Member postings for MW

If you say so, mi lord. I wouldn't want to be the guy to take it off your hands though.. so yeah good luck with that.

Michael W

You only need to worry if mossad come looking for you, they aren't known for good manners btw.   

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 10/08/2016 13:36:47

Its a nice find but cmon, 32 gs? Thats crazy talk. how are you going to get that verified? anyone spending 32k is going to want info.

The angle on the gear is probably to ease the transition of movement, giving a slight twisting to the motion. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 10/08/2016 13:31:43

Ive had this problem before, you just need a plug that will fit both the chuck and RT center holes perfectly. Turn one out of anything other than jelly and it should be plain sailing setting er up.

Michael W

I wonder if the teeth are as deep as they should be because they look rather shallow cut compared to jasons, the typical radial relief to the center seems to be absent too, it should be able to handle this kind of wear and still work.

What shocks me the most is just how much has been scraped off. The cutting must have been really hard going to dig into the table that much. Is this machined grey cast? I wonder if it should be steel.

I have an american made small RT and a big chinese one, the american one is very well made and you can tell by how smooth the rotation is, the other is a little rough around places and wheel can be rather stiff at times, having said that it still works and perfectly operable if you can forgive the blemishes. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 10/08/2016 12:01:00

maybe bismuth or cadmium alloy?

Michael W

Challenge accepted, see what was all the fuss about? people gotta bitch and moan just because a guy wants something made..

Now you know why people don't want the hassle of going to local works, they don't want their custom to be treated with contempt. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 08/08/2016 16:43:15

Not as many ignorant people as there are pedants. They say ignorance is bliss, which is like a silver lining, whereas being pedantic is just plain annoying for everyone involved, even the pedant. 

I wish i could be ignorant. Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 08/08/2016 14:41:48

Nah really? cause you kinda got my hopes up there for a second.

Michael W

I have, he hates (silly) H&S (and ramblers), he says the most dangerous field to work on is a sloped one.. the risk of toppling the whole thing is nasty. The paperwork does fill out alot of his time, and i've never seen him without a stack of papers on a job.

Spraying nasty chemicals as well, some of them are supposed to be banned but under law they can use a stockpile for so long, however, some of them are so dangerous that they can't be thrown away as an enviromental hazard, so they keep them in this kind of legal dead zone, where they can't be thrown away, as they provision isn't there or costly but they can't be used either?

So theres a risk he'd admit needs policing, but one time his manager (i did occasional work with him) tried to make us wear shoe covers on a slippery floor, so i put them on, they didn't fit his shoes and his manager was absolutely insistant that he must wear the shoe covers, to the point he just threw them at him shouting "they dont effing fit! "

He dislikes the kind of farm managers who aren't really farm workers, the kind of managers who get onto a trainee manager post straight out of uni and don't have a clue how to run it. He used to work for a big company, til he got fed up and started working for an estate, where the land owners normally care for the people who work their land.

Michael W

To be fair most of the jobs people do now have changed, people are no longer exposed to the same risks as working in a steel mill or coal mine or factory line.

Sitting at a desk in an office is going to be much safer no matter which way you look at it,(unless maybe theres a psycho sitting next to you, or the office block was built on the rim of an active volcano) the physical activity is nil, and the more of it you do, the greater the chance you'll end up in an accident.

And telling someone "don't push that button etc..." they're basically going to do it at that point. I hate teachers who think they can "force" education into people, you can't make someone learn, they have to choose to learn, they aren't computers. So i find people learn about risks from mistakes. 

So before they start praising they can't actually show it's entirely down to policy. Its like the police cuts, crime is dropping and the officers being reduced and they use correlation as evidence their policy is working, wrong, it isn't proof, it doesn't justify the causes.

Piracy has declined since the 1700's and pollution has increased, somalia has little pollution and a high incidence of piracy, who would be willing to support a correlation there as proof that pirates are eco friendly?

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 08/08/2016 11:26:52

For most small machines i wouldnt be very confident about milling HSS as described, i've never heard of anyone trying this without grinding equipment, i would imagine that without a very strong heavy turret mill you couldn't get the rigidity to cut it without the tool going bang. What kind of DOC are we talking about here? they must be very small increments to handle it.

Is the HSS being "cut" in a conventional sense or simply being rubbed down with high friction and temperature of the carbide? One would have to be careful to note the actual grade of the HSS because a cobalt alloy could be even harder. 

If complex geometry is needed to be milled, i would imagine surely a silver steel or carbon steel tool is a better bet for the average model engineer?

By attempting to tackle such a hard material to machine, we can learn alot about why heavy duty mills are classed as such in the first place. A fixed rigid head and a moving table is a sounder arrangement for machine construction. 

I would note before anyone mentions it that it is next to near impossible to anneal HSS without a purpose built furnace to control the cooling process, your typical HSS is prone to "air quenching", it simply can't be done without industry grade equipment. 

