Member postings for Mark Elen 1

Yes, I know what you mean. They weren’t too bad, but I much prefer bigger chunks and big cutters.

I managed to swing a day off work today so between deliveries of Christmas presents and having a smart meter fitted, I managed an hour or two on the knurling tool.

I made a start on the side plates, squaring one edge up, using this and an edge finder to set up the DRO, then spotting all of the holes, followed by the necessary drill/ream/tap/countersink.

It all worked out pretty well, it’s not far off as it all fits together. Now I just need to remember to bring the other edge square and to final dimension (both plates were supplied ~5 mm over length)

I have decided that it makes more sense to do all of the milling operations that need doing with the vice, and then swap over to the rotary table and mill all of the curves.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Thaiguzzy,

Thanks for your comments. I have considered opening out the slots for the knurls and it makes a lot of sense. As I bought both the fine straight and fine diamond set with the kit, it would mean me making up washers to space these correctly.

I have decided to build to plan, but keeping in mind that if I need to, in future, I can open up the slots to take the wider knurls.

I have got a bit more done this week, and I’m going to take lfoggy’s advice and harden the pins that the knurls run on.

Apart from some cosmetic work to tidy them up, all holes are now reamed to dimensions and the arms are finished.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks Ian,

Tonight I made a start on the slots in the arms where the wheels fit. The slot needs to be .188” or 4.775mm in my money. So I thought I would use a 4mm end mill and offset it .38 either side once I had got to depth. It would have worked, except the slot needs to be 15 odd mm deep and my 4mm end mill only has 11mm usable length in the flutes before it flares up to the 6mm shank.

I used my cutter to make a start and ordered a ‘long series’ to take the final 4mm or so out.

As it was all set up, I left the mill and started on the bottom pivot on the lathe. I did have a go at the silver steel with a carbide insert, but I think I was taking it too easy and the silver steel seemed to be work hardening and at one point the cutter wouldn’t cut. I changed over to hss and made this:

Both ends need facing off to length, but I’m pretty happy, the lathe is cutting it nicely with a bit of cutting fluid and both ends mic up at 6.35mm and are a nice sliding fit in a 1/4” reamed hole. I took them down to 6.4 and then finished them off with an emery board.

Cheers

Mark

Edited By Mark Elen 1 on 12/12/2018 22:28:14

Hi Coggy,

I have been in exactly the same position as you regarding a lathe just recently. I had pretty much decided on a Warco 280/290 and a DRO.

As I’m really just a beginner, I thought, get the biggest lathe I could afford. In the end, with the discount ARC have at the moment, I ended up buying a SC4 from them. Yes, it’s not got a threading dial, it’s only got a 20mm hole through the spindle and the power cross feed is a bit naff(it’s too easy on disconnecting the cross feed to engage the fine saddle feed and vice versa) but it’s nearly half the price of the 280 and with a fixed steady, the small spindle hole isn’t an issue - well to me it isn’t. I have got into the habit of winding off the top slide before disengaging the cross slide.

All metal change gears and it comes with the 127 gear, so both metric and imperial screwcutting. I have now cut M14 fine, M12 fine, M10 both coarse and fine and I’ve got 3/8 BSF and a left hand 1/2 BSF coming up shortly - hopefully they will go as well as the metric have.

I learnt when I bought my mill that the machine itself is only half of the cost. The other half is all of the tooling. My decision was really made on the fact that being from the ‘flat part of Lincolnshire’ ARC are not too far away in Leicester and they are a friendly bunch - whenever I’ve been there, the kettle has been on😂 (The other reason is that I’ve been to 2 shows and both times been on the Warco stand and been unimpressed as a potential customer - the first time nobody spoke to me, even though I was on the stand for about 10 minutes, the second, they seemed uninterested. Add to that, no stock. I was willing to wait for stock, but in the meantime, I made the decision)

I have made sure that all of the tooling I have bought is the biggest the SC4 will take, so if I’m future I decide to upgrade, hopefully I don’t have to buy another load of tooling.

