Member postings for David Lindquist

The screws on my "A" series holders from SRW Amestra are M7x1 also. I bought an M7x1 die to make my own screws using 5/16 inch square 12L14 (a leaded steel here in the US). This was made easier by the fact that I already had a 5/16 inch square 5C collet. The 5/16 inch square is very close in size to the heads on the original screws; the Tee-handle wrench fits fine.

Depending on the size of the tool I find the stock screws are sometimes a bit long and like to make shorter ones in these cases.

David

There's still some gold but it will take a lot more than a shovel to get at it. When I docent at the foundry during tour days I like to tell people that that romantic image of the 49er with his gold pan didn't last very long. It soon took hard rock mining, digging waaay down in the earth, to extract a meaningful amount of gold. And this required an industrial base, foundries and machine shops, to support it. The first foundries came in in the early 1850's, Knight started in the early 1870's.

Even in the early days of the gold rush the real money wasn't in picking up gold nuggets from a stream bed, it was in, for example, selling shovels to those who hoped to do so. Google Sam Brannan, "California's first millionaire."

David

Thank you very much for this. A very rigorous and interesting piece going well beyond just the 9/32-24 screw. For example I had thought that the number size machine screw series in the US dated from 1907 but that was the year the ASME codified it basing it on an earlier number series going back to at least the mid-1890's. Lot's of good stuff here, including references. Found a copy of C.H. Saunders's 1894 book Hand Book of Practical Mechanics on ebay and ordered it. (Evidently it's not a "rare book"

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 28/08/2023 20:59:50

Edited By David Lindquist on 28/08/2023 21:01:06

Edited By David Lindquist on 28/08/2023 21:01:40

Clicked on the History of Whitworth and was a bit put off by the author airily stating "I forget his first name right now." It's Joseph for heaven's sake. Just as it's Henry Maudslay, James Nasmyth, William Sellers or Joseph R. Brown. If I were to cite any of the great 19th mechanicians and forgot their first name, I'd make it my business to look it up.

And the assertion that the US standardized on the BSP system for pipe threads is, well, wrong. We use NPT which has a different form, 60 degree vs. 55 degree and while the pitch for same trade sizes is the same for BSP and NPT, for other trade sizes it's not.

David

I recently bought some Loctite 609 Retaining Compound here in the US in one of the small single use 0.5 mL plastic containers. The plastic envelope it's packaged in is marked "Made in the U.S.A." The container itself is marked "07-21" which I take to be its use-by date. Some additional product information I have includes the statement "Storage below 8*C or greater than 28*C can adversely affect product properties." My un-air conditioned and unheated garage shop can easily exceed these parameters in the winter or summer so I keep this in the house.

Also I have some Loctite 226 medium strength thread locker which I bought in February 2018; it's marked to be used by October 2019. It too is made in the U.S.A.

I've never really used the thread locker on anything very critical; probably not even in a situation where it's likely a threaded fastener would have come un-done on its own. On the other hand the retaining compound gets used to emulate a press fit. While no ones' lives depend on any of these assemblies I would really like them not to come undone on their own so I'm a little more particular about its storage and use-by date.

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 05/02/2021 01:18:50

Less recent contact than Steve's; in mid-June I had a prompt reply from Nina Wang and my order for three AD2075 tool holders was quickly filled. I think by mid-June Covid-19 was under control in Whuhan. Don't know what has happened since.

David

Reviving this thread one more time. I just downloaded Komet's newest (2018) catalogue, see here: https://www.kometgroup.com/fileadmin/user_upload/9_downloads/kompass/KomPass-Turning_GB.pdf

(And I still don't know how to make a functioning link)

The FG1 and FG2 threading inserts are no longer listed. MSC still shows them available but it could well be that if one tried to order them one would find them no longer available.

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 23/04/2019 01:16:27

I just went to Boxford's website. It has the statement "The only manual lathe you can buy which is still truly made in Britain." Looks as if that will no longer be the case. I also downloaded the brochure. Nice looking and nicely appointed machines. In the U.S. building of smallish (arbitrarily defined by me as having a swing of less than 14 inches, to use the U.S. convention for describing lathe size) has largely already ceased. Not sure when the last 10 inch South Bend was built in the U.S. I have a record of one from 1999. The company was evicted from its South Bend Indiana plant in 2002. Hardinge ceased building their (manual) toolroom lathe a few years ago. Monarch Lathes still shows the 10EE available.

Weiler offers manual lathes as small as 12+ inch swing. Survival of this German line may be due in part to the dynamic Barrie suggests. The Germans do have a reputation of having a particularly robust apprenticeship system. Incidentally Monarch Lathes distributes some of the Weiler lathes in the U.S. I don't know their price here but looking at them on Monarch's website I'm sure they are way beyond the price range for a home shop machinist (with a new 10EE being an order of magnitude more so).

