Member postings for Andy_G

Another one based on an ER11 collet extension here:

One of the main limitations of mini lathes is their *very* restricted cross slide travel. My spindle has to be flipped over (which means swapping the motor mount to the opposite side of the body) between cross drilling and face drilling to give a reasonable working envelope.

Set up for cross drilling:

Set up for face drilling

The original 10mm diameter straight shank ER11 collet chuck. The only modification was to drill and tap the tail end of it M4.

The motor is from a child's ride-on toy and runs at ~3000 RPM on 12V. I have two sets of pulleys that can either gear that up or down to the spindle. Most (>99%) of the time I run it flat-out on the slowest gearing (so ~1800 RPM on the spindle).

The whole thing was made on the lathe - the spindle is mounted in a block of 38mm square aluminium bar that was trued up in the 4 jaw chuck - rough and ready cross-section:

The front bearing is a 3200 double row angular contact bearing and the rear bearing is a plain ball bearing. There was originally a spacer sleeve between the two bearings so that they could be clamped up tight with the outer race of the rear bearing floating in the housing. I though that it would be a good, solid bearing, but actually there was quite a bit of axial play in the double row A/C bearing (my fault - I didn't appreciate that this would be the case). To get around this, I just removed the spacer and used the clamping screw in the rear of the spindle to preload one half of the A/C bearing against the rear bearing. If making it again, I would replace both bearings with opposed A/C bearings with a proper preload adjustment.

It is quite capable of drilling 6mm holes in steel and some light milling.

Timelapse of milling steel (5mm HSS cutter):

Edited By Andy_G on 12/01/2022 09:59:50

I was going to suggest Fusion 360! I also used Creo at work and found switching between the two fairly painless after the initial 30 second blank stare

Hi, Do you mean an Amadeal 210V lathe?

https://www.amadeal.co.uk/acatalog/AMAT210V.html

Is the problem that the speed varies as you start to cut, or does it just run erratically, even with no load?

If the latter, I would look first for sticking or worn brushes in the motor, and if there wasn't a problem there, it could be a worn control potentiometer (they're not good quality and do fail).

It doesn't need to be a heavy backer - 5 mm thick ply is plenty.

If the ply/metal can be clamped to 'a decent table' it will make sawing easier, but it could be held under one's knee, carpenter style if desired.

Where there's a will, there's a way...

“I am finding it hard to cut thin metal sheets of stainless steel (aprox 0.6mm to 0.8mm) accurately, when cutting by hand.

I have tried using both a full-sized (30cm) and a junior sized (150mm) hacksaw with fine-toothed blades (32 TPI)”

Scribe your line and put the metal on top of a piece of thin (e.g. 5mm ) plywood so that the plywood extends beyond the cut line. Clamp both to your bench with the cut line overhanging the bench. Cut through both using a decent blade in a standard hacksaw frame. Keep the blade at a fairly shallow (~30 degree) angle to the work. You should be able to cut dead on your line fairly easily. (It works for me in 0.5mm and 0.9mm stainless using 24 TPI blades, anyway.)

If it’s any consolation, the Blondihacks lady on youtube made the same mistake on her PM1, but didn’t mention it at the time. When attention was drawn to it in the video comments, she replied that it was “within specification’ !

(She also made a mistake with the height of the steam chest inlet and ended up catching the valve face with the tap when she tapped the hole.)

I stepped in Z by 0.2mm and turned to calculated X positions to generate the radiussed section at the right hand end of this part. Because my cross slide has a 1.25mm pitch, I converted my X coordinates to full turns & vernier readings to save mental arithmetic & inevitable mistakes during turning! You can see the crib sheet in the background.

Very little blending needed with a large radius tool.

I keep meaning to rig up a (manual) template follower, but haven’t got around to it yet.

Duplicate post!

Edited By Andy_G on 21/09/2021 09:08:55

The least ambiguous description of setting the top slide that I’ve seen is at 5:06 in this video:

(Yes, the video is a bit wobbly, and he talks funny, but he explains things very well - the whole series is worth a watch.)

