Member postings for MW

well it certainly aint a quaint size of bar either, James! despite many of us thinking aluminium to be a rather soft material size is still a factor.

I would say it's a case of the tool digging in, as it would be liable to being drawn in to take a bigger bite on the front side, however once it gets to that stage it finds it doesn't have the force to finish the job and remove the slice so it stops or binds up as we would say. You could solve this in a number of ways, which don't necessarily involve a new machine, i'll leave that to the experts on the 'rums...

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 29/06/2016 23:23:58

Sounds unusual... against my learning anyway. I recently bought a product from Taiwan, it came with a tiny moulded 3 pin plug, no approval marks on the casing, i thought to myself "theres no way a fuse is in there" so i cut it off and bought a BS/CE approved plug from wilkos and sorted it. I wasn't going to risk using an electrical appliance without a fuse.

I've been known to experiment at times but never on safety.

Shoutout to Neil, I was listening to planet rock earlier and the host mentioned your name for a phone in request? any truth to that?

Michael W

Am i reading this right? An AC current with no earthing terminal?

Ps. if anything from the pcb circuit was in contact with the casing it could become a conductor. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 29/06/2016 22:48:25

You should always be wary when you're handling electricity of any sort, as it's always potentially lethal. Be sure everything is grounded and isolated properly and the right sort of wiring is used. And before trying anything on the mains try it on an RCD first.

Having said that, treating it like the monster under the bridge shouldn't stop you from learning about it.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 29/06/2016 22:30:35

This is just a small word for anyone who may be considering making a batch of small components on the lathe, especially when it comes to drilling them.

In my experience it is better to clamp up the tailstock and drill the component from a fixed point, center drill and nominal size as follows, (excluding any reaming operations you may do).

Moving the tailstock to drill further and further into the bar makes the drill liable to wandering, and it's resulting effect is only apparent much later. So it is better to part off at the end of the hole and make a new hole again, don't continue with the previous one.

Any soft materials such as plastics cannot withstand high heat usually and if swarf binds up in the flutes it can leave a nasty surface finish (which pretty much cannot be remedied). so it is better to retract the drill frequently to keep it clear.

Also when parting off, the thinner HSS blades, although good, if too much of it is exposed from it's shank it will deflect and part off in a radial movement rather than a straight one.

Hope this may be useful to somebody.

Oh, and you might want to consider a ram-style tailstock, as you'll get really bored of winding the wheel. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 29/06/2016 18:20:09

Best of luck everyone, this is an area certainly suffering an attention deficit, especially in some of our cities.

Michael W

I take it you both turned down the taper that the holder normally comes with, so that the 3 jaw could hold it? Unless you bought a straight shank fly cutter to insert into a collet rather than drawbar + taper?

or, you are using one of those new fangled threaded tapers?

Edited By Michael Walters on 29/06/2016 15:41:59

Thanks jason, some very interesting things i noticed, the first is that by the sound and look of the flame it looks like a propane burner? the flame from a butane/propane torch seems alot less aggressive (although the copper heated at about the same rate)

He annealed several times forming the copper and radius-ing the end cap, something i didn't take into account on my attempt. 2 bits of wood to keep the material clean, probably better than using steel shims.

Not a major thing but i noticed his lathe had what looked like a spindle clutch on the handle he keeps pulling to the right of the camera shot?

I did actually know about leaving a gap and soldering the joint, but he jumped onto my wording and implied i was therefore a poorly read serf. Theres something to be said for assuming and arrogance but i'm sure his sovereign grace has the finest engines, i should expect no less of his countenance.

Michael W

That looks pretty cool, if i had 145 notes i'd consider it.

Theres no reason why you couldn't make an indexable carbide fly cutter

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 28/06/2016 12:22:22

ooh err missus.

Michael W

Yeah i actually went down the feel like it route at one point and have not used it since. Still, get some water soluble just for the economy value and use it out of a bottle.

I would say if you are doing CNC batch milling i'd say either coolant or air is a must, otherwise the tools could well overload on heavy side cuts. 

Having said that, there is one way around it by using a heavy application of carnuba wax before milling and it should be enough to contain the chips for 1 cycle before cleaning. 

But for a bit of this and a bit of that work on manual machines it's really unnecessary and a burden to clean. 

If you need a lubricant that can withstand high heat on the occasional drilling/tapping operation get some mollislip metalworking compound, does the job well. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 28/06/2016 11:54:50

If you really wanted to upset me you could say it's modern art. It's a metaphor for british politics.

Michael W - M.A fine art practitioner.

It's okay, i'm used to engineers

I'm afraid i must've missed that book.

Michael W

Yep, It's going to be scrap, unfortunately i can talk about it alot but not really do much about it until i get some more solder(N' tube) which i suspect i went through like water given how much needed jointing. This obviously isn't a desirable arrangement but i'm confident enough in my machining skills.

I was never a good fitter, i hated learning fitting as an apprentice but knew i had to. The moment i got onto a lathe changed that. Then later worked as a miller, I was literally just given drawings and left to get on with it. The people who were nice to me i helped them get through their problems, i'm of a quiet temperament and the noisy ones (some of them superior to me) would come round just to laugh at my handiwork for fitting tasks.

Well tis either screw cut or press fit, although given the wall thickness i'm probably going to make it push fit with a groove for solder, so it will be air tight.

I would probably not join a club so i'm not really too worried about any inspectors. I suspect he was simply helping the magpies make a nicer looking nest for themselves when they go foraging through the field.(depending on how heavy the copper is).

As far as safety is concerned, a safety valve would be never be deviated from it's design, that i wouldn't dream of changing.  

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 28/06/2016 01:08:11

Ok, you got to me, i'm starting over!

I'll show you Tubal Cain! You and your stupid sheet metal work can go to hell, I'll buy some tube(much more "tubal" than it is at the moment) and screwcut the ends and make two end caps to fit it. i'm sorry if any of his relatives see this. (however unlikely that is, unless someone upstairs has it in for me on that day) . I promise this will be the first and only time you ever see me try to roll a tube.

Respectfully ranted,

Michael W 

Edited By Michael Walters on 27/06/2016 22:45:28

I know this may be way off into the future but you could consider fitting rubber bedway wipers onto the mill after you're done, should help with the movement by preventing the ingress of swarf.

Michael

Yeah, i think if i had another go i would've deviated from his design slightly by riveting the shell together and flange the end plates, his methods are designed to hide the joints so that everything is flush but it needs an expert hand to do it right. And for a beginner maybe not a great way when you're being guided blindfolded.

I've used his sizes of copper 22G for the end plates and 24G for the wall so 0.6+0.7 respectively. I'm going to keep following onto the chimney after this and then fault find the joints by filling them up and checking for leaks.

If i've got some spare brass left i might be able to do a little bit of window dressing banding around the outside of the tube ends. I don't think it's irredeemable it's just a venture into the dark. Besides i've hardly got somewhere yet. Just wanted to try something new.

Michael W

Yeah it's polly, It seems there are only a few places where theres still some holes needing to be covered. The main seam is ok, The solder has penetrated both sides. I was going to put another disk inside the boiler to "double wall the ends.

The boiler shell is the exterior of the boiler. I think i'm going to soldier on.

Michael W

Standard Service?

Michael W

It's ok,

I'm not offended.

Michael W