Member postings for Matt Nolan 1

If it is brass, it should solder OK with a hot enough iron and some flux. The solder will really wick into it, so maybe you do have stainless or something with a protective lacquer on it. Another approach is solder paste and an oven or hot-air gun.

I finally got to having a go at this last night for an hour or so (what my spare time windows are like these days!)

I had to put the lathe in backgear and right down to the slowest pulley setting. Even then, the motor would stall occasionally. I was able to take off some diameter, nice scouring pad type swarf spirals coming off, but it was breathtakingly slow. I think a larger HP motor would be useful here, though I guess I risk pushing the loading limits of the bearings and gears.

I wasn't able to make a decent facing cut, no matter how I adjusted the gib strip on the second-hand top-slide. Time to get the dovetails re-ground methinks! The seller has offered a replacement slide, but I think it would be good to start from a known perfect situation.

It turns out that one of the bearing oil drippers has some kind of blockage. It filled up once, and emptied, but then wouldn't re-fill. Something else to take apart and have a look at.

So, I'm set-back but I have not given up yet. I need these parts soon though, so am off to see a local professional tomorrow morning with my 303 stock and some drawings.

Cheers,

Matt.

Edited By Matt Nolan 1 on 12/10/2016 15:49:03

Apparently not.

I haven't tried them on my newly acquired ML7 yet, so I may be speaking out of turn. But for lathing Bell Bronze cymbals, I get an awful lot of life out of the 1/2" brazed tip carbide tools from Chronos. A little sharpen every now and again on the grinding wheel (taking care not to inhale!) and they are as good as new. They are not available in larger sizes though.

I think I'll be investigating the Cromwell and Interstate ones now for comparison...

I will! But first I need to build a table for the lathe. Just tossing up between making one and buying a proper stand. Time and more fun versus quick and more expensive.

Thanks Hopper. I will certainly give it a go before getting a new motor. Right now the belt isn't tight enough (the second one, on the speed pulleys). I can turn the chuck by hand while holding the motor pulley. The lever is in the belts tight position, so I'll have to see how I can adjust this. Or maybe I need a new belt, or to put some belt dressing on. Rosin a good idea?

Thanks John.

I had looked up the hardnesses here - http://offroadtoys.com/technical/materials/stainless/ - but you make a good point, those are the annealed hardnesses. If the 303 in bar form will be pretty close in hardness to 316, then that would be fine.

I first learned of the "maker movement" when off on a project in the USA. Working in an open-plan creative co-working office / workshop space. Broadway costume and set designers next to a genetics lab next to sculptors working mainly with inflatables next to architects making bespoke interiors next to us - making robotic self-playing musical instruments from glass, metal and wood. Several MIT grads in there and also some "TED Fellows". While it was a fantastic environment for sharing ideas (the different individuals and small companies really did cross-pollinate quite a bit despite their different disciplines and official independence) I did feel that a lot of the stuff at the more virtual end of things was rather superficial and not entirely unlike a certain Emperor's clothes. Or maybe that's snobbishness on my part?

I'm in the middle, I guess. Early 40s, but perhaps not typical. I can tell you how that iPad works from the silicon level upwards, I have a fair handle on social media while also holding more than a mild disdain for it, but by far enjoy most getting my hands dirty with real physical, mechanical stuff.

I think the problem comes from the top down. We have so little engineering and manufacturing left in this country compared with in the past. What we have remaining is mostly at the high-tech or niche end of things, e.g. aerospace. There aren't the numbers of jobs there used to be and so there isn't the educational need for it. I use "need" there somewhat precariously. I do fear we have over-out-sourced our heavy industry to overseas and it is not something you can get back quickly. Also, I think that general "practical thinking" is very useful in everyday life!

What does seem to be growing is small scale hobby or entrepreneur / SME level hands-on activities. There seems to be a small trend of people who are bored witless with the virtual and / or service based world that fills most of the UK these days, or fed up of being a tiny cog in a huge machine where their own actions are so far removed from the results that they don't have a sense of reward from their work. Making things yourself is so much more rewarding. The loop between input and output is very short.

The trouble is, it is difficult to set this kind of thing up as tools and materials are less available due to there being little industrial need for them. Most of my own tools are old, second or third hand, or self-built. Many of my materials I buy directly from Germany or China, only some of them can I get from UK suppliers. There are many more things I would like to make but am prevented from doing due to availability of material forms or sizes, or simply material at all.

