Member postings for larry phelan 1

Dont have that particular lathe,but yes,that,s the answer,there are two levers,one for power feed and one for screw cutting. How do I know ? Ask me !!

Again, Been there,done that !

You are quite right Peter,how many times have you phoned somewhere only to be told "All our lines are busy right now,your call is important to us. Please leave your number and we will call you back soon"

Question------How soon is soon? One hour,next day,next week ,ever ?

Been there,done that !!.

I line up all the jobs which need to be done,then work out which need to be done first,then work out how long each will take,and guess what ? by that time it,s too late to start anything anyway,but so what? there,s always tomorrow !!

Enjoy the good weather while you have it,the Winter will be long enough,last one was !!

Now,where did I put that Sixpack?

Perhaps that should be "Queens English"?

Andrew,be very careful where you thread [in case you put your foot in it ], I drew attention to this very subject some time ago and was roundly attacked by several members for my trouble..It seems that correct English is not spoken or written anymore,indeed I find it difficult to understand much of the posts on this site,and many of them from English men.! I might add that I am not English,I,m Irish,and proud of it,but I do like to hear and see English delivered correctly. Grammar seems to have died years ago and spelling soon after,and as for "Texting",I regard this as a form of laziness,and never respond to it. It reminds me of an old friend who referred to drunks trying to talk,as "Talking shorthand " Same thing !

Perhaps the way to deal with Texting would be to send back something even more stupid,although that might be somewhat difficult.

Just look at some of the posts,and replies here and ask yourself "Is it just me"?

Yes,you are right to get annoyed,there is no excuse for it,all these people went to school,at least I assume so,therefore the question is,did they learn nothing ? If you cannot speak and write your own language,what then ? Stick to your guns Andrew,I,m right behind you. There are only a few of us left and we are vastly outnumbered.

PS Keep your head well down,I expect the return fire will be heavy !!

Excuse me,I forgot to say that the total length of the pieces was 25mm !!

A slip of the finger !

Hi Everyone,

All this talk about the many uses of the drilling machine reminds me of something I did years ago,long before I had a lathe,never mind a milling machine.

At the time,I needed a number of simple drill bushes in order to make a drilling jig for my woodworking. They were just simple pieces of 12mm rod drilled 5mm total length,nothing fancy. Places I approached,either could not be bothered or asked for mad money,so I put on the thinking cap.

The way I did it was this : First I cut off pieces of silver steel to the required length [hacksaw ] ,then I set up a machine vise on my drilling machine table with a 5mm drill clamped upright in it,and lined it up with the chuck.

I then mounted the blanks in the drill chuck,replaced the 5mm bit with a center drill and centerdrilled each piece, then fitted the 5mm drill and simply drilled right through,as on a lathe,with the work revolving,not the drill.

The result was even better than I expected,so much so that with a few spares,I tried drilling out to 8mm,then to 10mm,just to see how accurate it was. To my surprise there was little or no difference in the wall thickness that I could see.. The finished bushes were hardened by heating and cooling in oil and are still in use today.

Now that I have a lathe,such work is much easier,but it just goes what you can do if you have to.

I know this has nothing to do with milling on a drill,but just as an aside,it,s interesting,is it not?

Everyone will be happy to hear that I found the spanner I lost two weeks ago !!!!!!!

Now,if I could only find the piece of 1/4" tool steel I "misplaced" yesterday,I would be a happy man !

The Lord givith,The Lord takeith away. !

I bought one of those scroll saws many moons ago,never did get any good from it,could never see eye-to-eye with it,at the end,could not be bothered with it,and dumped it.

Perhaps being more used to a 12" bench saw did not help,but yes,I did find that they jump all over the place [one of the reasons I did not see eye-to-eye with it. They are OK if you want something to play with,but for serious work ???

I would be inclined to leave well enough alone,you might be happy with it,but your drill might not You might end up with a bunged up drill. Drilling machines are not really made for milling,it,s too easy to damage the spindle,and then they,re not much use for anything.Better to hold fire until you can afford a mill,then you,ll still have a good drill.

Just my thoughts,for what they,re worth.

