Member postings for Andy Stopford

Excellent idea, I'll be making one.

Obrigado da Inglaterra

Andy

Copied from this ad https://www.adverts.ie/machinery-tools/eclipse-no-39-drill-bit-sharpening-jig/2667142

Manual for Eclipse no 39 drill bit sharpening jig

For sharpening twist drills in a range of sizes from 3mm (1/8 inch) to
13 m (1/2 inch)

Assembly
Remove small chrome plated screw from strut. Assemble struct
into body. Fit screw and tighten up.

Instruction for use
1 Hold strut with V channel uppermost.

2 Release back stop and slide to end of strut

3 Loosen drill clamping screw

4 Insert dril into V strut with point away from back stop. Hold drill
in V with thumb. Upturn sharpener to bring drill point into view, align
one cutting edge parallel to and flush with front gauge, which is
adjustable for different drill size.

5 Lightly tighten drill clamping screw

6 Swing aside back stop shim and slide back stop into contact with
the drill shank and tighten

7 Swing shim back into V. This will advance drill the required amount
for sharpening.

8 Check that the drill is still correctly aligned with front gauge and
fully tighten drill clamping screw

9 With one hand hold sharpener between thunmb and finger in side
recesses and with the other hand hold abrasive paper on a smooth flat
surface

10 Roll sharpener up and down the full lenght of the abrasive paper
until cutting ceases

11 Fully release drill clamping screw rotate drill 180 and align second
cutting edge with front gauge

12 Ensure drill shank is in contact with back stop shim and tighen
drill clamp screw.

13 Repeat sharpening action

14 If drill is not completely sharpened, repeat from 6

Note
(a) use whole surface of abrasive paper
(b) do no allow wheels to slide

If you give all the oil nipples on the saddle a shot of oil each time you use it, plenty of oil will work its way onto the gears.

Ditto the gearbox (mine also receives a certain amount of seepage from the headstock).

I once worked in the warehouse of a small publishing company. The books ordered through Amazon had to be packed with extreme care because if the buyer complained of any damage, Amazon were likely to terminate the publisher's contract. So I wouldn't be surprised if the packers take no chances; their job might be on the line if there's a return.

My favourite over-the-top packers are RS Components who will use something the size of a shoe box to send ten surface mount resistors (which are smaller than a grain of rice, and near-indestructible). They do free next day delivery though, and the boxes can be quite useful, so I'm not complaining

If you don't mind cloud storage, OnShape is free for non-commercial use, well featured and easy to use.

I'd love to love FreeCAD but it suffers from the all too common problem with open source stuff, that the people who develop it are coders - they like writing code, they probably do it for their day job and are doubtless very good at it, but they aren't interested in user Interface design, user workflow, producing the documentation, etc.

Furthermore, many individuals work on this kind of project, and this can mean that there is no overarching design ethos to the thing, just loads of disparate modules which all do things differently.

This is what you're paying for with commercial software - they have people who specialise in UI, they have technical writers to write the manual and so on. If there's a free version, then that's all the better.

Note - I'm not slagging FreeCAD off, I think it's good, and tremendous that people make the effort to develop it, and if OnShape went payed-for only, I'd probably go back to it. Fusion 360 isn't available for Linux so that would be out of the question, plus its produced by Autodesk, who killed Softimage XSI, the best 3D animation program ever (and a model of good interface/workflow design), so it's it out of the question on principal.

Hi Stuart, yes, I'd definitely be interested to see your code etc., I'm not sure what the arrangements are for sending messages here, maybe one of the mods can advise.

I'd actually be looking first to fit DROs to my mill - I've fitted carriage stops to it, which are useful, but it would be nice to have read-outs.

It's 20 years since I last took my L5 apart so I can't give you exact details, but it's mostly straightforward - I don't recall any need to use a dummy feedshaft.

One gotcha though is that the support at the right hand end of the bed is located by dowels pointing forwards, and the apron is located by dowels pointing upwards, therefore trying to remove one conflicts with the other (You're intended to remove the end nuts and slide the leadscrew and feed shaft out to the right, but you haven't the space to do this).

