Member postings for not done it yet

I was beginning to wonder if those members had different internet locations.... or if both were the same.....

Do you have a scale to indicate the size?

As an addition to this thread/topic, I wonder if members would think it a good idea for anyone selling (or even buying) in the forum adverts to be required to have a profile - as there seems to be no other way of locating posts/other forum activity by the advertisers. Checking posts may reveal whether the vendor is a dedicated forumer or someone who just registered for the purpose of selling stuff.

the importers need to sort this instead

Exactly not what the importers should sort out at this end of the supply chain. It should be sorted at the supply end. But if the importers cannot sell the more expensive versions of the same product (the buyers simply think another cheaper supplier is a more favourable deal), they may well no longer exist.

The buyers are the ones that choose to buy a crated machine directly from china (but temporarily stored by the iimporter). How much extra would it cost the dealer to check out everything? The customer would be paying far more than the crated machine which is dropped on their doorstep, for sure.

The company I worked for, that insisted on zero substandard parts, paid for that service. They supplied the specification to be adhered to and the chinese tendered for the contract. The quality clauses were a very prominent part of the specification.

The hobby is expensive for good machinery. It is a shame that some of the hobbyists scratch around for the cheapest machine they can find, then complain if it is substandard in some respect. Profit margins may appear good, but that may not be the real case in practice. But it does appear it is a more cost effective route (to replace) than check over every machine in fine detail.

Forty years ago we worked on the simple rule of tens, where process mistakes were costed. If rectified for ten pounds at the design stage, it would cost a hundred if the mistake was found at the production stage, but a thousand if only found when installing. That same problem would typically have cost ten thousand pounds if the subsequent fault required fixing when the process was commissioned. Multiply that by another factor of ten if the failure stopped the process when in full production!

Same principle here. If the quality control checks discarded 'out of spec' parts at the manufacturing stage, the final product would be in spec. Unfortunately this is clearly not occurring. Likely what happens is that selected high spec parts are directed to the product line of those that pay for high quality machines - the lesser spec ones are used for the cheaper lines. Guess what? The dregs are the cheapest!

I once worked for a company that guaranteed a 'very-close-to-zero' failure rate for their products, which were assembled using parts made in the UK and some chinese made component parts. After a couple containers worth of components were simply returned to china, after QC checks in the UK found them to have a higher failure rate than demanded, the chinese suppliers realised their checks needed to be up to the job. They were paid to send only in-spec components, so only in-spec component deliveries were acce

pted.

Who buys the dregs? You decide, as the buyer - you choose to buy the cheaper or more expensive version of the same type of machine.

Loose casting sand inside engine components used to be a particular problem with some Lister clones made in India, for instance. Not good!  Other defects included occlusions in flywheel castings, filled with body filler and painted over. Things which would never have been acceptable when those same engines were made by Lister in the UK.

Edited By not done it yet on 21/11/2017 16:46:50

I thought Paul was referring to a milling head, not a vertical slide.

This one:

**LINK**

So, there you go! Now we have heard from both sides of the problem - buyer and vendor. Problem solved.

Likely would have been without all this 'dirty washing' plastered all over the forum. Other vendors have the same problems with these imported machines.

Mostly the incidence is sorted without recourse to threads like this. The vendors are then regarded as the best thing next to sliced bread. Same problem, different perception by third parties. .

I always remember about the German POW, during WWII, who was supplied with a gun and ammunition. He did not go round shooting people, but provided a good service to the people where he was set to work.

Charlie Smidth was captured early in the war and had no desire to escape. Most certainly there were some (probably quite a lot) who may not have acted that way. Maybe Charlie was in the minority, but it does demonstrate that, when given a gun, one does not need to use it irresponsibly. From what I gleaned from him, when he visited for a couple weeks in around 1963/4, he did not really have any real desire to fight a war either. He was a soldier, not a political extremist, and did as he was ordered to do, before his capture

very rarely ever wished I did..... I even bought a reversing switch and mounted it...

If that does not indicate indecision or contradiction, I don't know what does!

Clearly you wished for one enough at some point to go and get one mounted. Not wiring it in might indicate something other than not actually wanting it operational? I sometimes have a problem of "getting round to it".

If it was a new item, what response have you had from the supplier?

Steady on here. While Chester are not my number one "go to" they perhaps deserve the opportunity to put things right.

I do note that the model has possibly changed to a super prefix, so this may have been one of the last needing a home.

Perhaps it is just a 'Friday afternoon jobbie'. It may be that we have only heard one-sided comments from a few disgruntled previous customers. Perhaps it was just dumped on an unsuspecting customer.

It clearly has problems, so let's see what Chester have to say. Then decide whether Chester is a suitable supplier. I expect the other suppliers have had quality problems at times and most have detractors.

I think it is not fit for purpose, but one does wonder why customers come on the forum before contacting the supplier.

I'm not accusing anyone about anything; all I am saying is see what Chester have to say, and actually do, about it.

I'm a gardener - but I don't grow cannabis or magic musrooms.

