Member postings for Richard Kirkman 1

I wasn't worried about the precision or the wear. It's just anoying having the wheel move in and out.

I put it all together, measured what I needed, then made the spacer. I had a play with speeds and feeds. It would be nice if I'd remembered to bring my machinery's handbook back from uni with me

Parting off is going much smoother now, so thank you for your tips. Although I am still using the carbide one, I will get back to the hss one since it's thicker and will be better for heavier work

Parting off

I'll take it to pieces again and reassemble with the spacer this afternoon. I hope it fits😀

Wheel video

In the video you can see where it's already been worn unevenly

I did some cleaning today. Got everything ready to go back together. I need to measure up the size of the new spacer I need to make. Needs 5/8ths bore, then o can measure the thickness when it's all back together. I need to remove as much of the slop as possible since it's causing uneven wear on the gears.

All the oiler holes were bunged up with gunk, so a good clean should have helped them a lot!

I cleaned the gap bed thoroughly, but I don't think I'll be painting it this time around. Maybe next time

Also, I think I'm going to get some 100x100 box section steel, 5mm wall so I can raise the lathe. It's just too low and it hurts after extended use. I may as well make it comfortable.

I've also found a very cheap precision level, so that will come in handy

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 09/04/2020 20:30:07

Thanks Dennis

I don't really fancy taking it that far apart right now, so I'll just clean what I can access from here. But I will have to put it back together to make a new spacer, then take it apart again to fit it! I should probably go support the apron...

The weather was really nice yesterday, so I left the tractol out in the sun. It actually became much thinner than before, so it was much easier to paint and left an alright finish. I still need to do a few more coats.

Also, Does anyone know exactly what size key I need for an mt3 jacobs chuck? I don't seem to have the right size and managed to size it up wrong already. The model options on their website don't make much sense to me. It's a no34 chuck, I'll see if I can find anything

Looking at my order history, I just got confused and got a k32 key when I should have got a k3.

Yep, ignore that, I'm being stupid and not doing enough research

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 09/04/2020 12:04:39

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 09/04/2020 12:10:16

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 09/04/2020 12:14:20

Thanks Dennis, of course I will not be painting any of the contract surfaces. I probably won't even paint it right now as if I'm painting, I need to paint the whole thing!

What sort of approx size shims did you use. Lxwxh? Obviously it depends how level and flat the floor is, but I'm just interested

I'll have a look at getting a good quality precision level just to test things

It's not just the twist, it's also raising the lathe since I'm taller than average, it's a little low. I don't want to be crouching over to use it. Accuracy isn't quite it either. Obviously I've got plenty of time so I'd like the machine as well as possible, but that had limits. I'm not sure if the garage floor is level as well

I'll strip down the coolant pump once I'm done with the apron, another rabbit hole

When I've been playing around with threading, the lever doesn't always want to disengage fully, so I thought I'd try to take it to pieces so I can get in to clean. Also, I wanted to look at why my main carriage hand wheel moved in and out, which is very anoying when turning. All has become clear!

So the issue is, I can't remove the apron completely without taking the SC gear box off. So I thought I would just take the top of the carriage off and clean in from the top. So I started to take it to pieces. The holding part at the back came off first, then I unscrewed all the bolts holding the top on. This unattached the apron, but the top was still attached with a part underneath. I couldn't remove it since I didn't have access. The only way was to slide it across then lift it off once the gap bed was removed.

First time I've taken the gap bed out. I'm very tempted to paint it orange while it's out😀

I have no idea how this would be disassembled on a straight bed lathe, possible the long way round

This then let me take the top off, so I have access to all the gears. Very dirty inside as expected, I'm just wanting to get all the gunk removed and have it cleaned up

Some very thick gunk in there. Anyway, I'll get on with a proper clean tomorrow. It won't be perfect, but it'll be better than before.

I also got a look in behind the shaft that the wheel goes on, there's a circlip holding the shaft in place, but there's a space of about a quarter of an inch that's unoccupied. Looking in the manual, I'd say there should be a spacer in there to keep it from moving back and forth like mine does

Thanks Phil, very informative. There are quite a lot of loose wire in there. I'm not sure how l'll be able to cover them all

The lathe looks like it has space for feet on the machine through some threaded holes. Im not sure if anyone else has seen This Old Tonys video on lathe leveling, but he has a student mk1.5 and it has 6 feet to allow for leveling?

I made a mount for my indicator today, although I'm not sure it's on the right kind of stand, it's works for me

I used a weird insert I found on arc euro trade. It said it was for non ferrous metals so I thought I'd give it a try, it did a good job I think

I turned around 250 thou end for the indicator to sit on, then turned the rest to fit in the holder nicely

I

Drilled the end out to 3.3mm for a m4 thread. It was nice to finally get to use my taps. Although they were too small to use a spring center, it went in very well by eye

I had a play with my has parting off tool, ground it to how it was suggested, then I played around looking at the center height. It was a long way off, too high. I used the flat bar trick thing. I did try to grind it down a bit but it was taking too long. And since it was such a small part I decided to use my carbide parting off tool which was under center so I could shim it to the right height. It worked like a dream, 120rpm or so, hand fed, very slowly, with plenty of oil. Only aluminum so not too hard, but still good practice

When I parted off yesterday I used the other end of the tool which was lower, but I didn't check the height of that, so I don't know if it was or wasn't on center. Guessing it wasn't since it went so badly yesterday.

It fits! A nice little project

Now I'll be able to use my 4 jaw when it dries. I put another coat of paint on it today. The first had only just dried as I put it on so thickly, and it pooled at the bottom. So just a thin coat today!

