Member postings for James Hall 3

The one at the bottom is quite common and is used for measuring lengths or as an aid to drawing a straight line; often referred to as a ruler.

Having owned my SX3 mill for nearly a year I'm finally getting around to fitting the DRO which has been living under my bed for the last six months.

I'm fitting the Z-axis strip and read head inside the column so have taken off the rear cover for access and find it filthy inside: remnants of casting sand, dust and grit. It's also obvious that the Z-axis lead screw and nut and the bevel gears are not, and never have been, lubricated - I'm assuming that they should be, so what with?

I've some 'general purpose' and some 'high performance' lithium based grease in stock - would these do?

This makes me wonder of the thrust bearing has been packed as I suppose it might perhaps not have been - but the dismantling required to check this would be in a whole different league.

Edited By James Hall 3 on 29/11/2021 14:12:45

Norm Norton: Thanks for your response. I have a larger cylinder - which is actually inconvenient to store in my small workshop, whereas the 340 is far more convenient and for 80% of jobs is sufficient and preferable to lugging a large cylinder and hoses about.

My Sievert burner for the 340 doesn't fit any disposable container that I know of and I resent having to spend out on a new burner and nozzles when I already have a perfectly good set.

Edited By James Hall 3 on 03/11/2021 16:40:35

Thanks everyone for you replies.

I'll say straight away that i had not considered the insurance angle - I'll forget all about refilling myself, so any further discussion of the matter is purely speculative.

Michael Gilligan: Yes, Chorley is certainly too far to go! Thanks for pointing me at Wolsely who actually do 2000 cylinders - next huedle is whether they will take a calor cylinder in exchange!

Grindstone Cowboy: No regulator as such on a 340 - but the on-off tap knob does a very good job of regulating the flame. Thinking about it refilling from a larger cylinder could not be done via a regulator as the pressure drop would probably be great enough that it would only deliver gas.

Not done it yet/John Baron: fill level would be easily ascertained by weighing - '340' is the content weight of a 'full' cylinder in grams.

Nicholas Farr/Mike Hurley: the dangers of doing anything with compressed flammable gas are obvious and require the normal precautions - however, in principle I don't see that connecting two containers should be any more dangerous than connecting a cylinder to an apparatus designed to release the gas into the atmosphere for combustion (actually less so, perhaps, as in the latter case flame is involved). Both involve the same number and type of connections.

Mick Bailey: More scope for adventure then. LOL

Cylinders being the 'property' of the company is a sore point with me and I regard it as a con - I've never yet managed to get my 'hire deposit' back on any cylinder of any size.

Calor have, apparently, stopped production of the small 340 propane cylinder - though I am told that the Primus 2000 is an equivalent.

The gas stockist from whom I could formerly get a full exchange cylinder has been taken over and now stocks neither. There seems no one else in the Cambridge area who does either. Searching the web produces only new cylinders at an exorbitant price. Does anyone know of a stockist in this area, or who supplies exchanges remotely?

I'm wondering about recharging my 340 cylinder from my larger propane cylinder ( with appropriate regard to safety of course). I have already fabricated adaptors allowing me to use the smaller burners from the 340 with the regulator, hose and handset used for larger jobs and this solution works well - but it is often inconvenient to lug a large cylinder and hose around for smaller jobs as compared to the small self-contained 340.

There would be no problem fabricating a part to connect large and 340 cylinders and I am assuming that the large cylinder inverted would produce liquified gas to flow into the 340 - but there may be pitfalls that I haven't thought of: would the passage of liquified gas, for instance, mess up the regulator - or would the idea simply not work?

I'd welcome advice on this.

These look remarkably like tools that I bought from our favourite Leicester based supplier and come as a set in a neat wooden box.
When I attempted to use this knife tool I got a lovely finish when facing, but an appalling one when turning along the axis. Contrary to the advice above, I found that very slightly rounding the business end of the tool produced a near-miraculous improvement in finish.

Just acquired a D10 kit with reversing, pump and pipework kits to go with it from a well-known auction site. These must have been gathering dust in someone's attic for a while as they are obviously pretty ancient - the paperwork is yellowed with age - but all complete and still sealed in the plastic covering.

