Member postings for Ian Owen NZ

Well I have the radius attachment stripped down and cleaned up, even the original paint is in pretty good condition.

All the grease in the bearings had gravitated to the bottom bearing and the top bearing had grinding dust in it, very much like the dust the attachment was covered in.

I've repacked the bearings, they are unshielded, and refitted the spindle and bearings into the body. I need to make a couple of pieces before I refit the table and other parts.

Does anyone have the MkII radius attachment?

If someone does, would it be possible to send me the measurements of the adjustable Z bracket fitted to the dovetail slide and also the bracket that holds the flute support finger.

The spindle fitted to mine has the 1 1/4" hole, looking at the information online I see there is a spindle that takes 1"OD bushes, I am assuming these spindles aren't easy to come by so will probably have to make one.

Any information on the Z bracket for the radius attachment would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

The ways are in excellent condition, given the machine was dismantled when the previous owner got it He can’t guarantee all the parts used to assemble it are original.

There were multiple machines dismantled, lathes, mills, grinders etc, the previous owner of the grinder had everything left to him and he had to reassemble everything. Since some parts are missing some things must have been mixed in with other things and ended up going with other machines or being left behind and disposed of.

I will strip it down and check everything and also add dials to the feeds, if I can find a set of MkII table raceways I will convert the table to bearing slideways.

please let me know where I can source the angle plate, I can’t seem to locate lumps of cast iron here in New Zealand ,I’ve been looking for a chunk 325 x 175 x 50, but can’t locate anything. Is cast iron readily available in the uk?

thanks Ian

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 07/07/2023 23:35:13

Hi Noel, thanks for the information.

I have purchased an inverter that is suitable for a 1hp 3 phase motor, it steps up the voltage from 240v to 400v so will run the motor with no problems. The cost of the inverter was NZ$100 including shipping, so most likely less than the cost of a single phase motor to convert it to single phase.

Since I don't have the cover where the switches go I will have to make one, so I measured the existing hole and by extending the opening down I can fit the inverter to the back of the cover I make and fit a start and stop switch above it then fit the cover. This will hide the inverter inside the stand and enable me to use the existing 3 phase motor or fit a .75hp in place of the 1/2 hp motor if I want to in the future.

If I did that I would add a speed control to the inverter and adjust the rpm to give 6000rpm.

The universal head is one of the things I am looking for, then I will need to make some sleeves to hold the cutters, I'm assuming the same sleeves are used for the radius fixture as well. I'm also looking for the vise and any other accessories, they aren't very common here in NZ.

I would like to convert the table to run on rollers, and possibly convert the table movement to wire rope in place of the rack. I think the rack is binding as it feels very notchy when moving the table and you feel every tooth, it makes me wonder if the rack and rack drive gear are original.

From what I gather the grinder was part of a deceased estate and dismantled at that time, the person I got it off had reassembled it but didn't have the final bits to complete the job.

I have looked at many photos of the radius grinder online and see I am missing a few bits and the bracket the spindle housing attaches to looks like it has been fabricated but it obviously works.

Thanks

Ian

Noel, if you can send me a zip file with all the instructions it would be very much appreciated.

Sometimes it's easier and quicker to read the manual than work it out using the trial and error method.

Many thanks

Ian

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 07/07/2023 09:24:43

I made an enquiry with a friend and managed to purchase a radius fixture for the Clarkson for the princely sum of 2 x 24 packs of Speights

It's a bit dirty but should hopefully clean up ok with a bit of work

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 06/07/2023 20:56:12

Thanks for the link to the website, there is a lot of information contained there.

Sometimes it's easier to purchase the required tooling than making it, or adapt tooling from another tool & cutter grinder.

I saw a MkI radius tool sell in Ebay for 150 in the last couple of weeks so tooling does come up at a reasonable price sometimes. I bought a Weldon 200 air bearing a while ago for just under $100.

There is some work I will need to do to it before it is ready for use anyway. Fit an inverter and since the motor is single voltage the inverter will be 240v to 400v, saves changing the motor.

The feedscrews are all threaded BSF, 5/8-14, and they all look original.

The MkII had dials on the infeed and the head elevation can anyone tell me what the graduations on the MkII are?

