Member postings for Richard Kirkman 1

It is a solid aluminium wheel.

So, if the plug and hole will be around 38mm, then the plug must be about 0.08mm larger than the hole?

Not sure I explained clearly. The final motor shaft hole will be reamed, but the hole for the plug will be bored. So the running fit will be fine for me.

I'd like to stay away from loctite and try to do an interference fit. I think it'll be more challenging to get things to the right size, then if I mess it up I can do loctite, although I currently only have loctite 271 which is thread locking.

Hello all, I could do with some help

I have a wheel from a belt sander I've been rebuilding, however, the wheels bore is too large and not concentric with the outside surface so I get about 10 thou runout at best after I've shimmed it. Not great when it's spinning very fast.

Video of runout

I'd like to bore the center out, then plug it and rebore it properly so everything is concentric.

I have a slug of around 40mm aluminium just the right size to do so, but before I jump in and start making chips I just want to ask about the fit. The motor shaft is 24mm so the hole will be reamed to that at the end.

I've looked in the zeus book about what to do, but having never done it before I could do with a second, third or more opinions.

If I want the plug to press in and never come out again, what sort of dimensions should I aim for?

Would it be better to drill out the majority of the center of the plug as well?

Will the center being removed after effect the fit?

Thanks

Link to album of building the belt sander

Quick update

I no longer have access to a milling machine at home, so I enlisted the help of Phil to machine me a 304 stainless steel t-nut for the top slide so I can mount the new tool post.

I did initially go to the university engineering workshop to ask for their help but they were not interested as it was hard steel and they wouldn't let me in to do it either.

So, Phil helped me out greatly. Big thanks to Phil for all of his help

304 is a pretty tough steel, especially for an unexperienced person like me, but we made the best of it. We started using a face mill to make the block square, then we took it to size.

Cleaning it up gave quite a nice finish. Although I did get some chatter later on.

The end dimension had 10mm to come off, so it was much quicker to cut it off with Phils very nice mechanical hacksaw.

Some faces had 1mm or two to come off, so It took me quite a while when taking 0.2mm cuts. The steel got some very nasty burrs too, if that's the right word when they're so large! I presume that'd due to the steel being hard and due to my milling direction.

Then I cautiously moved onto using a hss endmill to cut in the slots. After 30 passes of 0.2mm cuts we has a 6mm recess for one side, then the other side was done.

The hss worked surprisingly well. I had bought a carbide endmill to use, but it wouldn't fit in any of Phils chucks.

Now to size, it was time to deburr and drill the hole

The drill size was stepped up very gradually as the metal is tough and we didn't want to work harden it at all.

Then we got the 5/8ths sae tap to go in the hole and lead it in using the drill press to ensure it was square

The tapping was slow but worked well with lots of lubrication. But it all went smoothly from that point. A very nice fit for a novice like me! Room for improvement in the future, but I'm happy.

Tool post fitted. I can't decide if I'll turn down the extra thread on the end. It doesn't add any value, but who knows if I'll need it in the future.

Next step is to get back home from university and disassembly everything to clean and get parts from both top slides to pick the best of each. Then onto some turning!

Thanks again to Phil for his time and help, if you want to see more there will be some footage of the milling on his Youtube channel.

Thanks Dave

I suspect I have probably had a tidy out on my google photos at some point

I'm not sure how important the images are at this point, but if you can fix it, it would be appreciated

Thanks

I hope everyone is well.

I seem to have acquired a few new toys. I saw these pop up in Grimsby and the seller offered to deliver them to Hull for a very reasonable price. Not extremely cheap, but I'm very happy.

Now I won't have to cut up my 4-way tool post in order to attach a QCTP. Hopefully, there will be a fun build making the T bar to go in the slot and making the mounting post(depending on if the QCTP comes with one) I'm considering this one. Alongside this being a nice upgrade for the lathe, my topslide is quite worn and is easy to turn at one end, and very difficult to turn at the other, so this should be an all-around improvement. I'll take the best parts from each and put them together.

Arc QCTP

I didn't really need the 8 Inch 4 jaw, but it's not often I see them come up, and for the price, it was worth it. The faceplate may come in handy at some point as well. Plus it'll be fun to clean and paint them both.

I did pop home for easter as I was allowed, however, the lathe did not get touched as I was busy making wooden things! I suspect it is still leaking so this will be addressed at some point in the summer.

Thanks Herman

They're on a post by SillyOldDuffer so it's not too do with my album. I presume something may have happened on their end. Deleted the album perhaps?

All my pictures are still there

Howard, I'm not sure was much heat in the cut, it wasn't a massive cut. I didn't get time to try shallow cuts or any turning today, the car was in the garage.

Hi John, I'm glad to hear the toolings all gone to new homes, I'm definitely still using mine as much as I can! Happy new year to you too!

Thanks Phil, I'll look into them if I need to. I hope you've had a nice Christmas, especially considering how much you love it! Bah Humbug

As for today's progress, I've attempted to tame the leak.

