Member postings for not done it yet

Delrin (acetal) melted and squeezed makes a feed screw nut with virtually no backlash when made (I needed to relieve the thread a little to make it less tight for use). Working as a cross slide feed nut, with better results than the worn out brass item, even though a bit tighter in operation thus far.

Raglan used the die cast lead screw half nuts from the American equivalent. They work OK.

A tool grinder can do without any, or much backlash. I try to never rely on a lead screw nut to prevent backlash. Tightening gibs on anything but the direction of cut makes things much more rigid.

Here are a couple of pics of an early AKMC cam plate.

This is a simpler version, probably just before 1900, without the in-out switch. Removing the drive pin would have been used on these earlier machines to stop the ribbing action.

It does show that the die cast only left that void, on the right of your picture, to save metal.

Yours, with the drive pin adjuster of that form would indicate a later model as the earlier ones had a screw adjuster for timing purposes.

Hello Jim,

What CSM is that? Seems like an Autoknitter, but not of UK manufacture! I am guessing it is either a US or Canadian die cast version.

How many needles? Guessing this is about 4 1/2” in diameter and 36 slots (or less) in the ribber?

I’ve had, or got, ribber dials in cast iron, brass, aluminium and pot metal. Pot metal ones need to be stored dry! I would not recommend aluminium - that New Zealand copy of a Beehive machine (basically an autoknitter) made a black gunge when in use and was likely wearing out PDQ.

They don’t look too difficult to make, just as long as the etc includes a rotary table or similar, to index for the slots. Just repetitive machining once the cutters are shaped appropriately.

Let’s hear how you get on as I need to start makiing a few - when I get round to making new cylinders.

You can make them like ribber dials on other machines - they all seem to work as long as they fit. American autoknitters take needles with larger butts than UK machines, btw.

I recently noted a CSM with 3Dprinted parts. I don’t know how long it might last, mind!

I quite fancy using aluminium bronze, but some don’t like machining it. I started a cam shell in Al bronze, for an early AKMC, some time ago, but the project stalled about eight years ago, due to health reasons. Time to find the casting again...

Edited (now I see your pics) : Oh, you mean the cam plate.  Best of luck on that.  Is the rest of the machine still good? Plenty of those come up on epay, from machines where the cam shell and cylinder have expanded and cracked. That part could be OK in Aluminium, I suppose.

Edited By not done it yet on 30/12/2017 17:10:45

The last system I bought from a solar distributor was £900. That included 1.8kW of panels, a 2kW inverter, all necessary fixings for a roof installation (apart from connecting wires from the panels to the inverter), all required isolation switches, a generation meter and a pack of warning stickers.

Of course, an installer needs paying - and likes to make a reasonable profit....

Perhaps you actually need one? Perhaps you do production work? Perhaps I should have written ‘some people have snooty ideas’, but you obviously didn’t read all that sentence. However, ‘if the cap fits’, so be it.

Abwood is a well respected machine tool manufacturer. A good second hand one is more than adequate for my hobby work. It cost me £35. I doubt I needed that quality but I buy the better quality if I can.

Which model milling machine?

I recently bought a small Abwood (3&rdquo. It was cheap, has a small chip missing, but works great

Has a gib and runs on a dovetail. Works fine on my Raglan and Centec. People have some snooty ideas of owning a Kurt or similar, but not many hobbyists need that quality. For everyone else a good robust vise is more than adequate. Just need to tap the item down to be sure it seats properly. Cheaper vises may not hold perpendicular if tightened really tight and some Chinese offers are so much built to a price that they are easily broken.

Like Jason, I also have an Arc offering (same type, I think) and that works well but must be clamped down, not bolted. But it can be turned on it’s side, if needed.

I also have a 4 or 5” I got from Chester. Too big for most things but holds everything OK.

This Abwood will see me out.

“why one and not the other ?”

Because they were both saved as files in different places, but one place wants umpteen quids a year for the privilege, so is blocking any view until they are paid!

“Over here”?

I just looked at Navitron prices - about half you quoted. And likely cheaper available on Epay. Over here, for me, is in the UK.

