Member postings for old mart

Gary, the bottom three pictures are signed, you missed one.

The OP doesn't want the belt to slip, so slack belt clutches are irrelevant. Changing to a larger pulley would change the gearing and speed of machine depending on which end the drive comes from.

Edited By old mart on 12/07/2019 18:49:15

If the drive only rotates in one direction, then you could probably get away with a spring loaded tensioner on the slack side, otherwise a locking arrangement as Pete suggests would be best.

The idler wheel could be made from a rubber sealed ball race, as it can run against the flat outside of the belt.

 An 80mm pulley size would be fine for belts up to 13mm wide.

Edited By old mart on 11/07/2019 21:13:54

Its nice having the tee slots if a faceplate is required. I can only think of Toolmex, TOS and TGS chucks starting with a T, its strange that the jaws are marked, but not the body. There should be a serial number on the body to match the jaw numbers, maybe on the rear. 

If you are a member of one of the forums across the pond, they might know.

Edited By old mart on 11/07/2019 21:01:33

The nameplate on the lower front of the machine looked to be made of plastic, held on by three large drive rivets. I tipped the base over to tap them out from inside and they turned out to be 3/16" round head rivets which were riveted over. They didn't want the thing to fall off, I had to grind the rivet tails down flush after marking their positions, before punching them out.

The plastic nameplate turned out to be a bronze casting.

The mill is going on a 4" high wood stand with 1/8" aluminium corners to spread the load. This is the maximum we can raise the machine and still just miss the cross bracing for the mezzanine floor above. I'm a great believer in saving my back and the backs of the other oldies who will use it. Short people can make duckboards.

At risk of upsetting the purists, I have bought some cans of lawn green Plasticote paint. It is slightly brighter thanTS green, but still has a touch of the grey-green.

It would be a good buy at the recommended price, but £3.49 is brilliant.

I have often thought of buying a set of the expanding mandrels for odd jobs such as bushes. I believe they require pre-setting very slightly over the size of the workpiece bore and then skimming to size to ensure a good fit and also to run true.

What is the chuck you are using? If it is a drill chuck, then it is for drilling only, not for holding milling cutters.

Cutting using the Z axis with a 16mm four flute end mill is not recommended. The Z should be locked and the X and Y should be used.

Most, but not all four flute end mills are not intended for end cutting and will not like plunging more then 1mm.

I'm sure one of the members could recommend a book on how to use a mill.

Those dates are nineteenth century. The newest gun mentioned would likely be the Webley Mk 3.

There is a Senior vertical head which fits on the horizontal spindle, it has no quill and is quite low which looses Z height. The models of head with a quill have their own separate motor and mount higher on the machine.

That mention of kicking back reminded me of a R E Connie I had which had Meteor Minor pistons which gave it an 11:1 compression ratio. I could only start it on the centre stand and getting the manual advance retard exactly right was essential or bad things happened.

I fitted a new big end and rod to a 125 Yamaha engine at work for one of my workmates. We had everything to hand for the job and I found it to be easier than I had feared. As the big end pin was plain, I had to pay attention to the width of the assembly, so it got measured first, also the con rod side float, just in case. I used a copper faced mallet to get the last bit trued up. I managed 0.001" tir which must have been good enough, as the bike was still going strong three years later.

Villiers engines used pressed in hardened plugs to expand the crankpin after alignment. They had to be drilled out before dismantling the crankshaft to reduce fretting.

When I scrapped an old 350 Royal Enfield model G back in the 60's, I was surprised to find a ground steel liner in the big end of the rod, and the white metal bearing on the crankpin.

Edited By old mart on 08/07/2019 20:29:06

I may be imagining it, but I think there is a listing on ebay for a spare parts kit for the Dewhurst switch as used on Myfords.

I still have, amongst many others, about half a dozen slides of diatoms bought years ago from Northern Biological Supplies to use with my Russian Biolam R25. I gradually acquired most of the accessories for it. Its a shame, I never get around to use it anymore.

That's an impressive image of the diatom, the details within it must be right at the limits of optical resolution.

The Hi Lock that I used had the aluminium snap off heads on the nut, the hex socket was only needed in case the bolt rotated while the nut was tightened, not to unscrew the assembly. I believe there are more conventional nuts for certain applications.

Theft of aluminium road signs, cast iron manhole covers and bus bars from electricity substations is common these days. Probably getting less as China is cutting back on its scrap metal imports, so the price is dropping.

Information on the Adept lathes can be found on the lathes UK site.

I'm not surprised now that it turns out to be part of a Smart car. A friend of mine had one for a few years, he told me that even the simplest work on the car cost an arm and a leg because of what had to be removed to get at anything.

 I have seen a variation of Torx with five lobes. I have just looked at Vic's post "one sided fastener" and there is the five sided fastener, what a coincidence! 

Edited By old mart on 07/07/2019 19:26:51

Edited By old mart on 07/07/2019 19:44:55

Neil, you may be interested in a variation of fine feed rates for lathes which I had no alternative but to employ.

We stripped out the leadscrew, apron and rack of the museums Smart & Brown model A for some serious spindle and bush refurbishment. the lathe was still needed for much of the work, so I used the tailstock to push the saddle with great success. The tailstock leadscrew is 8tpi and I had already made a collar for it calibrated 0-125, so a fine feed was actually easier than using the rack.