My latest (of countless):

Carefully measuring and working out that I could just get a Minnie cable winding drum and driving centre out of a piece of cast iron bar, very carefully setting up, extremely carefully machining the part, and one feature left to do on the driving centre which was to be a press fit in the gear which I'd made some time ago. Went to fetch the gear to get the required diameter and found that I had already made and fitted the driving centre.

Geoff, have a look on ebay with "optivisor" as the search term, loads of them come up in the £15 - £20 bracket; they all appear the same and none of them have been anywhere near Donegan Optical, but, as Jack says, they're OK, probably not very durable and could do with a bit of extra padding, but fine if you're not wearing the thing all day.

I'd try as fast as possible since the diameter is small (so you need a high speed to get a decent surface speed), and it'll be easier to maintain a consistent feed per rev, keeping it cutting but not causing it to dig in and break. You may get through a few test parts/regrindings!

re. your photo, Iain, I would hazard a guess that the tool was allowed to rub on the stainless, which work hardened and wiped the tip off the tool. Try regrinding with no top rake and be reasonably aggressive in feeding it into the work - don't let it rub.

You can disprove the overheating myth and make holding small bits of HSS for grinding easier by brazing the HSS onto a mild steel shank, suitably sized to fit your toolpost. You can also file a seating on the shank for your toolbit to sit in for brazing, thus taking care of at least one of the rake angles.

I would second the recommendation to use Lathes.co.uk. I sold my Harrison L5 through an advert on the site last summer, and continue to have enquiries about it, one last week in fact (Tony may not be overly prompt at marking adverts as sold...).

The display box for my Warco lathe has three axis displays, labelled x, y, and z starting from the top. I could plug the cables into the appropriate sockets to have y and z active, but it looks silly with the top box blank so I use the top two with the topmost one, labelled x, displaying z, 'cos I find that the most convenient. It's therefore completely wrong, but since I don't look at the labels, it really doesn't matter.

I've tried various but overall found KiCAD the best - one source of confusion though is inadvertently following a tutorial for an older version - they've changed it quite a lot.

For PCB fab, I've used Elecrow (https://www.elecrow.com/pcb-manufacturing.html), they're pretty quick and the prices and quality are good.

I'm a convert to the solid carbide ones - they give a beautiful finish on steel, aluminium, cast iron and bronze; I use the maximum speed the machine is capable of (3000 rpm), and usually dry (aluminium may need some WD40 etc., depending on grade)

I got them from the MSC Advantage Flyer list - not super cheap, but not absurdly unaffordable either.

I gave mine a bit of a trim with a Dremel to make it slide on better. I think I gave it a couple of smacks with a hammer too, to flatten it out a bit.

Really the best thing to do is make a better one as Diogenesll suggested. Maybe I'll get around to it one day.

I hope they don't have to do the watering too often (it does seem a very small cistern that they're filling up, relative to the hassle of getting the pump started, but needs must I suppose).

By the way, Jason, when I try your link I get this message:

This site can’t provide a secure connection

web.archive.org sent an invalid response.

To return to the maximum drill size, when I had a mini lathe, 16mm was about the limit. Any bigger and you were moving into the realm where the speed had to be reduced so much to prevent chatter that the motor would stall unless the feed was so small that the drill would rub instead of cutting.

You could probably go a bit bigger if the drill was very carefully ground, but I long ago lost the knack of doing that.

...or: What do you want a magnetic drill for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9ShEH7Nes

Also shows an interesting hot-riveting technique which might be useful at model sizes, and some very no-nonsense G-Cramps

Edited By JasonB on 07/01/2023 19:53:43

Quite interesting little film about Wilesco's production process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjVilDNa8So

As a small boy I lusted after a Wilesco traction engine, but they were well outside my price range. I settled for a Mamod which was good fun, but I always felt the oscillating cylinder was a bit naff - I see from the film that Wilescos used a spool valve. German high tech indeed.

Some of those very entertaining "Safety Last" YouTube videos from Pakistani machine shops show them marking out the end of a bar with odd-legs and then giving it a really good whacking with a large (home made) centre punch, no centre drill required.

I have the BS0 Vevor wih 5" chuck - currently £224 with tailstock and three division plates, which is excellent value imho. The spring washer which bears on the sector arms is a bit rubbish, and needed some bending and filing off of sharp bits, and I stripped the head down and adjusted the bearings - I can't remember whether it has a separate adjustment for the worm backlash, but anyway, it was quite easy to get it working as near as perfectly as my dubious skills require.

I received a parcel* from an ebay seller today, delivered on time by Parcelforce, so no problem here (Kent).

* Chesterman no. 369 height gauge - nice.

Me too, and Tony will advise you on price and advert wording

Thanks Andrew, I'm looking at a smaller scale than you, so making a special bending roller wouldn't be a huge investment in effort and materials (I have a set of 'normal' bending rolls that I made years ago but it would probably be easier to make a new special than modify them).

On the other hand, I like Jason's suggestion of the tabbed webs - decisions, decisions...

Slightly OT I'm afraid, but how did make the T-rings Andrew?