Member postings for Chris Crew

I cannot add much of value to the comments already made, they are all relevant IMO. But for my twopennorth, if you go for a myford forget all about an ML7 and go for either a pre-cherished ML7R or Super 7. Be prepared to pay several thousand pounds from a reputable dealer or even the new myford itself and get as many accessories included in the package as you can because if you buy a basic machine you will end up paying as much again to make it anywhere near useable. Myford accessories are rising in price almost daily.

Mike, I agree with your comments.

Edited By Chris Crew on 10/09/2021 10:37:09

I have a J&S 540 with three motors, four really but only three are in use at any one time. These are for the wheel-head, the table hydraulics and the selected extractor or coolant pump. I have been running this machine for the last 25 years on a 5HP rated Transwave static converter with absolutely no problems whatsoever.

I always start the motors in a particular order, i.e. wheel-head first, then the hydraulics followed by the extractor/coolant and stop them in the reverse order. The Transwave handles all this without a 'murmer' so, although the technology is probably obsolescent or even obsolete these days, it is obviously a well-designed and reliable piece of British made kit.

Personally, I am not enamoured of fitting single-phase motors to 3-phase machines, I use several Transwave static converters in the workshop and an old shop-made rotary converter, which was built by a special-effects engineer for the defunct Ealing Studios, to power a J&S 1310 cylindrical grinder. I also run smaller 3-phase machines, i.e. a Boxford shaper and a Clarkson T & C grinder with homemade start and run circuitry cribbed from the Electric Motors book in the Workshop Practice series, a small improvement to which was published in Model Engineer in the 1990's under my own name.

Edited By Chris Crew on 10/09/2021 08:17:56

That's a very heavy machine to move if it is 2200lbs. I would hang the expense and get a proper industrial machine tool mover in for the job. If you trust it to a pallet courier then ten to one they will drop it and it will be worth nothing. Check out the YouTube videos of these clowns trying to shift a Colchester on a pallet, not even strapped down so no wonder it toppled. I have a Bantam in my garage that I bought from a guy who had some idiot of a pallet courier try to move and managed to topple it. It's only taken me twenty-years to source the parts and make the repair!

I had to move a couple of heavy cylindrical grinders a few years ago and used a reputable local haulier who had a flat back with a very heavy duty HIAB. It all went well but I was there every minute of the loading and unloading just to make sure. If you can find a competent carrier they will sometimes shift part loads if they have several customers in the areas of the collection and delivery points but you would probably have to wait until a suitable situation arose.

There is absolutely no need for anyone to panic, newbie or experienced, when screw-cutting. If you cut the thread at at 1 rpm or 1000 rpm exactly the same amount of material is removed by the tool per pass. If you feel you are going to be fazed by anything when screw-cutting, then cut the thread at the lowest possible speed the lathe is capable of running at. It will make very little, if any, difference to the finish of the thread and will give you plenty of time to think. If you can't even manage that, and I am not suggesting anyone can't, simply stop the lathe, collect your thoughts and start it again.

I actually have an Ainjest rapid threader on one of my lathes which makes screw-cutting as easy as feeding buns to elephants, but even then I don't run the lathe at the highest speed the Ainjest will allow because I like to think that I have just that split second to react if the device fails to trip. It has never let me down yet but I always have one hand hovering over the stop-lever/brake on the Colchester, just in case.

BTW, I always use the set-over top-slide method for both external and internal threads. For internal threads simply mount the tool upside-down in the tool-pool and cut the thread on the back of the hole. Then you only withdraw the cross-slide at the end of the cut as when external screw-cutting. You don't have to think about reversing the cross-slide travel which invites confusion.

Edited By Chris Crew on 06/09/2021 20:47:00

Have you been searching in particular for Tom Senior parts or just for the type of bearing you require? In the past I have taken an example of the bearings I require to the local bearing dealer (not BSL) and asked them for a matching item. They have managed to help me on two occasions. Also, Denford's took over the supply of spares when Senior's went out of business so it may just be worth checking with them if they could help. They are still in business in Brighouse tel. 01484 728000 or email [email protected]

"Ahh, but what you're forgetting Gray is that most on this forum work to NASA standards and have limited time for what used to be a HOBBY. Also from an angled luddite."

Ian, I loved your comment, it really amused me!

I had a bit of a light-hearted 'run-in' a few months back with someone over the correct setting of clearances of lathe change-wheels. Personally, at the time, I thought the suggestion that was being made was pedantic nonsense and tried to say we are mostly amateurs pottering around in back-shed workshops, not working in the tool-room at Rolls-Royce. Naturally, I was sentenced to being in the wrong!

Your comment encapsulates the point I was trying to make wonderfully. Well Done!