However (as I remember) if you support the apron and remove the screws securing the end bracket, apron and screw-cutting gearbox, it's possible to wiggle everything free from its dowels - take care, you are depending on springing the leadscrew and feedshaft slightly, but if you're just using finger pressure you're not going to put a permanent bend in them, use no crowbars! It might be a good idea to have assistance to avoid the weight of the apron hanging on the shafts.

The leadscrew isn't fixed to the gearbox, its end just locates in a bronze bush. The feedshaft, I can't remember, I think that might just pull out as well.

I'm (sadly) selling my L5 after we return (more or less) to normality, and to extract it from the friend's workshop where it currently resides will require it to be totally stripped down. Oh joy...

edit: forgot to say, mine (which is the 9" model) doesn't have the 'duff brass screw' but I presume it's something to do with securing the dog clutch to the feedscrew, and if so it shouldn't need to be disturbed.

Edited By Andy Stopford on 17/05/2020 20:26:13

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I'm going to go for diameter - to me it is more logical, and if I hate it, well, I'll just have to make another dial.

With regard to DRO, it's a very small lathe, and I think attaching things to the saddle/cross slide is potentially adding clutter to get in the way - length-ways along the bed and on the tailstock like Stuart's setup is a very attractive idea, however. I'll keep an eye out for cheap calipers in Lidi and Adl.

No, it's genuine 1mm pitch metric fortunately

Thanks Pete. I'm using this method to stamp the numbers:

It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but the number stamp is laid in the toolholder with the clamping screws just touching it and pushed by finger up against the rear face, then a tap with a hammer and it looks acceptably neat.

OK, I confess the taps with the hammer weren't as hard as they should have been, so after a clean-up skim they're a bit faint, so this one is going on the top slide. Which is good, because it gave me time to think of posting this thread.

And yes, that really is a dodgy amount of jaw to be protruding from the chuck...

I bought a CJ18A mini-lathe a few months back. It's not at all bad for the price, but there are aspects where there is room for improvement.

One of these is the maddening 0.025 mm divisions on the dials, presumably a 'close enough' approximation for those who would rather work in thousandths of an inch. I prefer to work in metric and being rubbish at mental arithmetic, they do my head in - I have to constantly refer to a cheat sheet or use an increasingly oily calculator to work out what cut to put on.

So, fine, I'll make some new dials with proper 0.02 divisions, but whilst I'm about it, how about doubling them up for the cross slide so that the dial shows the reduction in diameter rather than radius, and save myself even more mental arithmetic.

I know some lathes have this arrangement but I've never used one, and wondered if anyone has any opinions on whether this is a good idea?

I've heard it said that some additive in EP oils attacks bronze components (that said, I've seen synchromesh cones made of something bronzey-looking). This warning might only apply to the notoriously short-lived bronze worm drives which were (long ago) used in some lorries.

EP also smells horrid (ditto ATF).

I don't think I'd be too surprised if a broken tap shattered when given a bit of crunching from pliers, they are hard, and hence brittle after all, and the breakage might have initiated more cracks than the one that went all the way across.

One tip I'd add re. using taps (and dies), is when you back off to break the swarf and feel the resistance increase, don't carry on backing off; go forward again and then back, and you'll find the swarf build-up will clear without jamming and breaking the tap or tearing the thread.

As for mills - I've got a Sieg SX1L, it's all I have room for and it works well for its size. Using an end mill I find that it sounds happier using a deep cut so that the side of the cutter is shaving the workpiece, rather than the end edges hammering into engagement. I think it could probably handle a more powerful motor - I have vague thoughts of fitting an induction motor and belt drive, though doing this without hanging the motor off the back (and hence undesirably increasing the machine's footprint) looks tricky.

Assuming it doesn't have a screwcutting gearbox, you'll need some extra changewheels - the gear train at the left hand end of the machine is likely set up to give a fine feed rather than for screwcutting.

