Member postings for Ross Lloyd 1

Hi PetrolHead

Sorry to dig up an oooold thread, but did you by any chance write down the dimensions of the crate when it arrived? I am trying to figure out if one will go through my back gate!

Cheers

I also have a question about the 250 toolpost - with the stock unit, can you adjust the height of the cutting tool without using shim? I have a QCTP specced up with the order, is that going to be much better from the height adjust perspective? I might take it off the order and get something else instead otherwise.

Thanks again! Does that mean that the ER32 does not go below 1.5mm?

Thanks for the detailed info, thats really helpful

Cheers, I'll bank that one

The taper in the 250's spindle is an MT4, can you still use MT3 with that? And agreed, ER lathe chuck is sounding like the best idea!

Hi Journeyman,

Warco appear to have updated the spec on the 18 to only offer R8 taper now - at least, 3MT is not offered in the catalogue and today Warco only seemed to indicate availability of R8. Perhaps I will do a little digging!

Please bear with me as I am still processing all this new info:

• Assuming I get an R8 mill, am I understanding you correctly that if I just buy a collet chuck for the lathe it would still be possible to use the collet set on both mill and lathe? No taper tooling is needed on the lathe (at least at the headstock end) if that is the case?
• Can one use both ER32 and ER25 in an R8 taper (to get the full range of sizes), and do you need two separate lathe chucks?

Many thanks for your ongoing help, trying to figure all of this out as a newbie is quite the exercise!

Edited By Ross Lloyd 1 on 07/02/2018 22:04:08

Hi all, thanks for the comprehensive help as ever! It appears I already have the hoarding condition, so I am one step closer to being a true machinist.

Those 50 collected choc ice sticks WILL come in handy one day...

That is interesting, isnt the spec of the 250V starting at 30rpm? What do you think is preventing that?

Hi chaps

I went to warco today, and am leaning more heavily towards going for the WM18. The only thing I am unsure of is the fact it has an R8 taper. I want to buy a collet set that I can use on both the mill and the WM250. Now, the 250 has a 4MT spindle, but I assume you just affix an adapter of some sort to the lathe to make the collets fit. What collet set / adapter to go for to use the collets with both machines?

Hi gents

I should have said, its going to be aluminium, so perhaps the bending idea is the way to go.

Hi Richard

Its difficult to anticipate at the moment. I am going to be making a lot of robotics projects, which could be all over the shop in terms of sizes and demands. Right now I am looking at making a benchtop industrial robot arm which could have some fairly sizeable parts to turn and mill. However later I would like to work on a mobile platform which will be an altogether smaller proposition. I think your "pot of money" approach may just be the one to go for - that and "have a big cupboard"!

Hello

For manual machining, how do you go about choosing what materials to buy when looking at a project, and how do you make the most of what you do buy? Is there a proper method for determining the best stock shapes and sizes to acquire to create the parts most effectively and economically? How do you minimise waste when machining odd shaped pieces?

For example if I have this part (quick measurement for scale is in inches):

I am guessing you would start with a rectangular piece of flat stock the same thickness as the part, use a rotary table for the curved parts or get clever with mounting the stock on an 'axle' and rotating the part against the mill, and then mill the straight edges?

However, even if you solve the 'curves' problem, you are left with an odd shaped offcut and potential waste.

Is this all just part of the black art of machining? Finally, any recommendations for good value materials suppliers in southern UK?

Cheers!

PS apologies for any improper use of terminology, please do let me know if there are more accurate terms I should use and I will update the ol mental lexicon

Edited By Ross Lloyd 1 on 06/02/2018 22:12:54

Makes sense, thank you!

There is some fascinating stuff going on with deep learning and neural nets right now with grippers too. A bunch of guys got together and set up something like 50 robots, all continually making grip attempts on multiple objects, with the same gripper. It learned that angling the gripper in certain ways, or moving the part to one side and coming at it from another angle, or pinching a corner rather than the centre of the body, would lead to a successful grip. Much like a human would. Using 50 robots and sharing the data across them all, they were able to produce an astoundingly effective "gripping dataset" that allows them to pick up a huge range of objects without needing a specialised gripper. Its amazing what they have been able to do with it.

Probably wouldnt want to do that with heavy car panels, but is great for small items. The Amazon Challenge throws up new technologies like this too.

Hi Bob

Thanks, I really appreciate that. Were you in the North Sea?

Career change is a scary thing to do for sure. I had been trying to change discipline within my company for some time, and though I was getting a trickle of jobs, a few opportunities spread out over 3 years just wasn't turning into a set of skills and a new career path. Then the downturn really bit, everyone was laying off people, and the refrain of "lower for longer" became a more scary version of the past peaks and troughs. That was also the time I started falling back in love with mechanical design, electronics / arduinos and the like. Robotics kind of sprang out of that, but I know I have a very steep learning curve ahead of me. Finding it all to be extremely interesting helps a lot!

Glad to hear your son is doing so well with the pilot training, and that BMI are giving him a seat. I am a big fan of flight simulation and briefly considered doing pilot training too after a couple of PPL lessons. Not enough cash sadly!

Can't say as I miss getting on those super pumas either!

Thanks, and good to be here

Hi Sam, any recommendations on alternate QCTP's and milling chucks?

Cheers

Hi Mick

Whats the benefit with the soft jaws? Less marking on softer parts such as brass? Didnt think of the drill chuck, thats a great point

Haha my bank manager is wincing! Thanks for the advice, something to mull over