Member postings for Bob Strawson

Thanks Old Mart, I thought my Myford was brilliant and so well made. I made a good living from it for quite some time. They are extremely versatile and quick to set up. I still have some parts in my cabinet that I made around 1970. They are in bronze, components for the old divers helmet. I used to make them in batches of 25 or so.

If I can work out how to post an image I'll put one up.

I'm so sorry that they have gone the way of so much British industry.

Bob

Hello, this is my first post to introduce myself. I did an apprenticeship in the early 60's as a toolmaker. Then a fairly varied career in machining from very small to very big. I bought my first home machine, a Myford 7 with some fabulous attachments, around 1970. Then a Fobco Star ½" drill, which I still own, there are no marks on the table either. I started taking on paid work which escalated and over the years built into a fair sized machining business specialising in small high precision instrumentation. I have watched the evolution of CNC machines almost from the beginning, making my first lathe by converting a standard machine and ending up with a shop full of machines capable of amazing speed and accuracy. Now I'm retired and looking to go back my beginnings. I did consider another Myford but occasionally you need more capacity and so I bought a Smart and Brown 1024 VSL with a vast range of accessories but no readout, I want to go right back to basics.

Could I just add my comments on the discussion of which lathe to buy. I had never heard of a "mini lathe" until I heard it here and I regarded my Myford as a small lathe with a terrific performance. Anything smaller than that I would say is an instrument or watchmaking lathe but people certainly seem to be getting very good results with them. The one thing I would add to the discussion is to consider the machine weight. Some of these small lathes are almost handbag sized! If you want to machine stainless you need a machine as heavy as possible but I do appreciate that for most people size and cost is a big issue for what is, after all only a hobby.

I also have a Deckel universal milling machine which is also well equipped.

I'm sorry this has gone on so long, if anyone is interested I'm happy to answer questions. I'm off to make some swarf now,

all the best, Devonboy

The land of a drill, that is, the outside diameter, is ground cylindricaly with no clearance which means it will rub. You can see how flexible a drill is, you can almost bend them by hand but go ahead and try it, nothing lost.

A milling slot drill has side clearance and will work as a boring bar until it becomes disproportionally long compared to its diameter when it too will flex. But any port in a storm! If you don't have a better alternative.......!

Bob Strawson

Neil,

A drill is far too flexible to use as a boring bar and the outside land would rub. A slot drill, used for milling would work but not for a deep bore. The best thing for boring is a boring bar.

Another way of stopping chatter is to mould a piece of Plasticene around the bar, it's an excellent dampener.

Bob Strawson

Elastic bands stretched around the bar can often curb chatter or vibration. Just wind as many as can be fitted around the bar as tightly as possible without getting in the way of the material. It seems to change the frequency at which the bar will vibrate.

The best solution, if you can afford it is tungsten carbide, as previously advised.

The old adage,"increase the feed, decrease the speed" is also worth remembering.

Bob Strawson

Hi Clive,

I'm sorry to be taking up a lot of your time.

The seller of the machine I'm looking at started at £4995! Came down easily to £3800 but can deliver to me in South Devon. I'm not sure how far he'll go but I would like it. There are 90 odd 5C collets and a set of Multibores too, not that I like those much although they do go up to 1.25" dia. It has no gears except the three on it, 35/120/127 so I will need a few of those. That, with a three and four jaw chucks is it! There's a MK 1 on eBay at £2700, or offers.

Thanks for the info on the speed varying motor, I had a Raglan years ago with the same idea but lever operated and of course the Hardinge is the same but motorised, I've had a few of those, fabulous machine but limited in many ways. And the DAF cars which I seem to remember had problems, you can't put too much power through them, the pressure spring on the idle side winds up and slips.

I'll let you know what happens, I hope I don't do anything silly, again!

Bob

Very many thanks for your prompt and useful replies, especially Clive whose answer is more comprehensive than I could have hoped for.

I have the wiring diagram from Bracehand Ltd and it does seem quite simple to modify it to three wire if it's four at present.

I just got back from seeing machine for the first time and while I couldn't really see much wear on the slides, possibly because of the lube system, it's certainly been carelessly used with dinks and marks, a bad repaint job and limited tooling, too much of some things and quite a few things missing that I'll need to buy but loads of Hardinge 5C collets. I remember that they used to be quite expensive but are now around £5 each.

One thing; the speed varying motor didn't work and I presumed that it was not wired in as they'd just stuck the wires in temporarily to an outlet, now looking at the diagram I see that it's powered from the main motor. I'm going to assume that it's just something simple anyway, I think.

It's rather scruffy and scuffed but should scrub up ok, the seller and I just need to agree the price which is difficult as they seldom come onto the market. The mk1 version seems more common and go around £2,000 to £2,500 but I really like the VSL better. If anyone has an opinion on that I'd appreciate hearing it.

Thanks again,

Bob Strawson

Hello, I'm new to this site and wonder if anyone has experience using a phase converter from 240v single phase to 440v three phase on a lathe with a 3HP motor(single speed).

I'm considering buying a Smart and Brown 1024 VSL. The main spindle motor is 3HP plus a small motor for the variable speed drive and the coolant pump, (.25hp?). It also has an "inch" function. Ideally I would to put the three phase output to the terminal in the machines but is this how they work. I won't need any speed variation function.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences,

Bob Strawson