Dave- Sometimes I think most of those views are mine! Thank you, it's nice to hear some positive feedback after all this. It's probably been 6 months since I got the lathe now, so lots of missed opportunities to make up for. I wouldn't do it any differently since I've learned so much.

Thanks for the rollies dad thing, I haven't seen that before. I do have an indicator, but I need to make a mount for It to go onto the magnetic base. Perhaps today's project

Dennis- Thanks, good to hear from someone else! I hope you've learned something about your lathe too!

Brilliant stuff

Although, I use a belt grinder instead of a bench grinder, so I use a flat platen so I don't get a hollow.

Also, struggling to get things perfectly centered since I'm not used to a 4 way tool post. I'll get better at shimming. I'll get some material for it

Thanks again

I'd never realised what a rear tool post would be for, I'd seen them before on listed lathes and things but it hadn't quite clicked. So that's very interesting!

Zero top rake sounds good to me, no angles to deal with!

I'll attempt this and report back. What sort of speeds should I be looking at

Much appreciated Howard

Those wires are the ones coming out of the back of the isolator. I'll look at it tomorrow. Why would the phase converter be damaged from the lathe wires being damaged?

Any thoughts on why the lathe doesn't always switch on? Could it be the switch contacts?

And any thoughts on why I don't hear the contactor pulling in like a big clunk like your one did?

And does the coolant pump seem very noisy/ growly to you?

Thanks Dave, good to know someone else is still interested. But don't worry, it's far from over yet😄 (potentially thinking DRO, and more painting and things) lots of things to iron out first. Lighting transformer is next on the list

Parting off started okay but then I have no idea what happened, just went terribly ended up snapping the tool. I had changed the shape of it a bit and made a weak point so I'll look into it tonight.

The lathe started to make a horrible clunking noise. So I took off the motor again, turned out the grub screw wasn't tight enough, so easy fix.

As for grounding, the only grounding there is is coming from the plug to the box that those wires go into. Here

Also, my dad is concerned that the lights flicker for a second when the phase converter is turned on, and then again when the lathe is turned on. Could you explain why this happens?

I played around with some aluminum, just turned the end part and did a large 4tpi thread on the end. I didn't have the thread gauge on the lathe so I just left the half but engaged. But it went well. I forgot to move the tool back out a few times so it made marks on the return since the threads have some slop in so they don't line up back and forth

Taking a cut to remove some surface marks from messing the thread up!

The spacer fits well

Socket arrives around 2.30 so I went straight out and fitted it. Lathe works beautifully. See videos for footage. I did turn it on once or twice and it didn't turn on(see 2.22 in the first linked video), so I presume some contacts need cleaning. Possibly in the c and d switch on the back. There's a clicking noise coming from the lathe too, but that's just where the belts are flexing and hitting the frame, a tiny bit of filling will sort that. I still cannot hear the contactor pulling in like I'd want. See what you think from the video

Video 1. Not start at 2.22

I need to get better at using a lathe now, since I don't really know about feeds and speeds and tooling to get good finishes. Plus parting off with hss just scares me. I always seem to struggle. How are they meant to be ground?

Cutting some steel

The no volt release works, as shown in this video

No volt release test

As I said I would, I made a spacer to go where the missing one was. It was fun to try and get them to be as identical as possible, but was difficult with my available tooling(no boring bar big enough and not a drill bit the right size) still, I managed

I took the motor out and put that spare gland I had on it. It's holding the conduit very well. It's not the stuff that threads in, but it's doing the job

I'll keep the motor out for when the socket arrives tomorrow. So I can just test without a load. I'm pretty happy with the converter so far. Much more satisfying to turn on than the Clarke static one 😄

Are there any safety advantages of putting a 32 amp plug and socket on instead?

I'll check continuity later

The socket on the machine is 5 pin 3p+E+N but the converter doesn't have a neutral and neither does the lathe

So, do I get a 4 pin 32 amp socket to fit to the machine and get a 32 amp 4 pin plug to go on the lathe(up from the 16 that's there, although it shouldn't be drawing anywhere near 16amps) Or can do I need to change things around?

I don't know if a 16 amp 415v plug is smaller than a 32 amp one though?

TEP is closed for non-essential customers, they're only open in the mornings and even then it's only for account holders since they can't take card or cash for some reason. the man said he'd sort me out if I got really stuck, but I think I'll just order from Rs and get them tomorrow. I just need to know what I need?

We have a big blue box. As expected we have a 32 amp 415v ket on the end, so can't plug and play. Where can I get a 32 amp plug today? Especially with lockdown

I've swapped the 16amp plug on it for the 32amp one that had left over from the Clarke converter also noticed that the connections from the box seem a bit off, so added a gland to secure it since had one spare. I'd like to fill in the other holes to stop dust getting in

Plugged it in and it seems to turn on just fine. Better than I thought it would. I'm surprised how quiet it is

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VU5hf6xW3RThjGwh6

Ah yeah how could I forget. I did know that, just slipped my mind

Just did a little cleaning today

Found a hole that I thought was going to be a bolt head or something, but it turned out to be a threaded hole and about 4 inches deep. It's just in the lathe bed. Not sure what it's for? It was full of crap, but I got most of it out

Just showing the depth

Then below there are some holes which I managed to clean a lot of stuff out of

Upside down, but you can see the gunk

Not much progress, but tomorrow should be good if the converter arrives. I'm looking forward to actually do some turning

I think the converter has a 32 amp socket on it, but the lathe has a 16amp plug. Don't know for sure yet, but I'll find out. Might need to change it somehow?

Converter didn't arrive, even though it said it was out for delivery. It'll come on Monday

In preparation I fitted the motor properly in location and the belts, fits much better than the old belts and allows for changing of the tension of the belt

the motor plate only has one washer, so that'll be my first project, to make a second