Member postings for Ian McVickers

Thanks for the input guys. I will have another go later in the week when I get a chance to get back into the workshop. I think I will try a bit scotchbright pad on the dots and then fill with the Ali black and leave for 5 minutes and see what happens but I will test on a bit of scrap first. Maybe differing grades of Ali need longer for it to work properly.

Yes vfd and 3 phase motor all the way. Some wiring and a few buttons and switches and you can choose from fwd/rev. High/mid/low speed or fit a pot and vary the speed to your hearts content.

One of the problems with smart metres is that they don't all talk to each other. We had one fitted last year then switched supplier and now have to still go read them and email the reading to our current supplier.

Hi all,

Now that I have finished rebuilding my mill I decide to try it out making some aluminium dice. Two were milled at around 56mm square and I decided to get some aluminium black to colour the dots. So the surfaces were degreased cleaned and wiped down with isopropanol and let to dry. Applied the aluminium black with a small paint brush and made sure all of the dots were covered, waited a couple of minutes, bottle says wait one minute, then rinsed everything down. Finish results were very poor. Some parts black and others without any colour at all. The bottom of the dots seemed to be better where the liquid had pooled so should I have filled the dots completely and do one side at a time instead of trying to complete all sides at once? Is one or two minutes really long enough time? Any ideas?

I have the GH Universal mill which isn't too much different from its big brother. The mill is generally ok but don't expect it to take any heavy cuts. I'm in the middle of rebuilding the gearbox and quill, on mine and was thinking about doing a few posts on it. Some things I did find which I'm not too impressed about though. Whoever built it decided that circlips make good spacers and the machining for the fit on the drive shaft bottom bearing is crap. The old bearing came out far too easily and the new one literally fell into place and ended up being held with bearing fit. Some of the moving gears have the edges bevelled so that they slide into mesh which definitely isn't one of my favourite's.

So if you remember that your buying a diy/hobby mill then they aren't too bad just don't expect Bridgeport quality.

My first mill was a centec with the MK3 head and I made a new drawbar for that as well. I'm pretty sure it just lifted straight out. Try some gentle persuasion.

I have a little fly cutter with round inserts. Seems to work ok if I go easy with it but when I have finished rebuilding my mill gearbox I plan on making a bigger fly cutter with Hss cutter. I gave a few plans for them so just need to pick one and go for it.

49 degrees. Now that's toastie hot. It's currently 1 and trying to snow here in Central Scotland. I would like to be warm for a while but that's just too much.

Managed to get some more done to the universal head upgrade.

Added locating bar to the base plate so that it slots snugly in the t slot on the table.

Upper part nearly done apart from engraving the degrees scale. The 40mm indexable head I have didn't leave a great finish so I will give it a rub down when everything else is complete.

All parts fitted together to see how it looks on the tool grinder and so far so good.

One of our plumbers at work has a small set of pipe benders for 6,8 and 10mm pipe mainly for central heating work I think. Quite small hand held benders.

I'm in the middle of making a version of the upgraded universal head for the Clarkson MK1 Tool Grinder as shown on the bedroom workshop site. Base plate has been milled to size and a recess cut to accept the upper part. A centre line was engraved across the plate as well but it doesn't show up too well on the photo. Upper part turned to size at 95mm diameter and 110mm high then cut in the bandsaw, about 30 minutes worth of cutting. Hopefully at the weekend I will get some time in the shop to finish milling it and possibly get a scale engraved around the bottom edge.

Washing machine motors are usually brush and open frame meaning they are not suitable for a workshop environment where it could attract dust and crap. Imagine say a sawbench creating fine dust and it settling around the commutator on the motor which is sparking away nicely when the motor is running. Bin it and get a motor suited for the application.

I added a power raise/lower to my GH Universal by using a spare high voltage stepper drive I had left over when I scrapped my cnc build.

I bought a driver control board from eBay which gives me control of the stepper driver. The switch is for raise/lower select and the non-latching push button activates the drive. The pot adds speed control and an estop for safety. The right angle gearbox came from another project and fitted this nicely and I decide on a pulley drive rather than a direct drive just in case I did something stupid.

Finally managed to finish off the grinder tool rests today. Seems like I've been working on them for weeks.

Also cobbled together a nichrome wire perspex bender. I've got a few sheets of coloured 4mm thick stuff that I'm planning on making into drawer dividers.

Get it home and use it as the winter project.

Someone on homeworkshop.org site offers tool sharpening for a charity donation I think. Might be worth it.

I use the same Nuto h32 for general lube on the lathe and on my mill and don't have any issues with it. Although I give the table on the mill a good covering of WD 40, rather than oil, after cleaning it then throw a large towel over it.

I use Nuto H32 in my Bantam headstock and gearbox and it is fine with it.

Not sure if this should be in this thread but anyway here goes. I was fed up trying to get enough space to put things on when working on either the mill or the lathe so decide that a table on wheels was the way to go. This way I can move between machines with the bits in working with.

Now I can carry on with the new tool rests for my grinders.

I've been looking at that supplier as well. The Victoria has been sold but the Bridgeport is still available. Found a Tom Senior M1 I think that's what it is buts it's rather a long way away from me. https://www.1stmachineryauctions.com/lots/auction/4th-october-featured-auction?page=3