Member postings for Barnabas Taylor

I use Elforyn as an ivory substitute on knife handles. you can get it from Ground Flat Stock. Made by Juma it is an excellent material, but pretty pricy.

I would second the fitting of new belts! I recently fitted some Fenner(?) link belts and it made my lathe absolutely amazing, compared to how it was before. Suddenly I was getting unheard of power transmission, the vibration I used to get at high speeds was gone and the lathe is so much quieter now. Get some good belts, you will not be disappointed!

While this is very impressive, you can see it was done over many takes with presumably outtakes like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo
happening in between!

Plus, the battery life must be really short. So, at the moment, they can only conquer those of us who live within extension cable reach of Boston Dynamics!

Hi guys,

My neighbour has a Stuart (5A?) stationary engine, powering a launch. He recently took advantage of the lockdown to remove said engine and have a look at it. Long story short, he thought there was play in the bottom end of the crankshaft and thought it might need a new bushing. Enter stage left, me with a lathe. Having had a look at it, I am not sure as to whether the play is bad enough to warrent any machining. I am sure the whole thing could benefit from a clean up though! We have come to a tentative agreement that I will clean it up in exchange for some money (lockdown has not been kind to me!).

I am confident I can strip, clean and put back together in the right order, but I want to know if there are any surprises likely to be waiting for me which will make the job much longer than I expect? I have already guessed that the cylinder lagging might be asbestos related so I am not going to disturb that! Should I expect to be replacing piston rings? Will there be strange and hard to find sealing elements in the pump attached to it?

Basically, I want to be able to give my neighbour a price that is fair to him and to me so we all end up happy and I can go for a ride in his launch when we all recover from the pandemic!

P.s., Please excuse the horrible state of the workbench, the engine has been put on the 'I don't know where to put it just yet' area!

Hi Chris,

I tend to use the larger size heads for my jewellery work, swapping to the smaller ones for really fine detail. You will find it impossible to use the smallest couple of heads with propane, they need Acetylene to burn properly. I also made a larger head with just a plain length of copper pipe, I forget what diameter it is off the top of my head but that certainly helps for larger items. I probably will make a more sophisticated version in the future to get a more stable flame, some sort of circular 'ribbon' burner. I always turn off the oxygen first, no popping noises ever experienced. I get popping when I wack the oxygen on too fast and blow the flame out!

Can't say much more than SOD, suck it and see is the best route. I would always advocate resorting it, I love old lathes because they look so much nicer than the modern stuff! I would try not to spend money on it until you have to though, put in some time first, we all seem to have lots of that at the moment... If it seems ok, then you can put some cash towards the bits and bobs that make it a pleasure to use.

A quick update, after some fiddling around with wires, I have got the VFD running, as yet I cannot 'load' the motor as I am waiting on a drive wheel but it hasn't tripped the house yet! This bodes well for just having to purchase an RCD for safety and being able to keep the filters intact on the VFD. Fingers crossed I am only out of pocket by another £100 and change...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you disconnect/bridge the filters, isn't the whole thing still unsafe unless you fit a type B RCD? (Not to mention the potential 'noise' in the electrical circuits) I am going to wire things up today (probably, if I can find some suitable wires in the box!) and see if it causes trips, if it doesn't, I shall get a type B RCD and fit that. if it does trip, then back to the drawing board! Either I shall have to remove the filters, or I shall have to run a dedicated line just for it!

Cheers Steve, I shall probably just get a sing RCB then. I shall think about the relative merits of the RCDs you sent, then I shall stop lying to myself and the bank manager and buy the cheap one! I'll fit it just to the one DB, that way I am protected and I shall just have to see if the VFD trips the 30mA earth fault. If so, it is back to the drawing board!

From what I gather from my own research, the problem with a VFD is not so much the earth leakage but that you need an RCD that will protect against more than just an AC current. Hence the silly priced versions.

this how-to blog is very handy but doesn't sold the cost issue!

How-to-Use-Inverter-Drives-with-RDC-Earth-Leakage

The type B ones still seem to trip at 30mA so how that helps with VFD leakage trips I am not sure, whether you have to just have them on a separate circuit which is yet more cost!

