Member postings for Graham Meek

The kettle is no longer with us, the public bodies have taken it for examination, but their Risk Assessment deems it to be a "low risk", so they will not investigate further. As regards the repair, I did think about that, but my Karma would dictate the element would fail shortly afterwards.

Besides it was not the quietest kettle, our Swan is marginally quieter, and still on it's original element, so much for 50 years of progress.

I would have thought the manufacturer would have wanted it back to investigate, but they wanted me to pay the postage. It was not as if I was asking for a replacement, I would not want more of the same, "once bitten twice shy"

Steve,

It is nice to see this is not an isolated case. According to the Manufacturer they extensively test their products. Unfortunately their lab conditions do not mirror real life in our kitchen.

Regards

Gray,

Thanks for the input so far, the differential expansion would certainly put stress on the joint. Plus the Epoxy would act as an insulator as well. Which would only add to the problem.

I have assumed it to be Epoxy, at the failure zone the material has the appearance of granulated carbon. Given the country or origin it could be something else. The other problem is what cannot be seen, ie the joint degrading inside the spout. Inside, it has all the appearances of having failed already. It is just the outer layer of the joint holding it at the moment. The crack an be easily flexed with the index finger and thumb.

Unfortunately it may be my bad Karma, all things electrical have a habit of going wrong around me, especially lately.

The return of the kettle to the shop was not possible as the purchase happened some time before we actually started to use the kettle.

By comparison the kettle that was used while we were sourcing another is an all metal body "Swan", with internal exposed element. This was given to us as a wedding present nearly 50 years ago. No problem with the spout on this one, the joint being a welded one.

Regards

Gray,

The two Photographs above show the failure of a joint on an electric kettle after about 18 months of use. The Spout of the kettle has no mechanical fixings other than the substrate used to adhere the spout to the kettle.

When the joint started to fail along the top of the spout we stopped using the kettle. As the prospect of the spout falling off while pouring was too great. Boiling water going everywhere bar in the Cup or Teapot is not one of the secondary functions of a Kettle.

The "Glue" used seems to be some sort of metal loaded Epoxy, but I would like to know why this has failed. Surely the tap water cannot be to blame.

Anyone got any clues, or experience with a similar failure?

Regards

Gray,

The Myford VMC was supplied to Myford's by two different firms in Taiwan. Early machines were extremely well made, later machines from another supplier in Taiwan were not so good.

You will be extremely lucky if you obtain a Gib strip. It will of course need scraping to suit the machine. As usually the Gib is supplied over length for this purpose.

I have made them from cast iron in the past. Using drill shanks it is easy to determine the taper. By inserting the drill shanks at each end of the casting with the knee pushed hard against the master dovetail. I used a largish Shaping Machine to make my Gibs. Clocking along the length of the Gib to get the desired taper using the Ram of the Shaper.

The last operation is using normal and inverted dovetail cutters to form the correct Gib profile. Care needs to be exercised to ensure the master dovetail surface of the Gib is the reference surface for the dovetail cutters. Otherwise it will be time to start again.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Nick,

That might be true, re cutting forces, but in my experience these type of cutters are more likely to be "end cutting reamers". Many of the chucking reamers I have are LH spiral.

They may well work as an endmill, but if they were mine I would cut the Tang off and tap for a drawbar. The other problem with these cutters is not all of them are HSS, I have been given some which were Carbon Steel.

Regards

Gray,

Morse Taper cutters that resemble an endmill, but have a Tang, and not a Tapped hole, are usually used to produce counterbores. The thrust from the cutter during counter-boring tending to push the cutter into the Morse socket, rather than winding it out during milling.

Without the tapped hole it would be foolish to use these for milling unless one wants to lead an exciting life, with a possible visit to A&E thrown in for good measure.

Regards

Gray,

In the UK we generally work on the Hole Based System of tolerances. Capital H being the designation, these holes are always plus on the Nominal Dimension. All limits and fits are therefore applied to the Shaft or Bush being inserted and are lower case letters.

The Zeus handbook gives all the relevant details of the most commonly, or Preferred Limits used.

The Oilite bush will therefore come above the nominal size, to fit a standard H7 Hole. That hole being, as a Very Rough rule of Thumb, plus 0.025 mm or 0.001", a Smaller hole is less than, while a Larger hole more than.

A certain amount of deformation of the Oilite bush occurs during insertion and the bore of the bush should be a Standard H7 hole after insertion.

On the Continent they prefer to work to the Shaft Based System, the shaft designation carrying the Upper case letter, and all holes, Lower case, these holes are machined accordingly.

Hope these notes help,

Regards

Gray,

Edited By Graham Meek on 25/04/2021 13:00:36

A while back I was contacting various friends to see if they had the number of the ball bearings used in the FB2 main drive Motor. The reason being I would rather have new bearings to hand prior to dismantling, than have to wait for new ones to arrive. Joe in SA even offered to take one of his machines apart to find out, but I could not put him to all that trouble.

Eventually through prolonged enquiries with the manufacturers of the motor, ATB, I have found out the number of the bearings they use, which is 6201 2RU.

There are other motors used, but to date I have not been able to find these bearing numbers.

When I dismantled the motor I found that the bearings were just about at the end of their life. The grease had all worked out of the bearing through the non-contact seal. I am not surprised at this, as the temperature in my workshop has been in the low 30C in the past couple of years. With the FB2 motor sitting just below the insulated roof, but next to the skylight.

I hope these notes will help anyone else contemplating a motor strip down.

