Member postings for Robert Holton

The Gold Star looks great and I can't see anything wrong with the front forks. I am a motorcycle enthusiast and have restored quite a few. I have a 1968 T120 Bonneville these days.

Rob

That is an annoying problem. I presume you are fixing it to a bench, so why not grind the heads of your bolts to fit the machine, and then put nuts and washers on from underneath.

Just a thought.

Rob

I needed some 3/16 BSF hex set screws a month or two back. I found some easily, and still have a few.

Rob

It's good to see that others here have bought one and are as pleased as I am.

Milling as well eh. That is interesting. I could make very small con rods and coupling rods for 4mm scale loco's. I have used it for 0.6mm holes in brass. I will try a 0.5 I have smaller ones. I'll probably need to use a pin chuck to hold those.

I have got a sewing machine motor I bought ages ago for another job. It is the same as the motor fitted..

Rob

As I said, once I had found one I liked the look of, I then set about finding out what users had to say about it. I have found on reading reviews etc that people are very scathing about obvious rubbish. So I was pleased to find the comments were very positive.

Rob

Has anybody here tried one of these bench drills ?

Most of my model work is on 4mm scale locos and rolling stock. I wanted a very small bench drill. So I set about searching to see what was available.

Obviously there are very expensive ones made for Jewellers and watch makers etc. I didn't want to pay hundreds of £s for one.

I eventually found the Katsu mini bench drill on the internet.

I then scoured the net for any reviews, and found a lot of favourable comments from people who had taken a chance and bought one.

That helped make up my mind. I went ahead and ordered one.

I still kept reading peoples comments while I waited. still good ones. It arrived last Friday just as we were about to go out for the day. So I still had to be patient.

When I finally opened the box . It looked good. A minimall amount of assembly was required and cleaned off the preserving oil , and it was ready to go.

I have to say I am impressed with it. It will take drill bits 0.6mm possibly smaller. I haven't tried. up to 6mm. It's easy to use . I can drill very small holes in mini linkages, I would have found next impossible to do any other way.

I am pretty chuffed with it. It might be cheap and cheerful, but I think it will last me as long as I need.

It cost me a couple of pence under £60. They usually go for around £80 so I am not complaining

Rob

As we have a Lidl 1/2 a mile away, I thought having read all your depressing posts re the caliper they have in stock at the moment, I thought I'd go and have a look.

they took a bit of finding, because Lidl can be a bit chaotic. But after a search I spotted them. I noticed someone else had opened a box to look, so I did the same. It did feel a bit rough , so I returned it to it's box and tried another. That was much smoother. So I bought it.

Got it home and checked against my 3 year old one and My Mitutoyo imperial caliper (non digital) I checked them all on a piece of 5/8" ground bar, and they all measured spot on.

Gave it a clean to remove any possible grit, and it is ok.

I am pleased with my £9.99 purchase.

Oh yes I forgot to say the difference in quality against the Mitutoyo is so obvious, but what should we expect ? The one would cost around £150 and the Lidl one at £9.99 ........ say no more, eh !

Rob

I one I bought a couple of years ago. It is brilliant I use it all the time. I checked it against my Moore and Wright micrometer, and it compares spot for measurements.

I have also one from Aldi which was great but it gave up the ghost. So that sit in a drawer.

I also have a Mitutoyo non digital imperial vernier which though a brilliant tool , I no longer use.

If I were rich I would buy a Mitutoyo digital vernier. but I will make do with the budget ones from Lidl/Aldi.

Rob

It is worth looking at secondhand machines. Just before lockdown we were having a short break in Yorkshire, and we went into an antiques centre somewhere near Howarth .

In there they had an absolutely beautiful Myford on it's own stand. I drooled over it . It was in such amazing condition. I played with it for a little while. Everything worked with silky smoothness. I felt sick to leave it there.

They wanted just over £1300 for it. At that price I'd have snatched their hands off. If only I had the room for such a machine...........

