Member postings for old mart

How does the part clamp to the bed?

If you do go for the modification to your spindle, get a couple of R8 arbors to use as gauges for when you bore the parallel end, you need the best sliding fit, not size for size, or you will have difficulty fitting and removing the arbors. Also you might decide to dispense with the location pin in the spindle, both the mills at the museum do not have it and nobody misses it. Yuy might notice spanner flats near the end of the R8 spindle photo, this is very useful and both our mills have it.

There are ways of making a captive self extracting drawbar in MT3 spindles which might be worth researching. Start a new thread on the subject, many people have clever ways of breaking the taper.

It maintains the BIOS settings, the real time clock and also any BIOS password that has been put in. Handy if you forget the password, and computer thieves will know all about this weakness. You usually have the option of momentarily shorting out the BIOS reset pins, or removing the cell for a few seconds.

I changed the MT2 spindle in the Tom Senior light vertical to R8 which was done by using the original splined top half attached to a new R8 spindle bought from ARC which was for one of the SEIG mills. An extension to the quill was added to accomodate the larger bottom bearing.

You would have to remove the spindle to measure it properly, and I doubt if there is enough metal to convert it easily. The minimum bottom diameter of an R8 spindle would be 1 5/8".

**LINK**

Edited By old mart on 08/02/2023 17:53:30

I am contemplating making a stop for the 12 x 24 Atlas lathe at the museum, and as the bed design is similar to the Myford, I would like some inspiration from our many members who use these lathes.

A very nice machine, the MT4 tooling is not as common as R8, but there are shell mill arbors, er32 collets and boring heads in this size on ebay and no doubt other sites.

The er sizes are very easy to get hold of, being so widely used. The er 32 go up to 21mm and the er40 go to 26mm. If you also have a mill, they can be used on both machines which is convenient.

There are other uses for drills than tapping hole sizes.

I use them all the time, the HSS ones only get used occasionally for aluminium as we don't have the means to sharpen them. I have bought used 6mm ones which were better than expected and very cheap so that a crash will not end in tears. With solid carbide, you must not drop one onto the mill bed or concrete floor, and never touch on to a surface, especially steel with the cutter stationary.

My friend Lemuel told me that he had seen them somewhere.

There are Energiser lithium non rechargable cells in AA and AAA available in two grades which have the advantage of 1.7V. Costly, but I had no choice with my Pentax K100D camera which had a poorly adjusted voltage requirement which was greater than any rechargable or alkaline cell.

Edited By old mart on 03/02/2023 20:36:45

Edited By old mart on 03/02/2023 20:37:09

I inherited some Juneero as well as a Trix Express train set from my cousin who is 16 years older than me. Many years later in the 60's when I was in electroplating, one of the special tools which bend, cut, punch holes, etc was in the laboratory amongst some tools.

One firm I worked for had a complete Anderson  shelter and I got one of the apprentices up on top of it while I unscrewed the bolts holding it together. He was not happy up there. I was impressed by the thickness of the corrugated iron, it was about 1/8" thick.

Edited By old mart on 02/02/2023 19:23:21

I have only made a male MT2 and even with the taper turning attachment on the Smart & Brown model A, the exact taper was found by trial and error using a MT2 socket as a gauge. You have to be within a second of arc or so to get a properly matching taper. To get the best female taper, I would rough out the bore as best I can and use the reamer for final perfection. I know that there are roughing and finishing reamers for Morse tapers, but have not ever bought one. The tailstock quill was not very good on the S & B and I found somebody selling them on ebay cheaply NOS and took a chance with one of the same OD. It was not for a model A, but the backlash nuts were the same. There was no extraction slot as this quill was intended for self extraction, a slot was milled to save strain on the nuts and new engraving was done tp suit the lathe. I have kept the original quill and might ream it if a reamer gets bought for another purpose.

Solder paste is probably water based, but it might be worth experimenting with a little paint thinners, acetone or solvent based brake cleaner. The thinning would be temporary as the solvents evaporate.

A lot of people who want the convenience of variable speed which a VFD gives are simply too lazy to bother changing gears or belts. My view is that the VFD complements the mechanical advantage provided by manual gearing.

The video briefly shows two parallel shafts which would help with the balance, but as mentioned, no explanation of how that power is coupled to a generator. Also, there's no mention of fuel consumption per Kw output. It looks like a simple two stroke principal to me.

I bought a NOS four way toolpost cheap on ebay, it was too big for the Smart & Brown model A at the museum, so direct mounting on the cross slide was the solution, not to mention the increased rigidity. It can fit in minutes in place of the compound and is held down by the 4 swivel bolts plus two 6mm SHCS. It is exactly the same height as all the other toolposts, but can hold 25 and 32mm boring bars, wheras the standard ones can only manage up to 20mm. Not pretty like the others, but it does the job. That boring bar shown is a 16mm solid carbide.

Edited By old mart on 22/01/2023 21:35:09

Here is a basic example for a 1hp motor and a VFD to suit. This does not include the switches for remote control or wiring, so £35 should be added. Motor and VFD £225 which includes VAT but not delivery. This firm has a "quick start guide" for some VFD's which makes wiring, controls and programming very easy.

**LINK**

Casters to move it about, but not while in use. Some sort of jacking when in use would help with stability, especially if the jack screws were in front and behind the bed. Lathes are top heavy and not very deep sectioned front to back.