Member postings for Pete Rimmer

Man that's a nice job you made of that.

I'm working in London too. The last year I've been at E14, currently in Sw15.

What size chuck are you looking to fit?

Direct drive is favoured because it means less noise and wear & tear.

I'm travelling up your way next week. Making a backplate should be a straightforward enough job.

My suggestion of flipping the pinion over so it was using the un-worn side not possible then?

I sharpen those end mills on my Clarkson grinder by holding them in a R8 collet and using a simple index wheel on the back. It works very well indeed.

Flip that pinion over and grease it then it will be bearing on the un-worn faces.

If you're using a regular pattern of holes you can cover the plate with masking tape and mark each hole you use with a marker pen.

What rotary table do you have Larry? If it has dividing plates then you'll find it quite straightforward, if not then you might want to look at something like a division master to make the dividing easy (fool-proof, really). Also some rotary tables can make it hard to cut smaller gears because the machine fouls the table or chuck. One solution is to mount the blank on a shaft to bring it further out but you quickly find that you need to knock up a tailstock support in order to avoid chatter or deflection issues.

If you're looking for non-ferrous you might try Bermondsey Metals on Druid St just South of Tower Bridge. They are open from 7am Saturday morning (or at least they used to be) so there's no congestion charge. Call them up.

To buy scrap you have to be licensed so almost no scrap dealer is going to tell you over the phone that they'll let you go hunting because they'll never know if it's the environment agency testing them out. You gotta go in person, pop in the office and ask who is the best person to talk to about buying a couple of bits of round. Bonus is they always separate non-ferrous so brass/bronze/copper is always pre-sorted and always kept separate out of the way so the customers don't help themselves.

Local sources are always best I have found. Small engineering firms or fabricators If you approach at the right time of day (go armed with biscuits just before 10am is a good trick) and don't make a nuisance of yourself/try to tell them your life story they will often be very friendly and let you rummage through their scrap bin.

A little thinking out of the box can do wonders too. I once bought a Coronet wood lathe for £40 off gumtree because I wanted the motor. The bed was 2 stout steel bars about an 1-3/4" diameter. I still have some of one of those bars left somewhere.

If you're lucky to have a small supplier nearby don't discount buying new stock. I got 2x3m lengths of .75" EN8DN free-machining bar yesterday for £48 locally. The first hit I got on eBay has it at £7.50/12" so 3x the price If you buy in person whilst you're there, you can ask about off-cuts of other materials. If you're looking for several diameters and have time to spare, buying one length of the largest diameter and turn it down to suit.

I bought a handful of Hanita 3-flute endmills once, never found the like again. They were simply awesome.

EDIT: no wonder, they are £42 each plus vat. I bought 5 for £25 off ebay. Wish I had bought them all.:

https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/HNT-60040M/SEARCH:CATEGORY/product.html

Edited By Pete Rimmer on 17/10/2018 17:40:06

One of our machines uses a 10 belt sheave. They go out of sync very quickly but it doesn't affect the operation.

No, not at all Rob. The position of the two round weights in the middle set the front/rear clearance as I recall.

Where are you Bill? I'm in North Kent and I could hob those teeth onto your blank in very short order.

What's the application Bill? Can you suffer a slightly modified diameter or gear form? What does the gear have to mate with?

Well said - Jeorgineer!

If bolting a part to the table makes it flex, then either the table or the part isn't flat. I'd be bluing the table up to see if it was pringle-shaped first off.

I've done that to all of my grinders. You get a nice true-running wheel and a wide choice of grits and hardnesses.

Perversely even though the fly-cut surface looks rough if it's flat then it will work (for a short time) better than a totally smooth way. The trouble is that bare machined surfaces are usually not close to good enough to make for a good way bearing. I don't think I have ever blued up a cross slide or compound and got what I would call a workable bearing right from the off. Some have been very good but the vast majority have had less than 10% of blue transfer onto the surface.

Also I don't like brass as a material for a gib. I'm guessing that the gibs they sell are brass because they are easily produced and people associate the brass with bearing bronze. Brass is usually very soft so embeds particles easily and when whatever lube is on it dries out it gets quite 'gummy' in it's sliding behaviour. Cast iron and steel are much better, I've made several from gauge plate which I think is my preferred material for a flat gib..