Member postings for William Ayerst

OK! One step at a time, then!

I guess a gear puller to get the pulley off? Something like these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Puller-Bearing-Removal-Internal-External/dp/B01CIEUXQQ/ ?

An example of the original knocking/tapping sound with the mill in use is in this video - timestamp from 0:23

https://youtu.be/IcNPDVK5wHY?t=23

No cracks, got the motor out and gave it a run with and without power - there's a faint scratching as it rotates - I'm not sure if this is the same as the rhythmic sound it gives out when the belt is connected - it seems to be once per revolution and I think that'd probably come out as a shriek or whirr at normal RPM?

Either way, here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XryY7FD7Q

I've not the faintest on how I might go about doing anything about this, is it best left to a specialist or is there something obvious I can check?

The motor baseplate was 'skewed' on the L-brackets with relation to the axis of the motor and pulleys.

Edited By William Ayerst on 05/08/2021 16:11:13

Hmmm! What to do? Presumably take the motor off and see if anything obvious is going on there?

Is it worth putting the motor back inside the chassis? I'm not sure what the original arrangement would have been!

Edited By William Ayerst on 05/08/2021 11:34:57

Righto, I've done some troubleshooting - slowing the mill right down, the sound which was like knocking at high RPM becomes more like a laboured 'whrr' sound at one point in the revolution.

I took some video of the various configurations:

It sounds like it's coming from the motor end of the main belt. It is audible even when the main horizontal spindle is rotated by hand. Without the belt connected the motor is quiet at all speeds.

The previous owner moved the motor mount to outside the base for easier access (and in full disclosure he said that this might need looking at) - it is bolted to the sheet metal outside. While it's not going anywhere, it looks like it's subject to a fair amount of vibration and oscillation. Were that the fault I'd not expect to hear the 'same' noise when turning over by hand. Maybe there is some misalignment or something?

I'm not really sure how to troubleshoot this one!

Thank you - spoke to H&W Machinery and got a discount on the 3x3x1 slab cutter just for the sake of trying it out.

Another thing I've noticed is just how loud the Centec is while running - there's a definite knocking sound. I've heard if it runs on a single phase motor then it's prone to knocking and there's a tie-bar between the panels already. However, it's got a 3-phase motor with an inverter - so I wonder if it's something else I should be checking?

Is it the same suggested process for the steam chest? i.e. the cover first, then the chest, then the cylinder?

All of these holes are 7BA so I guess it would be most straight forward to make my own transfer punch?

Yes, the nut not touching the bearing is something I've realised after cleaning my undies out. It seems homeandworkshopmachinery have a new-old-stock Clarkson 3x3" slab cutter for £54 - is that about the right price for one?

I think I'll need to move the VH back on the riser block so it's ontop of the main column insteead of above the overarm support - my gut feeling is that a bit of

Good afternoon all,

This is hopefully my last post which relates to the Stuart10v build I'm just about to finish. One of the last pieces to do is to drill the various fixing holes. The 'Building a Vertical Steam Engine' book blithely says that they can be 'done in later in the process' and then seems to never mention it again.

Though I have a mill I lack a DRO, so I was going to use calipers to mark out the various PCDs before spotting/drilling through. Beyond that, I'm not sure which items I should be drilling through or spotting through, and whether they should be clamped to the target ahead of time.

i.e. the joints between:

• Top cylinder - cylinder - bottom cylinder - standard - soleplate
• Steam chest cover - steam chest - cylinder

I'm getting just a little in a twist and chasing my own tail for the order of operations on this! Can anyone let me know how to approach tackling it?

I'd not considered a slab cutter but that does make alot of sense. My widest horizontal cutter is 5/8" - other than a 1" bore is there anything I should be considering with regard to teeth/etc. on a cutter like this?

I tried to cut a piece of aluminium flat using a horizontal cutter and ended up with a tiny groove on the outside edge of the cut. I don't know if this was because the overarm was sagging and causing the arbor and cutter to sit at an angle, or something else. The VH was on the front of the overarm/spacer so next time I'll try pushing that back along the dovetail.

That nut on the front of the VH had oil leaking out of it like crazy, so I used an aircraft screwdriver to hold the stud on the inside and tighten it up on the outside.

Turns out the disc on my wiggler is only nominal 0.100" - actually 0.1185" - that would have been annoying! I grabbed a M&W 0.500" edge finder too - not because I think I need it, but more because it will fit in the clarkson chuck and is roughly the same height as a mill - rather than having to crank the table down 3-4" and then back up again!

Edited By William Ayerst on 03/08/2021 08:53:51

Peak4/Bill, I'm using the wiggler with a 1/4" ball head. Are these cylindrical finders better? In the meantime, should I be paying attention to it stop oscillating as my zero, or when it deflects?

Realistically I think I may have just fallen foul of expecting 1/4" square rod to actually be 0.250" .

I managed to nip up the bolt on the front of the vert head, it just seemed to be leaking oil through the loose bolt hole without it. Any ideas on what oil should go in it?

