Member postings for Paul M

I have read through these posts and found them interesting.

I went to secondary school during the 60's and was taught 1st and 3rd angle orthographic projection. We worked primarily in imperial for all our measuring in all subjects. It was not until I was teaching during the 70's that metric was introduced and was taught. The transition was gradual and costly having to convert machines and all measuring equipment. Buying stock was interesting as metal remained in imperial sizes for quite a few years and again was gradually replaced by metric sizes.

I consider myself lucky in that I have no issues working in either metric or imperial apart from refusing to accept a centimetre as a valid way of expressing a measurement. I enjoy the mental mathematics when converting from one to the other. A bit like being married to a French lady - some conversation is in French some in English with the occasional use of a dictionary.

I have the same Warco 250V lathe that I purchased new a couple of years ago. Mine is on the stand purchased for the lathe and sits on a concrete floor. I made extensions with adjustable feet for the outside of each end of the stand to widen the footprint and give some adjustment to level the stand and lathe.

In my experience, it is easy enough to level the lathe using the adjustable feet. The problem lies with the design of the lathe, having the headstock and tailstock fixing bolts in line. I have shimmed the tailstock end to try and reduce any twist (which is time consuming) and have got to what I think is the best I can expect for such a lathe.

For most of my turning I am happy with a slight error and have worked out ways to compensate when necessary. Most of my turning is generally within 100mm of the chuck resulting in errors that are within tolerance for most model engineering jobs. Where I need to work with longer lengths between centres or chuck and centre, I generally reduce any errors in diameter by adjusting the tailstock.

I think you have to accept that a Chinese lathe is not going to be super rigid and spending hours adjusting and sorting out a problem one day may return the next. Also don't lean on the lathe when using it.

Same issue here with Warco. Had my lathe for two years and never been found extra toolholder in stock. I have searched for extra tool holders but find it impossible to be sure I have found an alternative. I continue my search.

I have used the same method as Hopper's for years now. I can centre work quickly and have yet to find an easier method for entering round stock.

Find low and high points

Move work to halve the difference and set dti to zero

Go round jaws and set to zero

I don't bother with using two chuck keys in apposing jaws.

Spend an afternoon just centering work.

Students I taught always found this method easiest to learn.

Not had any major problems with Hermes as the same lady drops off and is very reliable. Had two occasions where DPD packages had been pilfered. They were milling cutters and the packages had been torn with one of the items taken. Interestingly the photos taken by the delivery drivers showed the tear. The company I purchased from were ok about a replacement. I just wonder how much more we pay for products so companies can cover the cost of fraud in general.

The only person I ever take note of with regard to Covid-19.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MoPER6NxPk

I appreciate your advice. I have realised too late the possible problems with drilling and reaming especially into cast iron.

I am building a 31/2" Lifford Hall loco. I fear I have somehow managed to get one of the driving wheels running out of true. I machined the axles between centres and used loctite to secure the wheel. There now appears to be about 14thou sideways (lateral) movement on wheel at the outer edge. The tread is concentric to the axle. I fear I may have not gone through square with the reamer as I did suspect a bit of lateral movement before loctiting but assumed it was the clearance between the wheel and axle prior to fixing.

What puzzles me is that I used a jig set in lathe to machine each wheel.

I really don't want to start another wheel so am looking for suggestions/advice on the way forward. My initial thought was to drill out the axle and somehow set the wheel up and bore out a few thou remake the axle and hope.

Things were going well up to this point!!

The technical term for what you want to do is damascening. In my days of making jewellery etc, I inlayed steel, brass and silver. The general rule of thumb was to make sure the inlay was a softer metal than the base. When you say bash I assume you will use a hammer which is probably not the best way. Make steel punches with a splayed end a rounded one, without any sharp corners. Having undercut your grooves again with a shop made tool or in your case an engraving tool you should be able to inlay the silver working around with a punch to work the metal into the groove. You need to make sure the gauge of the wire is a little over the width of the slot. If it is too large you will have issues with the metal work hardening and obviously if it is too small in diameter, it will never work into the undercut of the groove. I think the essential thing is to have punches to do the inlay as a hammer will not give you the control.

I am sure you will find a demo on youTube.

I have just been given a set of imperial slip gauges that have been sitting in a garage for some years. A number of the gauges are slightly pitted with rust.

Any suggestions for getting the gauges back to a state where I can at least use them for setting and testing measurements accepting they may not be good enough to be part of a stack.

I use 1Password which generates and stores passwords. I only need to remember the master password.

