Member postings for Chris Evans 6

When I was at work there where lots of local cutter grinding companies, most often one or two man outfits. With the rise of China and the demise of UK tool making and general engineering sadly most have shut their doors. Couple this with the lower cost of carbide as CNC mills need it more and regrinding of HSS is hard to get done. I have a friend with a cutter grinder who will let me use his machine but these kind of people are few and far between for most folk.

Malc, where are you located ? Someone may be able to do a few for you occasionally.

Thanks for that, makes my mould making apprenticeship seem a little boring. I did get to operate the same jig boring machine though. Chris.

If you do buy a "Live" or as I call them "Running" centre, consider one with an extended nose length. It will save having to move the compound slide around to about 30 degrees to get to the end of the work on some occasions.

What an interesting thread, it has been a long time since I ran a Severn (Swopped it for a Lea Francis) However just a thought on the bushes, I am making lots of bushes for folk out of glass or carbon filled PTFE self lubricating and impervious to water (OK the shaft wont be) Most of my work is for motorcycles and football pitch ground keeping stuff. Re bituminous paint, is it due to the new stuff being water based ?

Iain, give us a clue on location, some of us have large machinery if you run in to trouble. I hate to see projects stall for wont of asking for a bit of help; credit to you for trying and coming up with a design. Is it for a wood lathe ?

As a previous thread a slave plate with lots of tapped holes clamped to the rotary works well. I have two 10" tables and find even at that size clamping some jobs is a challenge without the slave plate. Any bigger rotary and I would struggle to lift it !

Have you had a quote to move it ? I used one many years ago and they are very heavily built. Seems like overkill for a home workshop but a very nice machine, it will be a bit like riding a cart horse compared to say a Bridgeport turret mill.

Les, that set up is how I used to produce the dies for oil and fuel filter housings. The dies I made had a round form but the principal was the same just rotated on the rotary table. Providing the wall section was OK no one measured the end result ! CNC now does it better and with great accuracy. Chris.

If you have CNC why not program a cherrying operation in Y Z and peck along the X axis ? I have used a boring head as you show and had good results also used a Cherry head on the Bridgeport.

If you can see it under power listen carefully to the wheel head, it should be very quiet. Head rebuild is circa £2000. Let it run for 30/40 mins to see if it gets hot. Lift the rear belt cover and check the belt, it should be a felt backed one on an older machine. The later (yellow) poly belts are not kind to the older oil filled heads. If any spare wheel arbours are with it have them as they are costly and having a selection means you can leave wheels mounted up. If it has not run for a while expect the hydraulics for table travel to be sluggish until warm. Budget for an oil change. Ask if the transportation frame is still with it to make moving easier. Unless really abused they are bomb proof.

The first and only time I have seen one was when a friend bought one. Sadly he passed away before retiring and never used it. (Naerok is "Korean" spelt backwards) This was over 15 years ago and the machine was a round pillar affair like a glorified drill press.

You can extend the smaller tables capacity by bolting on a disc or plate when required. I have a piece of flame cut and ground mild steel about 15"x8" that I bolt on to my 10" table as required this enables me to swing large radius. Lots of M10 tapped holes in the plate for fastening makes a useful addition and easy to store.

Clive, thanks for the response. I will try that out, I only require the 110 volt output for the traverse and I will disconect the 50 volt lighting as well now I run 240 volt machine light.Chris.

Clive, I have had a look in the cabinet and you are correct. It is at present wired on 0-440.

As the motor is now wired directly to the VFD is it really as simple as feeding 220/240 volt supply to the transformer ? If so is it sensitive to live and neutral, I would connect the earth to one of the existing earth points. As you can see I am not happy working on more than spurring off a socket to add another. Chris.

If you have the space/budget a Bridgeport or one of its clones. I would not like to be without my Bridgeport.

Clive, thanks for the info I will look into that. I did have the traverse working when I hooked the mill up to a Transwave static converter but the mill would only run for around 7 or 8 mins. and then stop. A friend wired the VFD for me and it has been perfect since. If I can use the existing set up it will save me £280 for the 240 volt traverse.

If you want to use roller bearings try Simply Bearings the web page is very good. You could use 2RS rubber shielded bearings to stop swarf ingress. Me I am happy with bronze pads I only use a steady a couple of times a year.

I have had problems when at work that turned out to be a sticky rapid traverse button. Worth a look ? I am getting tempted to remove the traverse set up from my Bridgeport and replace it with a 240v version because I do not know how to wire it up now the machine is running on a VFD so I only have motor control.

Just persuade him to buy hex head set screws, they are threaded to the head.