It just goes to show quite often that the resources and equipment between users in this "hobby" of ours varies enormously, it can't be said though that the specialist machinery is representative of the majority in real terms of practicality.

For example, the lines "blurred" between a shed user with a few budget machines, cannot expect or aspire to the same standards as an industrial professional with thousands of pounds at their immediate disposal and a vacuous warehouse to fill (and possibly two or three helpful assistants). Nor can the latter find what a hobbyist finds useful. Yet both are described as "model engineers" or hobbyists?

Their work is shown off, as though it came out of a basic machine, it borders on fraudulent and possibly voyeuristic, not a trait to be encouraged or an example to look up to. 

The same advice can't be given for both extremes of the spectrum, people need to be clear about where it is they stand and where they are coming from and who it is they expect to read it, it's simple courtesy of language.

Disgracefully yours,  

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 06/08/2016 13:58:46

I actually do this because it's how my oilstone is intended to be used, as a bench stone where the tool is brought to it.

I wouldn't use emery cloth simply because if anything that is going to slightly round the edge over without some kind of hard backing.

Another way to finish tools is to use a block/piece of copper or brass and use grinding paste.

Michael W

I'm glad i'm not the only one who feels this way, and i'm still "young". How long sighted we are. I hope and wish to be proven SO wrong!

Trouble is if you watch too much of any popular media you'd be surprised we never started WW3. It can only dredge the worst of the bunch and not show all of the good souls too quiet to speak up. No matter what happens though, all the best. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 05/08/2016 20:43:31

I dont want to be the bee in the bonnet but i was in a good college a couple of years ago and i was the only one allowed to grind because only i held a wheels certificate and had experience with them, my tutor wouldn't let anyone else do it because they didn't have them, he said that was the law so he wasn't all too keen on letting them loose on them, it was bad news though because every 5 minutes i'd have someone asking for a ground tool,

i had people 3 times my age at my company asking me to sharpen blades for them because they never had either the gumption or opportunity to learn it. So age is no object there. 

I do agree with what you say about special equipment though, nowt necessary, the only way to learn grind is to free hand! Gotta take it your own way.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 05/08/2016 20:32:18

Sounds like a pretty good greenhouse if its been make with solid wooden purlins, own build?

Michael W

I use directplastics and find them and their material to be of a good standard, their prices are good too. I recently made up some nylon and just used garden variety carbide insert tools and sharpened a blacksmiths drill by using the 4 facet technique, i then thin the web in the middle by tucking it into the radius' edge of the grinding wheel, oil slipstone to finish on the lips of the chisel point. 1500RPM (top speed for me) and drilled with fast feed, all in one go and retract quickly, beautiful finish on the bore and on the turning, like the boots of the calvary on horseguard's parade.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 05/08/2016 18:11:44

Making and selling things is probably one of the cornerstones of commerce, regardless of where you live, it would be very hard to imagine having an economy of any sort without material goods being turned into all manner of things somewhere. I just don't believe it's possible, perhaps the way they interpret and gather the data is deceiving the truth

perhaps theres alot more indrect manufacture taking place now than traditional workplaces. People have earned enough money to be more footloose than years ago. This could skew the data. Maybe as much as 20% of the economy is involved in makery or assembly of some sort.

Perhaps thats a bit drastic but think about all those important jobs around transporting/shipping, admin, stock rooms, it all adds up, the people themselves aren't making anything but they are involved in a process built around making things. Even the very members and employees involved in MEW are not "producing" (i'm pretty sure it wouldn't register on "their" radar anyway)in the traditional sense but it's got an awful lot to do with it! 

Maybe I can't convey the emotion but i can't help but feel quite impressed by all the effort that goes on in that sense. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 05/08/2016 17:54:37

Hi Dave,

If i may, I think some people have good ideas but aren't very good at getting them across to other people. I'm probably more the other way and don't have good ideas often, but am very good at making things seem as plain as day and can spot a book a mile off if it's going on a tangent.

i actually don't like reading books in general, and authors' who wrongly assume you know what they know.

I'm not a book seller and definitely not the most informed on whats out there, but i wanted some help on getting some background reading on electronics and my tutor recommended this;**LINK**. Success in Electronics by Tom Duncan, theres a plethora of good reviews on amazon for evidence but i shan't go into that.

It basically assumes you only have ever just used electronics and don't understand them, consumer products for example, it starts right at the beginning, explaining what a linear circuit is and basic electricity in part one.

I implore you to consider my opinion as it seems to be quite popular with alot of other beginners too.

Michael W

Get alot of kit with it then, i think can see the apron assy., counter shaft, headstock?

Think theres the cross slide and change wheels galore, lathe ways and leadscrew assy.

The more you look at it the more you see, reminds me of cubism.

Michael W