Rob

My partners mother had a single elactic roller door fitted by a local chap one year ago. It cost her £2000 . It is a brilliant piece of work. Very reliable. I am impressed with it.

She lives in Priorslee Telford.

I just had a quick search and it looks like Lumiweld is still available.

Rob

The fork repair I did looked fairly neat when done, but I filed and polished it, and it looked good. the only thing that I noticed was the new metal didn't match for colour. I was however the only one who spotted that ! I never pointed it out to anyone.

Rob

About 20 years ago I used some welding rods called Lumiweld to repair a Motorcycle alloy front fork leg. A mudguard stay had been removed for some reason. As I was restoring the bike (Matchless 650 CSR) to original I needed it there..

I made a new piece and welded it on using the aforesaid Lumiweld . It made a very strong joint which remained in place as long as I had the bike.

This involved the use of a blow torch for the heat. I still have the rods ,but have not needed to use them since. I was impressed with it. One of my mates, an engineer, used it and also was impressed.

I hope this is of interest. Yes it works and is not messy.

Rob

Welcome to M E Michael. I am sure you will learn a lot here. I don't post much, but I am always reading other peoples posts and find it very interesting.

Have a great time with your Stuart, and keep us informed.

Rob

Thank for all your answers, but it seems that nobody has an answer as to what the problem might be .

The motor has been stripped it looks almost new inside, there is NO end play, there is NO slackness in the bearings.

the motor makes the same noise with it sitting on the bench or holding it in my hand.

It is hard to describe the sound exactly.

it is nothing what so ever to do with the lathe pulleys bearings or whatever

I have taken the motor pulley off the shaft, so it's nothing to do with that.

the motor is free of anything that can rattle, and I can spin the shaft perfectly easily. I turns very smoothly.

So that is it we are left with one moving part the armature. Once again it turns smoothly, and there is NO undue slacknesss in the bearings...

the brushes are not worn. The inside of the motor Looks as if it has had hardly any use.

I wish I could do a video of it running to prove this to you all.

Rob

Ian,

I forgot to say. there is no slackness of anything, bearings pulley etc. It appears to be in really good nick. As I said originally the other motor of the same type I have was really gungy inside but otherwise very sound bearings new brushes etc, but suffers with the same problem.

Rob

Hi Ian,

Yes the noise is still there after stripping checking and re assembly.

It is as you guessed a universal AC/DC motor. it has 2 speeds switched, that appears to work ok.

As I said this motor appears to have had very little use. It is very clean inside. It doesn't appear ever to have been taken apart before I stripped it.

I live in Shropshire close to Ironbridge.

Thank you for your answer.

Rob

Hello everyone,

I have a problem with the motor on my Unimat 3. The motor suddenly started to make a rattling sort of noise a few days ago, which to some ears would suggest worn bearings.

I stripped it down to find everything looking like new, even the commutator was looks clean. there are no burn marks on the coils , the brushes are hardly worn., and the bearings (phospher bronze) are perfectly good.

I know the motor is not continuously rated, and I've been careful to stick to the 8 minute on 2 mins off rule.

I fitted this motor only a few months ago and it ran really well until the noise started. I feel this must be an electrical fault somewhere.

Does anyone here have any knowledge of these lathes and motors who might be able to throw some light on it. this is the second of these motors I have had with the same problem. The first one looks as if it's had a hundred years of use. there must be some way of determining the cause.

I need this lathe to make some tiny bits for my other lathe.

Cheers Rob

At last I have my lathe working (Simat 101 / Flexispeed) Abeit with a motor I have temporarily borrowed off a spare Chinese drill press.

The motor that came with it is huge, a 1/2 hp 1425rpm it would drive a much bigger lathe.

The one I am using is 1/4 hp still too big I think but the same rpm . It does the job very well though.

What I really want is a 1/6 hp same rpm.

The big motor is for sale or swap. It's made by a Scottish company Lemac, and in very good working order, with resilient foot mounting. Shaft size is 16mm

Anyone interested let me know.

Rob