Member postings for Nick Clarke 3

The manual on this site describes the 3 1/2" lathe as "being again modified in 1921" and the price is £21-10-00 for a bench lathe. A 1923 ME lists a roundbed as a bench lathe at £9-10-00 

I think it would be safe to assume these are from the same date.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 03/06/2019 14:29:59

Thanks John - With the larger reamers I have made I have just held them in fibre jaws in the vice and filed a single flat and I was wondering how to hold such a thin piece for filing without bending it.

I will probably make a similar holder, but I'm waiting for the silver steel to arrive as I said, so not done it yet (apologies to the member NDIY)

Thanks again,

Nick

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 02/06/2019 19:01:08

Clive - I must firstly declare an interest and say that I have roundbed under the bench as a long term project, but I can't accept that it as bad as you have written.

When put back together it will do as much as it ever could (I hope) and yes all of those weaknesses you describe are there, and always were there. What you can't do is wind in so many divisions on a dial and expect a workpiece to be to size. You have to measure and check. However despite all of the issues the older lathe can be set up accurately while the advice for some cheaper lathes today is, to quote a poster in a different thread, to treat them as a set of parts and set them up after purchase. If you haven't the adjustment left to do that then it needs to go back to the supplier.

Modern machinery is easier to use and has more features but unlike an older lathe may not be in a position to be put back into service 100 years after manufacture - as accurate and capable as it ever was - but no more.

Interestingly in my opinion as an addition to the imported machinery; the reason why so much excellent professional equipment is available to the amateur today is down to manual machines not being so prominently used in industry as before, and the lack of engineering taught in schools and colleges. This has brought to the market a large number of lathes and other machines. In 20 years time I suspect the machines coming from these sources will be far fewer in number and probably CAM based using incompatible out of date software or damaged electronics. Possibly even unusable.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 02/06/2019 18:47:01

Had a PSA test about a year ago (I am several years into your target group Neil!).

Told us it could be atypically raised if we had been, how should I put it?, lets say - recently active socially in that department!

Mine was 1.25. The story of my life really!!

Glad I had the test done though.

Why not both?? My own choice is a chuck and a holder that enables collets to be shared with the milling machine, as the chucks and MT2 holders are less expensive than a selection of reasonable er25 collets.

Why both??

I use the chuck carefully lined up where accuracy is important and the mt collet holder where I wish to hold small diameters but time is more important than absolute accuracy or the need to handle long lengths- when producing a set of loco spring pins for example. An even quicker set-up could be a hex collet block held in the 3jaw and you could deal with long objects as well.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 02/06/2019 16:50:13

Thanks Phil - I saw those - my thinking was as a 2mm silver steel shaft has to run in the hole making a reamer from the same steel might mean the size was more accurate.

This is all tiny stuff for me!

At some point in the near future I will need a 2mm reamer for a one off job.

I have made 'toolmakers' reamers in the past by filing silver steel down at an angle - but not often, and in larger sizes only.

Any hints/suggestions on making such a tiny reamer, particularly the best way to hold it while making and what speed to run it at

No hurry as only just ordered the 2mm silver steel.

Thanks

Nick

I have one that is different again - holding it up to the computer screen the numbers are closer together.

I don't know about that - saying "Darling, Look at the lovely new lathe I've just bought" might lead to a fatal encounter!

Is it the right way up in the photo?

If you are fitting cups under castors on furniture or spreading a carpet underneath you could stand the wooden stick on the floor and press down on the handle, lifting the metal pad up to singlehandedly fit a cup or carpet under the leg on a sofa or chair?

Just a guess at what it looks like - I know nothing!!.

It may seem an odd request, but go to the Drummond Round Bed pages on Lathes.co.uk

Look at the pictures.

The later machines had cast headstock bearings like yours has (had??) but the earlier ones had separate bolt on bronze bearings, either single piece or two piece.

Have a look and see if it gives a practical insight into your idea.

