Member postings for Ron Laden

I tend to use mostly carbide cutters on my SX2P most of which I get from ARC, 2 flute uncoated for aluminium and coated types for steel. As Jason says they are Chinese but of better quality than the cheapies you see advertised, I know some swear by the cheap cutters and inserts that you can find but that has not been my experience. Also there is no need to go for the really expensive ones for use on a small mill, all the mid priced ones I have used have given good results and decent tool life.

Try www.getanymanual.com for a download of the manual, I think they have the BH600G cost is about a pound.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 16/03/2022 14:11:21

Edited By Ron Laden on 16/03/2022 14:18:30

Andy, A picture of my shop below just to give some idea. I have a 15 inch deep bench to the right where the mill sits, a 24 inch bench to the left plus a 24 inch bench at the far end with the lathe. If you went with something similar having a 15 inch and 20 inch deep bench you would have a working space between of 27 inches, cosy but quite workable. Or you could go with 2 x 17-18 inch benches, if you go with a mini lathe a 12 inch bench will house it as I had mine on that size of bench when I started. Depends on what machines and bench size you need lots of options.

Andy my shop is 2.0 x 2.0 (6.5ft x 6.5ft) it's all I have but its surprising what you can fit in if well laid out. I have a lathe and mill plus 6ft x 2 ft of clear bench space for building. I put shelves up on the walls and fitted a shelf under the benches and below that I store the saw, grinder and other stuff.

I insulated mine with 50mm polystyrene sheet from Wickes which works really well. The thing that a small shop does make you do is to keep it clean and tidy if it becomes a mess with stuff lying about everywhere it wouldn't be pleasant to work in.

Go for it you won't regret it.

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/03/2022 08:07:49

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/03/2022 08:14:37

I agree the Boxford in the classified ads with all the tooling looks to be a very good package, if I had the space which I dont I would be seriously interested myself. Regarding too far away I think that is par for the course when you find a good machine, when I found my Warco 918 with all the mods and tooling I did a 400 mile round trip to collect.

At the end of the day Mike its your decision of course on what you go for but dont let distance put you off when you find something that ticks all the boxes.

My thoughts anyway.

Ron

I can vouch for the quality of Femi saws I have the smaller 105XL and its a great saw and despite its size it still has a 4 inch capacity.

Mike

Just a pointer if it helps, within your budget is a Boxford AUD II in the classified ads, it looks and reads very well it comes with a wealth of tooling but I know nothing about Boxfords but I,m sure there are lots of guys on here that do.

Mike,

A lot of the tooling you mention that comes with the Colchester also comes with the Warco 250, in the purchase price it comes with a face plate, 5 inch 3 jaw and 5 inch 4 jaw, fixed and travelling steadies, 2 centres and other bits and pieces. Just pointing it out as I think you were thinking you would have to buy them on top but they are included in the package.

p.s If you do consider starting out with a mini lathe to learn the basics and gain experience I wouldnt recommend one of the smaller ones i.e. 7 x 14 size. I am not knocking them as like 1000,s of others its how I started and I did learn a lot and did some nice work but you soon come to reallise its short comings particularly its small size and lack of rigidity. As suggested something the size of a WM250 or similar would be a better starting point, I was lucky in finding a Warco 918 (920 type) in excellent condition, yes its had some mods and VFD but at 24 years old its a very nice machine so they are about.  

Edited By Ron Laden on 11/03/2022 08:31:47

Iain,

The link Paul posted was a question I asked regarding had any electric Traction Engines been built, you will see from the answers that quite a few had been built and some to quite a large scale.

Although mine is on hold at the moment it is not forgotten I will get back to it as I will with one of Jasons engine designs that is 3/4,s finished.

Mine is a homebrew but based on the 1" Minnie though I am going with a scale of 1.625" scale which suits me size wise. I plan on going with a 350 watt motor mounted in the firebox and the batteries placed in the driving trolley. The drive will be through the side wall of the firebox with one additional gear connecting into the Minnies standard drive train, the low gearing is well suited to electric and should give good torque well at least thats my thinking at the moment.

Ron

I have the Sieg SX2P which I,ve found to be quite a capable mill for a small hobby machine, 500 watts output and certainly punches above its weight. Its been 100% reliable and accurate, its also decent quality.

Well the holder was easy to modify and impressed with the insert whilst cutting the 3 degree tyre angle on a test piece.

Mart, I have considered getting the 16mm holder and reducing the height but with the holder I have only needing the bottom seat lowering by 1.5mm I think it worth giving it a try. Providing it cuts ok it shouldnt be too difficult to do.

Ron

Thanks Jason, I will see how it goes modifying the holder if it doesnt work out I will get the 16mm holder and work out a method of clamping it to the compound, thanks for that I hadnt thought of it.

Thanks Neil and Mart,

The holder and inserts I got from APT unless I missed something the MRMN 1.5 rad inserts came as a minimum 10 off. I must admit I was a bit surprised that the smallest holder shank size is 16mm for these inserts I just assumed that the 8 x 10 shanked holder would be correct. To be fair APT were very good on seeing my order they emailed to point out that the holder wouldnt fit the inserts but it went into my junk mail and I missed it.

I am going to try and modify the holder which will need the bottom seat lowering by 1.5mm using a carbide cutter I,m thinking it should cut ok. The seat is V shaped so after removing the 1.5mm, angle cuts each side should re-produce the V, well thats the thinking.

Well the MRMN 1.5mm radius inserts and holder arrived, unfortunately the inserts dont fit the 8 x 10mm holder I ordered. Apparently the holder I have only takes inserts up to 1.0mm rad, for the 1.5mm inserts the smallest holder has a 16 x 16mm shank which is too large for my lathe. So I could get the larger holder and reduce the shank to 10 x 10mm or try to modify the small holder which would need the insert seat increasing in width by 1.5mm or drop down to the 1.0mm radius inserts though I would prefer to go with the 1.5mm.

Decisions, decisions.

Same here, on my SX2 the leadscrews are not open to swarf so its not a worry.

I,ve never bothered with covers on my Sieg SX2P, its done quite a bit of work in 3 years and never had a problem, just clean it down between jobs.

Thanks guys for the links.

Jason the APT inserts are new to me not seen those before, there is some interesting tooling there. I see they do a 3mm (1.5 rad) which would suit the job better than the 1.0 mm going up on the 1.2 mm size rather than down.. Would you happen to know the holder for the MRMN inserts, I see holders for the MGMN inserts listed but not the MRMN or are they the same holder for both. A pity min qty is 10 off but so be it they will last me a lifetime.

Thanks Ron.

p.s. Me been a bit slow Jason I think they are the same holder, G = Groove  R = Radius. 

Edited By Ron Laden on 13/02/2022 07:43:40

I use CCMT/GT inserts which I believe (could be wrong) only come in .04 and .08 tip radius. I have a job where a 1.2mm radius would be ideal but are inserts available at that size, I appreciate if they are available it would probably be another type of insert which would need a holder to suit. I have been searching but havnt found anything unless I,m looking in the wrong places.

Ron

Thanks Dave for the explanation on EN materials, I didnt know the history of EN.

Duncan, yes the blanks are 10mm x 75mm dia discs laser cut from S275 plate and they are very reasonably priced and been quite close to finished size I thought they would save some work. Like you suggest I would have thought they would be fine on a 3.5 inch Co-Co loco. I am having a go at scratch building a Kestrel, dont worry guys I wont be boring you with a build thread I appreciate there is little interest here in electric diesels which is fine. I may pop up now and then though for advice if I have an engineering/machining query.

Ron