Member postings for CHARLES lipscombe

Over time I have read many comments on the forum to do with drill sharpening, but have never seen it mentioned how the drill manufacturers manage to get a perfect result every time. Does anyone know this?

For my part I have a Picador grinding jig which I modified in accordance with Graham Meek's recommendations.It can't give split point or 4-facet sharpening but works very well for basic sharpening. At this stage I don't think I have an actual need for more sophisticated sharpening (as opposed to wanting) so I am quite happy with the situation.

Chas

The Singapore status is one that I greatly admire, not only because as I get older and less able to defend myself physically I value my safety more, but because of the tremendous benefits that Singaporeans enjoy. When I first visited there in 1970 you left the aircraft by a ladder and the terminal consisted of about 6 shops and a few desks. Now there are separate terminals for arrivals and departures each with 100+ aircraft bays. Much of the Singaporean population has also been re-housed in that time also. Not bad for a place that is basically only a mudflat with no natural resources.

Crime of any kind is rare by Western standards. We tend to (over?)focus on the rights of the individual rather than what is good for society as a whole. Which ignores simple facts - that order can be maintained amongst the ferals by fear, and crime will run rampant if there are no real consequences. Any Singaporean will tell you that only visitors commit crime in Singapore - the locals know that due to strong policing they will be caught and that the punishment will be severe.

Who can forget the case of the American visitor who vandalised some cars a while back. He was jailed until his flogging was due and the prospect of physical punishment scandalised the American President of the day who wrote to the Singaporean Prime Minister.expressing his abhorrence of such a punishment. The Singapore Prime Ministers reply was succinct - Lets get this straight. America does not have physical punishment and rampant crime. We have physical punishment and no crime. And you are telling us how to handle crime?

Then of course there was the only attempted aircraft hi-jacking in Singapore. There were no negotiations and 7 attempted hijackers were shot dead. No-one ever attempted to hi-jack a plane in Singapore again.

My view is that there are some people who can only be reached through their personal suffering e.g. flogging or punitive jail sentences.

While this will offend people like Neil with their highly moralistic approach, I can only say that we don't have an idealistic society where everyone listens to reason and acts for the common good. We are never likely to have one, and the efforts of the do-gooders have only led to the present high crime levels and deterioration in the lives of the bulk of the law-abiding citizen.

What a wonderful word freedom is. It can lead to the most awful deterioration in the populaces well-being yet it is eagerly sought. Can anyone name an African nation that is now "free" from colonial rule where the populace as a whole are better off than they were under colonialism?

Chas

I like the sound of Bricky's idea and although it is subject to the possible errors already listed above, it sounds a whole lot more convenient than turning up a plug gauge each time. Can anyone (Bricky ?) provide a sketch of such a device?

Chas

I for one certainly remember the NSU Quickly, the things were ubiquitous, you saw them everywhere. They were , well-made and extremely reliable, but at that time you would have needed considerable foresight to see that nearly 60 years later they would become collectors items.

Thanks to the OP for saving this piece of history for us all to enjoy

Chas

Which raises the question of die material. I have heard it said on the forum that carbon steel dies can be sharper than HSS dies and may be a better choice for some materials e.g. brass or stainless steel. That may be the case but would a CS die wear more rapidly than HSS? In my case this is important because I do repetitive tapping of 5mm * 0.8 mm in 303 stainless when making my motorcycle levers.

Trying to thread stainless of any variety with a die that is not quite sharp is only going to lead to tears on this may be a factor in the OP's posting

Chas

Thanks Jason. You have been a major help.

Chas

Thanks to all who replied.

Jason, on reading your post I think I have been guilty of blinkered thinking.

I had dismissed the idea of using a 5C chuck because it seemed so much more trouble to install each time I wanted to use it. However I now think that if I set up such a chuck on a dedicated back plate I will be able to screw the whole assembly of clutch+backplate off the lathe spindle thread and screw it back on again next time I want to use it, without losing concentricity.

There has to be some loss of accuracy doing this but I think this might well be within acceptable limits for what I am doing (reproduction vintage motorcycle parts e.g control levers). Does this sound reasonable to you?

The idea of using ER collets for square stock is likely to come in useful someday and I have tucked it away in my memory banks for future use, However it is a ponderous way of doing repetition work compared to a collet chuck.

Chas

I'm not sure if I should apologise for re-opening an old post as many forum users seem to apologise for doing just this, but it seems better to me to keep related topics together - it makes searching for help so much simpler.

Anyhow.....some time ago I bought a threaded pull-through device from a local supplier for 5C collets (nothing to do with arceuro I'm happy to point out) to use in my lathe.This turned out to be an abortion of a thing, Slow to use when moving stock forward for the next item and prone to unscrewing in the wrong places.