Do remember that panels alone do not make a system - an inverter is required for grid connection, if that is the way one intends to generate. Even multiple inverters in some instances. Top line panels tend to be more expensive, of course, and can give more generation over the full life of the panels. You pays your money......

No, any potential, which might be found when you measure up, will result in the oversize cut (if important) and as stated, the cutter may cut on one side more than the other, but it cannot present tapering problems, like on a lathe. You are not cutting cylindrically, as on a lathe. Setting up the workpiece will be the important factor in achieving a parallel and square finished article.

Important cuts in this context might be boring holes or making slots.

I worry...

About 70 years too late for that. The worries were when the first hydrogen fusion bomb was tested. The controlled fusion reaction used for these controlled fusion reactors is slightly different to a fusion bomb but the fusion temperatures will be similar.

There have since been worries (unfounded, of course) that the Large Hadron Collider might set off a chain reaction.

I think you should be far more worried about the genetically modified crop merchants. When they open Pandora’s box by releasing some uncontrollable virulent gene, it may mean the end of us!

Dinorwig has been generating power that way for fourty odd years. About 9GWh available. Mostly, of course, using cheap night production to fill the reservoir. Most of the solar generation is used to reduce fuelled generation and, usually, only at night (when wind and nuclear are the chief non-greenhouse gas generation) are the generators reconfigured as pumps.

The Swansea tidal lagoon is still hanging on, but government is holding back on giving the green light for starting the project. Hopefully they might get started next year or soon after. The initial project is expensive at around £1.2 billion (I think) but if successful, other sites would be far cheaper to develop.

La Rance, in France, has been operating as tidal generation for over fifty years.

Tidal flow turbines are being tested in Scotland waters. A recent trial produced the target of 10MW, I believe. Bigger ones to come.

Here in the East Midlands/East Anglia we don’t get enough rainfall to keep the Norfolk broads any more than on an ‘even keel’, let alone make much hydro leccy!

Can you have a reference and credit for that quote/extract?

Edited By not done it yet on 29/12/2017 07:36:22

A parting-off tool?

I looked at the spec on that auction. The details do not add up. Says 2.2HP engine, for a start, qotes 122kW and 3.7A (at 230V?).

Do makecsure you know what you are actually getting. May still not start a lathe motor.

Daughter's behaviour isn't inherited. Whilst I'm a mere Scrooge-level meanie, my mum is an ultra-saver;

It’s likely your mum had to - war years instilled a saving culture - and it was passed on, to you, in your younger years. Daughter has grown up in a less ‘make do and mend’ era.

Until they are really hard up for spare cash, there is little to change their ways, and modern goods don’t easily lend themselves towards repair, do they! So a ‘throw away’ generation has resulted. It is surprising how going hungry can concentrate the mind.

Edited By not done it yet on 26/12/2017 11:44:41

You are not looking at the right market. The P100D Tesla battery doesn’t cost £100,000. They use different chemistry for different applications. Not sure what a 7kWh Tesla powerwall costs at present, but remember that includes all the charging, discharging - and interaction with the grid - connections, too.

Traction applies to golf cart or mobility scooter batteries.

No. You need a quality of ‘fork truck’ batteries at least. Look up about number of deep discharges per battery type.

Ray,

Do not even try to use car batteries. It is doomed to failure - automotive batteries are not designed for deep discharge and would fail within a few months unless depth of discharge were limited to about 10% and they were returned to full charge soon after.. Traction batteries are made for this purpose.

From a thread by the same poster, about 6 months ago:

“I do have a petrol generator in there (2.8kw?) which matches my planned needs (2kw?) for small 1ph workshop machines but the noise it makes is pretty bad. Would also be nice to have 6kw-ish for a big welder I have.”

I am wondering what has changed since then. I can’t envisage a small suitcase genny of 800W (per JB) being of much use at all. Likely only 700W for rated running. Might not even start a freezer compressor motor (160W) let alone a one horse, especially if it has start windings.

Edited By not done it yet on 25/12/2017 21:31:36