Member postings for Will Noble

In short, it went for a fair bit more than I was prepared to pay, especially by the time the postage was added in. Just have to keep my eyes open........................

Will

Hope his doesn't sound ungrateful Baldric, but I think Mike Poole's link in the post above is the same thing offered by Chronos and a fair bit better price. That said, you can only tell if you explore the links.

Will

ps never heard of it as a 'sorry' before (Mike Poole's link), perhaps it's a function of failing to catch a newly sharpened drill you just overenthusiastically ejected with it and twanged, point first, off the concrete floor.

Ta for the heads-up. It'll be interesting to see what it gets to................

Probably quite a lot.

Will

Agreed but the way I look at it is that it's an all-in-one tool, quite large and - especially with regard to the drift, unless hung on a chain by the machine - less likely to get lost/misplaced when it's being used between a drill, mill and lathe.

Will

I quite understand what you mean. I've taken to going for the ex-industrial where I can find something not worn to the scrap point. Even when they are a bit tatty, they can usually be resurrected.

Will

The very thing. Never thought I'd see one again. From what I can find Barson are gone.

Oddly enough, after I'd posted the question, I found a bit from an American site that also bemoaned the fact that they couldn't find them any more.

I wonder it there's someone who could cast a few lumps of brass for us to machine? ........

getting a suitable bit of steel forging would be a bit more challenging..............

Will

Some several moons ago I had a cast brass hammer, about 1Kg, with a 'cast-in-a-lump' hollow shaft in which was mounted a spring loaded Morse taper drift.

Hammer for 'helping' things align in the lathe, or making sure they were down on the parallels in the mill vice, and the drift that could be impacted by the mass of the hammer head and shaft to persuade a stuck Morse taper to part. I don't have a photo, or a memory of where it came from.. I only remember it was extremely useful.

Anyone know where I can find similar?

Will

Ah, jealousy. It's a terrible thing!

Just to correct your assertion, there wasn't a lot of 'sucking' going on whilst my brother and I levered the thing in there: but there was a hell of a lot of blowing out of breath and grunting.............

Will

Yep, I think it'll take it .......

Table is 56" x 13.5" (1422 x 340 mm) Got it in today, still on the rollers, if you look under the base - and weighs it at a tripe-pulling 2.5 tonnes. Quite a task with scaffold boards, rollers made from cast waterpipe and a couple of (big) pinch bars.

Will

Does anyone recognise this old rotary table?

I went to an auction yesterday and bought a pallet full of:

The rotary table pictured below

12" Pratt 4-jaw chuck

2 x slightly tatty 5" 3-jaw chucks

The photos show the only marking I can see on it, it's 10" diameter and 90 : 1 ratio. Despite the grime/gunge, it's still as smooth as a baby's bum to turn. The fixture/jig was on it.

As well as being bleep-bleep heavy, significantly heavier than the 12" 4-jaw, it looks to have been WD/War Office grey and the one bit I can find say sHardimond were around during and just after WW2

Will

Edited By Will Noble on 29/09/2019 17:19:11

I'm in east Lincolnshire. Certainly anyone with any knowledge of these/similar things would be a very useful contact. That said, I'm trying to empty the space in the garage/workshop of building materials to let the electrician in to plumb that bit of the 3 phase, so not a panic job yet.

Will

Nah! Nice thought but it's a roller shutter item. It would certainly stop it closing and probably a lot of nasty noises as it tried.

Will

Happily, it's an illusion. The sides narrow in from about half way. I think it's also due to the slightly random placement of the bits of OSB. It was sitting on a pallet when we collected it and looked dodgy, even though it was a hefty one. We perched it on a pallet to start with, them chickened out and put it on the floor/OSB. There are fork slots under the back of the base.

Will

Thanks for the responses, everybody. It's encouraging. Why did I buy it? It came out of a folded up business and at a price not a hell of a lot more than scrap value. I've never tried 'CNC' before, I was taught 'mandraulic' - a long, long time ago and only ever used that since. So I thought: 'What the hell!' 'I'll have a go'.

I've got the Heidenhain (TNC 151, or 155 series) manual for it but, sadly, not the Parkson bit. I know lathes.co.uk do some manuals but not yet sure how near they get to this one. I'd guess it must be one of the last of this series produced. There's no nod in the direction of manual reversion because having popped a couple of covers off there are no sockets for handles, apart from the right hand end of the table appears to have something of the sort. It seems from previous posts that it's probably salvageable, even if it's a question of going for a modern electronics transplant.

