Member postings for Bill Phinn

They make money largely from the interest they get from lending your money to others. Fees and bank charges supplement this.

So my way of putting it would be to say banks earn a large part of their income from the interest on our money. In which case, John Doe's assessment of the case is fairly unexceptionable.

Nationwide are proving to be the worst financial company I've ever had the displeasure to deal with. I'll elaborate later.

I've had the Axminster 8-inch slow speed grinder for a week. I bought it to accommodate the CBN wheel I bought from them only a few days prior to that. My reasons for buying a CBN wheel are set out here.

I can't presently recommend either this Axminster slow-speed grinder or their CBN wheel. I'm awaiting some replacement parts before I decide whether I'll keep either.

Problems are as follows: whilst I can get the supplied white stone wheel [the one out of the two stone wheels supplied that I want to use] to run so true that no lateral wobble is detectable by eye, the CBN wheel with its special CNC-made bushes has at least 0.5mm of lateral wobble that can't be rectified no matter how the bushes or the wheel are rotated before tightening the lock nut.

The shaft of the grinder is acceptably straight, with only 0.02mm of runout, so the problem is probably either the bushes or the wheel or the lock nut, or a combination of all three. Axminster are sending out replacement bushes to see if it cures the problem, but it's turning into a rather long wait for these to turn up.

I've tried placing cardboard washers between the small shoulder on the shaft and the inner bushing, as well as underneath the locknut, and this reduces runout by about two fifths, but it's still unacceptable runout in my view for a wheel that I bought specifically to be able to use the side for grinding drills on.

You would think it would be the other way round with the wheels - that the stone wheel with its crudely cast bushings/washers would be the one that was difficult to cure of wobble, and the precision turned CBN wheel with its CNC-made bushings would be dead straight, but sadly that's not the way things presently are.

ETA: I forgot to say that with both wheels installed the grinder vibrates horribly when powered up. If only one wheel is installed [doesn't make any difference whether this is the stone wheel or the CBN wheel] the vibration reduces considerably.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 05/12/2022 14:30:54

Sadly, never, because there are always two people with extreme dementia in an adjoining room potentially about to do something messy or dangerous that will require my immediate attention.

Geoffrey, I'm not quite sure what conclusion to draw from the replacement jaws you sent for having holes in the wrong place. It doesn't seem to me to say anything about the originality or otherwise of the jaws currently fitted to your vice.

The bolt hole areas of the casting won't have been affected if the projecting sides of castings where the jaws go have been slightly trimmed to make them line up with new shorter 4" jaws.

Thanks, Rob and Mike.

I ended up buying the 200mm CBN wheel from Axminster. I now just need a bench grinder that can accommodate it.

The replaceable jaws on yours may have been replaced with 4" jaws and the body of the vice angle-ground to remove damaged parts of the casting and make the new jaws look right. They don't look quite right, though, to me.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 25/11/2022 16:57:10

Thanks to everyone for your answers.

Axminster do 8 inch, but not 6 inch, CBN wheels with 15mm sides. They're even on offer at the moment, but I'm not sure about the wisdom of mounting one on one side of a 6 inch grinder.

Clive, I take your point about the contact area being minimal. My remaining reservation about a narrow rim is that with limited bench space and me setting up for drill grinding more or less from scratch each time I might appreciate a bit more leeway in my set-ups than a 10mm rim would provide, even if I'm rarely going to be grinding drills above 1/2". Having said that, I could try a low cost white cup wheel of the kind you used [page 708 in the MSC virtual catalogue Jason linked to?] and see how practical a prospect it is before writing off narrow-sided wheels.

The Axminster white wheel Bill links to is a different style but the same material as the Draper one I'm using at the moment. I find it leaves a nice finish but it does seem a little soft compared to the grey grinding wheels I've mostly used before. Hence my fairly frequent dressing of the side of it each time I've ground a dozen or so drills, taking only light cuts at that.

Joseph's cautioning about big drills ground with diamond strengthens my initial belief that a CBN wheel would be better for my present needs than a diamond one. However, Jason's link does at least answer my query on the availability of a 6 inch wheel with a side grinding zone above 15mm in depth.

What's frustrating is that if I lived in the US I wouldn't need to open threads asking forum members to point me to what isn't out there because exactly what I'm looking for is out there and only a click of the mouse away:

https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/4-in-1-cbn-wheels/products/6-4-in-1
https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/6-inch-wheels

Edit: Forgot to say I've contacted T&J Tools for clarification on the grit rating and side widths of their 6 inch CBN wheels.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 21/11/2022 17:10:44

Since I've started to regrind twist drills using a Picador jig and a 6" bench grinder I've discovered a need for a wheel that doesn't require frequent re-dressing [on the side], doesn't spray abrasive dust all over the place whenever it does, and won't make me want to throw it away in the not too distant future when I think the degree of lateral thinning warrants it.