All the best!

Also, after trying to eyeball the centre of a piece of square bar with scribe marks and a needle-point wiggler and failing three times in a row to find the actual centre, I may be starting to understand the push towards a DRO ...

Thanks all - I guess that big locking nut for the half-nut / rack feed handle must be 3/8" BSF then?

Did my first horizontal milling in anger today and it went quite well. Not getting a super smooth finish on vertical milling yet (3/8" 4-flute endmill on brass rod) but lots of things to tweak. I'm starting from the beginning all over again.

One thing that is definitely jumping out at me is planning the order of operations - switching from drill to mill and back to drill again is quite a time sink!

I managed to get the modified half-nut handle off and luckily, no permanent modification - the screws and pins just pop out. I need to figure out what thread the locking nut is, though - I have a piece of 3/8" BSW and it seemed to fit but locked up after a turn or so, so I'm going to assume it's 3/8" BSF?

Dave, I don't suppose you'd be able to check for me by any chance?

I've been switching between horizontal and vertical milling and having alot of fun - I must admit though, I almost s**t my pants when the horizontal arbor locking nut caught on the support and started unscrewing, cranking the whole horizontal arm out at the same time! 

Edited By William Ayerst on 01/08/2021 16:22:13

Hi Steve, the Damper ring is on there pretty tightly. Is there a certain spanner I need to get it unstuck? I understand it's a left handed thread but it's on there tight in either direction!

Dear Steve, I'm over the moon - I put together a video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dm0KNm7mJU&t=38s

Regarding the half-nut situation, I'll see if I can get the plate off the bronze casting and those pins out without risking damage tomorrow and see what's going on.

Yeah, I think those pins visible through the black steel are the extremities of the slot.

Is removing the quick traverse a reversible operation? I'm not using it right now but I'd not want to make any permanent changes just yet!

I'm not sure I have a need for the rapid return capstan handle, certainly not for the scale of model engineering work I'm currently doing!

This is a picture of the assembly showing the original handle and pivot, a pinned steel plate (I gather the two pins are the centres of the elongated slot that would take the nut) and the brass handle:

After tightening up the bosses on both sides it seems more reliable and hasn't popped out since, so for now I'll leave be - but I think all things considered I'd prefer a more long winded process to disengage the nut but which is more secure when it's engaged.

Any ideas on how I might reverse engineer it, should this be required?

Thanks for the tips on the locking nut handles - not a bad idea at all. Do you know what thread the halfnut locking bolt will be, or what the gib locking screws are?

All the best and thank you again, both!

Edited By William Ayerst on 31/07/2021 21:22:53

Thanks Gary! Mystery solved!

I've found a fair few things loose on the mill in addition to the siezed knurling ring, the handwheel bosses, almost all of the gib screws, etc. but tightening them up has certainly helped.

I was wondering why the half-nut kept disengaging on the X-axis, and it was a combination of the handwheel boss being very loose and allowing the rod to jiggle around enough to disengage, but also that the half-nut locking mechanism has been modified.

The original arrangement was a nut that clamps the half-nut engaged or disengaged, it's movement actuated by a short hand lever as shown below:

One of the previous owners of this mill has modified this, with a long arm that reaches underneath the table toward the operator, with a rest bolted onto the hole marked '15' in the above diagram. If the arm is in the rest, then the half nut is pulled upward and engaged. If the arm is moved off the rest and let fall slack, then the half-nut is disengaged.

Maybe this solution worked when the mill was new(er), but as it stands the half-nut kept flopping open. I hope that tightening up the bosses on the end of the table has helped, if not I might need to find a way to reverse engineer it!

Edited By William Ayerst on 31/07/2021 11:37:48

Jason, thank you so much for the help on this - boring isn't as straight forward as I thought!

I ground off the bottom of my 8mm HSS square threading tool to act as a boring tool for the 10v standard - it worked (just) but there was a huge amount of flex in it.

The 8mm HSS square boring tool won't fit ( presumably minimum of 17mm dia starting hole, unless the bottom is ground)

The 8mm shank brazed carbide tool has the cutting edge at about 7mm from the bottom surface, so I shimmed it with 1mm packing underneath, but the steel underside of the tip was still fouling the work. Am I OK to grind that down too, in theory?

I found a tool in the box of previous owner's toolbits which has been ground to a stubby boring tip. It's 3/8" square but the cutting face is pushed down to roughly centre height, maybe a hair above. Given the nature of the boring I gather this is OK (it seemed to cut much better than anything else I've tried so far) - it just adds to the rake angle. I'm currently turning brass so that's OK but I clearly will need a better solution for steel and CI.

I'm sure I saw some of those long, round-shanked HSS boring bars (i.e. fourth from front in your first pic) somewhere, but I can't find them again. I've asked Tracy to confirm on their holders - and will keep looking - or make my own as you have shown!

Edited By William Ayerst on 31/07/2021 09:43:32