Member postings for Iain Downs

HI, Ian.

I'll give the morse taper some thought, I don't think my cross slide is long enough for a 2mt which is what most of my tooling is and most of the other internal taper boring approaches are beyond me.

I'm also going to go out and fit my drill chuck in the tailstock and see if there is space for it. push comes to shove I can reduce the spindle length though I don't much fancy taking a lot off the plates with my poor little mill...

Iain

Thanks, Brian. I'm still toying with how to register the chuck / faceplate or whatever on the spindle. at the moment I'm favouring using the outside diameter of the nose as the register and putting 3 or 4 threaded holes in the end. My main concern with that is how I can get 4 accurate holes in the top of a 12 inch bar with the kit I've got. The other thought was to thread the outside of the nose or have a central hole with an internal thread. Hmm, I've just had the thought that I could put the screws in from the side rather than the end. Has it's own issues, but different ones.

Bikepete - the outside diameter of the bearings is the same (62mm) - only the internal hole is different I doubted my skills at making two accurate holes of different sizes. And yes I had planned to machine the plates in one go. I hadn't thought of bolting them together, but that's an excellent idea.

bricky - I've checked that the cross slide will get to the end. It does with room to spare.

Brian - At the moment I don't have a boring head for my mill. My sister is delighting in telling her friends she's getting me a 'boring head' for Christmas. I can be geeky at times... I'm not sure that my mill (CMD10) and the head I'm getting will have ability to bore what is effectively a 7 inch deep hole (albeit with a 6 inch gap in the middle.

I've thought of boring the holes as Bikepete suggests, pressing in the spindle and then bolting the parts together with the spindle in place, but I don't really know if that would create stresses which would put it out of kilter. But at least this way I could have some what of adjusting (shims etc) afterwards.

Thanks again to all for advice. This has a better chance of success with your help! Oh - I'm expecting this to take quite some time, so if I go quiet it's not necessarily that it's so disastrous I can't show my face ...

Iain

HiI, All.

I'm in Pannal near Harrogate.

I was planning to pin and bolt the headstock. Welding's not something I've mastered yet (I have a stick welder but at the making a spark stage).

Initially I'm planning a wood lathe. If I end up with something robust, who knows where it will go!

Off to finish cooking a curry!

Iian

And lots of help! I'm trying to design it so that it is forgiving of my fingers.

I have 4 150x150x20 steel plates which will form the headstock. I've got a larger front bearing (62 / 30) than rear bearing (60 / 25) so I don't have to be totally dead on in my set up (aligning the tailstock is a bit of a pain).

If I can assemble the headstock and bore out the bearing holes in one operation I have some hopes of accuragy. If I overbore a bit there is always superglue. If I can't bore in one operation then aligning the headstock afterwards is going to be interesting!

The drawing below (onshape - online and free and from the solidworks founders) is missing some bits but should provide an idea of what I'm trying to do.

Iain

And lots of help!

This is my own design of lathe and will not have a through hole. I certainly don't have the gear to make that!

I see this as an opportunity for learning rather than a well planned project with a specific end goal.

The next two challenges are how to bore and align the bearing holes in the headstock and how to press the bearings into place with the kit I have on hand, but I'm trying to limit my pesteration to a reasonable level!

I must say that the helpful responses in this forum have hugely encouraged me.

Although a beginner I did do Metalwork at school to a good standard and some of it appears to have stuck in the intervening 40 years. Not much, but some.

Iain

Thanks for the advice.

I think the fixed steady is the approach. The machine is a SPGTools 0618A (Real Bull CJ18A) and the bar fits quite comfortably.

SPGTools (and Amadeal and others) have a fixed steady which isn't expensive. What it is however, is of uncertain capacity.

I can't find a spec for it on either site (amadeal has a picture which makes me guess it will take 50mm, but I'm not entirely sure.

I could make one, of course - making the tools is more fun than making the project), but for 20 quid it doesn't seem worth it.

Anyone know what the capacity of this centre is?

Iain

I'm looking to turn a spindle for a lathe. I've a nice piece of 40 mm steel which will fit in the 7x14 lathe I have. It's about 300mm long.

I get the basics of centre turning, but I'm trying to work out how to get both ends centre drilled accurately.

