Member postings for Pete Rimmer

Far better to have a bunch of guys who can step aside than a selfish driver in their vehicle blocking the route.

People are going to say that you shouldn't stop a war to play football next!

That IS the big problem with flat or dovetailed beds compared to vee way beds. On a dovetailed bed if you want to run the saddle right up to the tailstock end and the bed is worn you have to run the gib so loose that when it's up at the chuck end you have loads of front to back slop in the gib that holds the saddle square to the bed.

On a vee way bed it doesn't happen because gravity holds the saddle down onto the vee almost regardless of the amount of wear.

Don't presume that because the table moves the needle when it's moved to it's extremes of travel it's because there's wear in the table. It might be that the weight of the table being transferred from one side to the other is causing movement in the Y-axis or Z-axis ways.

I took the Newman motor off mine and fitted a new Siemens motor. I think tha given the age of the whole thing there's no gain to be seen from keeping the 60yr old motor over a good quality modern one regardless of how well balanced it was in the day (that Siemens motor would set you back the best part of a grand new). i ripped out all of the wiring and fitted a VFD plus some modern contactors.

One very common fault on the HLV is the compound slide base tends to go convex because of how the clamping system works. When that happens the compound won't clamp firmly and people crank down on the eccentric locking pin until the end snaps off. If you buy one no matter how good it is, that base is sure to need milling or scraping flat so just accept the fact, it's not difficult to do.

I just sold mine, was 95% rebuilt with ground bed, scraped ways, new bearings, new motor , vfd. My friend now has it.

Headstock spindle takes a 5c collet directly in the taper. Chucks fit on the 4 degrees taper OD on the spindle although there were some screw-on versions. Tailstock is Morse 2 taper.

If you're going to look at one check inside the suds tank behind the bed. If it's got water based coolant in it then the apron probably has extensive rust damage in the gearing. Try the sliding and facing feeds to make sure they work and don't make horrible crunching noises behind the levers. Another sign of coolant damage.

If it runs smoothly and the feeds move nicely, and the coolant taks is not full of powdery corrosion or water based coolant then it should be a nice machine. For sure, a nice one will be as accurate a machine as anyone would ever want they really are (were) very well made and superbly accurate.

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 28/07/2022 22:42:43

My friend loaned me a couple of those Wal Phillips fuel injectors to put on a project that never came to fruit (a landspeed racing scooter). There's nothing 'fancy' about them at all in fact compared to an average carburettor they are positively stone age. The closest thing I can liken them to is a glow engine carb.

What's the problem with EP90? not that I use it I'm just wondering why it's such a DO NOT?

It's possible but I would bet my hat that it's a 20PA gear profile just going by the photos. It would take some decent measuring to find out but a simpler method would be to print the profile generated by geardxf and stand the gear on the print. It would be obvious right away.

Let's face it an alpha-true is a pretty simple device to make. Anyone who could make a clock or a model engine would find it a trivial exercise.

Figure 8 240v socket. Need a straight-on pic of the 12vdc socket to ID it properly.

That's a 2.25 module gear in the picture. Being 6" long I guess you could call it an involute spline but essentially it's a long 2.25MOD involute gear.

It would be quite easy to cut with a gear cutter on a mill but since you say the internal mating part is also damaged you won't be making one of those in the home shop, not easily anyway. That's gear shaper/wire eroder work.

Japanese ally-block engines are riddled with metric fine and metric extra-fine threads. My own bike used M12 x 1.25mm head and main bearing bolts that were torqued to 75 foot pounds.

This is why you cannot use an ordinary level for aligning machine tools. They don't even register a movement that will send a sensitive level full scale.

**Link**

More likely an inductive sensor. Either way for your application a standard metric fastener (or several) will be fine. Personally I would use three, and I would slot the timing wheel holes for adjustment, then when it was all timed in I would loctite them in.

As an enthusiast's machine yes but compared to a generl purpose lathe I'm afraid that all Drummonds are virtual relics. I've had one, the guy who now owns it loves it but I was completely ambivalent on it's merits.

Here is how I did it to mount a DRO scale reader head. Four grub screws for Jacking and two bolts for fixing. Dry-fit it up then add threadlock to the jacks.

Yep, JB weld or body filler. Snug the screws up just enough to hold the scale in place.

Or, what I have done, drill and tap to fit 3 or 4 jacking screws in a sub plate with the fixing bolts between. Yuo can then adjust the sub plate into truth and then fix the scale to that.

Hi Chris,

The Chipmaster is a desirable small smachine although your example needs some attention as it's started to fall into disrepair. It seems to be powered from a box on the wall which presumably is a 3 phase converter. It also seems to have some kind of attachment behind the bed either a copying or a taper turning affair I cannot tell without a better pic.

The drummond in comparison has little value. The toolpost on it looks like a Dickson with several holders and that is a desirable part. If you have all the siz jaws for the chuck it might hold some value but the condition is difficult to judge from the pics.

Good luck with the sale, I doubt you'll have difficulty selling the Chipmaster at least.

I use a barred 7. Why? Because when I was in secondary school my coursework had them.

Anyway, the 1 digit is typically continental on that test cert.

You should do well out of selling those parts, they are both desirable and valuable.