Member postings for old mart

I would also look to a felt hat for material, felt fabric is available, but seems to be less dense. It's a shame that the charity shops are shut at the moment as a supply of felt. Oil should still permeate a felt treated to be water resistant.

Edited By old mart on 28/02/2021 15:48:24

Top answer, Hopper, I must remember the trick.

Depending on the circumstances, would a MT2 to MT3 sleeve be viable?

I have a 2" boring head fir milling and was never happy with the nasty brazed cutters. I bought a set of these which have 1/2" shanks and secure them with the flat of the insert a few degrees from a line between the centre and the insert. The wording of the advert is a bit misleading, as mine have identical shanks and the heads vary in diameter. Anyone interested in them would be advised to contact RDG for clarification.

**LINK**

Edited By old mart on 27/02/2021 17:52:40

I have accumulated a large quantity of insert toolholders over the years, and the advantage of this is that there may be, for instance, 4 tools with TNMG inserts, all with different grades which can be chopped and changed to find which works best with a particular alloy. Inserts can be picked up at less than £1 each on ebay, even if there are some people trying to sell them at more than the large commercial companies charge. As I have said frequently before, the quality of cheap Chinese inserts has got so good that for home use, you don't have to break the bank.

I don't think you have much to worry about with the fuel, its the battery that will need looking after. I have a DPF in the exhaust system of my 1.7 Corsa, andI took it for a 200 mile run the day before the lockdown. Fortunately, it did a regen during the drive which was all on motorways. At about 75mph, the fuel consumption suddenly dropped from 60 to 28-35 for about 12 miles.

Gary, please let us know your opinion of those ambidextrous calipers when you have tried them out.

I am left handed, but tend to use whichever hand fits the job at the time. Lefthanded scissors are the only handed tools which I need, and Fiskars are the best you can buy.

Some more pics of my effort, the top part turns round to make use of both 26mm and 32mm industrial blades. I have blades 1.6mm, 2mm,3mm, 4mm and 6mm. The larger ones are too big to use for parting on the Smart & Brown model A, but could be useful for grooving. I also added a rear saddle lock to complement the front one to make sure the rigidity id not compromised by the upward forces. An advantage of inverted parting is that the swarf falls away better.

Edited By old mart on 27/02/2021 15:39:12

You need to make a rear toolpost, then you can use any size blade in any size lathe.

Just buy the cheap ones and don't forget to get them for aluminium, usually labeled H01. For hobby use they are very good.

If you want to pay more, but don't want to buy inserts in boxes of ten, then check out APT, they sell a selection of singles for hobbyists, and their laydown threading inserts are always available singly.

Looking idly at left handed calipers which are useful with lathes, I came upon this one. Even better, it comes from Warco.

**LINK**

I always check the centre in the end of a cutter before fitting it. They are supposed to self tighten but Blowlamps theory about the small diameters makes sense to me. There are several manufacturers using the same principal with threaded shank cutters and the instructions vary slightly.

Blowlamp's theory and suggested remedy are as good as it gets. I will be doing exactly that when I next use small diameter cutters in the Osborn's.

I bought a big one, probably Indian origin last year, but have not yet used it. It checked out ok on the surface table.

Glad to hear the holder has not been damaged , but worrying for anyone using the threaded system as similar could happen to any of us. Maybe some strange resonance.

The 1/4" cutter would not have fitted in a 6mm collet, so that is not the reason, although the other way round would be a disaster. We have not had a reply yet from Ramon regarding the condition of the centre inside the holder which may have failed,or the condition of the threaded end of the cutter. I had a spare centre when I had a Clarkson Autolock, but have changed to Osborn Titanic II and haven't come across any for that.

Edited By old mart on 24/02/2021 20:19:54

I am totally wired to all the pc's at home and have turned off the wifi as on an estate with dozens of potential hackers within reach, I feel safer.

You were certainly on the ball to solve that mystery, maybe Duracell have started a safer packaging policy. I only have Panasonic which are still only in one layer of packaging.

You were climb milling when the problem occurred, but that should not have been the total cause. Check that the vise has not moved, and also the backlash on the Y axis. The small cutter might have bent, as already mentioned.

I have two Mitutoyo's, 6" and 12" bought through my old firm back in 1990 and 1995. They are expensive to buy, but I would be wary of getting one now, unless it came from a reliable source, there are so many counterfeit ones about now. I have seen Tesa calipers on ebay for under £100, a much better bet, as the counterfeiters tend to copy the biggest names and other excellent makes go untouched. Look at Sandisk labeled SD cards, I avoid them and buy Transcend, which are more likely to be genuine.