One of the first things I did with it, was to screwcut a M14x1.75 thread and apart from my stupid mistake not setting the top slide correctly, the lack of thread dial, to me, is a non issue, just keep the half nut engaged and run forward and back.

As to a DRO, I bought a DRO with my mill but my budget wouldn’t run to one when I bought the lathe. Add to that, I had seen the LCD displays at the Midlands show. I had pretty much decided that was one of the first things to buy when funds ran to it. I have ended up buying more tooling with that budget. I think it’s going to be one of those ‘nice to have if I’ve got some spare cash in the future’ things.

I have no connection to ARC other than a satisfied customer

Cheers

Mark

Tonight I’ve got all of the radiused ends done on both arms.

Here is my method of centering parts. I turned up a central spigot, as the locating holes in the arms were 6mm, it’s really just a 20mm extra thick washer reamed 6mm in the centre. I also turned up a 6mm silver steel rod with a point.

With the part free to move and the pointer chucked up in a collet, the pointer was fed through and located in the spigot, then the arm was clamped down and a 6mm screw is fed through the centre of the table and threads into the MT2 stub arbour that the sub-plate locates on.

It all worked a treat and I’m happy with the results.

Cheers

Mark

I made a start on the ends tonight, changed the vice out for the rotary table... again... and got set up. I’m going to take it down to .25mm with the rougher then take the last bit with an end mill and see how that works out.

Cheers

Mark

Edited By Mark Elen 1 on 10/12/2018 21:56:41

After the success with boring the 5/8” hole between the 2 arms, today I decided to use a sacrificial piece of steel to bore the 5/8” hole on the top arm. I made up a 5/8” brass plug to gauge size. I really need to get a set of bore gauges.

I also got the bottom arm drilled and reamed out 1/4”

After using the bore gauge, i used part of it to make a centre for my fixture plate, just a plain centre, drilled and reamed 6mm for use on the next operation, rounding off the ends of the arms.

Cheers

Mark

Hi lfoggy,

I got it from someone on e-bay. I was expecting a ‘rough sawn’ blank, to be honest, it didn’t take much work to finish it. The time consuming part was the setting up, drilling and tapping etc.

Cheers

Mark

Hi lfoggy,

To be honest, I used aluminium because I didn’t want to have to drill and tap 60 odd holes M8 in steel. My plate is 40mm thick, so I have blind tapped to 30mm. I was concerned about stripping threads, but it seems fairly durable, I’m sure time will tell.

Chris used aluminium, because apparently, steel is hard to come by in Australia. If I was to make one in steel, it wouldn’t be 40mm thick, because, that plate of mine is heavy enough.

I have done similar to Chris and machined a register in the middle and drilled and tapped the MT2 arbour that fits into the table M6.

I expect that most of the time, in use, there will be a central hole that will be machined around, so it will do the majority of the clamping and the table will be more for location.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Gents,

I find lots of inspiration from other people’s build threads and how they find ways of working.

I got the bore to final dimensions this afternoon, followed with a 14mm slot cutter, then I tried out a 10mm roughing end mill. Wow, that thing eats through it. I probably went a bit far with the rougher, I only left myself .1mm for a climb cut to finish with a standard end mill. There are still signs of the rougher in the finish. Never mind, every day is a school day.😂

They still look a bit funny because one piece was about 2mm longer than the other before I started on them. I now need to set up the rotary table again to mill off the ends.

Cheers

Mark

Hi NDIY,

I think you’re right there.

I got on this morning, made the other half and then got set back up in the vice to machine out the pivot ends. As they are both the same, I set both up together in the vice, used a piece of 6mm silver steel in the collet Chuck to register the pieces and confirm that they lined up correctly.