Regards

Gray,

Edited By Graham Meek on 17/04/2021 11:00:15

Hello Brett,

That would be good, as long as it is not putting you to any trouble.

Regards

Gray,

PS Sent you a PM.

Hello Brett,

First of all my apologies for getting your surname wrong. Memory recall for me these days is a problem.

It might come a surprise to you that I have long admired your work, especially the adaptations you have made to your lathe. George Thomas would be proud of you. Thanks also for the additional photographs.

Your design of screw cutting clutch I feel will also fit the Emco Compact 8, and would be far less work than my design, which to date has not been proven.

I also feel Don would benefit from your design, did you make any drawings?

Regards

Gray,

Hi Don,

I have sent you a PM,

Regards

Gray,

Hi Don,

The Tumbler Reverse Lever is redundant with a screw cutting clutch fitted.

A lot of these machines have their heritage in the Emco Compact 8. This was adapted in the Far East to become the 918, which I am sure your lathe derivative is based on. I am also sure the photograph I saw of a screw cutting clutch fitted to a 918 will fit your lathe.

I think the guys name is Brett Merkle? (I may have the spelling wrong, for which I apologise).

He recently wrote an article in Model Engineers Workshop where he fitted a clutch to the main drive of this lathe. He is the man you really need to contact. Perhaps The Editor, Neil Wyatt would forward your email to him?

I am sorry I cannot help any further than this.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Don,

Some while back Jim Schroeder did a version for the Grizzly lathe which looks very much like your machine. There are a couple of Jim's videos out there and he also did a write up on his conversion in Home Shop Machinist. I think the articles appeared at the very end of 2014 or the beginning od 2015.

There is another version which was for the older 918 lathe, but I am not familiar with this attachment as I have only seen one photograph of this. This is by a fellow MEW's author, who's name escapes me at the moment. I am pretty sure he lives in New Zealand and is an electrician, but that is all my grey matter will allow.

Regards

Gray,

During the early 1980's whilst working for a Toolmaking firm in Gloucester. We did some prototype tooling for a 3 cylinder A series engine being developed by Austin-Rover as I think they were called at the time.

Basically it was an A series block with one less cylinder. I always wondered what happened to this development programme as they were among only a few companies looking into this type of engine at the time.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Trevor,

I had a feeling that this type of arrangement would give you a better result as regards repeatability. The other advantage is you can set your trip distance to a convenient dimension purely by juggling the lever lengths.

Thanks for trying out my suggestion.

Regards

Gray,

Above the two smaller cast iron gears and the Tufnol intermediary gear take the drive from the clutch output shaft to the new Banjo drive gear position.

As stated before the new Banjo drive gear position is on a common radius with the original Emco output shaft, taken from the screwcutting gearbox input shaft.

The photograph below shows the original shaft with the wide gear on and the new shaft at about 7.00 o'clock.

All the operating mechanism is hidden from view and goes under the headstock to the lever at the front.

Regards

Gray,

This is the cross section through the Maximat Clutch, note the one Dog gear takes its drive directly from the wider output gear from the headstock' This gear also meshes with the idler gear shown below to reverse the direction to the other Dog gear. (Shown in mesh).

The above are the elements necessary to make the dog clutch work on the Maximat.

Above are the two Dog gears, the Double sided Dog clutch and the output gear on the Clutch shaft. Only the Dog clutch is keyed to the Clutch shaft. Drive to the output gear is only achieved by selecting a direction with the control lever.

This connects to the stop rod which carries the stops.

These then are the elements required for a successful clutch.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Tony,

This may, or may not be possible, but the idea has just come to me. As regards the Banjo, provided there is sufficient depth within the cover, the Banjo could remain at its current position, but be outboard of the screwcutting clutch.

The gear clusters on the Banjo being mounted on the inside of the Banjo rather than the outside as they currently are. A Steel plate Banjo would not need to be as thick as a Cast Iron one.

I know this might be a bit fiddly when setting up a gear train, but the need to change the set-up is fairly infrequent in my experience.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Tony,

Your solution will work fine and is exactly how Trevor and I worked out the STS set-up. The automatic trip mechanism for the stops can be a bit more tricky to fit, but the permutations here are endless. While the trips to the rear of the bedway are usually more compact as regards any lever lengths. Having them at the front abutting the apron will make it more convenient.

Having the internal feed direction change within the headstock is fine for doing left hand threads, or when the banjo set-up has an additional stud in the train from what it normally does. Once set, this internal gearing cannot be altered, as this will up-set your synchronisation point in the dog-clutch, by a factor of how many teeth are involved in the internal reversing gear.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Clive,

I am not familiar with this lathe, but from what I can make out from the scan. The P&W clutch drives in one direction only. If this is correct then the leadscrew clasp nuts need to be disengaged to return the carriage to the start position.

The Hardinge HLV clutch, which the original Myford, and all my subsequent designs are based on, drive in both directions. There is no need with these designs to disengage the leadscrew clasp nuts.

This makes cutting any Thread, DP or Module dead simple. With no reversal of the motor needed either.

Regards

Gray,

Hi Tony,

As I said earlier, this is not going to be easy, and somewhere compromises have to be made. If you look back up this post to the clutch fitted to my Maximat. You will see the clutch proper is in front of the original output shaft from the headstock and below it. The final output from this clutch goes via 3 gears to the output shaft. which is on the same radius from the screwcutting box as the original output shaft was.

Turn this type of assembly through 90 degrees CW and you will have a similar unit to fit your lathe. More detailed shots of the Maximat unit can be found in My Album.

Regards

Gray,

Edited By Graham Meek on 06/03/2021 11:56:04