Member postings for HOWARDT

Soft plastics don’t like fine threads, they have no strength so tightening to seal can be difficult. If design allows much better to produce a metal adaptor with the fine thread one end and a course thread on the other to fit your ptfe part.

I would consider a three bladed tool body with adjustable blades running lengthwise. The blades could made from some M2 HSS parting off blades and clamped into the body. Having three blades allows for jacking screws behind the blades. Used with a range of setting rings this would give a reasonably cheap tool. The tool could be fitted with adaptors to fit what ever you wanted to use to rotate it.

I have just bought a Brother HL-L2350DW, to replace an Epson colour laser that I had for eight years. The Epson had been playing up for a while with a service error, cheaper to replace than repair. The Brother is identical to one my daughter has used at home for three years with no trouble and using non Brother toner. For photography I use an Epson Surecolor P600, an A3 inkjet printer in which I use Marrutt refillable ink system. I find the Marrutt system excellent as it doesn't dry up even with extended times of sitting, I am talking of weeks here not days. These days I would avoid HP primarily as they have locked the printers into using HP inks only. I believe Canon have also done this in some countries, so always wise to check wether this applies if you intend to use non manufacturers ink or toner. Also ensure that the printer will function with your operating system and hardware, the Brother I have is primarily intended to be used wirelessly on my MAC.

I think that what we are considering is creativity. The process by which you create something only matters to the creator, wether by hand or machine. As an amateur photographer, I use everything bought except for the image which is shown on the paper, much the same as any artist. In recent years competition rules have evolved to ensure that the basic image is 100% by the photographer. A few years ago an international wildlife competition was won initially by someone using trained animals to create the image, it was withdrawn once the organisers were informed of the use of trained animals. Rules now even go so far as being requested to show meta data of winning image files. I would expect a hand crafted competition winner to be largely that. In model steam while expecting some parts to be bought finiished, such as pipe fittings etc one would not expect to see something like a Polly Engineering kit locomotive as a suitable winner.

What sort of steel section are you cutting and with what?

I have only cut metal with industrial machines and personally wouldn’t use anything in my workshop other than a band saw. Most blade manufacturers can supply metal cutting blades but are specific for material being cut and speed of machine.

Latest scam.

Email supposedly from BT with pdf attached. Request to acknowledge BT address or account will be closed, or words to that effect. Knew it was scam, confirmed as it appeared on both of my BT email addresses.

You could use PTFE tape or plumbers mate.

Minor diameter of M16.2x0.5 is 15.7, so that is a no, would need to be at least 16.5. Spacers between both inner and outer rings at the front, ground to suit the bearings will give some preload, otherwise nut is not locked in place. Use a snap ring below the upper bearing to give a larger thrust shoulder. Use M7x0.5 for rear thread, no point in odd size. As previous bore through for simple assembly. Make front pair bearing nut M8x0.5. It is quite normal for the bearing locknut threads to be same size as bearing bore. Machine to ensure concentricity of all bores. At 15k use light air oil lubrication, will also help o keep the swarf out.

No, I always leave delivery to the dispatcher. While I am sure Metal Mania will follow delivery requests many others do not, so I just live with what I get.

My eldest granddaughter has to avoid wheat and dairy. I can attest to the terrible taste in comparison to what most of us eat. Fortunately her mother likes cooking including making her own bread so this enables her to avoid the mass produced dietary foods. Now that she is teenager she is learning to cook for herself but still has to be reminded of the effects of not following her diet.

Not MK, but I ordered some metal from Megalomania over in Hinckley on Monday afternoon via their website as I didn't want to receive it until later in the week as I would be out all day Wednesday. You can guess what happened, email on Tuesday to say being delivered the following day. Why is it when your not in a hurry for something you get it promptly and when you do the opposite occurs, that's life I suppose.

Bearing design for a spindle depends on speed and forces. In my past life I drew designs for thousands of spindles, OK many of them were straight forward for vertical drilling operations but there were many in the five to ten thousand rpm range for more precision use and that is where things get interesting.

SKF used to publish a design manual, I suspect you can still see it online, where they discussed different bearing arrangements for many uses. A lot of the older machines tools used these designs, which came first is any bodies guess. Commercially bearing manufacturers would work with designers to get the simplest bearing design, no point in sticking five bearings on a spindle is two would do.

Following a known design of a spindle which fulfils you requirements is the simplest way but be careful that you follow all the parameters of the design. Using cheap bearings in a spindle which is required to run accurately at high speed will not work, or if it does not for long. Over lubricating can cause heat within the bearing and wreck everything , as will lack of proper lubrication.

If you look at the relevant limits and fits standards to establish the required size differences then jus use what heat and cooling you have all should be well. I think you are overthinking it, use of heat and cold merely makes the fitting process easier, ie a force fit with the right temperature difference will drop in place. I have used professionally nitrogen for fitting bushes in holes and heatiers of various forms to apply bearings to shafts.

Usually where two faces at 90 deg in a slot are needed to be in contact with another part either the internal corner is removed by pre drilling or milling out the corner or the external part has the corner removed sufficiently to allow full face contact.

I have heard numerous stories about people killing engines with low mileages, usually it is people driving just a few miles to every few days and not getting the wholes system upto temperature. Cool running will create condensate build up in the oil reducing its effectiveness in quite a short time. A few years ago I was in a car dealer getting a new car for the wife and could hear a woman talking with another sales man. When the woman went off with the salesman our man explained that she had wrecked a three year old car, under five thousand miles and was trying to get a loan that they were resisting because of her age.

Have a look at Glacier/oilite bushings, they give you all the information you need. Soft material thin wall bushes need a sized mandrel to create the correct size during deformation.

There was a news article somewhere this week about an American man who was overweight and had tried different diets to no avail. So he decided he wouldn’t give anything up in his diet but instead only eat when he was hungry. He didnt say how much he ate each time but he lost over 100lbs over two years and kept it off. So perhaps rather than count calories or exercise we should all only eat as necessary, difficult I know if you live with someone.

Clough42 did a couple of wheel balancing videos for his new surface grinder, worth a look. I’ve never bothered with trying to balance a wheel for a bench grinder and I can’t remember seeing one done at work any time. Balance is done on finishing grinders to get a smooth finish, surface grinder etc. Out of balance can show in the surface finish as ripples, hardly a problem with an off hand grinder. The main thing is that the wheel is not so out of balance that it can explode at full speed. Perhaps fastening the grinder down to a heavy bench would help to damp the vibration.

I have two NHS hearing aids. Had them for about seven years, one has been replaced in that time. A friend used to have private ones but has recently moved to NHS ones and has no regrets.

If you have ever registered with HMRC online for submitting tax accounts you do occasionally get an email telling you to log in for documents. But I am pretty sure you do this separately, not going through any link on the email, which I always do for any personal or home accounts.