Still got a bit more to go with the boring head to get to dimension.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks lfoggy,

The sub-table is loosely based on Chris’ at Clickspring, see here:**LINK**

There are some build photos of my version of the sub-table on my hacksaw thread, starting here: **LINK**

As soon as I saw Chris using his, I knew it would get a lot of use if I made one.

Cheers

Mark

Inside done, set up and milled the outside, I ended up taking 1mm at a time, the table seems secure, although, the backlash in the RT makes climb milling ‘interesting’. I ended up taking .1 mm climb with the table locks nipped down to finish off and it worked out ok.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks Gents👍

I have got all set up on the table and started milling out the ends of the arms:

I’m just nibbling .25mm at a time off as this is the first test of the fixture plate and clamping system.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks Ifoggy,

Always good to know where to get bits from👍. How did you machine the outside curve on the arms?

I drilled out the 2 arms tonight, and, to my amazement, they both fit on the jig.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Larry,

Thanks for your comments. I know, I’m probably going a bit ott, but I’m enjoying the journey and learning a lot on the way.

Today I cracked on with the jig, made a couple of 6mm silver steel pins, drilled and tapped M4 and fixed to the jig with 10mm countersunk screws.

I’ve marked out the centres of the offset radii using the dro.

Cheers

Mark

I’ve gone off at a tangent with my hacksaw build to make another tool for use making the hacksaw. I need a knurling tool, so I thought I would make one.

Now I’ve got the kit and the drawings, I’ve been busy working out sequencing. The first item on the list is the upper and lower arms from 1” x 1/2” BMS.

There are 2 radius cuts to make on the ends of the arms where the wheels fit and I’m planning on milling these out on the rotary table. The only issue is that the centre of the radius is not within the material, so I’ve been busy pondering how to centre these on the table centre. I’ve come up with a plan to make a jig from a piece of 2mm brass that will both identify the centres and space the work up off the table.

Tonight’s embryonic photo of said plate:

Cheers

Mark

Not much done today, as I’ve been busy working. I’ve come across a slight issue, in that I’m missing a chunk of 13/16 hex bar to make the collet nut. I can’t recall seeing it when I got the the kit... never mind I thought, I’ll just order a bit off e-bay. Not a chance. There is 3/4 or 22mm but no 13/16.

I did make a start on the collet, but as I’m going to screwcut the 5/8 BSF on the lathe, I could really do with making the nut first, so I can track progress of the thread.

I ended up ordering a chunk of 3/4.

Whilst pondering the collet, I’m unsure how to set up to cut the taper. I’m guessing I need to set the top slide up at 5 degrees to make the 10 degree taper as per the plan?

On another note, I was going to make the handle, but as it needs knurling and I don’t have a knurling tool, i ordered the ‘sensitive knurling tool’ kit from Hemingway, which arrived today. On unpacking, I was happy to find 4 A3 beautiful drawings to a similar standard of the 10 that came with the hacksaw. (Such a shame they are imperial and I’m metric, but I’m getting used to multiplying by 25.4...) All materials checked and correct. As with the hacksaw, they don’t scrimp on material, although, it’s not excessive either.

I spent a good hour tonight with the drawings trying to take in the detail. I’ll start a new thread for this build.

Cheers

Mark

I got the slide bar weight done today. I’ve been pondering on how to hold it to machine it. I ended up holding it with the outside jaws of the 3 jaw and supporting it with the fixed steady:

I faced and chamfered both ends, then centre drilled and worked up to 12.5 mm from both ends. I finished off with a 1/2” reamer, then onto the mill to cross drill and tap M10. A bit of polishing up and finished:

I don’t know if that was the ‘best practice’ way of holding this, but I felt it was secure and it all went to plan.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your kind comments. I always have good intentions about keeping the workshop tidy, it just never happens.

The replacement screws for the vice jaws turned up in the post this morning, so i got those fitted up. I’m very happy with the result:

The fixed jaw nipped up tight and on the sliding jaw, I can slide a .05mm feeler gague under, but a .10mm won’t go. Beginners luck that one.

Cheers

Mark