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 21/02/2019 18:00:43

In the U.S. the commonly encountered chucks of this sort come with a 5C collet shank (as Chris Evans notes). The shank may be integral or separate.  Hardinge calls theirs "Step Chucks". These have an integral 5C shank. The ones they supply of unhardened steel are called Emergency Step Chucks. You bore to the size or sizes of step(s) you need. Hardinge also supplies these hardened and ground in a variety of sizes, each with only one "step". I get the impression from their website that they are phasing out the hardened and ground ones. The O.D. of the head on these has a taper which is pulled in to a closer which Hardinge makes for either their tapered or threaded spindle nose (they may have these also for type A spindle noses as used on their CNC machines). Monarch did make a set of compatible closers for the D1-3" spindle nose on the 10EE. I was lucky to find on ebay one of these for the 3 inch step chuck.

Another U.S. company, JFK Company, makes a couple of iterations of this. One they call the "Step Collet". It has a steel shank that includes the 5C closing taper and a head to which "pads" either steel or aluminum, are attached with socket head cap screws. One then bores out to the size or sizes needed. They call their other version an "Oversize Collet". Here the head, either steel or aluminum, includes the 5C closing taper. This head then screws on to a back piece of steel which is threaded to fit the 5C drawbar.

There are additional makers of these sorts of 5C collets. They may have their own names as variations on a theme.

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 16/09/2018 02:02:32

Edited By David Lindquist on 16/09/2018 02:03:07

Edited By David Lindquist on 16/09/2018 02:04:14

My apologies. I forgot that I don't know how to make a "clickable link."

David

I know you asked for a local supplier but this maker/vendor says they ship to countries besides the U.S.: https://www.ebay.com/itm/D1-4-Spindle-Cam-Lathe-New-Made-in-USA-/201794579589 I have not dealt with them but have heard the name before.

David

Thank you for your suggestion Mark; I think I'm OK in that respect. My lathe is a Monarch 10EE. Had I gone with the next larger "E" size tool post this may well have been a problem.

Murray, thank you, that's the sort of information I need. I think I understand what you mean. When making the stud to go in to the tee nut that will go in the tee slot of my top slide I'll turn a portion of it to an O.D. of 20mm for a close fit in the bore of the tool post.

David

Rather than continuing in the "Multifix threading tooling and options" thread I'm starting a new one for this question. I just received a "Multi-Suisse" size A tool post from SRW Amestra. My lathe has a tee-slotted compound (top slide) rather than a fixed stud for holding the tool post so I have some choice, within reason, for the stud diameter. In particular, Joe, what's the stud size on your EMCO? And Murray, I see you are using a socket head cap screw in your direct mounting to the cross slide. I could incorporate that in the stud I'll be making for my compound's tee nut. What size of screw did you use?

David

When I click the MSC link (thank you for making it an actual link Murray) I get a "Your Price" of $91 for both the 60 and 55 degree FG1, MSC's numbers 62743083 and 62742994. This versus their list price of $123. As I noted earlier some of MSC's descriptions on these contain errors; neither of these inserts are for Acme threads. When I ordered these two in mid-January they cost me $88.84 each. Not inexpensive but barring breaking one in a crash they'll last most of us forever. Though at my age forever isn't as long as it used to be. BTW an on-line currency converter shows that today 70 Euros is 87.20 USD.

And Joseph, when I click your link to Katharina/Hoffmann I get a red screen with a warning that this might be a phishing site. If I click "ignore" it brings me back to this forum. Does this happen to anyone else?

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 03/02/2018 01:20:01

Edited By David Lindquist on 03/02/2018 01:20:28

Thank you for providing the Link Michael. Clearly there's something I'm not doing right here. I did think the Komet catalog might be useful beyond just those needing the FG1 or FG2 inserts. Comparing this with their 2009 catalog, they've dropped some offerings including the size FG3 in its entirety.

David

I'm sorry, it looks like you will have to copy and paste that link to get the Komet catalog. When you do you will start at the top with Downloads which leads to catalogs/flyers from there choose "Turning" and you will get two choices, one of which is "KomPass Turning".

Here: https://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn/Indexable-Cutting-Tools/Indexable-Inserts/Threading-Thread-Mill-Inserts/Threading-Inserts?navid=12107172+4294658132 are all the FG1 and FG2 inserts MSC lists. Each shows the Komet order number in the fine print; they omit the spaces and the dots. It looks like they can supply all the inserts in Komet's 2015 catalog.

David

I'm reviving this thread as I have found a U.S. source for the FG1 and FG2 threading tools. These can be gotten from MSC Industrial Supply. BUT first you want to go here: https://www.kometgroup.com/en/home/ and down load the "KomPass Turning April 2015" catalog. On page 54 are Komet's order numbers for the various FG1 and FG2 threading inserts. You need these to make sense of MSC's product descriptions which are sketchy and in some cases erroneous, e.g. they describe all the inserts as being for Acme threads. For example MSC's 62743083 is shown as Komet's H11 12000.91, which you can see from Komet's catalogue is the insert for 60 degree threads, to a pitch as coarse as 3mm or 8 T.P.I.

MSC doesn't stock these, they are shipped directly from Komet of America. Delivery for me took two weeks. I hope this helps.

David

I don't know. Maybe someone more familiar with the series (I've only watched a little) can answer that.

David