Nick

PS Tell me when you decide to make some progress and I'll tell you how little further forward my own project lathe, a 4" Drummond has progressed. I suspect it might not take too long!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 26/05/2019 18:25:16

Interestingly when I first joined a ME society 50 years ago or thereabouts, air/town gas torches were commonplace (as were fearsome paraffin blowlamps) Nowadays, like most other people, I use propane and while for silver soldering it is the bee's knees, it is not hot enough for brazing.

Perhaps a step back in time is not that bad a thing from time to time, especially with the easy availability today of propane and cheap compressors.

Leicester used to be a centre of shoemaking so that may be another 'yellow pages' to search through

I would also suggest that if all are within your price range, the fact that most mini lathes are larger capacity and a more powerful motor than the Sieg C1 might direct you towards them, perhaps.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 19/05/2019 18:48:02

Good luck with the gig - and if you go back another twenty five years before your 1995 I rowed next door at the Nottingham & Union club where my school kept its boats. Thanks for the memory!

Have Fun.

PS Is the 'Tea??' room a suitable place for this post - perhaps we need an 'Ale Bar with music' forum as well?  

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 19/05/2019 10:25:18

If we are talking about a new lathe then almost any one will be physically big enough to do the job.

The largest jobs in building a locomotive are wheels, cylinders and trimming the boiler tube (if you intend to build your own boiler)

Taking the modern 'mini' lathe with a swing of 180mm and the largest wheels you will ever encounter on a 2 1/2" loco at say 115mm over the flange there is no problem fitting them on the machine. Outside cylinders will fit easily as well, but where there is a double inside cylinder block it could be more tricky, however if you use a boring bar between centres and fix the block to the crossslide it can be managed. The boiler tube of an express engine may be more of an issue, because of its length, but if you can't fit it careful filing or a visit to someone with a ;larger lathe would be a possibility. choosing a smaller prototype would obviously help.

I fact all of the components of even a 7 1/4" LBSC Tich loco would physically fit on a long bed version of the mini lathe, although the boiler barrel would be a serious squeeze I suspect!

But your problem isn't just fitting the components on the lathe it would be is machine be powerful enough, at slow speeds especially and rigid enough to do the job? Taking care here I suspect anything is possible, but I have to confess it is outside my direct experience.

If you are considering buying a lathe then a bit bigger is definitely better and means less fiddling, and there is more likely to be enough power for the job.

Interestingly in the past there have been smaller lathes of 100mm swing or even less and while these would be too small physically to make an express engine, even in 2 1/2" gauge, if fitted with a back gear would have more than enough power to make a loco with smaller wheels successfully!

This is essentially the same as Fox Talbot's original process for making photographic prints. Soak paper in salt solution and then coat in silver nitrate (or float in a dish of the same) to make Silver Chloride 'in situ'

Its really quite an elegant solution. As Silver Chloride is insoluble in water create it from salt and silver nitrate to give sodium nitrate, which is soluble, and washes off, as the other product.

Albumen printing paper was made in a similar fashion only the albumen (egg white) with salt added was spread on the paper which when dried gave a gloss(ish) finish. The paper was similarly sensitised as above in silver nitrate before use.

To think that through is a true spark of genius!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 14/05/2019 19:25:51

Have got a cheapie 6" grinder with fine and coarse wheels.

Wondering whether to replace one with a Silicon carbide (green grit) wheel - at present I use coarse and fine standard wheels on HSS and use a hand diamond hone to touch up brazed tipped tools.

If I do replace which do you suggest goes - I use both at present but could either be replaced with the SiC wheel and it be used on HSS as well?

Thanks` in advance.

Nick

Looking at the thick layer of brown protective muck on my lathe when I first got it, it had clearly spent a lot of time under a gooseberry bush!

Forty plus years ago I was labouring in a backstreet garage to help pay my way through university. Half buried on the scrap heap was clearly a bike fitted with a BSA Winged Wheel. Does it go? 'Too well' said the owner - 'get it out' and I saw it had a Winged Wheel fitted to each wheel - and it was apparently un-rideable to the point where the garage owner there and then took both the wheels off and dumped them as he reckoned you could not turn any corner without falling off - and he wasn't going to be held responsible!

The good news was that in the same heap was a BSA Bantam which he let me have and I did up as my first bike!