Note that, unlike contemporary kits, drain cocks are included and the crankshaft is a one-piece casting. Am I likely to come across any problems due to the age of the materials or any older specs?

All of the drawings etc are there, accept for the pipework kit (in the pic it looks as if the paperwork is there in its compartment, but it's actually an incomplete ink imprint on the plastic.

The pipework kit is called 'Material for Pipework' order code 34-50-71213 and is not now listed by Stuart. It is totally unfabricated, unlike the current offering of the 'Finished Pipework for Sides' currently listed. It seems fairly straightforward, though a couple of items puzzle me slightly. If anyone has the instructions/drawings for this kit, or has built/owns one and can give advice I would be most grateful.

I'm really looking forward to working on this as I'm pretty much a newbie and this will be my first engine apart from a couple of simple oscillators.

" This is the Reeves 6" diameter vertical boiler. You can buy the plans and cast top from Reeves directly."

Thanks Matt. Looks like some heavy duty saving up would be required - and as a pretty much newcomer to boiler making - I suspect that it might strain my skills such as they are, possibly resulting in a very expensive b*lls up.

Interested to know what boiler that is please - from kit/plans or your own design.

Waiting for a castings kit bought on Ebay last Thursday (8 days ago) and promised to be delivered today - 3 Sept.
Not picked up by Hermes until Wednesday this week and then, according to their tracking, still languishing in their depot which collected it. Realy less than useless!

" Careful... let's keep clear of 'I told you so politics' please "

Simply an observation.

Covid has inevitably had its effect - but behind that, and much longer term, we're seeing that 'Project Fear' is actually turning out to be 'Project Accurate Prediction'. Who could possibly have known!

Thanks Martyn - interesting photos and another good looking installation. See that you have gone for fixed Y-axis read head and scale on saddle, but wondered what Mike Donnerstag's reasoning was behind doing it the other way round.

How did you cut the magnetic strip to length?

I still like the neatness of hiding the Z-axis gubbins in the column, but am hoping to pick Mike's brains on that.

I'm impressed by the neatness of your installation, particularly with the mounting in the rear column.

I've just invested in a 3-axis kit for my SX3 from MachineDRO so would like to pick your brains and benefit from your experience if you don't mind. It will be a while before I actually find time for my installation but I'd like to get it clear in my mind how I will go about it. It may be that I should address some questions to MDRO, and that the answers to some will or would be obvious when the rear column cover is removed - but in a restricted space my mill takes a lot of moving so a quick look inside beforehand is not so easy.

An easy starter - you obviously discovered how to cut the magnetic strips to length, please tell.

Is the mounting for the display fixed to the pressed-steel cover, or through it to something more substantial?

On the X-axis you have mounted the scale on the table with the read head fixed, but vice-versa for the Y-axis - with the scale fixed and the head travelling with the saddle. Why have you chosen to do thi?

I'll leave the rest, rather than over-burden you with the whole lot in one installment.

Thanks.

You've heard of the fat-bergs found in the London sewers, I'm sure.

Well, somewhere in the Cambridge sewers is an enormous biro-and-teaspoon-berg.

Have a look at https://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/ - They do a very wide range of mops, compounds and chemicals of all grades, sizes and types. They also do polishing kits specific to various materials.

I've used them for years and have always been very pleased with their products and service. They are also very helpful with advice.

As a relative newby I may be wrong - but you could drill/tap rod and thread the other piece i.e., as commercially bought extensions for some types of drill. Probably almost as quick as making sockets or whatever and 'gluing', probably quicker than brazing/silver soldering. No worries about heat or insecurities about failure doing it like this and pretty sure that the joint will be concentric.

I suggest you re-read my post, more carefully this time.

Not a problem with the Honda Accord which the insurance co. paid for after the old one was written off in a crump - and which, when it arrived, looked for some reason remarkably like an SX3!

No gas strut, of course, and you have to do all the work raising it yourself, but consequently no backlash problems - limited to 0.02mm, presumably in the worm gears. I'm only a newby so am perhaps wrong, but if milling requiring Z-axis precision I lock the column and quill in any case; drilling would have to exert a lot of force to push that heavy head upwards.

I'm all for a bit of heckling.