If I just stick the bad in the chuck I would expect it to sag a little, so it will wobble as it rotates and the centre drilled hole will likely not be on centre. Also, I'm concerned about facing off the ends. I don't currently have a steady.

I can punch a mark in the end, but I'm unlikely to achieve particularly fine accuracy.

I think I read somewhere that the rotation will tend to pull the bar into the centre so will auto-centre, but I can't find the reference again.

I appreciate that this is likely to be a bit demanding for a beginner, but I do have a spare bar for when this goes badly wrong.

Thanks for your advice in advance!

Iain

Thanks, Martin.

The one on my Christmas list was from Chronos (FCE2) which has a 2MT shank. That fits right in the mill. The set you recommend looks good, but is pricier and I would need to get a 12mm collet (my sets only go up to 10mm).

Of course it doesn't say what the tool size is. I might get it anyway (with the tool) - I quite enjoy grinding tools and I can move on to a button tool later if I need to...

Iain

I got the gears this weekend and fitted them. The mill rides again!

Mind you I've not tried the carbide cutter so perhaps another failure lurks round the corner. This time I have spares though.

I noticed a couple of issues. The first is that the idler gear (the one not on the spindle) has an orientation. There's about 0.5-1mm more spacer on one side than the other. I turned it round to make better contact with the spindle gear. The gears are still not fully engaged with the idler standing a couple of mm proud of the spindle gear.

Secondly, the gears do not mesh fully. It's quite hard to see with a mirror, but I would say that the gears could be 2 mm or so closer together - which would improve their contact and robustness no-end. Has anyone seen this or am I imagining it? The bearings, by the way, are solid.

Martin - I looked on ebay as you suggested but the listings were beyond me. I don't really know what I should order. Most of the inserts have cryptic numbers rather than descriptions and from what I can see they're all larger than I would need. Furthermore mostly they talk about cutting hardened steel and having negative rake angles which I think mean that it more scrapes than cuts, which doesn't sound like it will put less stress on the mill. Is there a specific link or cryptic number you could suggest to me,

Also, in an earlier post I asked if a flycutter would also stress the poor thing. Does anyone have an opinion on that - I was hoping to get one for Christmas.

Thanks

Iain

Hi, Martin. I get the point and I must say I've mostly being milling Aluminium so far.

The 'end mill' I've been using is this one from ArcEuroTrade

You will see that it has relatively little cutting area - more like the point of a lathe tool or a flycutter than a normal end mill.

The reason that I'm been awkward about this is that I love this tool! Not for cutting chunks out and stuff, but it gives a much better surface than any of my end mills.

When I get my new gears I will have another go. If I keep getting problems then I will regretfully reserve this tool for Aluminium.

Would a flycutter like this one be a reasonable choice for a small mill? I would have thought it would actually load the mill more than the carbide cutter I've been using - especially as it's a single cutter and the radius, would be larger than the 19mm of the end mill.

Cheers

Iain

The specs indicate a 'face mill' capacity of 20mm. as I'm trying to face the piece of steel with the carbide mill and not take big chunks out of it this seemed reasonable. By face I mean remove irregularities so it is flat (and parallel to the opposite face) rather than actually shape it.

I'm not still not entirely sure that I understand the essential difference between my carbide end mill used to face, a 'face mill' and a fly cutter.

Incidentally, I've got a couple of alerts for posts in this thread, but although I can read them in my email, I can't see them here. Any ideas why?

Iain

IThanks for all your comments. I've ordered more gears from Ketan (   but won't be doing much until they arrive. I'm planning to have a look at how they engage with an inspection mirror just to make sure everything is OK mechanically.

I should note that all the nasty stuff appears to have been milled off well before these issues started and I seemed to get really good results from the carbide cutter for a while with no sense of the machine struggling. Being aware that it was steel and a bigger radius, I've only been trying to take a few though off a time (probably around 5 thou tops) with a relatively low speed.

I did want to ask NIgel about his comments on the fly cutter. I've no experience of the fly cutter and was wondering why it would produce less strain that the carbide end mill I've got which appears to be pretty similar in makeup to a fly cutter. It's got two tips and it's true that one is slightly lower that the other. This seems to me to be pretty much how a fly cutter works, except the fly cutter has one tip and mainly with a wider radius than my paltry 3/4 diameter cutter.

