?

Am off to read Ivan Law's book again.

EDIT - I think I get it - if I am going to do a one off job I make a gear cutter or single point tool, if I am going to cut a heap of spur gears for my lathe its worthwhile making a hob and gashing before hobbing ?

Edited By BW on 02/11/2018 22:38:45