I've looked at a few UK suppliers of CBN and diamond wheels, but none seems to sell a 150mm version with a generous enough side for grinding on. Bigger drills need a fairly big sweep across the side of a wheel, and even if it's possible to grind, say, a 3/4" drill in one sweep when the side is only 10mm, the narrower the side, the more fiddly it will be to set up for grinding in order to hit exactly the right spot on the wheel.

Any pointers on a wheel that answers my needs would be appreciated. I'd rather buy from an established UK-based supplier than an Amazon third party seller or random overseas eBayer.

How would that mistake be rectified if the wrongly placed bolt hole is very close to, i.e. partly overlapping, where it needs to be?

Incidentally, I can't help thinking I've seen better deburring of bolt holes on much cheaper machinery.

I think Nick's point is that an ML7 isn't equivalent in size and spec to Warco's WM250V but to a smaller kind of mini-lathe.

It's mystifying to me why a discussion about a new WM250V arriving with rust on should ever have moved people to point out that the lathe, in spite of its rust, is still good value for money compared with [more] home-grown counterparts.

That, surely, is irrelevant to the present case. What needed to be discussed was whether it is acceptable for a buyer to receive a new lathe, whatever its size, spec and price, in the condition John's pictures suggest his was in on arrival, and, if it isn't acceptable, what choices the seller should offer to address the buyer's disappointment.

At this distance, Warco seem to have given John a satisfactory outcome in spite of not giving a very satisfactory explanation as to how it came about that he ended up with an unusually rusty new lathe in the first place.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 16/11/2022 17:39:30

It's raining stair rods.

Bent as a nine-bob note.

It would be more work for Warco sending another lathe out as well as collecting the rejected one.

Offering a refund and refusing a replacement also sends a message that the seller, not the buyer, is in charge of the resolution process.

Maybe some sellers also want to suggest that, after the refund, they would prefer not to have any further dealings with you.

The central screw on most of the newly bought, economically-priced three-screw die holders I've got were originally cone points rather than dog points. Sadly, these screws are generally too soft to do the work of opening the split of a split die; they typically get mulched after a few uses. I replaced them early on with Grade 14.9 cone point socket set screws. These are up to the job.

By way of contrast, the secondhand Dormer and Toga die holders I've got had much tougher cone point screws when I acquired them. These didn't need upgrading.

So I do sympathize with this aspect of Martin's problems.

Is it really necessary to entirely remove the grub screw to get the lever off? Shouldn't just loosening the screw be enough? Is the lever perhaps bonded to the surface beneath by the usual gunk that dries on under tap covers? In which case continued light tapping may be the solution. Or maybe there's an extra hidden grub screw?

So quite possibly the split remained closed while you cut the two threads you say are the only threads you've cut with that die from new.

Assumption can be perfectly logical and excusable when an adequate explanation for some event [in this case a very worn die after only two cuts in mild steel] isn't forthcoming.

Did Warco give an explanation and actually apologize for the unusual amount of rust on your lathe?

In order not to prolong your difficulties unnecessarily, Martin, it really would be beneficial if you could directly address some of the more salient points various people have raised:

Before attempting a cut, did you open the die to its maximum internal diameter [within the limits imposed by the diestock's own ID] by driving one of the die holder's screw points into the split and leaving the other screws loose?

How has the die managed to get into such an advanced state of wear? I find it hard to believe that Drill Service sent you a worn-out die instead of a new one. I've only ever ordered two items from Drill Service but they were first class. And, as Jason says, if it was in that state when you received it from Drill Service, how did you manage to cut the cleanly cut threads you've shown us in your opening post?

It looks to me like you've been trying to cut threads with it on something either very abrasive, or very hard, or very oversize, at some point after you cut the cleanly cut threads visible in your opening post's image.

This thread is about a bent thread. Please be straight with us.

One more thing that occurs to me: can I take that in starting your threads you were taking full advantage of the split in the die by centering it on the point of one of the four screws inside your die holder and tightening this screw down firmly into the split, whilst leaving the other screws loose?

You can see a mark inside the split on my die showing that this is what I've done. I can't see the same kind of mark on your die.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 14/11/2022 01:55:04