I then read a forum post where it was suggested that a Stevenson's Collet block could be set up in a 4-jaw chuck and used as a collet chuck that was opened and closed from the front end of the lathe. This idea worked absolutely brilliantly for me. Fast and convenient.

Problem solved - except how can I hold square-section bar?

In another thread by the late,great, Earl of Bridgeport and Sumpwater he commented that Jason B had proved that an ER collet could be used to hold square and hexagonal stock, but I am unable to find that reference.

Alternatively is there a way of holding my existing 5C collets from the front of the chuck i.e. by compressing the front of the collet into a taper, in the same way that ER32 collets are closed?

Regards to all, Chas

My experiences more-or-less co-incide with Peter Shaw's. However our local gymnasium has exercise bikes with a screen in front of them and you can choose about 6-7 rides around Paris and the same in Rome - so as you pedal you go on a bike ride. I think they must have filmed the video in the very early hours of the morning because there are no lunatic car drivers around. I would not like to try those rides in real life

Chas

My grateful thanks to everyone who replied

The answer turns out to be exactly as given by SOD and I can now see how it is meant to work.

I just don't know how Jason B finds the time to help so many people on this forum, but it is much appreciated by me. I did buy the correct small chuck at the same time as the sensitive drill.because none of my existing chucks will hold such small drills. This was lucky because I had not realised just how tiny the correct chuck is

I shall be using the device in my Bridgeport Clone milling machine which is where I do all my accurate drilling these days

Best wishes, Chas

Under normal circumstances, yes, but I believe ketan is in china at the moment. I don't know if they have other staff that could help.

I'm embarassed to be making this post but here goes. I have to drill some holes about 0.8 mm diameter through 6 mm thick brass. To accomplish this I thought a sensitive drilling attachment would be a good idea. I purchased a micro drill adaptor from Arceurotrade which looks exactly the same as in the catalogue - but I cant figure out how to use it.

The only thing I can think of is that I need to make a hollow sleeve, hold this in the drill chuck, insert the shaft of the micro drill in the sleeve and bring the whole ArcEuro bit of gear down by pressure on the knurled wheel.But if this is the case what drives the shaft of the attachment?

All advice gratefully received except how to do the job without an ArcEuro sensitive attachment

Regards, Chas

If the worlds climate does reverse with the reversal of the poles, there seems little cause to worry. In Europe you will then be able to enjoy a typical Australian Christmas, stuffing yourselves with turkey and hot mince pies at 30+C, getting sunburnt at the beach and bitten by mosquitoes. You will then also be able to enjoy another Australian custom, the so-called Irish Christmas which has the usual accoutrements of Christmas but is held mid-winter in June.

Chas

It sounds like the French were responsible for Michael G's example but England cannot claim to be blameless in the mixed unit game - remember when decimal coinage was introduced we had a 1/2p coin? At the time I thought of this as an instance of true British stuborness in the face of decimals.

I was once told that American adherance to imperial measurements was a method of protecting their home industry - anyone selling on the American market had to reset their equipment from metric (or British Imperial) standards to suit American expectations.It was easier to ignore the American market.

Perhaps we should not expect too much from a nation that can't even manage to write the date in the correct order

Chas

Many thanks to Jeff Dayman and Stewart Hart, That looks like a solution to a problem that rears its head from time to time. I will PM Stewart.

Best wishes, Chas

I just placed a small piece of scrap under the front of the toolbit to raise the front and provide what looked like a suitable amount of rake. To the best of my knowledge the exact rake is not critical in this application. I used a spray can of WD40 to lubricate and cool the work in progress.

Regards,Chas

I don't know if I have just re-invented the wheel or come up with an idea that others might not have thought of.

I needed to make a number of 16mm balls in brass and doubted my skills on a grinder to make a good job of the form tool. In the end I got a flat piece of tool steel and simply cut a half-circle in it of the right diameter, using a solid carbide end mill.

This worked very well. The end mill was not a high-end specification one, it was a low cost item from Jenny at JB Cutting Tools (usual disclaimer)

Chas

Hi Jeff,

Thanks very much for your reply. A proper roller box would probably be a bit more than I need but the simpler version sounds like a great idea which I intend to make. It sounds like a great idea for an article in MEW if someone had the necessary drawing skills. It should be possible to use different-sized hardened bushes for the hole making it quite versatile.

Chas

As a school lever in the late 1950's I was employed as a trainee chemist by May and Baker who were (are) pharmaceuticals makers of Dagenham,. We had a Burroughs (?) machine in our lab which was obviously a de-luxe model about the size of a 1960's typewriter. It did its job fine but the service engineer once told me its fatal design flaw - it had a flat top where people used to perch a cup of coffee. You can guess the rest.

Regards, Chas

Jeff,

Can you please enlighten me what a box tool is? Getting parallel cuts on thin bar is something that crops up from time to time in what I do, and I don't yet have a fully satisfactory method for doing this

Regards, Chas