Member postings for Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

Well everyone was very helpful on this question and I was so impressed by the array of various solutions to the problem of speeding up production. In the end after a lot of investigation, deliberation and very careful searching I was able to find a myford C7 capstan lathe which I am very happy with. Space was found and deals were done.

I would like to thank everyone who posted responses to this thread, although I may not have replied to each post individually I did carefully consider what every single poster said.

Best wishes

Jake

Oh I get it now, the person who sent the message to me deleted the automatically generated text which contained their email address. It would be helpful if the message had also gone to my inbox on this site but oh well I will put a note on my advert about this.

Thanks all for the help

Thats the problem, the message does not appear in my inbox on this website, only my hotmail account inbox, is that weird? I would have thought it would appear in both.

Hello I was wondering if anyone could advise me here

I am having an issue with the messaging system, I placed a wanted classified advert on this website and have received a very interesting response for something I want to buy. The problem is I received it straight to the email address I listed with the advert from the sender "[email protected]" which does not seem to be an address I can respond to, it just bounces back whenever I try to respond to this email, the message does not appear in my inbox on the model engineer website, only in my hotmail account so frustratingly I have received a message but have no way of finding out how to contact this person.

Probably just a mistake someone new to this website would make, which I am.

Best wishes

Jake

As mentioned in previous post here is an image of a concertina button - made in two parts

Thank you all for the very helpful replies, I should have been a bit more specific in my original post though -

There three parts I am making and they: are small bolts with a bastard thread (I have the unusual thread die) in batches of about 200 and concertina buttons which are slightly more complex and made in two parts, I would probably produce a batch of abound 400 of those parts at a time. I enclose an image to show what these are like. The tooling up and setup for making this sort of thing is not a problem, I
make a lot of them .. if somewhat slowly on a centre lathe. Im not really interested in outsourcing the work
I have just had a lot of bad experiances with doing that on any level sadly.

I actually have one of the 2mt tailstock 6 tool capstan like attachments and as has been pointed out
the lack of a depth stop is quite a drawback. Also the one I have is somewhat flimsy sadly, perhaps some of them are better.

The guy bazmak who made the capstan for his mini lathe looks to have done an incredible job but sadly that path looks a bit beyond
my milling capacity (wm 12 mill and wm 180 lathe) and time limitations (self emplyed with two under 5 children)

The bed turret for the sherline lathe looks incredible, it would be that exact setup which I would be
trying to emulate - not quite as perfect as an industrial capstan lathe (looks like its missing the handy
lever collet setup which many have) but I feel such a setup would be the best thing for my needs and limitations ect.
As pointed out sadly their website seems to be down though.

Still looks a bit hard to see the best way forwards - Perhaps I need more sleep you have all provided very useful suggestions I think I just need to have a good think now on this one.

Best wishes

Jake

Hello I was wondering if anyone could offer some advice for my problem:

I am in need of a capstan lathe but workshop space is tight and buying another lathe could be a problem. I have a warco centre lathe for which capstan attachments were never made - has anyone on here ever got a capstan attachment made for another lathe and made it fit their centre lathe either by making some sort of milled plate to make it taller or indeed machining down the base of the capstan and then perhaps boring the tool holes on the capstan to a larger size (to make certain they are central to your lathe spindle).

If anyone on here ever tried this ... is it something you would recommend or not? Is this just a horrible idea? Or is it a great idea which will help me save space by not having two lathes?

Best wishes and thank you for reading

Jake

Ah I see I was not aware of these societies, I will look into these.

Hello

I have been a long time reader of these forums, and find them a great source of information!

I originally trained as a model maker and worked for three years in that industry before starting up my own business making concertinas - the musical instrument, which I have been doing now for approaching five years.

I have never really done model engineering but the model making trade is somewhat closely linked, the main difference being the models I made were for display only, they never actually had any moving parts.

Although I don't actually make models of any sort these days I have always found that model makers and model engineers are some of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to fabricating, making and machining things, mostly using manual processes and hand skills, I am keen to in some way still engage with that world and hope to swap tips and techniques on this forum.

I am in Wolverton, in Buckinghamshire I don't know if anyone on here is from around there

All the best

Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

Edited By Jake Middleton-Metcalfe on 23/02/2021 19:35:41

the BCA mark 3 has 8" of travel in all dimensions so only max probably just under a 4" radius from the centre of the table.

I was able to get hold of a copy of the original operating service manual which has all of the specs on it. I have uploaded it to an album on my profile in case anyone on here is interested.

Very interesting William s, I did not know there was a difference in travel on the mk2 and 3. How much space do you actually get between the spindle and the table on a mk3?

I will find out what version the one my mate has actually is.

quite a project, very impressive. Thank you for the share.

I have to say I do sort of WANT to get the jig borer as they really do look incredibly cool and certainly well made. I will have to see how I get on with it when I next see my friend. I did not think about actually making the collets but its a good point

There is something really great about these old British made machines. Though I am always careful not to end up like my other mate Ian who has a workshop filled with about four old "project" table saws only one of which actually works, well what can I saw he certainly follows his heart and will "get round to the rest some day"

I appreciate all the input from everyone on here

Edited By Jake Middleton-Metcalfe on 17/02/2021 17:37:12

Well I wasn't expecting to get input on this so fast, this certainly is an active forum.

It sounds like the way forwards for me is:

-go visit my mate and actually have a go on the machine - he is quite a drive away but its a major purchase anyway and I had better be sure the working area on the bca is actually ok regarding particularly the z axis.

-be certain about which of those rare collets actually come with the machine and in particular are they internally threaded at the end. I was a bit concerned when I saw the collets were tightened on the cutters with a knurled hand turned dial type thing rather than the usual drawbar.

I will have to wait until after the lockdown to visit my mate but as someone pointed out the warcos are sold out anyway, so what can you do. Plus its not a massive rush, I always manage to get by doing the things I need with the various fun and convoluted ways of setting up a lathe in the meantime. Though it can be slow to set up of course.

Here is a fun image of one of those tasks

Edited By Jake Middleton-Metcalfe on 17/02/2021 13:51:51

Edited By Jake Middleton-Metcalfe on 17/02/2021 13:52:57

Hello Model Engineers, this is my first post but I am a long time reader of these forums.

Basically I have the option of buying a B.C.A jig borer from a friend for £800GBP, supplied with loads of collets. a good price... they are quite specific machines - here is a link to a discussion about one: https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=138625

My main alternative is a Warco WM12 which goes for £755 (reason for that above say a seig sx2p is that the warco has 165 cross travel, quite good cross travel for a machine this size)

So what is the best machine for me? Well here are thing things I am always doing in my day job as a concertina maker:

-center drilling holes in small nickel silver cylinders

-using 1/16th end mills to mill slots in bits of sycamore

-occasional milling of small mild steel or stainless components

-all work is on nothing larger than a 6 and 1/4" hexagon and that is within the capability of either machine.

-usual thing - its a small workshop so cant really fit bigger machines

-my budget is £1000 inc tooling.

Now I am aware jig borers are not for milling really, being more for drilling very precise holes (I have never used a jig borer I learned milling on a bridgeport). However for my quite narrow selection of tasks would the BCA be a better buy given that it would be a more precise machine? My only worry really is trying to mill steel on it. Perhaps super fine cuts of say 0.1mm and I might be ok?

What do you good people think?

All the best

Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

Edited By Jake Middleton-Metcalfe on 17/02/2021 12:21:08