Member postings for old mart

15 years ago I was taking home just over £300 for 50 hours skilled fitting in aircraft parts and subassemblies. £25 an hour seems a huge ammount to me.

You are lucky to have a choice, both ways would be usable, but I would tend to lean in towards having the bearing/s in the pulley for slightly better rigidity.

My door mechanism failed about 5 years ago and I got a replacement one, about 5 feet long of the same style from a local door specialist for about £70. I did not think about ebay at the time as I was in a hurry to get it working.

The unit that William Chitham has looks like one of the ebay type which sell for under £140. I have been thinking about getting one, they use 230V which might be of concern. I would like to hear about how easy they function and whether the stops allow you to repeatedly cut up to a shoulder. There are two types, similar in price, but one is 135lbin and the other is 450lbin.

Rotagrip sell CC16 soft jaws which should fit the K11 series. Their website has dimensions for the soft jaws.

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This is the sort of telescope that is great for beginners, a little more expensive than I thought, but I'm very out of date:

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I have some 0.1, they have only been or use for drag engraving, but having a selection from 0.2 to 0.8 comes in handy.

For those who would like TNMG inserts, but don't have a big enough lathe to take the common size 16, (there are smaller, but they are like hens teeth), you can look at WNMG 06 which has all the advantages but is smaller.

Much more compact than an electron microscope, but probably out of my price range.

I would go for one of the smaller motorised models with the computerised drive. It will make viewing so much easier and they are not that expensive.

The Smart & Brown model A at the museum has a choice of 2 four way and 1 two way toolposts,all at the same height, plus a special which holds 26mm blades and 12mm boring bars, also a rear toolpost which is dedicated to 26mm and 32mm blades. All of the tools match the height so no shims are required. A QCTP would be prohibitively expensive with about 50 tools and take up so much space. The largest toolpost can accept 25mm boring bars.

Edited By old mart on 08/07/2021 20:19:09

Having lowered the height of a toolholder successfully, why not make your own? Drilling and tapping for the screw is not difficult, you do need to displace the screw by about 0.003" to 0.005" to make sure the insert is pulled into the pocket when the screw is tightened.

lowering the insert pocket would certainly leave the main body of the tool stiffer than taking the same ammount off the base, but is harder to do. I have not tried it because the pocket sides should be angled to match the inserts 7 degree sides. That may have changed since I bought a small milling vise with multiple movements.

I would look at the way the toolholders are held in the post, do they touch the top of the compound when set at their lowest height? I would also measure the exact centre height to find out if the possibility of skimming the top of the compound was feasible. The toolholders might be lowered if they were thick enough, and you had the means to mill hardened steel. A little bit off several parts could add up to the total ammount without noticably weakening anything.

When I wired up a VFD and three phase motor to the Tom Senior mill, I paid great attention to a proper earth connection. The VFD is earthed, the motor and the metal case plus its locking door are also. Of course this is in a museum, not a home shop, so the standards have to be up to PAT testing and checking by a qualified electrician.

You could have just milled the base of the tool 2mm, it would have been easier. The Smart & Brown model A at the museum has a centre height of 17.53mm. All of the inserted tooling is 20mm with the base milled down. No shims are required for any of the three toolposts that are available.

I notice that APT sell a more expensive range intended for production use, and the red ring looks a lot like Rohm German made. The standard type are plenty good enough for hobby use, the extended nose is a boon when turning smaller diameter work.

APT are one of my favorite suppliers, they stock good stuff and are very quick sending goods. I ordered a boring bar on Sunday and it has been delivered this morning (Tuesday). They also cater for the home machinist as well as professionals by selling some of their most popular carbide inserts singly, rather than having to buy a box of ten.

I,m with Old School, one of the 500cc Indian Enfields is worth a look, and has brakes that will actually stop you.

Hi, D o W, welcome, I also like making tooling for the machines at the Helicopter Museum at Weston Super Mare where I help out as a volunteer.

As Alan says, it is worth a very close look just in case the marks are etched as was common with instruments then.