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 14/06/2023 09:58:01

I wasn't shopping for one but somehow managed to acquire on last week.

It was delivered today and I took a bit more of a detailed look at the machine I'd stumbled into.

It's missing a few bits, handle for the infeed and the handle for the elevation of the wheelhead, plus there aren't and electrics apart from the motor.

Since it only has a set of centres I'm looking for some tooling for it, if anybody has some for sale or knows of any tooling for sale please let me know

Ian

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 12/06/2023 11:11:23

Edited By Ian Owen NZ on 12/06/2023 11:12:12

Does anyone have the second part of Heavy-Duty Rollers which was featured in issue 237.

It seems that no one in management is interested in getting the missing issues added to the archive.

Thanks

Ian

I was reading some back issues and noticed a few issues are missing, 172-177, 182, 237 & 273.

Are these issues going to be uploaded to compete the archive?

Thanks Ian

One of the special editions I've been looking for was Summer 2009 Readers Workshops

There is some interesting reading in those early editions, although the scanned quality isn't great.

I was looking for the plans for the Toolmakers hammer in the Dec1991/Jan1992 but couldn't find them, has anyone got a copy of the toolmakers hammer plans?

There also appears to be an issue or two missing from between the Dec1991/Jan1992 and June/July 1992 and issue 14 also appears to be missing. But it maybe like issue 55 which has been incorrectly labelled, it should be labelled 1/12/98 but is labelled as 1/12/99

I've seen reference to some special editions of MEW also but after looking online I've never seen them for sale, and couldn't find them in the archive either.

I'm assuming the issues between 163 & 291 will eventually be available but will the special editions be made available?

No I haven't read that, so thanks, but find this very poor communication from the owners. As I said it's been 3 months since I've been on here so wasn't aware of the problems till today.

Perhaps the owners should have sent a letter, either digital or by mail, to advise their customers what is happening, what it would mean, and a time frame for issues to be resolved.

No I haven't had an email re Direct Debit because I don't have a Direct Debit set up and my subscription is paid in full till December 2023.

So given that I won't get an email where do I get my id number?

I have a digital subscription and occasionally like to view the issues on my computer, it's been about 3 months since I've tried to do this through logging in here.

But now find I can't seem to view any digital magazines through here, I log in and click on "magazines" and then Model Engineers Workshop which takes me to a page (**LINK**) where it asks for my email address and customer id.

Well I don't seem to be able to find my customer id and entering my subscription number doesn't seem to work either so I click on the link for finding my "Customer id" which takes me here (**LINK**) and try to login there using my email and password only to have it rejected.

What am I doing wrong and why is this so difficult

How do I access my digital magazines?

Ian

Yes I have tried to activate my previous subscription and it says it isn't valid,

After looking at that thread, there are 179 issues to be converted by the end of the year.

Access to the archives and the print and viewing issues have been a problem since Jan 2019, it seems remedying these problems hasn't been a high priority.

In the previous reader I could print pages from the archive, it seems the digital edition/subscription is becoming a rental only and you never get to keep what you pay for.

It should be a simple process to print article pages from the archive

Well, I have just renewed after several years of refusing to renew.

After 24hrs of reading a few referred threads on here it seems I should have read them before renewing.

Issues as I see them

Can't open any of the earlier issues prior to MEW issue180

Can't print any pages in the digital archive and can't view the digital archive in pocketmags

I have a 6 month old ipad also to view the archives and when zoomed to read the pages the txt is pixelated and unreadable

I'm in New Zealand and it seems they don't post issues to NZ anymore, which means the ability to print pages is paramount.

My previous digital subscription (which was for 2 years) none of the issues are available for viewing on pocket mags, or the digital archive. It seems once your digital subscription ends you don't have the digital issues you paid for. This means your digital subscription is a rental only.

I read this thread from 2019 about printing and the issues with the reader

Issue Reading New Digital Viewer | Model Engineer (model-engineer.co.uk)

It seems that 3 years latter subscribers still have the same issue with printing and the inability to view the majority of the digital archive.

It seems I wasted NZ$140+ for a 2 year digital subscription.

Is it possible to get a full refund?

Ian