Member postings for larry phelan 1

Most of my taps and dies are HSS split type. I have no time for those solid carbon dies,I regard them as junk.

I do have quite a collection of BSW and BSF,taps and dies from years back,along with some Metric,but any new ones I buy are always HSS, You can,t go too far wrong with them and they can deal with anything.OK,they cost a bit more,but then,you get what you pay for. There,s nothing worse than having a cheap tap break just when you are finished the thread.

Lidle are selling a chain hoist here for less than 40 Euro,at that price you can,t go wrong. I bought one last year,think it cost me 50 Euro,can,t remember,in order to lift the top panels of my veneer press,which I can no longer handle. Works very well and can be removed for other use as required. Would have no trouble handling chucks ect.

I am a fully paid up member of this club !!

Angle grinder ?

Hi John,

If you are like me and know as much about the lathe as it knows about you,fear not,you are in the right place.

These guys have forgotten more than we will ever learn,but to start off with,you need to get a simple thread profile gauge like the one shown above [you need this anyway if you want to grind your own tool bits ]

For the rest of the info,you could do worse than look up Sparey,,s book where he gives all the knowhow on thread cutting,in simple terms,no nonsense. Thread gauges are available to measure and identify different threads. they are quite cheap,and really,that,s all you need. Forget about getting bogged down with masses of tables and such,at this level,they dont really matter,your threads will turn out fine [even mine do !]

As one member said,a lick with a wire brush works wonders.

Now multi start threads are a different matter,but that,s for another day another time perhaps?

Give it a try,you might be surprised,I was !

John,

I cannot be of any help to you,since my idea was not suitable,but I have to say I admire your guts,that you are still working away,from a wheelchair. I say GOOD FOR YOU,long may you continue,I hope I will be able to do the same if I ever get to that stage. No matter that the workload is smaller,so what,to be able and willing to tackle it is what matters. Two of my old friends are in wheelchairs,but without your positive attitude,so,hang in there !

Remember,you will get all the help you need from this site.

I bought a magnetic vice some years ago from a well known supplier and found it to be totally useless for milling.

I dont even bother with it for drilling,I just dumped it on to a shelf somewhere.

Maybe the real industrial vises are OK,but not the ones we are offered.

I suppose I,m not too bad after all. I have managed to lose/misplace a few spanners and my 6" rule. I know they are there somewhere,but where?. Will the ever turn up again before I go and buy new ones?

Who knows ! I was going to suggest forming a club,but I see there is already one in existence.

Hi John,

I have an old Trend catalog buried deep [not seen it for years],in which the is a machine,using a router to do just that kind of work. The router is arranged to move along the workpiece while the work revolves. The speed of the advance is dictated by a wheel,turned by hand.

Might be worth checking out Trend

David,

I know there was no offence intended,and none was taken. We are both too long in the tooth for that and I suspect we both have skins like tool steel !

We do seem to have opened a right can of worms !!

David,

I stand corrected. As someone else said recently,what a great site this is,so much to learn here,and not all about model engineering !

Oil heaters produce water vapour,just about the last thing you need in a workshop.

I thought that Groz stuff was made in Germany,and was surprised at the poor quality of it,then I discovered that it is made in India. That explained a lot ! Now,I regard it as just another name,and as the Bard said, "What,s in a name,ect,ect "

The ones I watch out for are those flashing Blue Lights !!!!!!!

When the belts on my Craftsman lathe give up,they will be replaced with link belts. No way do I want to get involved in pulling out shafts and replacing them,just for the sake of new belts. Let sleeping dogs lie !

I have used link belts in the past on other machines and never had a problem with them. They might cost a little more,but how often do you need to fit new belts anyway?

I use the side of the wheel all the time,to grind two angles at the same time.

It seems that this is simply NOT DONE !!!. [Not in the best shops,anyway],all sorts of things are supposed to happen,but so far,I have not noticed any of them. I tried using the front of the wheel but did not like the results,so I went back to using the side. OK,you do have to dress it from time to time,but it,s no big deal,and anyway,wheels are not that dear..

No doubt this will be shot down,so dont take my word for it. ! Let,s just say that for me,it works.!

Can,t help,but I love looking at old machines like that,light years ahead of my cheapy Chianees job.

Should be able to get good results from it.

Good luck.

Very similar to a wood mortise machine,where you just drill out most of the waste and leave the chisel to clean up the slot..

Not sure I would like to try it on my lathe though !!

My workshop,and sometime garage was built on a 6" slab with insulation underneath,the surface being polished.

The builder thought I was mad going to such lengths but it,s hard to beat a smooth floor when you need to move stuff around. Damp proof underneath,of course. Floor ends up just slightly over ground level,so no problem getting machines in or out. Roof height might be worth thinking about though,more important than you might think,to go by some early posts. Sometimes that extra few inches can make all the difference.

Like Thor and JasonB,I bought my Nu Tool 16 speed floor standing drill many moons ago,1983,to be exact. It has a 16mm chuck but is well able to handle 1" drills. There is some play in the quill but not enough to worry me. It handles most of my needs and if I need anything better,I use the mill,but not too often do I need to.

The quality of the castings on all machines from that part of the world is not great as I found when I needed to drill a few small holes in the back of my lathe to mount a stop arrangement. The material was quite soft and sandy,nothing like old cast iron.

As regards price,I think I paid around 300 pounds at that time,but it has never given any trouble and the motor is still going strong,with the same belts ! Looking at the way prices have gone over the years,I might even be able to buy it cheaper now.