(Hopefully link works now)

Edited By Andy_G on 21/09/2021 09:19:15

I think you only have 75mm cross slide travel on the WM180, so the 60mm wide vice is probably the most usable (bear in mind that some space is needed to be able to wind the cutter off the work, and it is occasionally desirable to be able to mill over the end of the vice).

I have a similar setup on a mini lathe with a 50mm wide vice and 70mm cross slide travel and occasionally wish for a narrower vice, but never a wider one (I’m sure I’ve seen a 38mm wide one that I was coveting, but can’t find it now.)

This is my setup - definitely get a vice that can be secured by through-holes (like the Warco 9552 or 9071).

Edited By Andy_G on 16/09/2021 09:07:16

“If I make the template first, how on earth do I ensure the holes for the valves are correctly located?”

Can’t you poke a (suitably sized) pointed rod through the valve guides to mark the rear of the template when it is held in the correct position? (Then create holes at the marked positions).

“the chuck does not revolve at a constant speed. It speeds up or slows down without any machining load being present.”

If the speed is constantly cycling or ‘hunting’ it could be caused by a badly adjusted controller board (there may be several preset potentiometers that could have been inadvertently disturbed.)

You may get lucky if you search for information using the code number on the particular board that you have.

(Edit to add: If the speed is varying randomly, it could be the speed control pot, especially if it shows signs of mechanical damage - they aren’t the best quality parts.)

Edited By Andy_G on 23/08/2021 08:29:21

A few videos, as promised.

The first is American, but bear with it - He summarises a lot of (IMHO) very sensible advice in one place. I forgot to mention filler metal above, but he also covers that well. His video on how to assemble a TIG torch is good, too.

The only thing I would add to the post above is to get a cheap 'peashooter' style flow meter so that you can check the gas flow at the torch, rather than trusting the regulator gauge.

Edited By Andy_G on 09/08/2021 18:34:31

From somebody who was in the same situation at the end of last year (with a dedicated TIG set):

The socket on your machine is a 'Dinse' or 'Dinze' connector (35-50 if Google is to be believed). This is a very common size (the other common size is smaller) - it's easiest if your torch set comes with one already attached.

You will need a valved torch so that you can turn the gas on and off as (it appears that) the machine doesn't have a gas solenoid. It's easiest to buy a 'torch package' which comes with cable / hose / sheath and often a set of consumables.

The cable/hose needs to be one with a separate gas hose, (not a 'single hose' setup where the gas flows up the middle of the Dinse connector and the power lead is inside the gas hose, although adaptors are available). You will need a hose from your gas regulator with a suitable coupler for the gas connector on the torch cable/hose. Most gas fittings are 3/8 BSP Right handed, but some Chinese torch sets are metric - M10x1.0 seems common.

As above, get the biggest gas cylinder that you can. Note that different suppliers fill to different pressures - Hobbyweld, I think are 137 Bar which is quite low. To work out how much gas you're actually getting, multiply the cylinder capacity by the fill pressure.

Torches come in different size formats and water or air cooled - for simplicity / cost, stick to air cooled. Choices of air cooled torches are 9, 17 or 26 format (loosely based on CK model numbers). 9 is small, and neat, but limited to ~100A (or about 3mm mild steel, but will get very hot at this), 17 is a bit bigger, but still quite nice to use - limited to ~150A. 26 it more unwieldy, but can handle 200A+ (actual current ratings vary slightly by manufacturer, but are roughly of that order). Unless you have very specific requirements, I'd suggest looking at 17 size torches with a valve (usually designated something like 'WP17V' ) .

I have a Kennedy WP17 torch (from Zoro) which seems to be decent quality & fairly flexible - I'm sure they used to do a valved version, but it's not there now.