Remember,small mills are not all that expensive these days and they can cope with quite a range of work.

Lucky Boy !!

Brave Man !!!

I make my toolholders from pieces of 1/2" square with a groove milled in one side. For round tool bits I just drill a hole to suit in one end of the square,deep enough to grip the bit and then slot the holder so that it can be clamped in the tool post. It,s simple and cheap,and you need only a few sizes to fit all your tool bits 1/8" 3/16" 1/4".

The square an have a 1/8"groove in one face,3/16" in another and 1/4" in the third side. Likewise another piece can be drilled 1/8" one end and 3/16" the other or 1/4",whichever suits. No need to go looking for specials.

Dont have a mill? No problem,a hacksaw and a file works just as well,just takes a bit longer.

Like many other things,it seems to be a case of "Horses for courses"

I read somewhere that a double decker bus could be supported from a 1/4" bolt True of false?

Has anyone ever tried it ?

To Not Done It Yet, and Muzzer, Good morning,

Yes,I too have seen blades buckle and twist due to overheating. In fact the steel blade supplied with my Skil saw did this from day one. Since I was cutting mostly chipboard and MDF,this was a non;starter,so I bought a tipped blade,which cost almost as much as the saw ! This was back in 1975 and I still have and use the machine !

Tipped blades give no trouble if you keep them sharp,when they get blunt,the timber will dictate to the blade and the cut goes all over the place. The teeth do have a set to each side in order to give clearance to the body of the blade,otherwise a deep cut would be out of the question since the blade would just jam in the cut.

You can cut sideways to a certain extent,useful for making coving if you dont have a spindle moulder,did it many times myself in the early days. Dont think that would work with a slitting saw !

What I found so odd about slitting saws was that they all seem to cut with only a few teeth and to me that seems to indicate that they are bored off-center rather than anything else,although I cannot see why this should be.

I must say a great deal of info has emerged from this post,for which I thank everyone.

PS I am not trying to teach anyone how to suck eggs,just relating my experiences with wood machining. Milling is another ball game,for me anyway !.

Thanks to all,this is all new information to me,and thankful for it.. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong [not unusual for me]. As was pointed out the difference in speed between wood and metal saws is something which needs to be taken into account. My experience is more with the former.. It,s just handy to know something about these things before having to find out the hard way.

I live and learn.

To Andrew Tinsley,

I often wondered that too. In all the saw blades that I used in my woodworking,and I have used many,I never,ever came across one that cut on only a few teeth. I have used top grade blades [cost a fortune ] and blades from Aldi/Lidli and while the latter are not of the same quality,or price,they all run true and all teeth cut.

So,if they can do it for woodwork saws,why not for metalwork ones? It,s enough to put you off bothering with them.

Thank you Andrew, that,s the kind of info I wanted. Looking at your picture,my saws are fine tooth

I have no real need for saws right but I just wanted to know a little more about them.

Thanks again for your reply,

Larry.

Hi Everyone,

I have two questions regarding the milling machine about which I would like some advice:

A I want to mill grooves or keyways along a piece of 40mm round. The workpiece is mounted in a 3 jaw chuck fitted to a rotary table,mounted vertically ,so the work is horizontal,the overhang supported by a tailstock. The cutter is 5mm two flute and the machine is a Chester Lux.

What I want to know is,how deep a cut can I take at each pass,using powerfeed.?

B i am also experimenting with slotting saws,which I find do not always run true [I think someone mentioned this before ]. I find that they tend to cut on some of the teeth but not on all of them. I have clocked the spindle and the saw holder and both are running true,so I presume the error is in the saw

Nothing I can do about that,but how deep a cut should I aim for,using a 3" dia x3/16" thick saw? I have tried a speed of 100 rph,just to see how it went. Should I increase or decrease ? I forgot to mention that the material in each case is mild steel,nothing fancy. I have not yet tried using powerfeed for the saw,just feeding by hand.

Any advice ,of which there is loads out there,much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I bought something similar from Aldi/Lidli some time ago and they are ideal for local lighting. I have a shorter one fitted over my grinder and it,s perfect,never thought about fitting one over my lathe,now there, s an idea !!!!!

Thank you Ron !