Member postings for Owain Samuel

We have progress! For anyone who has one of the older parallel port connection machines and doesn’t want to spend time resurecting old pc’s, having downloaded the driver (link on the CNC4You website, also where I purchased the UC100 from, on the basis of a) a UK supplier and b) a very prompt reply to emails) I’ve got the beast moving in all three axes on command in the correct directions via USB onto a PC running windows 8. Had to go through the ports and pins menu in Mach3 and reset them as per the settings in the KX3 manual, but apart from that, no issues to report.

Owain

Right, the UC100 has landed! Just need some time and to find the WiFi dongle to allow the pc to be (briefly) connected to the internet and we’re away. Andrew, thanks for the recommendation, if anyone else has suggestions for suitable that they’ve used (ideally on the KX3) then feel free to shout. I’m not wedded to Mach3, it’s just what I know and at the moment the major issue is recommissioning the machine and getting it to talk to the computer.

Owain

It’s started well, following a lot of research and reading last night (guess who until yesterday didn’t know Arc didn’t sell the KX3 any more) and a very useful and downright impressive phone call to Arc this morning, I’m making progress. Just emailed Mach support about the licence to unlock the software (because I’m reinstalling it on a new PC, and the last registration was 4 computers/tablets and 3 email addresses ago). DPD should deliver the UC100 today, so it’s all progress in an upward direction.

Gawd, I can’t half get a lot done when I didn’t have to go to work...

Owain

Joining in, I’m in the process of recomissioning a KX3 that’s stood for 5-ish years due to life, dead computers, changing jobs and the law of sod. The machine was bought from arceuro about 8 years ago, it went on to near -as-damnit play for itself in the first year with a job engraving room number plates I obtained through a colleague at my then employer. It then was used until a major reorganisation of the garage lead to it being temporarily decommissioned, then it’s PC died when attempted recommissioning, I changed jobs and for a while had no time or energy to sort it. That was about 5 years ago, Since then due to life and a lack of time, it’s sat, becoming more buried in random workshop crap. Then, along came Covid-19 and furlough.

So, I’ve obtained a new PC from my tame IT man. The current challenge is connecting the beast to the PC, following a lot of googling and research I’m going with a UC100 motion controller to (hopefully) make it connect with a USB. If that doesn’t work, it’s plan B. I’ve spent a lot of furlough learning fusion360, so watch this space.

Owain

John's someone I first encountered on the Internet, whilst looking for my first lathe, later to meet in the real world. Whenever he'd commented on something or started a thread on here or the HSM forum you knew it was was worth looking at for either the humour or engineering knowledge (sometimes both). I remember talking to him at (I think) Harrogate when he was demoing the moon lander. I mentioned I'd seen a of his thread on HSM and the handle I used on the forum.

"Bloody hell" he replied "you sounded taller in your posts"

He also offered to Ketan the following when I was making noises about purchasing a seig cnc mill several years earlier

"Get 'Is money off hin before 'ee changes 'Is mind"

Get well soon you old bugger.

Owain

Are we the last generation of manual machinists? No. The skills may be rarer, but they're definitely out there. I'm 36 and drive lathes, mills and so on for a living repairing steam railway engines. We've four apprentices at work, all under 21, all are being trained on manual machines. I would agree about the maker movement, it's a lot bigger than I realised.

Speaking personally, so long as anything that you can't buy parts off the shelf for is trundling around, be it a Burrell road locomotive, a black five, foden lorry, BSA motorbike or a Sherman tank, somewhere they'll be someone in a shed, rattling out parts. If the owner doesn't have the skills but does have a chequebook, then that'll be someone like me, probably using a mixture of manual and CNC machines.

In case noones realised, I don't buy the 'all the skills are dying out' wail. They're changing with the times (such as set up a ward capstan lathe for a production run, against program a CNC lathe), but they're not extinct, nor ever will be.

Owain

I wear flameproof cotton boiler suits at work, at home it's usually jeans and a cotton tshirt if driving machines or bench work. There's a boiler suit there for when it's either dirty or hot work. However overalls should be as clean as possible, I (in the middle of a mad rush repair job) managed to get the hems of my overalls smouldering quite nicely whilst cutting a piece of plate with a plasma cutter. I'd spent the morning stood in an inspection put under a locomotive and the hems had soaked up oil.

I currently work with three lads ex Teesside steelworks, their tales are sphincter clenching....

Owain

Thankfully not very often, the result is usually a spectacular derailment. It's happened once in preservation that I know of. There the little end pin became dislodged on a bullied Pacific running on the main line down south, the connecting rod dropped and very fortunately landed on top of the electrified third rail, so the crew managed to bring it to a stop. Net result was a major panic care of the ORR and RAIB (which considering I'm one of several fitters who sign these things off as fit to run on the main line for a large UK preserved railway lead to a bit of stress in my day job). Had the third rail not been there it had the potential to be a repeat of a identical accident in the 60's where a Britannia Pacific (similar sized engine) ended up on its side, with the train pilled up behind it.

