Member postings for MW

I was referring to the real China Export logo, which happens to look extremely similar to the genuine and legitimate, C.E mark, which has a decent reputation, no argument there.

This is very strange because no other country other than china recognises this logo, nobody asks them to put it on there and to many, me included, it was an idea cooked up in the recent past to simply try and pass off goods as a "C.E" mark and hope nobody notices. They will obviously deny that.

If it was a genuine attempt to add some kind of traceability to their goods then why would they deliberately copy the C.E logo and only change it slightly so they can't be accused of fraud.

Michael W

Keep an eye out for old shipman and jones heavy duty milling vices. I got a 6" goliath for £40, no way I could get it new for that price.

Michael W

Yeah I think you're gonna get an oil and water response to this one, charadam, I would definitely keep the mill myself, perhaps if you had both that would be ideal.

Theres definitely more versatility from the vertical mill though. You can make some crazy form profiles with a shaper but you can only ever move this in a reciprocating motion.

You'd end up resorting to your lathe to do the milling your shaper wont do. I would consider this a specialist machine rather than a typical mainstay of the workshop. 

Maybe the best advice would be to sleep this one over and see if it still seems like a good idea in the morning! 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 01/08/2017 21:39:19

Yes, that very strange "certification" that nobody other than china seems to recognise as a legitimate qualification.

Michael W

I think it might be a milling cutter which cut the grooves onto it. It's machined rather than ground. 

There are grooved grinding wheels that they use in the cutlery manufacture for making the grooves onto butter knives. So I could be wrong. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 31/07/2017 22:20:13

Form tools for either shoulder rounding or ball roughing.

Michael W

I've made split one way, threaded shank 15 degree taper collets for my trent pinion mill in the past, and I made these all out of 19mm .303 stainless steel. I've never had a problem with them,

I machine the body first, backwards facing so that I can finish with the screw cut for the shank, otherwise I can't grip the taper backwards to machine it due to the angled face, so I drill to size whilst machining it and finish with a reamer, once I've parted off I would then stamp the size on the face with very small 1.0mm number stamps, this has to be done in a quick 15 degree angle jig I made, and before the splits are machined so as to not damage the collet whilst stamping.  Then I use a small slitting saw and rotary table on the mill to split the collet, then it is finished. 

As you can tell, I got this process down to the tee eventually because of how many I needed to make. 

Like others have said, if I was going to make a much bigger collet that would fit my MT4 lathe, then i'd probably use EN8, I wouldn't bother with any treatment for what we do.

The professional ones are always ground rather than machined these days, and are probably always some kind of nickel bearing alloy steel.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 31/07/2017 21:25:36

For the temperature to rise to an average of +5C globally by the end of 2100 would be disastrous, to the point where it would render some already hotter climbs of the world uninhabitable. 35C at 100% humidity for e.g is practically unbearable for a human.

It would be a miracle if we could get to a point where we level off the increases before this happens and luckily they are now starting to make some inroads into achieving this. If this means we have to say bye bye to regular usage of I.C's then fine.

By this I don't mean an outright ban, you can't effectively ban technology. So long as the regular "get about car" is replaced with a green affordable alternative then good. all power to that.

I was once a sceptic on the reasons why these changes were occurring (not necessarily doubting the occurrence of it as such),I think much of the scepticism stems from a lack of trust, when experts and what like are wheeled out in front of the public and they automatically switch off to what they say, even if it is right, because we've been lied to in the past. At that point, it no longer matters if what you say is right or wrong, because there's no trust. 

but it surely has to be common sense that artificially plugging away as many gases as you can, on an industrial scale, into your normal breathable atmosphere is bad news.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/07/2017 12:47:56

I would like others, try and mitigate the causes of rust in the first place, a moist, dank environment with inadequate ventilation will generally precipitate the rust.

I have found for preserving metal lanolin oil is very good, it doesn't dry out.

Michael W

Stick to JS's advice and get a 1hp (4 pole 1450RPM) motor, it's plentiful for the work that's done on a 3-5" centre lathe.

The motor overheating sounds like it might be a problem with that particular one, but not a reason to up the power as such, if you bought a new motor a 1hp should be good enough.

I have a 3 phase with a VFD and i'm very happy with it, the speed control isn't a catch all as such, on large iron castings you still have to change the belt to a happier setting for that speed. 

I have no particular hatred of single phase motors though, I just find 3 phase lighter, safer and nicer for operations like screw cutting and tapping and reversing. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 25/07/2017 15:11:55

Cobalt steel is great but generally more expensive, i'd definitely say it's got a bit more durability than bog standard M40 HSS, they tend to be around 8% cobalt, anything more than that can fall into the category of "crobalt".

I nicked a big piece of cobalt steel from my old workplace to make cutting tools with and they're still sharp without a regrind. The extra rigidity makes it easier to get nice flat facets when grinding, takes longer but you don't get so much "dappling" when touching up the tool.

I would assume it'll perform just as well at high speeds as much as low ones. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 21/07/2017 11:30:34

Good clout with a hammer should do the job (with a dolly if we're being dainty), As well as a little manual compression. I wouldn't bother trying to make a jig or machine to do it. I even use my own bench vice and soft jaws to neaten things out.

If anything when you fix the plate to the door that should have some kind of straightening out of it's own provided you can get it relatively even and straight.

The only time you've got to worry is when the stainless is 304, because it's a pig. 316 or 303 are easier to work with.

Any residue marks that remain will just have to be rubbed off manually, if it's bothersome. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 20/07/2017 18:49:33

I don't care, I want one already! Manual means you get to have all the fun.

Michael W

Well they've had a lot of time to get used to steel making since Mao's disastrous "great leap forward".

Michael W

Indeed, Keeping the commercial interests of the hobby alive means always buying more! stay well away from those simple curmudgeons your grandfather may have used and stick to modern technology. That way we can make £3000 out of you rather than £30.

Michael W

I'll just touch on methodology here, because I think everyone does it slightly differently but this is how I "understand it".

Heat the part up til it reaches a dull to mid red colour.

then just bury it in the case hardening compound (whatever that you may wish to be).

leave it til cools in the compound then re do this another 2 times so that it has had 3 sittings in the powder. The caked on carbon starts to burn quite brightly on the successive coats.

On the last heating, quench in cold water when it reaches red again. Vigorously shake it in the water after plunging.

Does anyone use abrasive papers at the end, to cosmetically rid of the excessive black bits? 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 17/07/2017 18:57:03

I agree, what an awful thing to do with it. There's far better and finer things you can use purposefully as an ornament, but a myford is not one of those!

Michael W

Indeed, but the reoffending rate of the day was 0%

extremely cruel, but then how often these arcane laws were actually applied probably isn't as often as the myth portrayed, it was of course much harder to catch people then as well, law was very localized for that matter too. In short, it was just a different world. 

I actually went to an old courthouse in Walsingham, Norfolk. They had a list of penalties, you could get hard labour for stealing a rat trap! why? 

Edited By Michael-w on 16/07/2017 20:03:35

Edited By Michael-w on 16/07/2017 13:02:59