I have a lathe and milling machines - but I don't make guns (or ammunition cases).

I'm chemist - but I don't make hallucinogenic drugs.

I'm a chemist - but I don't make explosives.

I have both a car and a lorry - but I don't go round mowing down pedestrians.

If I were to have guns, I would not go around shooting people.

I could go out and find a source of prohibited drugs and become a pusher - but I don't.

I have potential house breaking tools around (jemmy bars, glass cutters, bolt ctoppers, gloves, etc) - but I don't go breaking into other people's homes (or raiding their sheds, even).

Just some of the 'possibilities' that I choose not to follow. Not even considered, except as an example list here. I expect there are millions out there who might fall into one, or more, of the above categories. Millions are honest, but there is a small minority who 'break the rules of society'. Clearly that minority cannot be easily persuaded to conform to normal social rules, often for some sad reasons, but more often for other reasons. That minority will never be reduced to zero. If there were no non-conformists there would be no need for a police force.

But we need a police force, and other agencies to help keep us safe from those minorities. Even armed forces to deter international interference.

This is just one case of possible cheating the rules, that needs to be proved - but he will never be a registered firearms dealer again as he will most likely be convicted of having an over-powered air rifle in his possession. That is the fall-back charge, as I see it. So there is a risk that the other charges cannot be proven (even if he did all that has been made public) because he has covered his tracks.

I doubt he has ever been a model engineer, so this thread is mostly irrelevant, if answering the topic title.

For most metric screw threading on an Imperial lathe reversing the chuck to drive back to the start position is a useful option (the same for a metric lathe cutting Imperial threads, too). It would be idling, while only driving the lead screw in reverse, and low speed - so safe. The alternative would be to wind the cutter back by hand.

Have you looked over the ones on the Lathes site?

Yes, that was my first port of call. Nothing like it, even among the orphans.

they are probably rare now....

They most certainly are, but a member actually made one fairly recently - well in the last decade or so!  Weighing 80kg, so quite robust.for its bed size. It appears to be a very good working model.  A credit to Richard's skill.

This one weighs just a tad over 12kg , including the wooden plinth.

The crackle finish on the main cast components reminds me of laboratory instruments such as Hilger & Watts.

Edited By not done it yet on 19/11/2017 17:33:58

Yes, Roy, we can see it is a planer, but is it just a toy or did it have a useful job in some industry (someone has suggested it might have been used for machining printing blocks, which would have been a soft material).

Clearly a good (right) wrist strengthener, being operated by that one bakelite knob.

But thanks for 'bumping' the thread. 423 views and only your posting/response seems to make it a quite rare - possibly one of a kind, even - item.

Also if you suspect the problem is due to the tool / spindle heat difference mentioned above run it for a while to heat up the bearing.

This action will be too late and not help if a cold taper has been inserted into a warm socket - the tight fit will be achieved as the colder part warms to the same temperature as the machine. Any temperature change after that will result in both the socket and tool changing size together (same delta T). Shrink- fitted parts do not come loose easily, by changing the temperature, unless their coefficients of linear expansion are suitably different.

The 10 - 25 micron particles are the ones likely to remain in the respiratory tract, and do damage.

It is the nano-particles which are causing concern, so sub-micron particles. Three orders smaller, but it may depend on whether it is linear, area or volumetric measurements which are being discussed at that level. These less thsn microscopic particles are, apparently, easily able to pass across the surface membranes of the lung can enter the blood stream.

There are alternatives to hammering on the drawbar. Firstly do not use a steel hammer as that will likely damage the bearings - only use a softer metal hammer like a copper faced mallet. One alternative is to drive wedges between the tool and spindle shoulders.

As above, the tool only needs to be retained to prevent side thrust of the cutting tool from loosening it. Drilling does not tend to loosen the tool.

Do make sure the tool is not colder than the socket when inserting - expansion of the tool, on warming to the machine temperature, can severely tighten the fit! Think here of shrink fitting

Apart from it being a small metal planer (bed is 4" wide and about 6" effective cutting length) does anyone recognise it, please? Maker, age, origin (guessing it is UK as threads are mostly imperial), or any other details would be appreciated.

I'm guessing it was a kit as some of the machining is not really up to a serial production finish - all adequate for use, but not perfect.

There are other (sideways) pics in an album.

ndiy

An example here might be the all weather automatic landing system for aeroplanes.

The military adopted the system with a failure rate of 1 in 120,000 (where the pilot would retake the controls and abort the touchdown). For civil aviation use they needed to go from a simplex to a triplex system (where the landing would not be aborted as long as two of three computers were in agreement - and the errant one was ignored) to achieve a failure rate of better than 1 in 10 million.

What failure rate can we put on any cheap pressure regulator - when used for a different set of conditions? At Thurleigh, the pilots were highly trained to recognise any failure, or impending failure, but here we have personnel who may not have any training at all, but still operating with a potentially catastrophic outcome.

Competency cannot be transferred by simple forum postings.