Member postings for Bdog507

Been there, done that! It's why most of us keep spare screws! 😄

Luckily for me most of my turning with larger inserts which are indexed after loosening a screw, & not removing it completely.

Cheers.

Stew.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good morning all.

When I was an apprentice we were told that one never uses power feed to part off. I got caught doing it & got a proper rollocking! (Misprint).

I've had lathes of my own for over 20 years now. Parting off with power or not depends on the material & the diameter. I always use a 3mm carbide insert parting blade. Steel invariably gets the hand treatment, especially on large diameter parts (pun intentional). On aluminium, brass or plastic I usually use power feed.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good morning all.

I second the machine cut most of the thread & use the tap for the final pass method.

Also opening up the hole a little won't affect the strength by much if you're going to tap by hand.

I had a job some years ago where I had to make a dozen threaded pieces with an M24x3 thread. The customer supplied the steel & it was, I suspect something like en19. I did the first two by hand with a 2 foot tap wrench. It was jolly hard work, & it was difficult to stop the part turning in the vice. So I gave up & bought a spiral point tap & did the rest them on the lathe.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good afternoon all.

Having experimented with many greases for use on motorcycles. I have found that Morris K323 blue grease is the absolute mutts for bearings. It's resistant to shock loads, & doesn't fling, separate, or wash off easily.

What's more, only a tiny bit is required on a high speed bearing such as you will find in a mini lathe headstock.

It's only available in big tins or 400 gramme grease gun cartridges. I buy a case of cartridges & decant one into a pot as required.

I have an old 12 inch Milford grinder. I purged the old LM type grease from the bearings & gave them a shot of K323. It ran a shade smoother, & was a little more quiet too.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good morning all.

A bit late on this one. I have two 250mm iron Pratt & Burnerd chucks. On one of mine there's a single locating dowel on the back plate that goes into the main body. If your chuck has such a dowel you'll need to virtually fill it with penetrant in order to free it off.

Mine was a complete bugger to take apart the first time I did it, due to said dowel being slightly corroded.

Morris oil do an excellent grease for chucks, (or anything else for that matter). It's called K323 blue grease. It's only available in big tubs, or 400g grease gun refills. I buy the refills by the case & decant one into a convenient pot & use it for most applications. I found it out performs the proper chuck grease that's available.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Hmmmm! Devil's advocate time 😁😁

I believe James Watt's original calculation was indeed 550 lb/sec or rounded up to 33.000 ftlb a minute. It became known as the mechanical or imperial.horsepower....but there's this thing known as a metric horsepower or PS which is slightly smaller at circa 542 lb/sec or circa 735 watts.😄😄

Cheers.

Stewart.

Edited By Bdog507 on 06/03/2023 14:54:23

Good morning all.

It's funny how the UK decided to go metric in 1965 & we still haven't got there. Lots of things are still sold in imperial amounts but expressed in metric. Beer in 568ml bottles and so on.

Those of us above a certain age were taught in imperial. It was all feet & inches, pounds & ounces for me at school. However, most of us have learnt to use metric. I actually prefer it when I'm machining. Not least because my lathe has metric dials. My mill has imperial dials but I use the DRO in metric.

It amuses me when I use an imperial measurement when speaking to a younger customer, & they claim not to know any of 'that old stuff'....I ask them how tall they are, & invariably they'll day 5' 9" or whatever. Rarely do they express their height in metric form.......Don't know that old stuff eh!

I don't think certain imperial units are going anywhere soon. Take the horsepower for example. Then again saying "My bike has 100 hp at the back wheel" sounds better down the pub than "My bike has 74.6kw at the back wheel" might be the reason for the horsepower lingering.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good morning all.

That was an interesting video, but as you say there could have been variations in the angle of the thread. However, as most inserts are fitted in situ it follows that most threads would be cut by hand with consequent variations in the angle of the thread and the drilled hole.

I spent the best part of a day fitting dozens of 10mm Recoil inserts to some engine mounting plates from some class of Go Kart.. Being flat I drilled and tapped them on my pillar drill. It's the only time that I can recall where I didn't drill and tap by hand.

Also, if I recall correctly I was told that Timeserts are only for use in Aluminium. I may be wrong, but it was about 30 years ago when I bought my initial Timesert kit. What's more, as I said earlier the insertion tool has to be wound fully through the insert, and it didn't look as if the chap in the video did that. It's certainly more than the lower threads of the insert that have to be expanded, for the expansion tool will only just screw into the insert by a couple of turns if one uses just fingers.