As part of any main line fitness to run examination (FTR for short) I perform all the motion pins (usually secured with collars and taper pins) and all the crank pins with their caps securing the rods are examined for slackness, missing cotters, taper or split pins (delete as applicable), damage or signs of movement. Annually all the rods are stripped off and dye-pen NDT'd for signs of cracking along with the crank pins on all our locos (having just finished doing this on a BR standard 4MT 2-6-0).

Owain

Not a flywheel (actually a large angle plate) but here's an idea of mine (probably not original) that makes setting stuff true on a faceplate easier. First clamp the item to the face plate with a drawbar through the spindle (doesn't have to be anything fancy, mine was a length of studding and a bush to fit the outboard end of the spindle. Just nip this, it's then easy to tap the work about and set true (no clamps fighting back, no aligning bolts with slots and spokes/holes) Once true, add suitable clamps/bolts/gaffer tape (delete as applicable) and machine away. The drawbar can be left in place as a extra as well, or removed if there's a central bore to machine.

Just an idea..

Owain

Over the years I've bought 3 machines off Warco, one of their drill presses (since sold due to an upgrade to an Arboga mill/drill), the 41/2" bandsaw and the VMC mill. Currently considering upgrading the VMC to one of their larger turret mills.

In all my dealings the customer service was excellent. Delivery (once you got over palletline's (ahem) unique customer service) was excellent. This included when after a year of ownership the start cap on the drill's motor lettting go. I emailed warco, went off to work where in the way the universe works I was asked (that day) to scrap a shredder that was driven by a motor of the same rating. So one recovered start cap later, I was back up and running. I forgot about the email to warco and so was very impressed when a replacement cap landed on the doormat several days later, especially since I hadn't given my address in the email.

Other companies with a similar excellent delivery record in my dealings are Arc Euro (order placed on a bank holiday monday, delivered on the wednesday of the same week) and RDG. On the other hand the one occasion I ordered off chronos half the order turned out not to be in stock (which I discovered after completing the order) and straggled in over a period of several weeks.

Owain

For your consideration, may I draw your attention to the above photos? Material is unknown mild steel, cutter is a 10mm HSS, spindle speed 510rpm, feed 4"/min (aprox, but was the same for both cuts). DOC is 60thou. In all photos 1 is the cutter as found (second hand, used), 2 is after grinding.

Your comments are invited.

Owain

And finally, a 3 flute carbide cutter that was (to put it politely) knackered. I ended up removing 1/8" off the end with a bench grinder before sharpening. The cutter had been in a CNC when the job moved, badly chipping all three teeth.

The cutter before sharpening. Spot the rounded corners.

And the very same 12mm cutter after sharpening. Again, time taken 3min or less.

A closeup of a 2 and a 4 flute 10mm cutters, both fresh from sharpening, time about 3min each.

Firstly, the beast following it's arrival and placing on the clearer of the two benches. The cutters sat alongside were all sharpened in the space of less than 30 min once I'd got my head around working the beasty

Another vote for Walker Midgley here. When I got started with my workshop (OK, first time I had a workshop that was 'mine' I had the bright idea of adding it to the house insurance. This idea came to a dramatic halt when I got the reply "what's a lathe?" when opening negotiations. Images of the total farce that might come if I ever had to claim flooded into my brain. This idea was shut down quickly.

One thing I would say (and I can't take credit for this, the idea came from a colleague) is get photos of not just the machines, but the contents of every cupboard, drawer, cabinet and shelf. It may not be 100%coverage, but (in his case) it was enough to convince them he was being honest about the value of the contents in the event (god forbid) of a claim. I get photos of any expensive new arrivals (also because it's the last time they'll be that clean and shiny).

Owain

Well, now I've recovered from the shock maybe I can justify why I've just put down the money on one of these beasts. At the moment I'm time poor. Don't have the time (or the inclination, to be honest) to build a quorn, kennet, worded or any of the other designs (I hasten to add that I do not intend to disparage anyone who has built one of these). My workshop started as model engineering, grew sideways into jobbing engineering and a possible future is one where the majority of my income comes from it. So what time I have in there is to be spent either getting an earning or a largejuicyfavour(tm) job out of the door, or repairing something (usually domestic) for me.

Now I've been looking for a means of sharpening end mills for a while. Secondhand machines have appeared, clarkson's at a similar price ( if not more) to arc's offering, others ranging in size, popping up. Ideas of a homebrew effort, with some sort of a spindex mounted on one of those x/y tables, with a bench grinder had come and gone (see above paragraph).

Then this popped up, I grabbed the MEW review when it came out, saw JS demo it at harrogate, thought about it, generally ruminated, worked out how many cutters I could buy for that, found the box of blunt cutters, counted up and realised that I'd cover 1/4 of the purchase cost just re grinding them (especially when I realised it'd sharpen carbide). At that point I realised this machine could (if not pay for itself) then at least make a large hole in it's purchase cost in a few years. That's before friends, associates, random hangers on and work realise I can regrind endmills.

At that stage it was just at the level of wait until payday, close the eyes and do the deed. With a minor prompt from Ketan......

Anyway, when the beasty lands I'll get stuck in. Photos may follow.

Owain

Thanks for that, that's the prod I needed following seeing the demo at Harrogate. You should now have two left in stock....

Owain