Member postings for old mart

I wonder if anyone has used the sheet metal piling used in sea defences, river and canal banks and cofferdams to repair dams such as this? It is relatively fast to use if the machinery could reach the water side of the dam. I don't know what the length of the piles could be or if they could be driven through the puddled clay core. I could imagine a complete wall of piles across the dam, with a 50 feet section in the centre a foot lower for the spillway with a thick tarpaulin like cover secured from the spillway down to prevent the erosion.

I have bought two er25 collet holders in R8, the first had a wobble, so I took a chance and bought another which is good. They were both cheap Chinese, but clearly made by different companies. Getting sets of the collets is also a lottery, I ended up buying Vertex and Cutwell collets in 6, 8, 10, 12 and 16mm which are good.

That red tool inverted in the rear toolpost has a 45 degree tip suitable for chamfering. It can be kept in place most of the time and would be a useful addition to a multifix as it is even faster to use than changing toolholders.

I remember riding a motorbike under one of those tubes. It was near Folkstone when the channel tunnel was being built. The ship was about a mile offshore and they were pumping shingle and gravel to raise the level of the rail terminal. They were pumping for months. The pipe was about a metre diameter and came up the beach and went straight up and over the road with about 20 feet clearance. I don't know how they returned the water to the sea.

Edited By old mart on 03/08/2019 21:53:05

The biggest faceplate I have seen for a Myford is 9" diameter. A larger faceplate using a backplate with that small 1 1/8" spindle is rather ambitious.

I live in a densely populated suburb of the second biggest town in Somerset and only get 8mB. Three years ago it was 13mB, I think that restrictions are deliberate, the nearest cabinet with fibre is 50 yards away.

Old routers may not be as secure as up to date models.

Edited By old mart on 02/08/2019 20:49:54

Listen to what Robert Atkinson says about the danger if using the outer part of the bearing as a roller. The wall thickness is very thin and will fail very quickly. An outer sleeve of 3mm wall thickness would help for light use.

Look in the current thread: "Another knurling tool" by David George 1, there is a photo of a rear toolpost with an upside down parting blade in it.

F F, you should get hold of some RCGT tips for your holders, they are sharp and shiny, for non ferrous, or fine finishing with ferrous.

Renault currently make a small car with a rear engine, I forget it's name.

The needle roller bearing outers will not shrink in every application, such as in plastic wheels. The good manufacturers such as INA certainly have recommended interference fits for each bearing based on the bearing number. This is because simply measuring the OD is not as accurate as with a normal ball race.

Pivot steel is tempered to a greater hardness than regular silversteel, making it longer lasting when used with bearings. I always check the ends of ground steel stock to see if it has "Genuine Stubbs" on it. It then gets hidden away from idle metal manglers.

She is well on the way to becoming a master craftswoman, most impressive.

Weston Super Mare has an enlightened policy of cycle paths which helps a lot to make cycling safer, and it also benefits motorists by lowering the numbers of bikes on the roads.

I've got one like the red one but I have not been able to get it apart. The original and best ones are made by Noga in Israel.

 Making longer rods should be easy, some of the copies of original mechanisms are made by people who don't actually understand how they work.

Edited By old mart on 01/08/2019 20:52:08

I haven't got the hang of posting text and photos together. You can see how the mill is positioned to just miss the mezzanine cross bracing, while being 4" higher at the same time. The quill return spring will be sorted out when the head is re assembled, it cannot be too difficult. The outer end of the spring is secured by a 6BA screw. The spindle has the 3/4" od 20 tooth spline for the Z axis. The needle rollers for the pulley bearing are an unexpected bonus, having no discernible play at all.

A few more pics.

Edited By old mart on 01/08/2019 20:26:18

The needle rollers in the pulley shaft look like they are factory installed, the shaft is hardened and ground. This type has a twenty splined shaft, unlike the early head drawing which seems to show a sliding key.

We got the head stripped right down, we haven't yet figured how to rewind the quill return spring when it gets reassembled. I am considering cutting up the original spindle to save the deep drilling and spline cutting of a new piece of en24t. The spindle is not dead hard. The only downside of this is the drawbar hole is 0.012" too small for a 7/16" bar, and expecting a drill to take that small a cut is not likely. It will have to be a captive drawbar then. Just as well there are only a couple of 12mm threaded R8 shanks in my collection. 

I forgot to take a camera today, maybe tomorrow.

Edited By old mart on 31/07/2019 22:11:12

There is certainly a mark in the picture, it looks like the backplate was screwed on dry, and I always like just a tiny bit of oil when I change chucks.

The lever type indicators are much easier to use on machinery, I would only use plungers in conjunction with a surface table, with their axis vertical.

The recent legacy of tools and machinery included a Baty or Mercer plunger DTI in a box with a number of accessories including lever type adaptors. I hid it somewhere and haven't had time to have a good look at it. I wonder if such lever converters are available these days? I have just looked on ebay, there is a listing showing the lever I mentioned: 264409293958. The lever style can be bought very cheaply, probably not as robust as my Miyutoyo's, but so much easier to use than a plunger.

Edited By old mart on 31/07/2019 21:41:00

Truing the face of the backplate is vital, but if the chuck register also runs eccentrically, something must be done about it. The only thing that can be done to the chuck fitting register is to reduce it till it runs true. This is not the end of the world. Most of the chucks I use have had their registers reduced on purpose. this enables the fine tuning of any size work after slackening the fastenings slightly and truing up the chuck with gentle tapping with a copper hammer before tightening up and rechecking.