Member postings for larry Phelan

The old grease could be as hard as a w -------s heart on a Saturday night,just try pumping in solvent to get rid of it,then new grease.

WHO CARES ? IF IT WORKS,ENJOY IT !!

Bushmills is just as good for dealing with speeds,feeds,rates,dia,s belts ect,ect,and so on.

My drill chuck key is fitted to a length of chain fixed to the machine itself,so no more hunting around for it. The mill tool for knocking out the morse taper sleeves is also on a chain,always to hand. Lathe keys clipped to the outside of the gear housing.

Now regarding centering work in the 4 jaw chuck,I came across a photo on the cover of a book by no less a man than Tubal Cain. He admits himself that when he saw the picture,he went into shock,thinking of all the time he had wasted over the years ! I tried it,and Bingo! ,it works ! Simple and effective.

I seem to remember buying some of that powder from Chronos some years ago,not sure if they still sell it.

Never really made much use of it.

As the man said " VASELINE", the stuff our mothers used to use for everything,from stuffed noses to cut knees and everything in between. Forget about silicone or molyslip and all the rest of it. Stick to good old Vaseline,great for putting on screws as well,they drive in a treat !

It is a nice machine Neil,but as you say,pricey. Could be a bit of an overkill for a home workshop.

I suppose we,ll just have to make the best of what we have,or can get,for the money.

Still,it should not be too hard to avoid some of the worse errors during production.

Live in hope?

Hi Dave,

I think you are right again,it,s a case if you have to ask the price,you are in the wrong shop. These machines are nice but how much ? I hate to think !. Still,with a little effort the cheap ones could be made a lot better,there is no excuse for bad workmanship.As has been shown,how much does it take to make them right,and how much easier that would be during manufacture..

Love reading your posts,always learn something from them,keep them coming.

To the man who bought a new drill by a well known maker and from a well known Mart and then found that it was CRAP, I would remind him of the words of The Bard himself,when he said "What,s in a name ?"

Never was a truer word spoken ! Even where names are not sold on,in order to pass off shoddy goods,the goods themselves are often shoddy. That amount of play is ridiculous,but it seems to all too common now,no matter where you buy from

Why bother ?

There is no such fitting,not that I know of anyway. Be happy with your mill as it is.

The scissors jack must be one of the greatest inventions of all time. I used to use one together with a beer crate when I was hanging wall units.It made things so easy to handle and left my hands free to line up and drill,no messing about. I still have two of them and will never part with them,they never slip.

Hi Andy,

No,your memory is not failing you,I was told the same.

What I have done from time to time,is to support the table using a bottle jack and packing underneath. Might sound a bit "iffy" but it works.Not for every job,just for the more important ones.

I too was surprised at the amount of movement in my drill table,just by pressing lightly on it. Not quite sure where it comes from,dont seem to remember seeing it on any of the drills I worked on years ago.Perhaps they were heavier machines.It,s not really a problem,just something we could do without.

All this reminded me of a job I did with that drill some years ago,before I had a lathe. I wanted a number of simple drill bushes to make a drilling jig for my woodwork. Nothing fancy,just a 1" length of steel with a 5mm hole through it.

No one wanted to be bothered with such a small job and those who did gave me mad prices. I ended up buying a length of 12mm silver steel,cutting it to 1" lengths and mounting each piece in the chuck of the drilling machine. I then mounted a center drill in my drilling vice,clamped to the table in line with the chuck and center drilled each piece before changing to a 5mm drill. Did it work? It sure did,much to my surprise. I was amazed at how accurate they turned out. Just for the hell of it,I drilled out a few to 10mm,leaving a very thin wall indeed. I was then able to harden them and fit them to my jig,which I still use from time to time. So,the cheap drills are not all that bad.

On the subject of the drill press,did anyone ever try to use one of those tapping head units sold by many suppliers for use in a bench drill ? While they might seem like a good idea,there appears to be no way to prevent them from falling out when you try to bring the tap back up again.There is nothing to hold them in place,so they are little more than useless. I ended up having to modify mine to use it in my milling machine,where I could fit it with a tie bar. I have seen this issue mentioned somewhere before,but I dont recall seeing any answer to it.

Just asking !.

Regarding the drill itself,I find it,s fine for big holes but not so good for small ones,but I suppose if you drill 1" holes,you can,t expect it to drill 5mm holes just as good Still,for the money,it,s OK.

Never knew what they were called,used to see them on prams years ago. Must check them out,could be very useful things to have around.

L H Sparey,s book is never too far away in my workshop ! OK, it might be dated,but then,so am I. It might deal mostly with BSW and BSF threads,Metric was not around too much in those days,not where I worked anyway.

If you can get through his book,you will have a very good grounding in lathework. I refer to it all the time,again and again,always learn something new from it. The other book by L C Mason is also very good,I have read it several times and intend to get a copy of it one day.It is full of little gems.

U Tube is also good but since the sound on my laptop is not great,I cannot follow much of it. Any idea,s on how to turn up the sound. Just asking!

I have one of those drills too,a floor model,bought in 1983. Has given me good service,had no bother drilling 1" holes in 2" x 1" flat for a window guard my friend was making. I think I have some play in the quill as well [not too surprising considering the work it has done ] Might be worth taking a look at it.

Dont know what bootsales are like over your way,but over here,the few I,ve been to had nothing only junk to offer. I dont know how they thought anyone would be foolish enough to buy it,in fact I dont know why they even bothered to bring it there to sell,such junk you never saw ! I still believe that little of any value ever ends up in a boot sale,if it was any use, it would not be there in the first place. Nothing only clapped out drills,hedgetrimmers, lawnmowers,chainsaws ect.