Maybe the niche nature of my own work exaggerates this effect. Does anyone else here see the same issues, or would you refute my argument or put a more optimistic spin on it?

Cheers,

Matt.

Edited By Matt Nolan 1 on 23/09/2016 15:24:55

Thanks Gents.

I need 316 for the hardness. Otherwise 303 would be a better choice. 416 could be an option, but may be harder to source in small amounts, and more expensive. I need to do more digging around.

I don't have a power saw, though my Evolution chop or table saws *might* manage to take the bulk of the material off with a bit of jigging.

Ian S C - are you running that cut dry?

Beginner question ahead!

Doing a bit of reading around, I am becoming increasingly convinced that I might not get away with one of the things I hoped I would be able to do in my "new" ML7. Don't worry. I will still find plenty of uses for it.

What I would like to do:

Turn 2-1/2" diameter 316 bar into a T-shaped cross section. Keeping the full diameter at one end, less a bit of cleaning up and some radii, but taking another inch or two of the length of it down to around 1-1/2" diameter. The finish on the smaller diameter section doesn't have to be pretty. It will be an interference or adhesive fit into some aluminium tubing so some roughness would actually be a bonus.

Is the ML7 sturdy enough? I read that deep and fast cuts are needed, and lots of coolant. Though, when drilling 316, I find that slow drill speed and high pressure works the best, with cobalt bits.

So, questions:

Is the ML7 rigid enough?

Is the current 1/4 HP motor strong enough? What can I upgrade to? 3/4 or more?

What is a suitable coolant that I can splash all over the Myford?

Is there hope or should I give up?

This is for very small runs. Ones and twos. At a later stage, if I wanted lots of these parts, I would get a 3rd party machine shop to make them. But I still may then need to skim down the 1-1/2" diameter a bit. The aluminium tubing ID seems to have a fair tolerance / varies in supplier.

Would this be a more feasible prospect? Or is it worse as I'd be taking a lighter cut?

An alternative in this latter scenario would be to make some bed-mounting stands for the aluminium tubing (it is LONG!) and ream out the top of the ID on the lathe instead.

Thanks in advance for your advice and wisdom,

Matt.

Thanks David

Hi Roy,

I would certainly do that if you could explain to me (and others) the reason why. I would just have used whatever fine grit abrasive paper I had around - aluminium oxide or silicon carbide most likely, or even scotch-brite type plastic foam abrasive pads and some dedicated electrical contact cleaner.

What are the reasons not to use emery and to use sandpaper?

Thanks and regards,

Matt.

Thanks Brian,

It runs fine at the moment, but does lie inactive for months at a time. When I get it up off the floor and onto a table I will look at cleaning the switch contacts.

Cheers,

Matt.

Atlas? Yes, again some family resemblances in images of older machines I can find on the 'net.

Asbestos and no no-volt reset. I think I will survive. But thanks for the warning. Awareness is key!

No, I buy blanks from Germany, China and Turkey, depending on what I am trying to acheive.

The casting part wouldn't be that difficult relatively speaking. The rolling mill on the other hand - that's a very big, very heavy, very expensive piece of kit. Also, it would be massively inefficient to run a rig like that for a one-man-band.

I have started doing some small scale casting experiments to make things like finger cymbals. There is a need for specifically tuned pairs for various orchestral works. Very small, very thick cymbals with relatively large and pronounced cups. Not the kind of shape you can cold forge. Even hot forging would be difficult.

Cheers,

Matt.

Thanks Hopper and Neil.

Thank you gentlemen. Some interesting pointers with the odd family resemblence. Nothing yet that jumps out at me as "that's it!" yet though.

A clue - the start button, which you have to press and hold for a second or so for the motor to get going and then you can release it is marked with "STARTET". I don't know if that's a brand name or a foreign language word for start or power. It is not clear whether the switch is an original part or not. Certainly similar vintage. Start and stop button. I didn't photograph it as it was in too much shadow and I didn't have a light to move.

The mystery old horizontal milling machine is in this new thread - http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=120699 - if anyone might have any clues as to what make or model it is.

Cheers,

Matt.

Edited By Matt Nolan 1 on 19/09/2016 00:00:26