On the bright side, I've got 3 phase in the workshop - a legacy of an ancient offer of it coming in at the same price as single phase when the house was built, so the guy installed 3 phase (15Kw, blown air) heating as well.

There's what looks like a serious transformer behind another panel under the main motor at the back, so I guess it's where the 170 volts comes from. Next time I uncover it, I'll look at the servo motors, etc, for maker's labels.

The first thing I have to do is get the overarm lowered so I can get it through the door. It doesn't appear to be 'plug and play', with multi-cored cables running up the inside of the arm's box section and indivually connected and tagged onto long connector blocks in the control cabinet. I'm also guessing that old fashioned CRT is pretty heavy.

One interesting bit I've found is a B.Ae. label on it, Guess it's probably one of their cast-offs from the 90s? It looks a very well built item, just looks really massive because of all the panels covering up the drives. Quite a few are fibreglass.

Will

OK, so I've got it.

Now what the hell do I do with it?............. especially this bit.................

Anyone any experience of them?

Will

"It's a lot more than I paid for mine from Ebay. But that was over 10 years ago, when Ebay was still a proper auction site and there were bargains to be had'

Likewise my last for a roundhead Student - I was given it......................

Agreed the missing parts can all be replaced/manufactured but at that price, I think not.

I see the US eBay offering - missed that in my searches - is listed at USD 750, so perhaps that's where the inspiration for the asking price came from.

Not the same, I know but there's always the satisfaction of making one for the tailstock if it just doesn't add up. I'm sure I've seen whole capstan lathes go for little more than twice that.

Will

I've been hangin' me liver over this for a while.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/acrovu-colchester-master-and-student-capstan-attachment-/192780605399?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

As far as I can tell, from having owned a similar item and also in reference to the scant information I can find, there seems to be a few bits missing ie:

5 of the long stop screws

The big 'T' locking/clamp screw from the top of the turret hexagon.

Some long buried memory cell also says there was a speed brace to adjust the stops as well. Any body own, or seen one for reference?

Will

ps 'Chips in paint but in exceptional condition'? Really?

Did I miss something, or is the second incident and as the result of attempting to cut another thread, using a new bush in place of the one that failed, or is it from the original crash?

Other than that: Ref the oil oozing and the sparks, I hate to say it again - but I will:

It's almost certainly an 'Oilite' type product. Some have iron in them as per the quote I posted previously (hence magnetic and sparking when ground), all are designed to absorb oil which is then released as a lubricant for a bearing surface, most are quite easily compressed and have varying degrees of strength, usually quite low.

(It's how we used to get them out of blind holes - put a punch/screwdriver/nail against one edge, give it a tap and it readily deforms inwards. Pick out with pliers, or invert item and thump on bench/lump of wood.)

Could I also suggest that some enterprising designer has used the material deliberately? It can be extruded/press formed/whatever quite cheaply (why Lucas used it) in vast quantities and a bit of effort would provide a reasonable value for its shear point, thus enabling it to act as a back-up shear pin for the drive train - but perhaps in ChrisB's case, not high enough?

Will

Edited By Will Noble on 30/12/2018 16:42:55

............ and I'm still going for it being an 'Oilite'-type material which has, as I think I implied/said, the torque transmitting ability of something approaching cast cheese. It's not designed to transmit torque, just soak up a lubricant and then act as a bearing surface.

If Chris is cutting a 16mm thread - and especially if 'going for it' - I'd suggest he's applying quite a lot of torque to the drive to the saddle, especially on a smaller lathe. It's revealed a design expedient (read fault/fudge/cost saving exercise).

The conversion to a suitable shear pin sounds a better bet - but chosen with care. I'd suggest a drill shank might not be appropriate - as in too high a shear rating for the job.

All the above assumes there is no other hidden damage which is causing a lot of 'drag' on the layshaft/feedscrew/saddle side of things.

Will

ps I'm avoiding a discussion of my mention of Mazak. I think that bit is for another time/part of the Forum. Don't need another red herring.

Almost academic but my money's still on an 'Oilite'. It's a good bearing material for that situation, even if not very strong. Look at the texture and if it's grainy, most likely one of the Oilites, A N Other's version of it, or a sintered product. Many of them are iron-based.

I'd be surprised at MAZAK. It's not magnetic and has a very fine, silvery appearance if scraped with a sharp blade, like a highly polished aluminium alloy - and very soft. Old carburettors were made from it and had an awful durability on wearing surfaces.

Will