This was the leak when I got home

And this was the leak today. Much more oil

I suspect the bolts and things have shrunk slightly due to the colder temperature in the garage. Alongside using the lathe heating up the oil will increase its viscosity so it'll leak faster.

Luckily I have been doing some wood turning, so it was very easy to mop up the oil. I haven't used this method before, I was surprised how well it worked with nice dry shavings. Very minimal mess!

All clean once again. Much easier to see future leaks!

So once it was all cleaned I went to where I suspected the leak was coming from

The bolts holding these gaskets tight were not fully tightened as snugly as they should be. So I have just tightened them up a little more. Still not overly tight, but I think they're good now

I checked to see if the oil seal in there had leaked as well, but it seemed dry when I stuck my finger in the slot. Very surprising. It looks like I've made it work.

Anyway I'll turn some more tomorrow. Last day at home so I need to make the most of it. I'll do a little turning playing with the surface finish on that bar, I'll go deeper too and see if its still there. And hopefully warming the lathe up will tell me if it leaks or not! If not, new gaskets need to be made

Happy New Year to all!

It was just some 20mm diameter. I didn't think oxidization would have penetrated that deep? That was immediately after a cut of around 1mm from the diameter. The raw stock is just kept on a shelf in the garage. I've not seen it on the other aluminium I've been turning. But I don't know what type this aluminium is, I was given it when I went to Scarborough.

Thanks Howard, It really is a weird feeling just having access to such an amazing machine.

Speaking of which, I did a bit more turning today, just a little aluminium for a project I'm working on (some incense burners made from wood, but need metal inserts to hold the incense)

Anyway, when I was turning I did a finishing cut with my cutter and it produced a lovely surface finish, as do most cuts on aluminium. However, I saw imperfections in the surface finish. Having studied metallic structures at university I really should know what this is. However the steel samples I've looked at only showed their structure under microscope after being polished and etched.

So, just out of interest my question is, are these lighter and darker spots in the aluminium impurities, spots of different hardness, or grain boundaries?

Also, I took off the side cover after the lathe had been running for some time. I had noticed that the oil level had gone down a little so I thought I'd check to see if I could see the leak location. Pretty hard to miss, It was significantly dripping, even for an English machine, it's excessive. I think It needs sorting asap! Time to take it to pieces again!!!!!

Back to University on Thursday, with assignments due and exams looming, I suspect a full lathe teardown will have to wait. But I should still be able to tighten the bolts to see if that stops it. Otherwise, it'll be the oil seals again! In which case I will have to order leather ones instead of the double lip rubber ones I used.

Yeah Mat, it's really satisfying to come home to a working machine after 3 and a bit months at uni with no practical work!

I think mine was 1.5mm or something. I can't imagine the difference in thickness is making that much of a difference.

As for preload, I haven't done anything specific. I left the bearing closest to the chuck alone. I just tightened the other one enough. Not too sure really. I do know preload needs to be set so the machine functions. Phil's lathe turns much more freely than mine, so It may be worth setting my preload correctly one day. Perhaps when I do a full repaint.

Hermans links will tell you more than I know. Thanks Herman

Anyway, I got the light mount mounted today, so the lathe is almost in one piece!

It seems to be in just the right position for me, so I'm very happy. I need to find some more turning to do now...

Looking at the leaks, I'm still not quite sure where mine is coming from. The headstock and gearbox still seem to be as full as I left them!

Although they are both above the level so I think it may be leaking out of the end of the spindle. Hopefully this will stop when the level reduces.

Anyway, then I had a nice play. I needed to turn some aluminimum parts for another project.

And then I decided to make the mounts for the light to mount to the backsplash.

I enlarged the holes in the mount so that the mount can use a m6 thread and still have enough meat in it

Turned some steel plugs with thick heads so I can cut slots in

Tapped to M6 so it can use the countersunk head bolts I have

The long M6 bolts, which have been cut down now.

These will go through the other side of the backsplash, so the holes will be countersunk until the bolt heads are flush, so the backsplash can still be mounted nicely.

I'll finish mounting it tomorrow

As much as my lathe is English, I suspect it still shouldn't be leaking this much!

I'll look into the source when I have some time.

As for the spindle nose, I'm still leak free

So I'm not too sure what you can do Mat. Is it definitely squeezing down on the rubber?

Hi Mat, I'm very well thanks, I hope you are too.

I'm back home, but Uni assignments have come with me, and I've had to get some woodworking out of my system before I get back on with the lathe. I study Mechanical Engineering, by the way, I forgot to answer your last post.

Unfortunately seems like I'm also leaking (pictures inbound when I get around to it), so there are hours of fun still to be had. I think I might cut some new gaskets too!

As for leaking from the spindle nose, I only had my gasket leak there when I didn't tighten the bolts enough.

What material are you using for the gasket?

