Member postings for old mart

I forgot to mention, get one with a swivel base which is detachable. You will rarely use it, but it can be so frustrating to need one and not have one.

Use a solid carbide drill and lubricant and you won't need to use a reamer.

I'm 71, and I cannot remember ever seeing one of the wooden school rules which didn't have imperial and metric divisions on it.

The museum's lathe is imperial, and one mill is and the other mill is metric. Half of my manual measuring instruments are metric, only the digital calipers are bisexual.

Edited By old mart on 23/10/2020 20:26:24

What nice people you work with.

Hot iron absorbs carbon readily, and diamond is carbon.

A diamond wheel will have a shorter life if used with steel, but for hobby use, it hardly matters. HSS is the only type of steel I would grind, not anything softer.

Try to get the wheel running true without resorting to dressing if possible. I have fitted an electroplated diamond wheel to a grinder and it took a lot of care and patience to get it running true. That type cannot be dressed, but they cannot explode like an ordinary grinding wheel as they are all metal.

Edited By old mart on 23/10/2020 20:10:59

I favour getting quality taps and dies as they are needed rather than sets. Some sizes tend to sit in the box and never get used.

Look on the ARC site at the sizes of 75 to 100mm size vises. Cut out a cardboard template and offer it up to the mill. That will give a good idea of which suits you best.

I sometimes get to make stuff to a drawing supplied by one of the other museum volunteers. Metric or imperial, I don't mind which, but fractions are a pain, having to be turned into a usable form.

Hammer action in drills is poor compared to SDS, alright for very soft walls. Of course, SDS drills are poor for drilling wood so its horses for courses.

The trouble with revving the engine in a low gear is that only a tiny amount of throttle is needed.

I wonder whether a modern car would still be capable of being used when it was 40 years old, they all seem to have plastic inlet manifolds.

I have saved myself some typing as Lathejack pre-empted my every word on the subject.

Boring out and bushing, as Howard says, will be the best solution. The only drilled holes I would trust would require a solid carbide drill.

Lidl did make a huge mistake in bringing out a couple of brushless 20V tools which had a similar battery which was not interchangable with the X20V Team type. Fortunately for most of us, they quickly reverted to the X20V Team type. I use the large vacuum cleaner at the museum to suck up swarf from the mill. The batteries do not last long with the vacuum and that means they get charged regularly and will have a longer life, hopefully.

I think the 20V 4AH batteries cost £25.

Edited By old mart on 21/10/2020 18:32:07

Don't forget, diesels with DPF's also have a cat, so the op may well have a different problem to most of the answers. I have a 7 year old 1.7 Corsa and have had no trouble with the DPF. The car does get a long drive every other tankful to make up for the short hops it has too many of. The trouble is that with my car, an Italian tune up would be unwise as the car can go 124 mph.

I have some of the Parkside 20V tools from Lidl, the batteries are cheap and the three drills I have work very well. One is an SDS and will drill concrete up to 10mm, the second is a combi, two speed with torque control and percussion, and the third is a drill/driver, two speed with torque control. I am pleased with all of them, and the batteries are available separately, as are the chargers. I also have a multi tool saw, a jigsaw, a car vacuum, and a larger vacuum cleaner. The batteries are 2 and 4 AH.

ER type collets do have a range per collet depending on the er size, the smaller ones span 1/2mm and the larger, er20 and up span 1mm. If you get Morse taper direct collets with three longitudinal cuts, they should only be used for the exact size marked. As already mentioned, the MT direct type give you the maximum ammount of Z height which can be important with a small mill. A drawbar would have to be made to use them in the lathe, which is easy with a length of studding.

Edited By old mart on 17/10/2020 20:11:39

I'm with Dave Halford, the grip will be great, but belt life will be short. Make sure you have a good supply of belts.

If they are really six lever, they must be pretty useless as padlocks if they can be picked by a bit of wire.