Member postings for Ian Skeldon 2

Ega and Old Mart, thank you so much for your very generous offer. Personally I am reluctant to let others use my tools for fear of misuse or damage, the fear that I may damage or even destroy your tools is the reason that I will decline your kind offer and sincerely hope that this does not offend you.

I agree with Old Mart about the size of tooling being to big to pass through the bore. I think bot William and Old Mart have the right approach in so much as I need to make a tool to do the job, I am not sure which way to go, grind some hss into the required profile or make a holder and use a home made hss insert. In fact I have just had a thought, maybe I could buy a hss boring tool and regrind that to the required profile?

Nigel, i took my spring cover off and the spring sits neatly inside it, I made a simple tool using a piece of square bar, drilled two holes in it and put pegs in it to re-tension the spring upon re-assembly. If I can find it I will photograph it and pass on the details.

Thank you again Ega and Old Mart for your offer.

Ian

Hi OM,

I am using the same spec as you used SAE 660.

It cuts really well and should prove to serve the purpose for the rest of my life time. Only problem I can see at the moment is cutting the thread. I have searched the internet pretty hard and can't find 1" 5tpi ACME inserts for a tool that will fit into the bore. I only have a basic bench grinder so grinding something accurately is going to be challenging, mmm I might look for a tap although I guess they either don't exist in that spec or they cost as much as a mortgage!

I stripped the mill a while back and noted that although the lead screws were in great condition, the nuts had done a lot of work and had a fair bit of wear evident.

So after reading about Kennions being excellent suppliers of stock I ordered 2 x 66mm dia bar to make my two new nuts. i ordered the bar on Tuesday and it arrived on Wednesday morning cut perfectly to size and extremely well packaged. I will certainly use this supplier again.

Anyway I promised Nigel Graham I would update anything I did with my mill as he has the same mill and is interested to see what I do.

So today I made a start, First piece into the lathe, trued up and then turned in the same way that you would make a cube. Photo's below.

Edited By Ian Skeldon 2 on 09/06/2021 18:36:13

First time user of this supplier. I have just ordered 2 X 66mm dia x 38.1mm (1 1/2 " Bronze Bar to make two new nuts for my Myford VMC mill. I will post my progress including the cock ups as and when they occur.

How do you find your Craftsman in use, by that I mean that mine arrived with the operating handle needing to be pushed down for normal spindle running (anti-clockwise), I changed the wiring over so that lifting the lever up now provides AC rotation. I also find the cross slide function odd, if I tighten the gib so that I can only just move it it moves so freely with the leadscrew, I don't want to over tighten it and induce wear but it does seem slack in operation.

Any hints tips or advice gratefully received.

Ian

Gentlemen thank you, this forum never fails. Many years ago I thought they were known as tool post wrenches or tool post box spanners but I look on RDG and ARC and couldn't find anything, hence my question, I will go away and get one ordered.

Many thanks for your help,

Ian

Hi,

I recently bought a used Chester Craftsman lathe, it seems to be reasonable now that I have set it up how I like it, but the lathe arrived without the box spanner that tightens the screws that hold the tool in the 4 way tool post. I know that the studs/screws are 10mm AF so I know what size tool I need to buy but what are they actually called? and where would I need to look in order to buy one?

TIA

Ian

My best wishes for whatever you decide to do in the Future Bill, I'm sure your contributions will be missed.

My apologies Michael, I thought you meant that your second one was working!

Wow what a stunning car, nice work done on the restoration Peter.

Well done, isn't it funny how some problems that could easily be ignored just eat away you and you have to find the answers.

Hi Robin,

I feel your pain, I have been there and done that as they say. I agree that if your lathe is not sitting securely with the head and bed lined up you will have the sort of problems you are currently getting, I started out with the same problem on my DB10. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't out by much, but it was out and giving a slight taper. I used the ‘Rolly’s Dad Method’ as it is sometimes referred to which amounts to twisting the bed slightly. At first I thought that it had provided the cure and that my lathe could not have been set up truly in the first place. However, I produced some test pieces and found that I had exchanged my taper cut for a bobbin effect whereby the centre of the piece is narrower and thus more material has been removed from the central area of the work when compared to the chuck or tail end, again we are talking very small discrepancies but I wanted as good as I could get. So looking again what was happening and the penny dropped, in twisting the bed the tool travels along a helix around the workpiece, in my case the tool was slightly higher than the workpiece centre line at the start of the cut, on the centre line of the work in the middle of the cut and then slightly lower than centre at the chuck end of the cut. So when the tool was cutting the middle part of the cut it was removing very slightly more material and hence producing a bobbin effect. Altering the amount of twist resulted in either the taper returning or a greater bobbin effect. I suppose I should really have left it at that but it ate away at me, in the end I decided to take the head off and check it, I very carefully and very lightly scraped the corner I thought was causing the problem and then reassembled the lathe, BINGO, no taper and no bobbin or any other problems or was there?

So happy that I could cut normally using the feed and carriage etc I decided to look at the rarely used top slide, I wish I hadn’t, it runs downhill so when wound back towards the tail the tool is higher than when it is wound forward towards the chuck, I used a shim to provide a temporary fix and to my shame it is still there, one day I will get it re-ground ….maybe.

Hi Diane,

I live in Crewe so not very far away, although the lathe is of no interest to me I could pop around and help you put together a list of the items that are available with the lathe, at least that way you could advertise it as complete with etc,.

If you PM me I will be happy to let you have my contact details.

Regards,

Ian

I did wonder what the part was, all I know is that he is very satisfied with the lathe so I guess it is cutting accurately enough for whatever it is he is doing, thanks for the info chaps.

I very recently sold my Boxford lathe to make way for a larger unit. The buyer who collected the lathe only this Saturday just gone has kindly sent me a photograph showing the lathe in use. I would never have thought it possible to turn such a large item on this machine but the operator is very happy with the results.

I have some experience in the field of opthalmology and have seen many reasons for both slow and sudden unset of reduced peripheral vision, some factors that can help are life style, smoking is terrible for good eye care, good diet is beneficial especially some of the supplements like Lutein, Bilberry, and Zeaxanthin but sadly age is something that you can't do anything about.

Your ability to see at any or all distances with your central vision is not an indication that your peripheral vision is ok. Opticians and technicians are not able to tell a person when to press or when to expect to see a light as that rather defeats the object and would create false positives no doubt. Conditions such as AMD, Glaucoma or high intra ocular pressure can certainly damage peripheral vision, along with things like poor vascular activity, arthritis and rheumatic conditions also seem to be common with vision problems. It is also possible to have variation when being tested, some days you may have poor sight and on another occasion not so bad.

Seems a bit pricey for what it is, if you do get it make sure it has all the change gears and other bits you are ever likely to need as they would be a pita to get hold of.

Sorry to hear of your sad loss Jonathan.

During the quest to get the best accuracy I could from my Chester DB 10 and achieve a parallel cut to over 120mm cut I could never get consistent results and even after marking if I removed the work and put it back into the chuck it wasn't anything like concentric, sometimes the run out was visible. I tried everything but had to concede that the chuck just wasn't very good. I ordered a fairly cheap 125mm dia 3 jaw chuck from ARC, it arrived quickly, I cleaned it, although it probably didn't need it. Put it onto the back plate and wow, what a difference. I can't be 100% sure, but I think I paid less that £50 including postage. So then I was able to shim the head and I now get 0.01mm run out over 120mm length of cut, I am certainly happy with the chuck that I bought from ARC.

Edited By Ian Skeldon 2 on 29/03/2021 10:05:04