Member postings for John Manning 4

Hi Mason I have sent you a pm.

Hi, evening everyone.

Plate rough cut and arbour turned. I inherited the lathe and accessories from my late father who made very useful notes about the machine. I have just picked up a note that is labelled "plates". He writes

"three screw holes of 5/32" 4BA clearance on 15/16" PCD. NOT EQUIDISTANT.(his capitals)

3 fixing holes clockwise (looking at front) from "zero" position, 119.5 deg. 118.0 deg 122.5 deg"

Apart from the fact that I have either; A, failed to find, or B, given away any angle measurement device of this kind of accuracy. This seems an amazing bit of info to investigate. He was making the 100 hole plate and vernier device probably at this time. I wonder if John Stevenson can shed a light on this. 2 degrees error on fixing holes does not seem much and may reflect the manufacturing method more than a design feature.

I shall just spot through the existing plate to the arbour.

best wishes

John M

Hi, Still lots of ideas, many thanks again. I am making a plate out of a chunck of Perspex that has been in the "may be useful" heap for about 30 years. First job has been to make a mandrill to hold it in order to drill the 36 hole circle and a 40 hole circle. May as well drill two circles that complement each other. There is no spare space on the other plates and being Myford originals I am unsure of the material as it could be hardened or gauge plate. I shall have to check the other wheels before I commit to drilling as it would be a bit silly to find that I can't make another wheel when I am specially making a plate. At the moment the grass is too wet to cut so it's unfortunately back to the man cave!!

Many thanks

John M

Well thanks folks, loads of info in there. Route A, make a 12 hole division plate is best. I am surprised that the new Myford don't include a suitable additional plate in their range. At least I don't appear to have lost anything "round the edges" so to speak. Another point is that the tables with the Myford head stop at 100 divisions and don't include some of the prime numbers which makes one wonder whether the unit is going to be used out side it's design limits?

Next up, some work on the raising block and then next week-end (Midlands model engineering show) obtain some 6" dia plate.

Again, Many thanks for your comments.

JohnM

Hi all you clock makers. I have restarted my project to build a clock and find that the great wheel is 144tooth. No problem says I, set up dividing head and away we go!. Not quite as easy. The Myford dividing head is a 60 tooth worm wheel and 144 teeth calls for 5/12 rotation of the index handle per tooth. There are no index plates with hole counts that are divisible by 12, either in my workshop or available from Myford. Have I missed something here because several clock designs use 144teeth for the great wheel.

There are several alternative solutions that I have,

A. make a dividing plate with suitable hole counts.

B. use the simple dividing head in compound mode.

C.Use the Myford head with a 100tooth plate and a vernier to achieve 1000 divisions per rev of the handle. (this method is a bit irksome!!).

Some books refer to "Equipment mentioned many times before" which is very helpful!

Any ideas or solutions greatly appreciated.

JohnM

Hi John,

the drawings don't have the issue number on them. As the drawings were not accompanied by text I have not kept the magazines. but here are the dates

6 April

20 April

4 May

18 May

1 June

15 June

29 june

13 July

27 July

Sorry I've put the dates in U.K. format. there is no other text and things like the bearings chart are not include. It's easy enough to build one up.

Best wishes

John M

Ron,

I fitted a Transwave unit to my ML7 about January/February time. Very easy to do. Just remember there aare two grub screws holding the motor plate pivot in position! Any firm worth your money will advise on which motor/controler to use. The pendant control enables you to have the control next to you. Using the overspeed function on the Variable frequency unit enables me to have a top spindle speed over 2000rpm. a bit scary at that so I have left the output maximum at 50Hz..

Best of luck

John

These are working on very fine tolerances and temperature change hot or cold can adversely affect the machine. My super 7 binds the headstock in the depths of winter as the spindle srinks. it has been unuseually hot in the last few days and the clutch could be beginniong to open or the spindle bindind on the outside face of the bearings. Check the side play in the headstock.you will need that funny C spanner that you could not find a use for.

John M

Hi,

It is some time since I commented on this project. It appears that the drawimg series has finished. there are a few errors but they are readily spotted and can be correctly solved as progress is made. I shall redraw some parts to bring the dimensions back to imperial measurement to fit the imperial machines that I have. I shall be using metric threads! because they are more readily available.

I am using "Regulator Clock Construction" by Peter Heimann as a guide to general direction and possible pitfalls.

Regards

John M

Hi Yourat. The series started in 4427 and is in every issue. They are drwings only there are no instructions. They are double side A3 size and need photocopying to three or 4 A4 pages to give working copies.

Is there any one else building this clock? If tere is then I cn add building notes to this thread ( with the moderators permission).

Regards

John M

Hi,

I have decided as a first (for many years) lathe project to build this clock. It has several things to recomend it. Like a challenge and not being an engine. It stands a chance of being accepted into the living room when finished. I have started by machining the parts that the drawings are for, currently the various pillars. This will give me some practice and and insight into bits and bobs that I need. I shall be using metric threads, obtaining the taps from local supplies. There appears to be a few suppliers who could make the various gears if you did not have the dividing heads. I must add that I have inherited the lathe and a collection of strange accessories from my father.

From this thread we can add that we need 0.6 module gear cutters.

Regards

John M