Member postings for larry phelan 1

I have cut 6mm with HSS tool bits [at 50 revs ] without any trouble. I never bother with tailstock die holders, not much use for anything over 6mm , I found.

Support from the tailstock does help, but threading right up to the shoulder ?, How often do you need to ?

I,m 20 years arsing about and I still make cock-ups, sometimes bigger ones, so don't feel too bad about it.

Just join the club, remember, you don't have to be nuts, but it helps !

Forgot to add, link belts are about three times as dear as standard v belts. !

I bought a link belt fo r my lathe recently and found that it was easy to remove links by turning the rivets sideways as Brian says. Older belts were a bit different I seem to remember, not too kind to fingers.

Too true.

You cannot please everyone all the time.

You cannot please some people any time, no matter what you do.

So, I say, don't worry about it, just do your best, most of us will be thankful for it.

I have a LUX milling machine for which I made a stand using 40x40x4 box tubing.

The space under the machine is used for storage of milling tools ect.

It has never moved since I installed it but to be sure, to be sure, I fitted a brace from the top of the coloum to the back wall.

Check Good -Old -Sparey.! You will find that tool mentioned in his book, and it works !

If you are thinking about making a jig for finger jointing or box combing, I made one years ago from a drawing I saw in a Woodwork mag. I was quite easy to make, nothing fancy and I,m sure it can still be found in those books.

The whole thing was made from wood, no steel anywhere.

Mark, I remember using most of those timbers you mentioned, Happy Memories !

Beautiful woods to work with, doubt if one could even get them now.

Maybe China will think about getting into the Market ???

The asbestos did not come with Rawlplugs, as I recall, but with another system called Philplug, I think.

Not sure they could sell that stuff these days.

All the good Teak was ripped out years ago, in the days of the "Empire"

Not much of either left these days.

Iroko is not a nice wood to work with, since it is dried out too quickly and tends to twist and warp even while being machined, and the dust from it ???????? not good for you. Ask me how I know.

Did you consider using Ash ? Good enough for boats, good enough for seats ?

Dave S-O-D ,Never knew you did things like that ??????

I thought I was the only one like that around !

You have made my day .

Business is business my boy !

I don't know where to start when it comes to thanking you all for your input !

I am simply amazed that so many took the trouble over something so small.

Thinking the whole thing over last night,I came to the same conclusion ,that the whole thing was too light and flimsy.

I think that the angle piece is far too light, a solid block would be a better idea there and the screws need beefing up.

How was I stupid enough to believe it would work ? [Don't dare answer that !! ]

It is now a case of "Back to the drawing board ", but much wiser this time around.

I will build another one because it can be useful when making large numbers of items and if it works out better this time around, I will post some pictures of the Mark Two model.

Again, my thanks to everyone who replied. As they say, "Every little helps "

Take care everyone

Back again, I did manage to get those pictures into my album [don't even ask how ].

I hope you may be able to make it out, it is simply a piece of 10mm bar which carries a disc fitted with three screws which can be brought to bear against a piece of 10mm flat.. As I said, even with the cross slide locked, when two pieces are machined at the same setting, there is a variation and a lot more than 1 thou.

First off, I did not try a DTI ,the variation is when I,m cutting, even with a very fine feed. I tried to be gentle when bringing the unit to the stop, which is made from a piece of 40x10 which happened to be to hand. Not much chance of it flexing. I will try the DTI in the toolpost

Andrew, I was hoping to avoid having to check the dial each time since I hope to use this thing when making a batch of small units. I did take pictures, but I,m still trying to work out how to get them from A to B, if you know what I mean

For now, it,s back to the drawing board.

Good evening all,,

I,m wondering if anyone can enlighten me as to where I am going wrong.

I have made a simple stop to limit the travel of the cross slide on my lathe in order to get consistent diameters each time.

It consists of a screw, fixed to the cross slide which meets a stop fixed to the back of the carriage, nothing fancy. In order to make it more useful, I fitted it with a rotating disc in order to fit three such stops.

It works fine, as a stop, but the results are far from consistent, anything from 2thou to 6 thou on all three diam,s.

I have tried locking the cross slide but it made little difference.

Any idea,s ? I have taken pictures which I will try to post

All help welcome.

Glad to hear that. I have a Craftsman lathe, very similar to the BH600 and I had trouble with the forward/reverse switches many moons ago. They are quite small, made of plastic [like most other things ] and are easly knocked about. Result--No start !

Have not had any bother YET with thermal overload fingers crossed !

I am 81 [and counting ] and have no intention of packing up any time soon, so I would say, yes, go for it !

I too hate to think what will happen to all my gear when I snuff it. I have no-one to pass it on to and very few kids want to know anything about such work anymore. Some dealer will come and clear the lot, without a second glance, I suspect. Sad, but you can,t take it with you.