Beccy, several years ago I was invited by a lady in a similar position to yourself to view her late father's workshop and see if there was anything I wanted to purchase from it. There was, and I offered what I considered to be a fair price for the items I wanted. The lady concerned then immediately wanted more, although she wouldn't specify the price she actually may have had in mind. I increased my offer but it was still declined. I rather think that someone had advised this lady that her father had left her a 'goldmine' and she was suspicious of potential purchasers, because I was not alone, attempting to take advantage of her. I genuinely wasn't trying to do that, so I politely declined any further negotiation and left the premises. I don't know, but I suspect that the lady concerned would have either been left with items I would have liked or eventually, because they were quite specialist, received a lower price than the one I had initially offered.

It is always difficult in situations such as this and I would think that the best way to determine the value and demand for any item is by auction because anything is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it whatever its supposed intrinsic monetary is thought to be.

I am always wary of discounted MOT offers, I have seen some as low as £25 in my area, because I suspect that there will always be something that will be found to have failed the test as a way of recouping the discount and gaining business. Therefore, I always pay full price for an MOT at a reputable manufacturer's dealer's service facility. However, if I entrust them with the annual service at the same time they usually discount the MOT fee by about fifteen-quid anyway.

You can dispose of it in several ways, provided they are environmentally responsible, but I keep a plastic dustbin in the workshop into which all swarf and offcuts are tossed. When it's full I take it to the local waste facility and empty it into the scrap metal skip.

Apologies in advance if I come across as a little sharp but we have been through all this so many times. There is plenty of parting off advice on this forum already so I won't repeat mine. However, I will revert to something I have said time and again that sometimes you just have to use common sense and you will find you know more than you ever thought you did. You don't have to ask about the lengths of a stud or the thread, just make it to fit with what you have to hand. You just have to look at the job. If you can't cut a thread buying a die would be the answer. Is it because traditional skills are no longer taught in schools or that people have just become used to being told every single detail of exactly what to do? Like the majority of people on here, I would suggest, I have tackled and succeeded at tasks that I have never done before simply by standing back, assessing the situation and applying good old logic and common sense. We all have to check things and information at some point, I grant you, but I see such elementary questions asked sometimes it almost beggars belief. Don't get me wrong, I am willing to help anyone who is genuinely in need, within my knowledge and skills, but only after they have exhausted all their resources themselves and don't expect me to do their homework for them because they will learn nothing.

Edited By Chris Crew on 03/09/2021 14:38:24

You won't go wrong with a coolant pump IMO. Any finish or parting-off problems will be reduced at a stroke. The only issue is that sometimes things can get a bit messy, especially when working near the chuck and the flow of coolant hits the jaws but the other advantages of a continuous flow more than compensate for this, again IMO. I use the cheapest soluble oil from the local oil merchant diluted 20:1 and mix the water with the oil rather than the oil with water. I also put in a good squirt of the Rocol anti-bacterial potion when I replenish the reservoirs as I had issues with black gunge when the machines had not been used for a while. It appears also that the Rocol lessens the tendency for the water and oil to de-emulsify over time, although that might just be my perception.

I accept that some people are very wary of having anything containing water anywhere near their cherished machines but I have always used copious amounts of water soluble coolant since I was an apprentice and we were always instructed to swill down the machines with coolant after use. You will find that a film of the oil will reside on the exposed metal surfaces and will guard against rust but you may experience some staining between mating surfaces over time, such as under tool-posts etc.

John MC raises a fair point about trying to keep the neighbours on side but you have to bear in mind that some people will object to anything just because they can and no amount of diplomacy in trying to meet their objections will suffice. I had just such an experience myself but over the construction of a conservatory. I had lived in harmony with one neighbour for fourteen years, we often chatted over the garden fence and co-operated quite amicably. When the Maitresse de Maison wanted a conservatory I informed the neighbour and explained that, although we didn't need planning permission, if he had any reasonable suggestions to make I would take them on board and try to accommodate them if possible. He response was, verbatim, "it's your property, Chris, you can do what you like on it." That was until construction actually began and then you would have thought that the Third World War had broken out. Every possible insult and accusation was slung at me which resulted in m'learned friends being consulted, at great expense, who advised me what I already knew and that I was perfectly within my rights and the neighbour was spouting claptrap. So you just never know. There's now't so queer as folk, as they say. Fortunately, after the neighbour had so obviously made a damned fool of himself in the eyes of the village he sold his property and moved on. To conclude, might I say that, in my opinion, a pebble-dash pre-cast concrete structure is more likely to befit a domestic milieu than maybe an industrial looking sheet steel type of construction.

I would agree with Duncan Webster about the condensation issues that I imagine would be quite serious in a steel building, although I have no experience of a steel-built workshop myself. I have had a pre-cast concrete workshop for more than twenty years and it has performed very well in my opinion. There is no real issue with condensation or corrosion on its contents although I do keep an old convector heater switched to its very lowest setting on 24/7/365. This kicks in at about 55 deg's so the workshop is always of an acceptable temperature.