Merry Christmas

Richard

Edited By Richard Kirkman 1 on 20/12/2020 21:59:26

So, very productive. After I sorted out my balls it was smooth sailing(almost)

Lots of pictures, in case anyone else needs more detail in the future

Popped this bit in first, then slid the shaft through. Making sure to have the three rings on the shaft once it was through the apron

As the leadscrew was pushed through I put the gears on the end as it goes through

Then as it goes the last few cm, I threaded the collar on while pushing it in every few turns

Then I slid the collar on the other side

And I screwed on the two locking rings. I struggled a bit getting these tight but not too tight as it caused too much friction, significantly. So it took a little bit to figure it out. All sorted now

Then I found the spot that this screw had been tightened onto and fitted it back where it was

All done. They're not as scary as I thought they initially were, but still interesting mechanisms

All looking good!

The cover looks a lot better since I filled the corners down. Thanks for the suggestion Phil

Fully reassembled. Different grey on the repainted parts, but I like it. The patchwork is only temporary

As for powering up, the light came on immediately. A good sign. I hadn't tested the new switch yet so I was happy to see that it worked

And that's it for pictures, but plenty of videos available below!

New half nut in motion

Worm box- improvement due to new spring

Still Spins

The new half nut works flawlessly, no issues engaging and disengaging now

Finally a bit of turning

And I'd call that a nice ending to the summer. As good as it could have been anyway.

Thank you to everyone for your help. I couldn't have done this much without you all.

This is only the end, for now, Next time I'm home I'll be doing more, like fitting the light mount and other things. Potentially fitting QCTP too! Time to save some pennies

Anyway, onward and Hullward!

Phil, I'm bringing the little oiler for your lathe to Hull with me. Plus I don't actually have lectures till the 28th, so if you fancy a helping hand with anything for a day, I'd be more than happy to get the train up.

Yes Phil mine is exactly like that,

I managed to get it back in with the help of my brother and a bit of effort. I'd been trying for another hour or so and he came out to tell me it was tea time. It's going back together tonight so there will be assembly pictures later

Good news, the half nut arrived this afternoon/evening

So I'm now in reassemble mode. Problematic since I'm heading back to Hull early tomorrow morning and the grandparents are round tonight, so very minimal time.

Half nut came surprisingly quickly, 6 days from France. Better than most Royal Mail services...

I can't thank Clive enough. He only charged me for the postage, so it's incredible.

It fits. It took me a while to figure out how it went in, since the other one was broken and very easy to remove.

Then I put the apron back on, then started to feed in the feed shaft, not forgetting the worm box

And now we have trouble. I've spent about an hour trying to get these balls squeezed and pushed in. I don't have time to get stuck now, so here I am. I fear I'm at a standstill. Does anybody have any ideas how to get these squeezed and pushed. I've tried all sorts. How did Colchester manage? I can't even squeeze them in with my fingers. The spring is strong.

I'm aware of the screw in the end to change the tension, but the tension hasn't been changed and it cannot be changed once it's fitted so I'd like to leave that alone.

Suggestions would be incredibly useful, but obviously I'm on a bit of a countdown. It may have to wait till I get back another time.

The real issue is the shoulder, since I don't have any pliers thin enough to allow the balls to slide in and then have space for the pliers. They just hit the shoulder. Absolute nightmare. Not how I wanted this to go.

My long thin pliers won't budge the balls as I can't put enough pressure on.

Quick update

I've been selling the spare parts that I don't need on ebay, I've managed to get even with how much I paid for the parts so that's nice. But, I sent a few small parts to a man named Clive and somehow we ended up talking about students and his one needing a new wormbox since it's oval, so I sent him a link to Hermans forum as it may be of interest to him. I said to him that I needed a half nut and he responded saying he had one spare that I could have for the postage!

Good news for me since I haven't heard from James about that other half nut for a while, so I'm doubtful it's ever going to materialize from him. Still, the only downside is that Clive lives in France. So this morning Clive has posted the half nut to me.

Bad news, I'm going back to Uni on the tenth of September, so there's no chance the half nut will arrive before then. So I will have to come home for a weekend when it arrives.

Meanwhile I've been working on woodworking gifts for people at uni and things. I spent 4 days making 24 ducks! And a funny little cow. Nothing technical, but just fun decorations

I also have a piece of sheet metal cut out to become a motor cover. Not as fancy as the original, but it will do the job. No one will see the back anyway!

Hi John, good to hear from you. Hopefully someone will snatch that up.

I think Phil mentioned he may have been interested in bits and pieces, he's not too far from Scarborough actually. maybe 40 mins. So perhaps Phil might want some bits too.

So is my light the original one? I'm not bothered if it isn't. But it's interesting to know.

My light actually has a section broken, so it could do with fixing. But I don't have time for that right now!

There are some pictures, I'll get the others tomorrow

My hole is not oval, but this means the oiler that pokes through it is not centralised. So perhaps it's just an aesthetic modification to make it look a bit nicer

I'm not sure the lamp is original, but it works for me