Member postings for Jez

At university (Essex) the accomodation tower blocks (six of them) had an internal telephone system which the uni had christened the Towers Internal Telephone System...

Glad you got it sorted!

Unfortunately I can't find the emails or receipts from when I bought the parts but I'm 99.9% sure I got them from Semco UK.

I do recall that they're quite proud of their spares (almost as much as Colchester!), so maybe sit down when opening the quote!

The 2J book helped a great deal when I did the job... Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the job underway, but I did post some pictures of the worn parts:

Bearing slop movie

Worn pulley

New pulley

Spindle section

Good luck!

Hi Jason,

I do still have the mill, but I'm afraid I can't help you with the wiring. I ripped it all out and replaced the lot - I run the mill from a VFD.

Hope you get it sorted!

Sorry...

Jez.

Edited By Jez on 24/06/2023 10:18:38

Hi Chris,

The loco appears to be a type 2D2, and the mechanism a "Buchli drive":

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchli_drive - it appears to be a method of decoupling the drive motor and gears from the traction wheel, reducing unsprung weight.

Cheers,

Jez.

Edited By Jez on 15/05/2023 07:17:17

Project Machinery near High Wycombe - I actually bought a LC1-1/2VS from him!

If you can find a second hand copy, "The TTL Data Book, Volume 1" by Texas Instruments is the bible I've had on my shelf for 30+ years...

Also north Hampshire - just east of Basingstoke...

Edited By Jez on 25/03/2021 16:24:20

Bottom. All day long. Used both - bottom wins hands down...

Hi Martin,

In my case it was definitely the arm which was moving... Paid more than £2.50 for it too!

Cheers,

Jez.

I bought a cheap one and wasn't impressed - it moved about no matter how hard it was tightened.

So I bought a Noga. Fantastic bit of kit - solid as a rock. And the bottom adjust feature is excellent too - a much better place to adjust from than at the business end...

I managed to magnetise my Mitutoyo digital calipers by (clearly without thinking first!) using them to measure a neodymium magnet!

I demagnetised them on my Eclipse demagentiser after first taking the battery out (not sure if that's necessary, but figured it couldn't hurt...) and they've been fine ever since.

Jez.

Stefan Gotteswinter (YouTube) has posted some free plans to a similar device.

I'm making one at the moment - it's a nice little project...

Link: here.

Edited By Jez on 31/05/2020 19:49:08

+1 for R-Tech. Excellent service too.

I built "Tina" from GLR Kennions. Decent sized model, and was serialised in Model Engineer by Stan Bray. Castings aren't too expensive in the grand scheme of things (IMHO) at £180 for the set including drawings.

Link to information: Tina

There's also a vertical boiler to match which was also in ME I think.

Jez.

I just picked up my set of these from the post office... Ordered on October 25th from AliExpress so they took almost exactly a month to arrive.

Cost me £39.04, plus £8 VAT and £8 post office 'handling fee'...

Mike - I put the sizes I wanted (20, 16, 12, 10 & 8mm) in the "message to seller" box and the right ones turned up!

Finish on them is ok, but nothing more. The important bits appear to be nicely ground, but the rest is very average.

Had to run a tap down the drawbar threads, otherwise I couldn't get my drawbar to seat them properly.

They don't spin in the taper either on tightening or loosening, which was one of my fears - them not having drive dog slots. The collets self-lock, requiring a tap on the drawbar to release, which is good - the cutter doesn't fall out on the table / work...

Very quick measurement - my spindle taper on its own has a runout of ~0.5thou. My ER collet chuck taper has a runout of ~1.2thou. A 10mm collet + cutter appears to have a runout of ~1.4thou.

The direct collets have the following runouts:

20mm - 1.5 thou

16mm - 1.6 thou

12mm - 2.6 thou

10mm - 2 thou

8mm - 0.8 thou

And a proper 2" daylight increase - probably a shade more if you were to remove the drive dogs.

I haven't done any work with them yet so I can't comment on their holding power...

Satisfied so far...

Thanks for the pointer to them!

Cheers,

Jez.

Hi Gary,

Yes, I have a Semco LC1-1/2 VS.

I'm told they're one of the better Bridgeport clones, although how true that is I don't know.

I had to re-build the head (vari-rattle!) to quieten it down but that's not uncommon with real variable speed Bridgeports either.

Spare parts don't appear to be compatible with real Bridgeport parts and aren't cheap. However, if you need to work on one, "A Guide to Renovating the Bridgeport 2J Variable Speed Milling Machine" is invaluable.

Apart from the head re-build I've had no complaints with it.

Cheers,

Jez.

So would I...

Axminster sell one, but the design is appalling.

It's a 150mm ruler, but it's about 154mm long. Nothing wrong with that, except that all the graduations start at the same (hook) end, so if you don't want to use the hook you need another ruler - you can't just turn it around. Further, the graduations are metric. On all 4 edges.

They must have tried *really* hard to design it that badly...

I bought one ages ago (can't remember where from, sorry!) for exactly the same reason. However, I never fitted it because I couldn't get the old one out - the pin which retains the cam won't budge no matter what I try. If you haven't already, it might be worth checking that you're not in the same boat...

Jez.

It will be exactly where you go to put the replacement when you buy one...

That's what always happens to me anyway.

I'm missing a 63/64" 5C collet - I know full well that it'll turn up the moment I buy a new one.

Blimey - that looks a bit different than when I visited their factory probably 38 years ago!

Hope they are still going...

Jez.