Which changewheels you need depend on what threads you wish to cut, but the following link lists a typical selection:

https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machine-Spares/SC3-Mini-Lathe-Spares/Super-C3-Change-Gears

To learn more, see these articles:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/latheparts/page6.html

http://www.lathes.co.uk/latheparts/page14.html

Here's a load of Artzybasheff stuff:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/sets/72157622345988524/

Its this guy, I think:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Artzybasheff

(The Diego Rivera stuff's great too)

I've used hot glue (the cheap Parkside sticks from Lidl) very successfully, but you have to work fast. I found judicious pre-heating with a hot air gun gives you a bit of extra time, and being generous with the amount of glue increases the thermal mass and slows setting. Also give the glue-gun plenty of time to get really hot - that stuff sticks practically anything if its hot enough.

It's good to prepare some sort of clamping arrangement first, especially for the area at the front, which seems to be the point at which unsuccessful gluing attempts fail.

Like IanT, I used to stick rubber repair soles onto new leather-soled shoes - it made them less lethally slippery too.

Windows doesn't like you to muck around with the contents of the Program Files folder (I'm presuming that's where Arduino is) - you need to have "Elevated Permissions" to do this.

Its a long time since I've used Windows, and I think what you have to do depends on which version you have, but here are a some links to possible solutions:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/3dd0d2f9-5b2f-46df-950f-36887c98369c/give-full-permission-for-the-users-in-program-files-folder?forum=w7itprogeneral

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/

https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/log-on-as-administrator-in-windows-10/

The latter two links allow you to login as "Administrator", after which you may be able to edit the boards.txt file OK

I seem to remember having a difficulties with this after replacing a burnt-out mainboard on my Wanhao i3.

If you go to Tools>Board: and hover the mouse pointer over this entry, a fly-out menu should appear. Scroll down it to see if Sanguino W/ATmega1284 is listed. if not proceed as follows:

Close the IDE

You have to make sure that the your boards.txt file has an entry for the sanguino board. This file is inside the arduino IDE folder. Here is the path to mine:

/home/andy/Programs/Arduino/arduino-1.8.9/hardware/arduino/avr/

I would guess that on a Windows machine the path would be Program Files/Arduino etc.

Open boards.txt in a text editor and copy/paste the following to the bottom of the file and save.

##############################################################

atmega1284p.name=Sanguino W/ ATmega1284 or ATmega1284P (16MHz)

atmega1284p.upload.maximum_size=130048
atmega1284p.upload.maximum_data_size=16384

atmega1284p.upload.protocol=arduino
atmega1284p.upload.speed=115200
atmega1284p.bootloader.path=optiboot
atmega1284p.bootloader.file=optiboot_atmega1284p.hex

atmega1284p.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
atmega1284p.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDE
atmega1284p.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
atmega1284p.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega1284p.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

atmega1284p.build.mcu=atmega1284p
atmega1284p.build.f_cpu=16000000L
atmega1284p.build.board=AVR_SANGUINO
atmega1284p.build.core=arduino:arduino
atmega1284p.build.variant=sanguino

############################################################

atmega1284p_8m.name=Sanguino W/ ATmega1284 or ATmega1284P (8MHz)

atmega1284p_8m.upload.maximum_size=130048
atmega1284p_8m.upload.maximum_data_size=16384

atmega1284p_8m.upload.protocol=arduino
atmega1284p_8m.upload.speed=57600
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.path=optiboot
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.file=optiboot_atmega1284p_8m.hex

atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDE
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega1284p_8m.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

atmega1284p_8m.build.mcu=atmega1284p
atmega1284p_8m.build.f_cpu=8000000L
atmega1284p_8m.build.board=AVR_SANGUINO
atmega1284p_8m.build.core=arduino:arduino
atmega1284p_8m.build.variant=sanguino

############################################################

Re-open the IDE and see if you now have a menu entry for Sanguino. If so, make sure you have that selected before trying to upload the sketch (I think it's the 16MHz entry, but not certain).

Because having red for the live wire and green for the earth had potentially unfortunate consequences for people with red-green colour blindness.