Member postings for Zan

Just a guess but 50 parts/components?

I converted mine in 1990 and have never looked back, except I used a 3/4 horse, to match the original but and at times it lacks grunt so 1x1.25 hp would be better. I increased the motor pulley size in order to increase motor speed and cooling at low speed. I still use the headstock belt change from max to min when big stuff or ci is being turned . If you can try to get a resilient 3 phase motor, they run a lot quieter.

i like the look of the micro switch limit. I’ll have to investigate that, but it will need very disciplined use as the motor will start again as soon as the saddle is moved it probably needs some form of electronic latch building in so a reset button has to be pressed before a restart is possible .  Not difficult!

Edited By Zan on 24/12/2021 12:54:15

Here is my set up with the apAa pew multifix. It’s an 8 mm tool bit sat on a 1.5 mm packing no particular reason for this, Plenty of adjustment above and below as can be seen. I generally use 8 & 10 mm. toolbits. I have found the toolpost system both incredibly rigid and accurate in repositioning tools. The base is a replacement for the topslide, and is perhaps a bit big, for the much smaller multifix set up,  it was made for the previous toolpost. I rarely use the topslide now with a DRO, it gets in the way and introduces another possible lack of rigidity..

The project is making cooling fins on a v8 Whittle engine

ps does anybody know if the Chronos holder will fit this post correctly? Don’t want to pay the import duty again and handling fee!

Edited By Zan on 24/12/2021 12:36:25

ESy! Just push it in with fingers then push all holder onto a piece of wood pressing the insert in hard. No mystery..

Keep that location very very secret

a good friend of mine attended a vast number of rallies with his 4” t engine, which proudly displayed his name and the small village where he lived. All went well for years, until his workshop was cleared out while he was at a 4 day rally. They came with a lorry , neighbours thought he was selling up……

A difficult problem is a rally guide which states where you are from. Easy search in the phone book for an address

In the set I revered to earlier, I still had to make the t nurs the correct size were 12mm and too big. Even for the Bridgeport with the size of work I do. If I was building a big 7 1/4 or 6” traction engine it would be a different matter

john Yes I’d glue in thoes pins, but in use does the clamping forces tend to push the vertical block back, and there’s not a lot of height adjustment compared to a stepped block this would  I think be worse when there’s a height difference between the packing height and work.  However an interesting solution.   Originally I used a system similar to tugs, but the stepped blocks are a lot better

Edited By Zan on 19/11/2021 17:11:15

I use 10 mm on my Bridgeport. Solid as a rock. Too big for yours, also use the 1/4 BSF set I made for my Dore westbury still used. (Would be 6 mm now) Esp for clamping onto angle plates some of my 10 mm t nots are tapped 8 mm as well for studding where a solid clamping is needed and then cut to an exact height for clearance I also have a s app number of 2BA fixings for small rotary table and faceplate work.
you need a range, and they grow over the years! It’s the stepped packing blocks which are really needed the rest is easy to manufacture

Jason I agree. It’s a left hand tool because it cuts a shoulder on the left of the workpiece ie working towards the tailstock

 I would never touch one of these formed tools. Why? It will go blunt and need regrinding so what happens to the rake angles and chip breaker groove. Expensive for what they are. As stated, buy a grinder n decent quality HSS banks. It’s even possible to use an angle grinder to form a very crude cutter , I tried it as an experiment.  It looks grim, angles all to pot but cut ok! ( now reground  with my tc grinder)

Edited By Zan on 17/11/2021 14:02:05

Nowt to loose, if it pulls the paint out your back to where u started!

a wifi of meths on a felt pad worked well for me while removing the top painting on etched engine plates to leave the brass shiny against the sunken background

It also depends on the quality of the vdf. A decent one will compensate for the loss of power/torque to the limit of the power setting mentioned above. Avoid cheap vdf units!

