Member postings for Andrew Phillips 4

Hi DC31k, JA and old mart, thanks for your thoughts. I will be doing both the arm shown and the other, not shown, arm on the other spindle to identical lengths to maintain equal ratios. The exact ratio between longer and shorter arms is not critical, varying from long and short as shown here, to almost 1:1 on other makers' machines. The critical factor is that both short arms are identical in length as old mart says. JA, I have to make a new brake stay and I will be using 5mm thick steel (thicker than standard), wider than standard and with a larger boss. The angles and dimensions of the standard part do not align with the Honda bolt hole at the brake end of the stay. Old mart, the brakeplate was an eBay find from a 250 or 350 twin - it was used on several models in the late 60s/early 70s. I think I am the first to fit this back plate to the standard 1954 front drum, others have fitted the complete hub from this or the 200mm brake from the CB450 - or at least I have not heard of anyone doing this, hence my problems! It has not been easy so far, as the Honda brakeplate has a smaller outside diameter (about 7 ins) than the AJS version (about 7 7/8 ins) so I had to fit a rim made by trepanning the inside diameter and turned on the outside. I used a circular aluminium plate offcut (autojumble find, I knew it would come in useful one day!) as material. The whole exercise so far has very much been a learning experience as I have used trepanning, turners buttons, mandrels, centring on the faceplate, etc, etc. Cheers, Andrew

I am upgrading the front brake of my '54 AJS 500 motorcycle by fitting a Honda 180mm 2LS brake plate to the original hub. However, the shorter leg of the brake arm requires legthening by about 1/2 inch to allow the operating rod to pass between the hub and fork leg (see photo 1). There is a shorter arm on the other brake spindle (not shown). The brake arm is made from two steel stampings eack 2.6mm thick spot-welded together (see photos 2 & 3). To extend the shorter leg I envisage cutting off the end below the 6mm clevis pin hole and join a piece of 5mm mild steel plate shaped to fit, which I will blend in and drill a new hole. My question is, how to join the extension piece? A butt weld, or should I cut the 2 layers to form a distinct step, mill a corresponding step in the extension, and have them brazed together? I have not yet settled on a finish, but I would like to keep chrome plating an option which means the join should be capable of being given a high polish and taking plating. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Hi All, thank you for your suggestions. I have decided to go for an aluminium insert, and I have an offcut of 7075 which should be plenty strong enough. I appreciate the potential for corrosion with stainless, but the bike is garaged and regularly maintained. I have used stainless studs in the aluminium crankcase with no problems. Cheers, Andy

I am replacing the 7 in SLS front brake backplate on my '54 AJS with one from a 180mm Honda 2LS brake. The AJS brake cable is adjusted using a 5/16 BSC male threaded adjuster, finger tightened, at the brake end, whereas the Honda brake is adjusted at the lever end. The Honda diecast backplate has a plain boss to take the cable end, large enough to take a threaded female insert to take the AJS adjuster. I intend to use engineering adhesive to secure the threaded insert in place as it is loaded in compression only and rests against a solid stop; I will make the adjuster from stainless steel. My question is what metal to make the threaded insert from (it will not be seen) - I have heard that a stainless/stainless pairing is not ideal, but this application is finger tight only. I have suitable brass and bronze bar - which metal should should I use? Thanks, Andy

I have had this problem (bushes compressing and losing clearance on press fitting) with bronze bushes, where I could not ream to fit afterwards. I turned the O/D down until they were a push fit in the housing, then fitted them using Loctite 238 if I remember right. Result was a perfect fit and the bushes have remained firmly in place for many years despite arduous use. Not sure if Loctite will secure Oilite, but Henkel have an excellent advice service. Andrew

Hi All, I am modifying a BSA 8 inch front brake drum to fit a 'special' and it is too big to swing on my Super 7. I used a local engineering workshop but despite giving them photos and drawings they took weeks to do an incomplete job. Can anyone recommend a small engineering workshop in the Wokingham/Berks area to finish the job? Andrew

Edited By Andrew Phillips 4 on 30/09/2022 20:03:12

Hi All, back again with another question on slot cutting. I have now made 3 Clevis forks with the help of your suggestions (thanks very much!). One needs a 5/64in longitudinal slot to allow the inner brake cable, which has a mushroom end that fits in a bored recess in the clevis, to be fitted, then the outer is adjusted to stop the inner coming out. I can get a 1/16 in slot drill, or a 2mm (near enough 5/64). My question is: would I be better cutting a 1/16 slot then widening it (using a end mill once slot is cut?) or going for a full width 2mm slot? I will be using my Super 7 with milling slide, but my main worry is the lack of stiffness in slot drills that size. Thanks in anticipation, Andy

Edited By Andrew Phillips 4 on 26/05/2022 09:48:01

Thanks for your advice. I see the need for a slot drill and will get one for my next job. In the meantime I wanted to finish the job and did as Andy suggested, drilling 3 x 3/16 in holes, sawing/filing out surplus metal and finishing to size with the endmill as I had it to hand. I also revised the way I clamped the square bar stock to improve rigidity. Much better than my earlier attempts! Cheers, Andrew