Would I be better off with a fly cutter for facing than the (smaller) carbide tipped end mill? I would guess I'd have no trouble with aluminium but I do want to build some things in steel.

As always in this hobby, you want to have bought a bigger machine....

Thanks

Iain

Well an update from me.

I got the replacement gears and fitted them, but I'm still having trouble. Firstly I wasn't very happy with the sounds coming from the gear train - it seemed noisier than it used to be.

I managed to complete the squaring up of my bit of mysterious steel and re-face the big side with my new 3/4 MT2 carbide end mill. This kind of seemed to work but it seems to dig in intermittently leaving a score a few though deeper.

Now I'm trying to mill a V groove in it with a 10mm HSS end mill (taking .5mm or less off each time) and it was going OK, but under any kind of load the spindle would stop rotating, but the motor kept going.

I've stripped it down again and what I've found is that the (new) lower spindle gear is worn over half the width and about 1/6th of the circumference as if it was rotating eccentrically.

The feeling I'm getting is that the two gear's aren't meshing correctly. Is it possible that he gears from Arc Euro Trade for the Super X1L do not in fact exactly match the ones for the Clarke CMD10?

I've ordered a replacement from Arc, but I don't have a great deal of hope that this will fix the problem.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Since I already seem to be seeking assistance from the group it seemed only polite to introduce myself.

I've taken up machining stuff recently and have a Clarke CMD10 and a SPG Tools SPG0618A.

My wife asks my what I'm going to make and I tell her 'stuff'. The objective is to escape from the humdrum and do something creative (in a shed away from the family!).

Having said, you have to have something in mind, and my target is to build a wood lathe - perhaps I'll even lathe things with it.

I have built something using a cheap drill, lots of Rexroth (big meccano) and a home made drive centre. It kind of works but 3200 rpm is too much for bowls.

I've got some pulleys and am looking to make some kind of headstock - my sister has promised a 'boring head' for Xmas (she is delighted to tell her friends I'm getting a boring head for Christmas).

then we'll see - it's all a delightful learning curve, but thank God I don't have any deadlines!

Iain

Thanks for the advice above.

As to the problem, it would seem I'm a moron.

I stripped the mill again and the problem is stripped gears. The 'cure' of 'mucking about' worked because it rotated the spindle ./ gears to present some non stripped teeth which meshed and away we go. IT seems like the inertia of the spindle was enough to sort of keep the whole thing going until it hit a hard bit and got stuck.

ArcEurotrade will come to the rescue (the X1 is the same mill and ArcEuroTrade about the easiest place to get spares) and I should have it refitted by midweek.

My first stripped gears! Should I be proud or ashamed?

Mr Clarke suggests that I get some know steel and I like the idea in principle. What I'm ultimately trying to do is to make a wood lathe (I know ambitious for a bloke that doesn't recognise a stripped gear) and wanted some heavy steel to make the headstock from. I've not been able to source and decently thick plate of reasonable size. I can get something the size of my workshop at 1" thick, but nothing in the 6 - 10 inch square region (apart from a scrapyard and bits on ebay of equally unknown provenance).

Any suggestions on this would be most welcome!

Iain

I have a CMD10 mill and am having a bit of trouble with it.

It started when I tried to square up a bit of steel (inch thick plate) I got from the scrapyard. The faces went OK but the edges seem to have been case-hardened. Basically, I wore out or broke 3 10mm mills and then invested in a carbide tipped end mill.

This gets through the steel (I think this may end up my favourite mill!) but I've had a series of problems.

The first thing was that the motor gear disengaged (the upper circlip rose and eventually, the key dropped out.

I fixed that and carried on milling. However, what's happening now is that the gear change gears are disengaging somehow when running. This seems to happen when the cutter hits a particularly hard piece.

I can re-engage the gears by mucking about with the gear lever, basically putting it up to high and then back (though not quite *that* simple).

I've had the assembly out and stripped it down. I can't see anything obviously wrong with it, though the slide mechanism is a little stiff.

Has anyone else had this sort of problem and if so what is the fix.

Iain.