It is not whether you use a password manager or use paper copies, it's how you create your password. Using words and numbers alone such as Loco265 is not very secure as computers these days can run through a dictionary of words in a fraction of a second and try billions of combinations.

If you are going to use words then a password such as nuthatch-bereave-selfsame-laos is more advisable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NjQ9b3pgIg

This video is worth a look.

Was put on Ramapril some years ago as doctor was concerned about my blood pressure (stressful occupation).
I decided to keep track of my blood pressure myself, entering monthly readings on a spreadsheet and plotting a trend line.

After having a knee operation I had to go to the gym to exercise and strengthen my leg muscles.
I noticed my blood pressure was quite low on a regular basis so asked the doctor to come off the pills. The doctor had no objections.
My blood pressure is ok at present without any pills and I continue to keep a monthly reading.

In my case I am sure it was life style. Lack of exercise and a stressful job. What has changed ? I exercise at a gym and by walking my dog, not getting stressed, keeping my weight down and most importantly relaxing in my workshop building my first steam engine.

If my blood pressure starts to creep up again I will consider taking pills again.

I tried to transport a Warco WM16 milling machine some time ago. I have a hatchback, but found it impossible to safely move it in one piece with an engine hoist and then load it.

I stripped it down removing the head, column and table and even then had to use a few helping hands to put it into the car. It is still very heavy even stripped down.

If I were to do it again I would hire a trailer or find someone with a flatbed truck.

What makes things worse is the fact you have to get it all out when you get home.

Good luck and be careful of your back.

I have never really bothered too much with the detail. As far as I'm concerned, if it's a silver alloy it's silver soldering and if a brass alloy it's brazing.

Having made many 100's of items of jewellery over the years I have used all the grades a silver solder on silver, gilding metal, Nickel silver, brass and copper etc.

For steel I have always generally brazed (a term I have used for 50 years). If I use silver silver solder on steel it's silver soldering.

Everyone at my work used a brazing torch for both brazing and silver soldering. We all knew what we were doing and never had any discussions about the correct terminology.

Works for me.

I am still in discussion with my employer regarding, which newspaper and the size of the squares, and whether to use string or nylon cord. No British Standards seem to have been published.

I agree that scam phone calls are a major nuisance. My latest one - "this call is about your life insurance policy sir". My standard reply is to ask for their full name, phone number and address they are calling from. They always terminate the call.

Regarding Amazon Prime, I have subscribed for a few years now. I use Prime TV a lot. It has some good programmes not available on terrestrial TV channels. Next day delivery is handy although you can get items slightly cheaper without Prime. My wife, who has her account, found herself with the 30 day trail offer recently. It is a pain sifting through he links to cancel but it can be done. My advice is to Google how to cancel amazon Prime if you get lost in the maze.

I have a WM250 and the Warco stand. I used a length of hefty rectangular tube at each end of the stand with adjustable feet to level the lathe. The tube is wider than the base of the stand for extra stability. I find the lathe does vibrate somewhat when turning offset work and have to run the lathe slowly or carefully counterbalance the setup.

Looking at the mounting positions for the lathe, there are three inline, two at the headstock and one at the tailstock end. I am not convinced the base of the carriage and headstock are perfectly flat as It is quite easy to wobble the lathe. This appears to be only partly due to the thickness of the top of the stand. My intension in the near future, is to look at ways in which to modify the mounts and add something more robust to the top of the stands.

Many thanks to all who have posted such informative and helpful responses on this topic.

It has certainly given me plenty of help and steered me in the right direction.

I am building a 3 1/2" loco to a LBSC design. As a novice I have to do a lot of research to find out appropriate materials for constructing the loco ,as the drawings supplied by Reeves, have no reference to materials.

I am about to start work on the Stevensons valve gear and would appreciate some guidance regarding materials selection or the best reference books to help.

I have the WM250VF. I had an electrical issue from the start which with the help of Warco was easily fixed.

The lathe is acceptable for the price and origin! I don't tend to do heavy cuts as the machine will struggle. It's useful having auto crossfeed although I did once forget to remove an Allen key that locked the carriage and bent one of the crosslide adjusters. I have DRO fitted which does limit the tailstock travel and gets in the way of the cross slide locking bolt. Well worth the limitations though.

I purchased the stands which I regret. The lathe never feels rigid and the slightest offset will result in vibration. This may be as a result of fitting feet rather than bolting the stand to the floor. One day I may try to change to bolting it down.

If you do a lot of screw cutting, I would consider a model with a gear head.