Member postings for mark smith 20

Just removed the fine feed looks like the middle areas of the teeth on the worm gear are mangled .? Anyone know where i can get a replacement?

Thanks

Or in the case of cavity wall insulation causing condensation. I had to jump through loads of hoops to get the stuff removed at my parents house.Caused a right mess.

The fine feed on my warco xj12-300 has just decided to stop working 1/3 of the way through scribing graduations on a handwheel im making. Its just spinning around

Ok thanks

Thanks for the replies so the specs on the axminster one will work fine on the 1/3hp grinder ??

Hi,

I have this dismembered Perform brand  cheap wet and dry grinder ,im wanting to use it just to attach some diamond 6" flat lapping discs i have . Problem is the switch has decided to stop working.

It powers on but as soon as you take your finger off the start switch it stops.

I was wondering if this is the right switch from axminster?? is there cheaper anywhere?

**LINK**

dimensions of cut out are slight less on the axminster replacement .The original switch is around 42-43mm x 27mm. There is nothing written on the broken switch . The grinder is 250 watts.

Edited By mark smith 20 on 29/10/2017 13:50:31

Edited By mark smith 20 on 29/10/2017 13:56:25

They arent bad but not very rigid ,a very solid bench will help alot.

The gears would drive you mad ,hence buy or make your own belt drive and strip out the gears.

The tilting column is a pain ,best to brace it somehow at the back where it joins to the base with a thick steel /aluminium plate.

Possibly fit a gas strut of some kind to make the raising lowering of the head easier.

Picture of mine below.

I also replaced the cracked and torn rubber covers with homemade ones made out of  rubber coated kevlar material.

I replaced the headstock bearings with taper roller bearings. (did the same with my chester conquest mini lathe that i used to own )

The most annoying part is the fine feed,they may have improved but mines always been a pain. Has a habit of suddenly dropping and digging in to the work.

All that said ive had my warco version for around 15 years or more and its been ok for small stuff .

i have a bigger alexander gha mill now (still collecting tooling) so im using this less and less now.

The mill is /was originally made by real bull and known under various guises such as xj12-300 .

Some guy here has wrote a decent review and made similar alterations.

**LINK**

Edited By mark smith 20 on 29/10/2017 10:20:31

Edited By mark smith 20 on 29/10/2017 10:30:12

Edited By mark smith 20 on 29/10/2017 10:46:46

Funny how when i look on ebay ,anything at all microscope related with leica name is a fortune. Must have been a dumb scrapyard or lucky find.

They make the wimpy rack and pinions stand on my stereo microscope look like toys.Is that the actual size they look massive compared to the grinder?

My first ever attempt at threading on the imperial south bend is on the left of the bar at the front of the photo ,the second attempt is on the right and turned out almost perfect. It was a replacement crossfeed screw for the same lathe.

I am at the moment trying to cut s20 x 2 metric buttress thread , ive got the pitch right using a homemade tufnol changegear but the tool shape and feed in for the tool is confusing me.

I had a look last week and came to the same as you. i guess the website isnt set up yet or something.

sound like you need a facing lathe of some kind such as:

or has been previously mentioned on the other thread:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Binns-and-Berry-short-bed-facing-lathe-9-750-VAT-/263232210839?hash=item3d49dcc797:g:KFwAAOSwep1Zy2~i

Edited By mark smith 20 on 21/10/2017 12:40:42

They actually sell most of their stuff in 3 metre lengths and i think other sizes. The stuff is certainly new looking as well. For someone like me who buys in small quantities and struggles to cut up long lengths, i think its ideal for the hobbyist.

I prefer working in steel but without a powered hacksaw i struggle to cut the stuff. I was parting off a foot long 80mm round steel bar the other day with only a 15mm hole in the middle ,it was hard work to say the least on my southbend 9A

They have 2" round bar listed

People recommend m-machine. So for another example ,the ebay seller has 4 1/4" x 3/4" x 3 metres aluminiums flat bar at £35 + £9 postage =total £44.

At m-machine the nearest size they list is 4" x 3/4" (so smaller) at £1.56 per inch or for 3 metres including shipping,

which works out at around £190 with shipping. It doesnt take a genius to realise the price difference.

yes 6082. Either way their price is the cheapest by far ive seen. I dont buy tonne quantities of metals .

Its this seller they are based in Lanarkshire , just listed 2" diameter x 1 metre t6 aluminium for £20 + £5 shipping, that also sounds pretty cheap.

As an example at metals4u.co.uk  its £59.60 including vat and delivery,less than half price.

They actually have a similar name as one of the advertisers on this site , (Multi Metals-bespoke aluminium extrusions ,they are on google).

**LINK**

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 19:15:58

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 19:17:59

I recently bought some aluminium 1" x 2 1/4" x 1 metre flat bar off ebay for £12 + postage . Compared to every other source on ebay and elsewhere it was about 1/3 or 1/4 the price if you picked it up.

Even with £8 postage it was up to half the stated price as elsewhere.

Now this isnt some bloke in a shed as the invoice that came was from an aluminium extrusion  business.

how can they sell it so cheap? Is it left over stock or something, as its not on their website? Seems like   scrap value.

Are we grossly over charged for metal stock anyway?

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 16:58:52

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 17:01:21

I`m a bit biased towards old machinery ,i had a chester conquest but never really used it much and was basically a total novice .Then bought a southbend around 5 years ago for £250 from the mid 1960`s , very good condition with slight wear on the v bed.

I renovated it and my interest in lathes really peaked whilst totally dismantling it and painting it . You learn an awful lot about how machinery works when you do this. It came with two vertical slides, i sold the myford swivelling one for over £100. It has both rests and the telescopic type which can sell for quite alot . Also came with quite a bit of tooling and an emco quick change toolpost. The four jaw pratt burnerd chuck was unused just covered in gunk.

I just find old machinery much more interesting and more solidly built .

Edited By mark smith 20 on 19/10/2017 16:07:00

I have a Siemens mm440 on my southbend cant fault it been perfect and easy to set up ,even though im totally ignorant of electronics. Bought brand new off ebay for £50. All my invertors have been off ebay and brand new and ive never had to reform any capacitors due to lying on shelves somewhere .

The last one i bought for my Alexander mill was a Toshiba Tosvert (the bright red ones) which was a bit more expensive but £100 cheaper than from shops. The seller was in Manchester but the invertor was sent from a Toshiba inverter dealer in Brescia Italy.

Regarding Chinese built stuff ,ive found its the quality of the components used on the circuit boards of stuff that usually fail. When they use Japanese components you dont tend to get as many problems. Or like the mini mill from Warco ive had for years ,they used a kb electronics board which has never failed in over 10 years.

An example of cheap components is set top boxes like Humax etc... ive had a few and they stopped working after a couple of years but simply replacing the bulging capacitors on the main boards. with reliable Japanese brands have got them working perfectly again.

Just replaced a hard drive in my Bt youview box ,for some reason the hard drives fail despite being branded western digital .(not sure why these fail)

the patent i can find is for some sort of pressure instrument but cant see the full patent.