The torch may/may not come with a set of 'consumables' - back cap, collet, collet holder & ceramic cup. IME, these aren't particularly consumable (bar breakage). What comes with the torch should see you through your first few months of practice IMHO. If you don't get any with the torch, you will need to buy the correct set (which can be a bit bewildering). 17 and 26 sized torches share the same consumables; 9 series torches are smaller. Cup sizes are numbered by diameter: Get a 'middle of the road' cup - something like a 5, 6 or 7 to start with, but don't go overboard. There are cheap sets of consumables with a few different sizes on Amazon, etc. that appear to be perfectly adequate. You will come to find situations where a smaller (for tight fillet welds), larger or longer cup is needed, but they are cheap to buy when you know better what you need to suit the welding that you are doing. Larger cups need more gas; smaller ones are less forgiving. As long as you haven't gone to extremes, cup size is irrelevant when you're practicing.

Gas lenses need a different type of collet holder. The full sized ones are quite long, but the 'stubby' versions aren't much bigger than a standard ceramic cup. I would use them out of preference, especially if there's a requirement to have the tungsten sticking out further than usual. If your torch comes with standard consumables, I wouldn't bother changing them until you've had a bit of practice - Gas lenses can get contaminated by spatter when you do things like losing gas shielding because your torch position has drifted (or forgetting to turn the gas on!), so not ideal for your first steps. They won't make the difference between success and failure in learning, and there is an argument that you learn to be more consistent, more quickly, with a standard cup.

What are (very) consumable are the tungsten electrodes! Buy a pack! There is perpetual discussion of the "best" type of tungsten. Many of these differences are only relevant to AC - with inverter welders, I think the differences are subtle and linked to personal preference (there are umpteen videos comparing them on Youtube). It will not make the difference between success and failure when learning TIG. The advice I was given, and will pass on it to buy a pack of 2% lanthanated electrodes (pale blue colour code) in 2.4mm and stick with them. This has worked for me on mild steel & stainless (DC) and aluminium (AC). (You need to make sure you have a 2.4mm collet holder / collet in your torch.)

I have seen a couple of decent videos on setting up lift start TIG - I will add them if I can find them again.

Good luck  - I am by no means fully competent, but find it a very rewarding process. 

A

I think you will need to do everything you can to minimise friction, so plain bushes may not be the best idea. On the other hand. I very much doubt that the loads and speeds from a hot air engine would require hardened shafts if you wanted to stick to the original design.

If you come across a copy of "The shop wisdom of Philip Duclos" it has plans for the 'Odds and Ends' engine that Andrew Whale has just finished as well as several other hit and miss engines, and others besides.

If they are the type with the small solar cells on the front, I believe they can sometimes be 'kick started' by leaving them in the sun for a few hours.

I have one of the cheap supermarket ones (Aldi, I think) with 2 arc sensors and while it is/was fine for stick welding, it wouldn't reliably stay dark with low-ish amp TIG. (A relatively inexpensive 'Tacklife' branded one with 4 arc sensors did work OK, however.)

On your anodising - I use sodium bisulphate and it works well. There's definitely something wrong with your early attempts (maybe the readout on the PSU was wrong??) I spotted that you were using a steel screw - that's an absolute no-no. I work on 6A per sq ft which means I need ~23Volts at the end of the process (less early on) which is roughly what you were using on the second attempts and it takes ~2 hours to build up a reasonable thickness.(Some examples here: **LINK** 

IME, if the part will take dye after anodising, then the colour should hold after sealing. Your poor result at the end is probably due to a bad electrical connection somewhere - maybe where the hanger rests on the busbar (better to use clamp screws, rather than rely on gravity) or if you're re-using aluminium hangers - they need to be sanded or stripped in caustic between uses (titanium hangers don't.). Mark Preisling did a good video on this.

Thank you very much! (Well spotted! )

Edited By Andy_G on 15/06/2021 13:12:28

I know this is an old thread and Neil has probably sorted his etchings out years ago, but since it has come back to life, I can confirm that ferric chloride works well. My stuff has also been used to etch a small amount of copper which may/may not matter.

Edited By Andy_G on 13/06/2021 11:04:57