Edited By Barnabas Taylor on 08/04/2020 12:47:41

Cheers Steve, those are a bit more reasonable! It still amazes me why this is not a simple (cheap!) solution. Do most VFD users simply not replace their RCDs? Or do they just pay a huge electrician bill and never mention it when they say VFDs are great? Did I make a huge mistake buying such a thing as I now cannot afford to install it and use it? If I was less conscientious, I would never have even realised I was supposed to worry about such things because it rarely comes up on the knifemaking forums, where VFDs are very common...

I have a further problem because the slightly sketchy electrical set-up to the garage (left over from the previous owner) has the supply coming off the house DB, to a DB in the shed with an RCD to a DB in the garage with simply a breaker and MCBs. I think this means I need to replace both the RCD in the shed DB and the RCD in the house DB which is then a lot of money!

Would it be cheaper to get a man in to rewire the garage to an earth spike? are there problems with such a set-up? I remember my grandfather telling stories of him rigging up his own earth spike from a fence pole when he was about 12... He went on to have a successful career in the power distribution industry!

Hey guys, sorry to get in on an old thread but I have just taken delivery of a 1.5Kw motor and VFD and I am concerned about tripping problems.

Another forum I came across to do with Electric Vehicle charging had an easy to understand explanation about the differing types of RCDs/MCBs and as far as I understand it, it doesn't matter what sort of MCB I have (So long as it takes the current rating) and it is all to do with the RCD.

Now, I have just had a look on RS and they have RCCBs, type B (Which is what I understand to be the type needed?) and they are horribly expensive, with the cheapest being £488+VAT! This is absurd and I assume I am looking at the wrong parts! Can anyone point me to what I should be buying?

Naturally, I cannot get a sparky out for a job like this in the current climate so I was planning to do it myself, if it is simply a matter of swapping components. I would like to get a professional out to checking the whole workshop wiring system once Covid-19 has buggered off but in the meantime, I want to be able to use my motor!

Ta for any help!

Don't you mean "Aren't all model engineers hot air engines?"

There is a great deal of fuss about the rain forest, it is just that the media is focussing on the fires and floods for the next few weeks.

The greatest threat from global warming is not the migration, it is the starvation. Currently, most of the worlds food is produced in a fairly narrow band of land either side of the equator. when this land heats up and becomes unsuitable for crops, the world will starve. The land that will be 'unlocked' by the warming is very low in the nutrients and minerals needed to grow food crops and will not be able to produce nearly the quantities we will need. Not to mention, the complete lack of infrastructure to house all the displaced people.

Climate change is not a hoax, it is a working theory and so it is often changed to suit the new data. That doesn't mean it isn't happening. We do not know if we are to blame for it but I would rather try to change society to consume less and become friendlier in the hope it reverses these dangerous trends. Would you rather be living comfortably in the future or fighting for survival while the 'hippies' say "I told you so"?

I did think it could just be machined rather than ground. Anyone happen to know a place in Cornwall I could ask? Any members in Cornwall with a ruddy great mill who could help me? I have sent an email to slideway services (no mention of closure on their website) so we will see what comes.

Hi matt,

No, the compound doesn't travel so I can work with it as it is. However, the wear means the tailstock is always slightly out of alignment and I cannot move the compound and keep any sort of accuracy. Also, I feel that if I am going to the trouble of tarting it up,I might as well look into regrinding!

Hi,

I have an old clockmakers? Type lathe with a badly worn bed. Anyone able to offer any advice on where I can get it reground? As you can see, no complications like leadscrew to deal with. Just a simple bed with a flat and a 'v' section.

Some cracking ideas as ever guys, thanks!

Michael, the lapping idea is a good one, if I can turn it to within a few 'tenths' then I could lap it flat. I know watch/clock makers use the attachment you are describing for polishing screw heads. I am sure I have seen a YouTube video about making one.

John, the lathe did come with a little brass wax chuck (yes, 8mm with a tapered bore and draw bar) and it is a more useful accessory than a faceplate but there are times when it isn't suitable to stick something down (wood or stone for example) and so a faceplate might be the best option. Also, I just fancied making some bits to go along with the lathe and a faceplate seemed like a good starting point!

If I turn a suitable mandrel to fit the lathe bore and locktite the faceplate to it, then machine it to finished dimensions in one go, it should all be close enough for me I think. I will have to clock it up I suppose and find out once it is finished!

Yep, I thought of that. I do worry about my ability to machine on it though as it didn't come with a toolpost, only a hand turning rest. I might just have to set up with a collet in the myford, or the fourjaw chuck andCdo the best I can with it.

Thanks Andrew, that's basically what I was thinking!