It’s a long long time since I built and sold my dw but it was a great machine

adding shims will make the wobble worse . The table bar is located under the saddle bar, thus adding shim where you show it in the photo will increase the clearance. It would probably mean scraping the bar seat to make it thinner, but take care, material will need to be removed equally  from the front and back top faces of the saddle after removing the way bars or the table will tilt in the y direction 

where you show lug in green, above the left screw the boss does not seem to have much clearance with the underside of the table. Check you can push a feeler gauge in the gap this bar runs the full length of the saddle 

the dw was designed so it could be constructed with lathe alone. In its day, few m engineers had anything for milling except the vertical slide

the table travel can be at any angle, it will still work true, but it will make setting up difficult without using the table edge fir reference

the controlling factor here is the table bar being parallel to the table edge

if u replace any of these bars, drill and tap new holes in new positions.

Edited By Zan on 06/11/2021 00:04:34

I’m at the stage of doing the boiler cladding. The barrel is dia.6” and 12” long

i have some 24 g brass, but I think that’s too thin and was thinking about 20 g

as an alternative I could use 24g stainless

what do people recommend for thickness or metal type?

thanks

zan

Interesting video John there was a similar one about crankshafts not long ago . I suspect some of our cheaper machine components are made in the same way!

Sounds like a badly aligned tailstock. Making the drill angled to the lathe c.line Try this

put a straight bar in the tailstock

set up a dti on it at the end

move the tailstock bodily forward, then repeat with the handwheel

do this the dti both horizontal and vertical remove the Chuck, rotate 90 degrees, try again

do the same check with the Chuck in the headstock spindle to check the Chuck

put a lump of metal in the toolpost and centre it and drill it from the headstock. Same result Chuck at fault, while if ok it means tailstock. Correcting any error depends on what it is…..

good luck

It’s called a right hand tool because it cuts from the right, and leaves a shoulder on the right of the workpiece ( when in the machine)

Try this

I’m an old man and my son is a financial adviser and he doesn’t let me use the computer

its compromised you need to switch it on

how do I do that?

press the button

which one?
the one on the base unit

whats a base unit?
etc etc for about so mins

then. Change voice from old man

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TROUBLING MY DAD HES 92 AND HAS NEVER USED A COMPUTER. ….etc etc

great fun if you have half an hour to waste…..

The Warco machine was too big for me, there just wasn’t the space for it, when I converted mine but it lis also a very capable machine and significantly heavier build but many of my details could be simply modified to fit this machine but the spindle max speed is a bit on the low side, I sped mine up to 3400 and that’s only just fast enough, you tend to use smaller cutters and leave the machine on its own ( or at least that’s the theory, as they are so fascinating to watch),!

  Added.   with a 3 k budget the Warco machine is too expensive

Edited By Zan on 16/09/2021 14:06:09

I covered the conversion of my sieg sx2p in ME 17 parts from 18 aug 18 To 22 nov 19. It covered problems I had with the basic machine , which we’re not difficult to fix , (the machine is very capable], mechanical conversion, adding ball screws, electronics using cnc for you components (Mostly simple point to point wiring), commissioning and examples of use

where are you based? Send me a pm if you like.

I think the problem with the Denford is the small envelope esp in the z axis. There are not many choices availiable for finished machines, I would not touch the emco machine because it has a m3 taper tarter than the R8 in the sieg. The other alternative is the tormach, 770 for a bigger machine or the 440 for something smaller. the problem with this is the cost of importing, although I understand there is a U.K. dealer being set up. I didn’t have the room for the 770, but do now alert the workshop was almost doubled in size. It takes a lot of z height when say drilling when you have sub tables and vices to consider.

Edited By Zan on 16/09/2021 14:05:00

It may be only 1 watt, but I bet there’s a lot more than 100 mil televisions alone on standby at the moment Perhaps a lot more. Just work that out.

Soft jaws! Soft  jaws and I repeat again!

Or rough turn a top hat bush and slit it lengthwise a with a 1/16 saw.

Fill cut with brass strip,

Mount in Chuck carefully matking the position of jaw 1

bore to fit the castellated spigot

remove brass strip refit to marked jaw and forget your problems

this method will give far more accurate results than er chucks top hat bush needed for axial location. Perhaps long winded, but it will give the sort of results you cherish

Edited By Zan on 12/09/2021 14:07:41