I'd like to see a similar test done in aluminum with the drilling and tapping done by machine, and at least 10 of each would give a better indication as opposed to a one off.

As I said, I've yet to have either type fail when I've done the fastener up. I have had Helicoils fail when the owner has been fiddling with something I've Helicoiled in the past, but that could be ham fistedness on the part of the owner. I suspect that they cross threaded the fastener and dislodged the upper coil of the insert.

Either way, both types have their uses, and applications.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Oddly enough I've just been using my 10oz Snap-On dead blow for driving in some front fork seals.

Snap-On also do dead blow ball pein hammers. They're eye wateringly expensive, but are excellent for centre punching etc.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good afternoon all.

My vote is for a number one Thor copper & hide hammer.

I have more hammers than any sane fellow should have. Out of the mallet types it's 50/50 between copper & the shot filled plastic variety. Copper hammers don't bounce much, so they're similar to the plastic variety in that respect. However, the plastic hammers don't mark surfaces so if it's something that one doesn't wish to mark, such as a gearbox sprocket cover it's plastic every time. Marks are not so relevant if one is going to machine it anyway.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Very good taps and dies basically. I usually make such things out of EN8 it being a little stronger than normal mild steel.

All done in the lathe. I put the outer thread on first with the die expanded a little & then drill the tapping hole slowly. Then I use a spiral point machine tap by hand & carefully. Good SP taps cut the thread more progressively than even a taper hand tap. Then if need be I close the die up & carefully take a little more off the external thread.

It's a faff, & I reckon on getting one bush out of two tries.

I used to have some hand tap sets where each tap cut the thread more deeply. Obviously one had to pass all three taps through in order to get a full thread. These were excellent for such delicate tapping. I can't remember what make they were, nor do I know if such things are still available.

Cheers.

Stewart.

It would be interesting to see that. I'll have to see if I can find it.

I've used both for the last gawd knows how many years, & have found the opposite. With either they need to be properly installed, i.e. Timeserts need to be fully expanded in order to work correctly. If they're not they often unscrew instead of the fastener within them, & they can also pull out of the thread they're screwed into.

I have yet to have either fail out of the thousands I've installed, but that's what torque wrenches are for. I've seen many badly installed ones fail however.

II still reckon on using helicoils for 95% of occasions. Not only are they more versatile, they're a damn sight cheaper too.

Cheers.

Stewart

I rang a mate of mine the other day. I asked him what he was doing & he replied; "I'm studying the effect of hot water on metals and ceramics under controlled conditions" .

Sounds interesting I said........Turns out he was doing the washing up under the watchful eye of his Mrs!

Good afternoon all.

Good job well done by the sound of it.

I see this sort of thing on a regular basis in my workshop. My preference would have been to mill the hole out with a 7mm slot drill, & make a bush with an M8x1 thread.

It's amusing when some oaf (usually the customer & his mate) have had a go at 'drilling' it out. I have been known to ask if they were wearing a blindfold during the attempt.

On the subject of thread inserts. Both Helicoil & Timeserts have their place. . A Helicoil can be cut down to size. I've put as little as 4 twists in shallow holes. A Timesert cannot be cut down, nor can they be fitted in blind holes unless they're deep, because the tool that expands the insert has to pass right through it in order to secure the insert.

A Helicoil can also jump a gap, like in a single pinch bolt on a clutch lever perch.

However, Timeserts are stronger. So for stripped sump plugs, & wheel spindle threads in fork lowers etc I use Timeserts.

As one poster said, the Australian Recoil inserts are the way to go. They're excellent!

Cheers.

Stewart.

Edited By Bdog507 on 01/03/2023 16:38:42

Edited By Bdog507 on 01/03/2023 09:29:42

Good morning.

I'm sure Clarkson used Whitworth/BSF thread forms on their Dedlock chucks, but they weren't a standard TPI.

You may find a suitable Dedlock chuck, but they're not common nowadays. My milling machine has a 5/8 UNC power drawbar, & tooling for it is much less common than say an M16 drawbar.

Cheers.

Stewart.

Edited By Bdog507 on 01/03/2023 08:21:20

Good evening all.

As far as I know there's nothing else that uses it. Bloody Yanks!

Indeed bottle threads are very unique in form, and there are considerable variations. Think how many times a day bottles get unscrewed vs how many tyres are pumped up. I wouldn't like to be the chap who had to count them!

Cheers.

Stewart.

Good evening all.

The thread I had in mind is the Schrader valve thread. Invented by a German in the USA.....Says it all really!

Cheers.

Stewart.