Member postings for Nige

SteveI: I thought I understood your instructions but then made a wrong assumption around using the parallel booted by one end and swinging it through 180 degrees to give me the 'other half' I would have had if the parallel was longer. Realise now that was a mistake.

Thank you all for continuing the suggestions, I have to go back and look at it and think about it all again 😳

Howard : The MT 2 finishing reamer has turned up and as soon as I get a big enough tap wrench of some sort organised I can sort out the spindle taper and mount the test bar and see what I have. Also need to order a piece of 1" bar ready to take a cut and see what I get from that.

Edited By Nige on 04/08/2017 15:10:45

Try Tony Griffiths at **LINK** He has manuals for a huge range of equipment and is very helpful.

JasonB,Thanks for the encouragement and the photo and this is really painful for me to say but my workshop is so new to working with metal that I have a great scarcity of scrap metal of any sort. I have a couple of short lengths of round EN1A, different diameters, and a piece of angle iron!! Pitiful I know

I am visiting the Peterborough Model Engineering Society on Monday evening and hoping it will be the sort of meeting where members try to sell their odds and sods to raise funds.

MT2 Finishing reamer from RDG dropped through the letter box today. Great I thought, now I can make some progress on the ML4. Wouldn't you know it, I don't have tap wrench big enough to fit the reamer

Ok, today I went back to the workshop and fixed one of those parallels to the nose of the mandrel. tigtened gibs on saddle and cross slide to get rid of any play. Set up as below. ran Dial gauge back and forth about 2 1/2 inches and adjusted head stock until I had less than .01mm run out, remember this is at 90 degrees to the spindle. I thought that was pretty good.

I then turned the spindle 180 degrees and repeated the measurement only to find that the run out was .15mm !! Thinking about it I had not checked that the nose of the mandrel was actually 'flat, 90 degrees to the spindle axis'. I have probably managed to get the parallel to be parallel with the cross slide travel but nnot necasarily at 90 degrees to the axis of the bed.

I was also assuming that the parallel actually had all its relevant faces parallel to each other, a big assumption for an unknown tool. So, I wait for the MT2 finishing reamer to drop through the letter box and go to the next plan. I will also have a think about how I can check that the face of the mandrel nose is at 90 degrees to the mandrel axis

Again, your thoughts and suggestions are very welcome guys

Neil, I agree entirely and didn't feel cut off and I hope others will take all this in the helpful spirit it was all meant

Sorry Guys, Neil was right to mention my prolific posting . When ever I change the motorbike or get a new bit of kit I join an appropriate forum to learn and share 'stuff' and I got to this forum via a subscription, print and online, to MEW, I'm a friendly sort of chap and like to meet people and chat, I love to learn and share stuff which makes me run on a bit sometimes I hope I have not upset anybody and apologise wholeheartedly if I have, I sometimes need somebody to say "Whoaa there Nige" and I don't get upset when that happens I am learning a great deal here, I feel comfortable and this is the most friendly and generous group of people I have ever come across in a forum, long may it continue. Thanks for your forbearance guys

Yep 😊

I nearly sold them on eBay.

They are a fraction over 3 1/2 inches long and both stamped G.K.B. on both ends. I think you may be right in saying they are an individuals custom made pair. I was hoping they were a standard item so O could get a longer one.

JasonB: it was clocking the spindle I was thinking about. If I use a piece of studding through the spindle to hold it against the mandrel face I can have 3 inches out to one side which is more 'flat length to run a clock down than I would have got with a back plate. rotating it will also indicate any run out ???

I have this pair of parallels; if i wanted to get a longer set what sort of parallels am I searching for please?

This matched pair of Mitutoyo V-Blocks are something else I inherited along with the ML4....... desirable things to keep I'm guessing ?

Edited By Nige on 01/08/2017 20:29:19

SteveI: Thank you, I understand your method though I do not have a flat piece of bar, would an appropriately sized piece of gauge plate do??

The head stock on the ML4 is fixed by a central stud towards the rear with a nut on the top and two studs at the front with nuts underneath. Adjustment method is to slightly loosen the three nuts and 'persuade' the head stock in the appropriate direction before re-tightening. An recent attempt to see how this would work out resulted in having to use a G-clamp to wind the head stock sideways as tapping it with a copper hammer didn't seem to be doing the job with the headstock 'springing back'. I suspect that one or both of the two studs at the front might not be 'straight' and are preventing the head stock moving. I will try slightly rotating the studs to see if they 'straighten' up and leave space for movement. I will put a DTI on them to see how far out they might be.

Brilliant and thank you Brian You have answered my next question, power ream or by hand, and given me enough other info to feel confident in doing this job. Reamer was ordered from RDG this afternoon and recently I bought some blue for just this purpose

Thanks Brian. I know my head stock is out of alignment, I made a big mistake when I took it off the bed to be able to move the lathe, The head stock isn't concentric/parallel/lined up with the bed, hence my problem! Using a back/face plate was going to give me one method of seeing how far out it is so I could adjust it.

Using a test bar with a Morse taper, which I now have, is the second method but the Morse taper in the mandrel is a bit manky and I don't trust it hence the need for an MT2 finishing reamer to clean it up. This is not so much a steep learning curve as a vertical line going up

OR  is the head stock being out of alignment not going to make much of a difference as shall be machining the sleeve actually on the mandrel??  Thoughts please guys.

Edited By Nige on 01/08/2017 17:15:53

Back to plan B. Ordered an MT2 finishing reamer to try and clean up the mandrel then use a test bar Getting paranoid about this now

Thanks Jason, I see the difference and in it the problem I have. I have no way of machining a sleeve accurately enough to bring my mandrel up to 1.25

Thanks guys Im unsure as to which bit is the parallel register but the photo below is the mandrel I have. The threaded portion is 12 TPI and it is all 1,125" in diameter all the way back to the shoulder which is 1.621" diameter: Is the unthreaded portion the 'parallel register ?

Thanks Nick_G that will do as long as the Myford mandrel threads are standard across the range.

I need to buy a back/face plate for the Myford ML4 to help set up the headstock alignment. I can get a back plate from ArcEurotrade, They are advertised as 'threaded to suit Myford BPM125'. I have measured the thread on the mandrel nose and it appears to be 12 TPI (Whitworth??) and 1.1250" diameter. Is this a 'standard' mandrel thread on Myfords please?

Edited By Nige on 01/08/2017 13:40:12