Member postings for MW

This is a real shame, the amount of detail on it is stunning!

Michael W

Try T6 aluminium, it's designed to chip rather than string, which is what 6606 tends to do. The finish is wonderful too.

Another method might be to think about the design of your tools, some top rake might reduce this tendency. 

Intermittent feed (or dithering as I call it) might also help as this breaks the continuity of the string on continuous or automatic feed. Tends to be a good technique for roughing.  

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/05/2017 18:30:36

Never mind the resources though, the distances involved are beyond what we think of as far away. To accommodate earth on a drawing, to scale, would need an immense* piece of paper to include pluto. We simply don't know of, or have a form of propulsion that could take us to where we could carry out a meaningful search.

* Bill Bryson - 

‘On a diagram of the solar system to scale, with Earth reduced to about the diameter of a pea, Jupiter would be over a thousand feet away and Pluto would be a mile and a half distant (and about the size of a bacterium, so you wouldn’t be able to see it anyway). On the same scale, Proxima Centauri, our nearest star, would be almost ten thousand miles away. Even if you shrank down everything so that Jupiter was as small as the period at the end of this sentence, and Pluto was no bigger than a molecule, Pluto would still be over thirty-five feet away.’​

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/05/2017 18:20:42

Probably being in a soviet bloc, with a very tight control on information wouldn't have done themselves a world of favours I think.

Another setback for them would be that America was more or less (barring the tariffs) a "free trade" style nation and have a surplus of small and medium sized businesses as well as bigger ones who could make the components they needed. 

The one good thing about the Russian centralized government was that they could mobilize labour and money to where a new project would be needed, this was great for their space program to begin with because it was able to grow quite quickly without the need to answer to anybody. But in the long run, despite being further ahead in terms of understanding, their lack of flexibility in other areas of government also had a knock on effect to their space program. 

Michael W 

Edited By Michael-w on 27/05/2017 15:01:32

Maybe she worked part-time as her husband's body double.

Michael W

I think a little bit of scepticism is actually good for this topic, I don't see it as an attack on whether it happened or not, the people who originally thought of these questions about conditions up there were genuinely just curious people.

I don't believe it was a cover up, simply because it would be far harder to keep everyone quiet about it and the complexity of the operation would be far more an enormity than the actual reality of going there itself.

Think about all the "projects" for components they'd need for the equipment to go up there, fake that as well? it's just getting silly at that point.

Yep, absolutely happened, if they chose a planet much further away then the scope for criticism would be much much greater, but as we can visibly see most of the moon, is it really that hard to believe we went there?

You've seen the kind of gaffes the government gets itself into, and could you really believe they'd be competent enough to pull off a hoax as big as that? The Russians would have a field day if they got wind of it.

Michael W

I've noticed they seem to be popular on all the old instruments I've got.

Michael W

don't know if they will do BA but orbital fasteners do a lot of button screws in various sizes.

Michael W

Yeah I was a little suspicious of that remark simply because I worked for an engineering works that had all mitutoyo measuring equipment calibrated every year, I don't see how they could be a throw away if they economically considered it worth it to get a firm to come and maintain them.

I also have a mitutoyo caliper that gets used on everything and the jaws are still like a razor in sharpness. The battery magically never seems to run out, despite the fact I always forget to switch it off, and the absolute reading is a good feature. The plastic holder for the knurled thumbwheel broke, you can buy a replacement but I don't consider it beyond repair.

Having said that, you can't complain if a £5 measuring instrument breaks, I've always said, that measuring is one of the few things that's worth investment. Because you're always limited by what you can measure.

I think Long Island Indicators definitely refer to "English import" with a sense of cheapness and snobbery and perhaps too big for their own boots.

American settlers were also a bit of an "English import" too!

The fact that they put "Swiss Precision Tool Repairs, Sales & Spare Parts​" on their home page, leads one to suspect they have already reached their conclusion on their analysis, they also happen to think that the swiss are the best,

"well gee, Scoob, that's a bit of a coincidence"

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 26/05/2017 15:13:12

I bought a couple of indicators from china but have now learned the hard way, I replaced my cheap plunger indicator for a Baty certificated indicator from MSC. Pin was very sticky on the old one.

I still have a lever indicator from china but its okay, It seems to go wacky if you try to measuring along anything more than a few inches.

Michael W

I think it's well founded actually, one of my chuck keys (also a four jaw) you can see a straight knurled section in the middle of the bar where it's been forced into the cross hole, hasn't come out so far.

On my small tap wrenches I normally cut off a small 3-4mm piece of bar and use as a tommy bar for tightening up, but also heat and flatten one end of it so it can perch on the cross hole when i'm not using it and don't lose it that way. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 25/05/2017 19:19:19

vermiculite is a good base material to use.

if you've got a bit more money I would go for an upgrade I was considering to my hearth, which was to line it with what the americans call "Kaowool" or ceramic woven fibre. It's more reflective of heat than vermiculite.

Which means less absorption of heat away from your work piece. 

My hearth is very similar to mechman's I call it a soldering "sofa", like the shape of it, and I just put mine together with wood screws. Also handy to have a few blocks you can move around to support different shaped work pieces. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 25/05/2017 11:53:50

Thank you!

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 24/05/2017 22:18:56

lol, 0.00254​mm I think each unit of my DRO is 0.005mm! Those old timers really liked their fine fits you see.

Guess it just goes to show what rank amateurs we are, what with our self centring nonsense chucks; it makes my 0.03mm max runout 3 jaw look very poor indeed.

If I stopped offering to make things for other people maybe I could focus on making things for me!

Really random question here, but since we're on the subject of accuracy is it possible to buy a dial clock finer than 0.01mm? every time I've looked it's always that finest unit.

Michael W

Maybe it's a trick and he's really made a very realistic model shed.

Michael W

Really good turning and probably one of the best bits of metal work I've seen. How do you get so much done? is it just a little everyday?

Michael W

The way I look at it at least you can get on with turning something on a self centre, you could learn the hard way, just go for the 4 jaw and see how frustrating it is to get right when you've never used it before (especially on a round bar, as it's harder to judge which jaw is out). Let alone the turning, you'd just be throwing an unnecessary obstacle in your way.

Obviously there is always going to be a preference but for a beginner in mind, I would definitely advise against it and it's easy to see why.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 23/05/2017 20:54:06

Removes the bother of machining a back plate, I suppose, and we all know how awkward that can be. That alone has to be worth it for £40.

Which is exactly what I have to do for my 4" 4 jaw slim zither chuck! which set me back about £90. probably more like £110, If I include the cost of a 5" RDG backplate casting. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 23/05/2017 18:26:04

I think it starts to become a bit scary with the larger chucks to think that the ally jaws probably don't have a very good grip on it. (and therefore more liable to fly out!).

Michael W

I think it's got something to do with how quick it is to let a potential customer try out a lathe on a demonstration, you wouldn't want a showroom full of myfords on 4 jaw chucks.

In fact, why don't we ask warco, chester, sherline, axminster, Clarke, taig etc, to reconsider their age old wisdom of selling 3 jaws with the machine,

explain to them that they'd be doing their customer a favour with good habits regarding to accuracy and component diversity, and see if they buy it. 

A lot of people know about 4 jaw self centering chucks, but come to think of it, I've only seen a 3 jaw independent chuck just once in my life. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 23/05/2017 13:00:20