Member postings for Roger Best

This is a familiar situation, there are any number of industrial cranes and systems that lift a large item from four corners.

That said which layout is best for this application?

Posts and rails are OK, but they introduce some dreadful tolerancing problems, so don't have four, keep with one or two.

Four cables, ropes will do fine, leading over sheaves to a common drum (winding cylinder), will give a good raising mechanism. A turnbuckle tensioner in each corner will set it level.

I would definitely motorise it with an economical gear motor from ebay, nice and slow. Who wants to work hard?

Most permeable membrane isn't UV resistant. Its ok for being built into a dark void, no good on the outside of a building as I found when I built my extensions in two stages several years apart.

Hooray.

You've bin dun, the whole point of "bright" is that it is close to size otherwise you would be happy with black bar.

Ask if they have any 3.2mm.

ebay last one

I think everyone who bought a small mill in the last year or so is wimpering now.

If my bench and shelves weren't built around my (smaller) machine I would be round tomorrow.

Good luck with the many projects Ramon

Good solid bench there, and first machine in pride of place.

Hi Matt,

Basically this space is too small, so we are talking some serious compromises. My workshop is the same width as yours but much longer and it chocked up straight away, not helped by my inheriting a tonne of junk I should skip. Still working on that. There are a good few pictures in my album from when I started moving in. They don't show the folding machine acquired last year, my mountain bike and the other clutter.

The layout-on-paper idea is excellent, just make sure you identify full travel of the mill bed and service areas around fixed equipment. They will grow enormously when you do that. My milling machine takes up about 5 feet of bench.

The principle problem is fitting two machine tools at bench height, plus a work area, probably with a vice, which needs elbow room and possibly an erection area, where you assemble your pride and joy. Looking at your floor area I think some things are going to have to be on top of each other, you might even want to use a combined machine or go old school and do everything on a lathe.

The forum mantra is decide what you want to make and kit for that. I am going to say decide what you can fit and decide if that's good enough. Small engines (which I love) only need small equipment. 5" needs a huge amount of space just to park the damn thing, I can barely get around it! Massive compromise is needed. Maybe you just make small parts at home, does that mean you need more storage/assembly space, so less space for tools?

Where's that Proxxon catalogue?

My login times out after several days.

All my social stuff never needs a fresh login, all things involving money require one every time.

This site is the only thing that has this property, with the exception of Practical Machinist, which seems to have a longer wait period but is also pretty strict on low use.

There must be something about metalworkers.

Chemicals are better than diesel, some of that rust needs to be out of the way

Good luck.

I have also had a similar issue with my diesel Ford SMAX.

As part of the emissions regulations modern cars are expected to act like hybrids, cutting the alternator on acceleration and charging heavily under deceleration. So the battery needs some space to put that energy and the computer needs to know if its there. Stop-start is an extension of this.

The AA installed a battery for me, I paid a small fortune to have the car checked and the car "programmed" for the new battery. The battery then randomly flattened itself over the next four years. Sometimes I had to call the AA out who never recognised it was their batteries fault.

Just after the end of the warranty, delayed by covid, I bought a new one, fitted, from Halfords. No problems since, including all winter. I am a little disappointed in the AA.

Have you looked underneath the head, get right down and look up towards the pivot point?

I don't have one but the one on the advert looks like my Warco. The screws that hold the head against rotation come out and allow it to be removed.

Looking at the website I think that is a machine that is not intended to be twisted, its feet are too close together at the tailstock end.

That said its just a matter of elasticity, so if you put enough steel in the top of the stand to pull and push the bed against the stand it should move the fraction you want.

Nice feet. I need to do similar with my 1942 South Bend.

Surly the best "which lathe shall I get" thread for a while.

I can see why its a binary decision, the proportion in size between the two proposals is somewhere between 2 and four times on linear dimensions so 8 and 64 on cubic size and mass. We would laugh at comparing a 25kg mini lathe with a 1.6 tonne industrial lathe and this is not so far off as extreme.

To my mind these are not comparable tools and have very different capabilities, if you need both acquire both, as you would a Proxxon PCB drill and a floor standing pillar drill.

I have two of the IKEA clip-on lamps. I like them a lot.

They have a plug-in transformer and are therefore low voltage. The head looks to be waterproof. They are very bright so ideal for localised work lamps.

Its also worth looking at annular selfie lamps, they give an even spread of light and also have a high output. They are often USB so 5V.

TOTALLY AWESOME!

Its a very interesting and pretty model. I see why you got it done in only two years. I expect it will grace pride of place for many years.

Its a normal problem, hence the numerous replies.

Spade connectors can be soldered to wires with little irons and can be squeezed to fit anything. As Arduino are not water friendly I assume that would be the quickest, cheapest solution.

If you are sure that the switches have solder tabs then this is a good time for a bigger iron. My unfortunate experience is that they have plastic parts that don't like heat.

You could use a lump of metal as an iron and heat it on the kitchen stove. That's always fun.

We are getting big efficiency numbers now. Well done Turbine Guy.

Leave the charger on for a very long time. My little 35 year old charger needs 20 hours to recharge the monster that lurks in my SMAX diesel.

During that time the voltage rises to 13.5 volts, less than the alternator gives, but close enough, and the current drops to 2A, which reflects the resistance in the circuit. Go by the current as the voltage doesn't vary so much. Be sure it has stabilised.

Being disconnected helps to be sure about this. A trick an AA mechanic used was to pull off the connector and put a rubber glove under it, that way he didn't have to wrestle the thick wires to ensure it was isolated from the car.

Then it will start and run OK. If the current stabilises quickly you had charge in the battery. If you have plenty of volts but low starting current then its probably the lead sulphate thing.

Ta Gary

The message to hurry up and order if we ever want one is noted.

The reasons for excess import costs are a little political for gentile debate but it has hit several aspects of steam-related hobbies. I can't get the stuff I like from Germany in an affordable manner.