Member postings for Philip Slater

Thanks for the rapid replies. Must admit I hadn't thought about making one but as said they look pretty easy to make.

Thanks again Phil

Hi I've been searching for a device I've seen on various you tube channels. When tapping small sizes in the milling machine, people often use a spring loaded point which puts vertical load on the tap. Then with a small wrence they can turn the tap whilst the device pushes the tap into the hole. They look useful but can't find them anywhere on line. I wondered if anybody can point me in the right direction.

I have a Tom Senior M1 milling machine with a Rambaudi V2 vertical head grafted onto it. Over the past couple of days I've been seeing how I can fit a DRO to the head and got the head stripped to see how I can attach things.

I've always assumed the top end of the head (where the back gear assembly is located) and the vertical feed gearbox, were lubricated by an oil bath. However my investigations have revealed that everything is greased. I was wondering if anybody had any knowledge of the Rambaudi head and how it was lubricated by design. The back gear gearbox on top has non metallic gears in it (they don't appear to be tufnol but are white in colour).

I think I can get a manual from lathes.co.uk but wondered if anybody can help out before I spend any money.

Thanks in anticipation

Very interesting. As your probably realising I still consider myself a novice when it come to machining. Looks like I need to be getting that book you mention. Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the offer Ifoggy I'm up in North Lincolnshire so a bit far to travel. I've never machined gears but I've got a milling machine so have the tools. Thinking aloud I wonder if I could machine the gears from Tufnel. Not sure what you mean by having 2 gears, are you saying you need to change gears on the Thread dial indicator?

Thanks Clive I'm assuming the sales brochure you have is from when the lathe was in production or are you suggesting that the parts are still available, in which case I'm all excited. My lathe is metric I had a similar thought that the 7 series TDI might be compatible but it's a 3mm pitch leadscrew.

Thanks for that. Maybe not so good on the motor and all the switch gear but looks like the only way out.

Phil

Hello again I'm guessing from the lack of response that thread dial indicators are not available anymore. Certainly all the Google searches that I've done don't show anything, plenty of Myford super 7 TDIs but nothing for the the 254.

Is it feasible to cut threads by closing the leadscrew half nuts and using forward and reverse motor directions for each cut. Obviously not disengaging the half nuts until the threads complete. I've got a DC brake fitted to the lathe which stops the chuck instantaneously.

Hi

Would anybody be able to tell me where I can obtain a thread dial indicator for the the Myford 254 please.

Hi thinking of getting a Myford 254s what size shank of tool could I expect to get into a quick change toolpost. Also anybody any idea on what budget I should be looking at.

Thanks for the replies. John, I happy playing with electricity but I'm guessing by removing wire from the coil and so reducing its resistance makes it a stronger magnet? I assumed, maybe wrongly, the 240v coils would contain more turns of wire. I'm obviously lacking in my theory knowledge.

Yes Les I've seen the NVO open switches and will maybe go down this path. At the moment I'm putting an emergency stop on the low voltage inputs to the VFD. I suppose it's the tight Yorkshire man coming out of me, never throw anything away. It would seem a shame to loose a bit of 1953 history.

Spent 3 hours this morning stripping and cleaning the switch, interesting project. All sorted and dirty stop switch contacts all cleaned and operates great.

Only problem is it's a 415v switch which I'm trying to operate on 240v unfortunately there isn't enough pull on the electromagnet to pull the contacts hard on and the whole thing vibrates at 50hz. Looks like I'll be putting the thing in my box of museum bits unless somebody knows of a supply of 240v coils.

Thanks for the circuit diagram Split pin, just checked my switch again and it looks like the stop push button contacts are u/s, they are not normally closed as shown. I'll try stripping it down tomorrow but it looks pretty sealed up. I've got nothing to loose. Thanks again.

Hi I'm in the process of modifying / upgrading my Tom Senior M1 milling machine. I've got the new motor and have a new VFD to power it. I was thinking of trying to utilise the original Crabtree B15 Stop / Start switch to switch the 240 volt supply to the VFD, I'm aware I would need to modify it.

Striped it down today and can see the start contactor and the main coil but can't see how the stop function works. I would have thought the stop relay simply broke the coil circuit causing the main contacts to open but can't see how it does this.

I wondered if anybody had come across a similar problem.

Preety conclusive then!! I hadn't thought of running the VFD beyond 50hz but as suggested you would have to be a bit careful doing this. VFD and 3 phase motor here I come then.

Thanks for the rapid respones

Hi all

Not sure if this is a good place to direct this question or not but here goes.

I'm fairly new to model engineering and am in the process of building up a Tom Senior M1 milling machine to which I've grafted a Rambaudi vertical head. I now need to fit a motor to the vertical head and was looking at fitting a 1 1/2 HP type. I was going to go for a 3 phase motor with a VFD but it occured to me I could make the job a bit cheaper and fit a single phase motor.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I would think the 3 phase motor would be smoother running and I like the idea of a soft start but I can save the cost of a VFD if I go single phase.

Just before retiring 4 years ago I purchased my Myford Super 7 and slowly I've found more and more use for the lathe having purchased a part built 3 1/2" gauge live steam locomotive a year or so back. I've now built up a Tom Senior milling machine and hope this will come in useful as I get more into model engineering.

Thanks Geoff thats a great help, it's all becoming a bit clearer now.

Phil

Sounds good. I'll do the same

Thanks Mike my drive is definately MT3, I'm thinking MT3 was the earlier version and INT30 came later. I have 4 old surplus arbours of varying lengths with INT30 tapers. The taper part appears to be a separate piece so I was going to remove the INT30 taper by destroying it then boring a soft end MT3 arbour (RDG sell them) and fitting it to the old 1" shaft. I was unsure if all the drive came through the taper or wether they used the 2 drive grooves on the output shaft of the milling machine. Looking at your pics it all the derive comes from the taper.

My home made vertical head (which is in a bad way) uses the 2 drive grooves for drive. Is that correct?