Member postings for Pete Rimmer

A good old trick.

Another trick I have found if you want to open up a hole a tiny amount in even very thin sheet - get an old adjustable reamer and turn all of the cutting flutes around so they form a very shallow taper instead of parallel. It works great, cuts smooth and you get a very round hole of very precise size (if you're careful). You do get slightly tapered sides to the hole but nothing you could measure on thin sheet.

Oh yeah the spindle lock is very worthwhile. There's no other handy way of holding the spindle to loosen the nut.

I too had a thought about a gib lock but because of the design of the gib it's not so practical. Either way I haven't found it necessary for dressing, the slide stays put.

Variable speed can be a boon on a grinder. If you find your wheel is too hard you can slow it down so that it behaves 'softer'.

I hav e the same chart on my wall laminated in A3, it's one of the handiest charts I know and so well laid out.

Not just very close - VERY close - half a thou per pitch which is the same as nothing at all for the application. Cut a 12T 16DP gear.

In theory, your 16DP 12T gear should have an OD of 22.23mm plus the long addendum adjustment of 1.98mm to give 24.21mm diameter but they might not have added so much addendum due to it being engaged with a rack I dunno. If you are confident that your OD measurement is correct and hasn't been affected by wear, cut a pinion of that diameter and cut 12 teeth of 16DP into it.

If i t was in a fire the pulleys would be gone. I think it's just been poorly kept and then neglected in damp storage.

He's added pics in the advert David.

Scraping novice is more like it. Just because you do a lot of something doesn't make you any good :D

I asked for better pictures of the bed. It's a bit grim but not unrecoverable.

Even if the bed is worn it would be worth it. If I didn't have a big queue of scraping jobs in front of me I'd certainly pay the asking price, scrape the bed and it would make a very nice base for a rebuild.

EDIT: Actually having studied the wide angle pic more closely it seems that the seller has cleverly hidden the fact that the bedway is severely pitted on the rear way near the chuck.

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 16/04/2022 23:07:18

I had to make a bigger pulley and had a small pulley plus the belts were easy to get at the motor factors who have a very small selection of vee belts now.

Yes my Eagle motor was 2 pole I fitted a 4-pole and had to make a new pulley to suit. I Went all-in and made poly-vee pulleys.

If you're going to re-motor it watch the overall length of the motor/pulley combination or you'll find that the z-axis screw will foul the back of the motor.

I never heard of that I must confess. Tiller steering makes just as much intuitive sense as steering wheels if you think about it, because tillers steer the ship by swinging the back in the direction that you push the tiller. That the front turns to the opposite direction is incidental.

I rather think that it's just more intuitive for human minds to deal with. Ask yourself why no car steering wheel turns to the left to make the wheel turn right? With your hand on top of the wheel your hand and the carriage will move in the same direction, same as when driving a car.

Given that Ukraine is (was) one of the biggest suppliers of steel billets this is hardly surprising. I did hear in the news that their largest steel mill had been partially destroyed too so even if the conflict does end production won't be soon to resume.

If sit a mirror on a bead of very soft silicone then bring the probe up to contact the mirror, an auticollimator will measure the amount the mirror tilts from the contact. You might be a to do the same by having an optical flat overhang the edge of a flat surface, and touch the flat with the probe.

If that was mine and all I had easy access to were metric fasteners I would definitely just run a 5mm tap down the threads and buy 5mm screws and locknuts.

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 31/03/2022 23:30:19

Hardinge made a HV4 but it's an indexer not a rotary table. I don't know if they made a rotary/dividing version but it should be easy enough to find out with a search because Hardinge stuff is very well documented.

Keep your workspace organised and tidy. I used to be an awfully messy worker. I would get any tool I needed out to use and just keep getting stuff out and leaving it out until the benches were heaped up, floor full of mes and parts scattered wherever I could find room for them. When I finished work for the evening I would either tidy up or just shut the door on the mess and then I would be reluctant to go out there another night, or the whole evening would be spent straightening the place up again.

First I decided to organise my stuff so I have drawer units for all my manual tools and small items. Bisley drawers are great for this with home-made dividers. I got rid of any wall-hanging parts trays because they wasted a lot of space and just gathered clutter. Swapped them for proper shelving and stackable totes.

Then last year i started a new regime. No matter what I'm doing I stop about every hour, and not longer than two hours, put every tool away, tidy any materials, clear the bench and sweep the floor if there's mess on it. Then I get out what tools I need even if it's something I have just put away. This might sound like a lot of effort but done every hour it's only a minute or two's work. Now I have a constantly tidy workshop, I can find any tool, I always have a bit of bench space to set stuff down on, I can find any dropped item no matter how small and I don't dread opening the door, I just walk in and start work. My work output has dramatically increased and all it costs me is a minute or two an hour.

Now it sounds like the quill is loose in the head. Chris, post a photo of how you have your dial gauges arranged.

Godawful manufacturing all around there. None of the machined faces are particularly well done and the relief grooves are miles too big. It doesn't look like the angle of the moving dovetail matches the angle of the static one and there are is not enough bearing on the top and bottom faces to support the gib in any way.

I think that your best bet is to back off the adjuster screws and use feeler gauges down the side of that gib to gauge how much thicker it needs to be to fill the gap completely. Make a new gib from steel or cast iron (brass is a terrible choice for a sliding way) and machine it for the closest fit you can manage that allows movement. Spot it though the gib adjuster screw holes and drill the spots for pointed-end adjusters (or dog-end if you like). If you do a good job of it then the gib will have no choice but to sit parallel in the gap. The extra thickness will give better support and better lubrication retention and the table will sit much more rigidly on it's ways. When you machine the gib put the un-machined side towards the slide and the machined side towards the adjusters. If you can make a HSS scraper (or grind an old file) put scraping marks all along the working face for oil retention.

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 24/03/2022 00:45:23