I am trying to make a couple of Clevis ends for use on a classic bike brake. I put a post on this forum and the advice received was to use a small diameter mill to make the slot. The slot needs to be around 0.210 width and 0.6 in deep, in 10mm square stainless steel. I have used a 3/16 mill held in a collet in my Myford, with the square bar stock held in a vice on the vertical slide. I have centred the bar end carefully but the cutter wanders, cutting the slot too wide, slightly slanted.and not 'flat' - wider in the middle, slightly narrower at each end. I suspect the problem is insufficient rigidity in the holding set-up and the cutter flexing. I have a 7/32 cutter which will cut an acceptable width slot which should be slightly more rigid. Before I use up my limited length bar stock, any suggestions/workarounds? Thanks, Andy

Edited By Andrew Phillips 4 on 08/02/2022 22:09:34

Hi All, thanks for your suggestions. I will try Andrew's suggestion using a 3/16 end mill and cutting the slot first so there is plenty of material to grip in the vice. Cheers, Andrew P

Hi All, I wish to make a couple of clevis joints in 10mm square stainless steel; the slot is about 0.2 inches wide and 0.6 inches deep, and I would be using my Myford Super 7 lathe. I have turned the clevises and need to slot them. I have an unused 3/16 wide woodruff cutter given to me years ago so I clamped a clevis in a small Myford vice bolted to a milling slide, but the cutting forces were too great and the clevis moved. I then tried a cheap and cheerful 50mm x 1/16 in slitting saw on an arbour (bought years ago) but the teeth only make contact for a small portion of the circumference. I have a substantial between-centres arbour I made in evening classes for use with my Myford saw table, which takes 1in bore blades. I plan to use this in conjunction with the vice/milling slide to cut the slot. Several dealers stock 3 and 4 in saw blades with 1 in bores, with varying numbers of teeth. What would be the optimum number of teeth for 3 or 4 in saw blades for stainless, and optimum width - I realise I would have to take several cuts, and could use the woodruff cutter to finish slot edges.

Of course, my finger trouble shows why I try to avoid mixing metric and imperial - my fingers were made in 1952 and are thus firmly imperial, so when I use them on a modern metric keyboard errors creep in!

Dunca, you are absolutely right that the correct hex size for 0BA is 0.413 ins - finger problem on mobile phone keypad! I have decided to mill the heads and have just turned a piece of 1/2 in stainless to 0.477 in preparation to setting up the milling slide on my Super 7 this evening. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Duncan, I have a obsessively pedantic approach to mixing imperial and metric - I know it would be easier but it would always niggle me!

Hi Speedy Builder5, a good suggestion but alas I do not have the equipment or knowledge to silver solder. I read an article about soft soldering stainless, is that any good?

Hi All, I wish to make a couple of 0BA special bolts, about 2ins long, in stainless steel. The only supplier of 0.423 A/F stainless bar stock I can find on the web only sells 1m minimum length @ £20.73, and charges £18.50 minimum postage. This would mean each bolt costs 20 quid! Does anyone out there know of someone who can supply short lengths of 0 and 1BA stainless hex at reasonable prices? I have tried e-bay, M Metals and MK Metals to no avail.

I could make up bolts using 6mm rounds and nuts (I have some 0BA stainless nuts from BA Bolts) cutting a short thread at one end and using epoxy adhesive to secure the 'head', and possibly hammering the protruding end over then facing off on my lathe, but I would prefer to do the job properly.

Hi, thanks for your input. I tried the device afainst my Super 7 (see pics) and there is no obvious way it can be mounted to act as a detent on the bull wheel, the most likely place it could be used for basic indexing. Furthermore, the tip is too large to engage in teh teeth of a 60-tooth gear (see pic). Any other thoughts gratefully received, Andy

Hi All,

I bought my Myford Super 7 some years ago, and it came with a number of accessories, including this object. Painted in Myford grey, it has a pointer(?) moved in an out (in a straight line) by the knurled screw, which is threaded internally and externally. See pictures. Any ideas what I have here? Thanks, Andy

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Hi, I am attempting to refurbish a very worn Lucas Automatic Timing Device for a classic bike. One of the bobweight pivots is badly worn, and I need to make a new pivot pin and socket. The socket has been worn off centre and out of round and I plan to bush it in phosphor bronze and re-drill to 3/16 bore, the pivot pin nominal size. I can mount the bobweight using a projection on the Bach Concentric with the original hole, then drill using cobalt(?) drill, but this will then be out of centre to the worn bore and liable to catch or break or wander off centre. Or, I could drill down the worn hole's centre to make it round, bush and bore, this might put less strain on drill but it still has to go in an out of round hole. Any suggestions? Thanks, Andy

Thanks for your replies; thinning the ring using emery on a surface plate is the way to go. I have a suitable piece of engineering plastic to make a holder, as Neil suggested. Cheers, Andrew