The only problem I did have, and it was entirely my own fault, was that the corrugated 'asbestos' roof began to get hair-line cracks in it which were not immediately obvious because I had lined the underside with insulating material. This had been caused by me hanging various shelves etc. from the steel A-frame trusses and over-loading them. As soon as I discovered this I removed the internal insulation material and laid 2" x 2" purlins along the outside of the roof and attached a coated-steel roof to them with insulation between the now sub-roof and the new steel one. Since then I have had no problems whatsoever.

Perhaps you might consider pre-cast concrete as another option. Mine is a 21' x 13' garage but minus the up-and-over door. The door aperture is filled by a wooden 'site office' type front with 3' wide French double doors and a window. The floor is just the concrete raft which was laid to carry the building and is covered by a polythene membrane, treated 13mm ply sheets, another polythene sheet then cheap 6mm laminate flooring. As I said, everything has proven to be more than satisfactory and the building has performed very well for me.

Could you tell us what the problem is with it, please? It' looks such a simple and accessible mechanism that it may be repairable if a direct replacement is not available.

BTW, Craig and Derricot are still in business, although yet another British company that has been taken over by a foreign concern, but can be found at https://craigandderricott.co.uk/  They may be able to help with either a direct replacement or an equivalent component.

Edited By Chris Crew on 29/08/2021 01:24:46

Remember, screw-cutting is not a race. Exactly the same amount of material is removed by the tool whether the work is rotating at 1 r.p.m. or 1000 r.pm (exaggeration to make the point). Go slower at first until you get into the 'rhythm' of releasing the half-nuts and withdrawing the cross-slide. I always use the set-over top-slide technique and you can also use this method on internal threads if you invert the tool and cut the thread on the rear of the bore. This means you avoid any confusion, or possible disaster, by inadvertently withdrawing the cross-slide instead of advancing it when cutting an internal thread. Alternatively, you don't withdraw the cross-slide at all in conjunction with releasing the half-nuts. Obviously, the tool will just cut a circular groove at the end of its travel and you can withdraw (or advance on internal threads) the cross-slide at leisure. This is perfectly acceptable and, in any event, always happens if you are using any sort of rapid threading attachment such as the Ainjest.

I am not really familiar with the Myford gearbox as my lathe does not have one but I can't think its drive mechanism is nothing but straightforward engagements. If you have not had a disaster like crashing the saddle into the chuck it is very unlikely that a sheer-pin would have snapped or dropped out for no reason, even if the Myford box is equipped with such a thing. You say it was all working fine until you left it for a few minutes; was the motor left running with the clutch dis-engaged? If so maybe vibration has caused something to be dis-engaged?

Without being in your workshop with you and observing the problem first hand it is very difficult to suggest a course of action except to say that the whole design of a Myford is quite 'primitive' (I don't mean that pejoratively) with mostly everything being very easy to dismantle and re-assemble with a bit of common sense, so all you can do is work through the gear-train until you see where the drive has become dis-engaged. I have a feeling it will be something obvious when you stumble upon it and nothing very serious. Intriguing nonetheless, let us know the answer when you find it.

Edited By Chris Crew on 24/08/2021 09:03:36

Mike, I would have loved to have taken in a visit to the theatre, being a lover of The Bard of Avon, 'Oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend the very heaven of invention!' but I have checked on-line and there does not seem to be a performance on the day we will be visiting. I will have to find other ways to keep 'the tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide' happy or her 'tongue will be more poisonous than the adder's tooth' as is sometimes the case!

Rik, I am very grateful for your recommendations. I was going to stay at Leamington on my own but as the Travelodge room is the same price for two as for one, and the trip no longer entails visiting a 'man's thing' the Maitresse de Maison has decided to accompany me on the promise that we take the train to Stratford on the Friday and I take her for a row on the river, in the 'oaral' sense of course, not the 'oral' row if you get my drift although that may happen!

It's OK folks, I am well over the initial 'hissy-fit' and thank you all for your comments and views which I respect, even though some may not align with my own. There are plenty of other things to do in this great country of ours which are open for business and will succeed in attracting patrons, myself included, even if those attractions will not now include model engineering exhibitions, sadly.

Even though I am a senior citizen, now soon to be living on borrowed time with or without Covid as my three-score years and ten are about to expire, I refuse to be daunted and live in fear because this virus is going to be around for evermore, just like polio, diphtheria and tetanus and all the other dreadful diseases of my childhood that are still present in the environment but no longer feared because inoculation protects us. I hope an ever increasing number of older people come round to that view sooner or later or else their well-earned retirement and remaining years are going to blighted by what is statistically now, in my personal assessment, an almost negligible risk for most vaccinated people.

With the greatest respect to those and their families who have prematurely lost their lives to Covid we must trust in the vaccines, which came too late for them to benefit, because at the end of the day that is our only defence as it is for all the other dreadful diseases. The alternative is to cower away from normal life and social activity and I for one refuse to do it but I accept that is my choice.

So, given the ongoing circumstances, are we now saying that no model engineering exhibition will ever take place in the future? I doubt it.

Edited By Chris Crew on 23/08/2021 14:10:24

Edited By Chris Crew on 23/08/2021 14:14:16