Member postings for thomas oliver 2

I have made quite a few successful taps used for steel. After milling the flutes, I run an end mill along behind the cutting edges to provide clearance, in the fashion of modern 4 facet drills.

I sharpen all my taps if necessary with a small conical burr in my dremel tool. I put the tap horizontally in the vice jaws and angle the burr against the cutting side of each flute, I run it down from shank to end of tap. Note if you run from end to shank, you run the risk of jumping the burr over the cutting edge -effectively removing it. By carefully observing the ground area and adjusting the angle of the burr, good results can be obtained. Dies are easier to sharpen. Just choose a cylindrical burr as big as will just pass through the holes in the die. Press gently toward the centre and run the burr through each hole until the edges appears clean and sharp.

The disc on the opisometer is on a very fine thread - the finer the better. I made umpteen of these many years ago. The wheel is run along a route to the end and then is run back in reverse along the scale of the map until it locks at zero. This gives an accurate measure of the most convoluted route. We used them in our office to check travel expenses claims.

This topic was covered some time ago in 2004 at this website - www.geocities.com/steves_other_workshop with text and photos, if this helps.

I have an S50 assembled from a Stuart Turner kit and have checked the dimension which does appear to be 5 7/16ins. I also have a part complete one marked out and the marking appears exactly as yours. It would appear that the bosses are not too well positioned.

You should find that the body is in two parts and they are spring loaded when set by the missing lever. When you stop the feed of the turret or tailstock the die will continue to feed for about 1/8th in then release the cutters, when the whole assembly can be withdrawn immediately. The divisions on the adjustment should be in 1000ths of an inch. Male threads are usually a few thou.down on nominal size so do not make the thread full size. A 6BA thread nominal size is 110 thou. but usually only measures 106 thou. However - check with a nut for a good fit..

You would not think so from the photo, but Penshaw Monument is so big that one pillar is hollow and has a spiral staircase inside. The public can now ascend and walk around the top on conducted tours. From the top, you can see half of Tyneside, the Wear valley including Lord Lambtons huge estate and all the local sites of interest relating to the early steam age, which abound in the area. At the site of the old Lambton colliery, an original early wooden railway was recently uncovered. All the Locomotion locos (there were several) were built at the engine house beside Hetton Lyons Colliery which was recently demolished - a crying shame.

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Edited By Neil Wyatt on 28/03/2014 20:16:47

My friendly advisor at my local Barclays Bank gives out her business cards to customers which she gets in strong semi opaque small plastic boxes about 4"x 2 1/2" x 1/14". I have obtained dozens of these and fitted them in the drawers of my toolchests as dividers. Any small surplus space around the edges I fill with foam strip.

There are several nasties with Rob Roy - one relating to the crosshead pump. You may find these by Googling

Steve, For 50 years I have owned, modified and used a Wizard Lathe, made in my hometown of Houghton-le-Spring, for making just the sort of stuff you are interested in, so I feel I can make a few suggestions. The Wizard is a slightly superior version of your Adept. You have problems in work holding and tool holding - the simple tool clamp will slow you down, and bell chucks are an abomination - I have two. My lathe has a hollow 1/2in spindle and tailstock barrel which is very useful. Your 3/8in BSF threaded nose is the reason for the short 0MT centres. Mine has the full 0MT sizes. I was in a club flying control line in my twenties and we broke needle valves with monotonous regularity, so I managed to turn some 0MT blanks between centres. Mounted and drilled in situ they made pretty accurate MS Collets. With these I churned out dozens of very nice needle valves for my friends. Mild steel is OK for occasional use and they are still OK, and cost me nothing. I could not have afforded a 3-jaw SC anyway, Your small spindle precludes this path. I rarely find the need for using a faceplate and it would be better uses as a backplate for a chuck. A new 3-jaw will cost you £50 and do not be misled by the nice shiny appearance. I have had to return 2 to wellknown dealers which were grossly innacurate. The biggest improvement I made was to make a 4-way toolpost to mount knife, parting, chamfering and round nose tools. These will cover a lot of your requirements. Someone mentioned converting to collets. I have recently converted my Wizard into a super accurate instrument lathe. I bought a Collet holder with a 1/2in spindle from a firm called CTC Tools of Hongkong ( Run by a Dutchman and very efficient) For about one third of the price charged by UK dealers, I bought a full set of 8 collets from 3/32in to 3.8 in and the collet holder with spindle. I replaced the crosslide spindle on the lathe with an oversize threaded one as it was clapped, and I now have a super little lathe which I do not need so much as I have a Pultra. The only drawback is the lack of a through bore. The spindle is very tough but with a TC drill I have managed to drill out to a fair depth. They do have a similar kit with a 10mm spindle so you could easily ream out your headstock a few thou. to fit. This would now allow you to grip small milling cutters securely and do light milling. For milling you would normally need a vertical slide but by progessively packing up a job with strip, you can emulate the vertical adjustment and do some decent milling, possibly with the material clamped under the original tool clamp The next big step forward is to provide some sort of indexing. On my Boxford I have a large alloy disc drilled with 60 holes and a detent held on an arm. This enables you to drill accurately spaced holes in say a cylinder head. Having only one drill chuck is restrictive. Try boot sales for a few of 1" sized . and adapt them. This enables you fit centre drill, tapping drill, and tap for repetetive tapping. One of your first jobs should be to make a 13/16th tailstock die holder. Fit knobs to all the handles - much easier to turn, as shown on some of Lathes.co.uk pictures.

Brazing is joining by melting a brass filler rod into the joint. If you attempt to braze brass, you may melt the parent job. You can sliver solder at a lower temperature which will be just as strong, only dearer. Silver solder is currently about £2.50 for 100mm. Unless you can obtain some flux, it is also pricey. Remember - cleanliness of the surfaces is all important. The present low MP. silver solder from say Johnson Matthey is called Silver Flo. Ensure the parts are wired together or clamped as any movement during the procedure will cause problems. Also consider using Loctite of a suitable grade. On my Loctite leaflet, they claim it to actually be stronger than brazing, if done correctly. For fitting a rod into a hole it must not be a force fit but with minimal clearance.

The Nipper was 5.4cc. The factory produced the carb intake cast in with the tank top. Your tank/carb is not to the factories usual design, and probably made to the makers own design. Clanfords book says the Super nine was an enlarged Nipper Series 111 which did not have the split crankcase cylinder layout. They made a 7,5cc with external holding down cylinder studs and a the 13cc with a similar arrangement but it and the 7.5cc had a plain cylinder head top with no radial fins,

My 10cc Hallam measures 1.625ins across the fins, and my 5.6cc Mechanair ( about the same size as a Nipper) is only 1.25ins across the fins. The later Nippers were a one piece casting. The 13cc had a had two split castings.

This engine is definitely a Hallam Nipper 1942 as shown by the angled webs and the split crankcase. The 10cc models had a one piece crankcase as shown in Mike Clanfords book. Hallams also made a 13cc model and a 5cc. twin. Their drawings were rubbish and inaccurate and the castings poor.

Putting it all as simply as possible:-

1st Angle Looking at the front elevation - What is seen from the left is projected over on the right.

What is seen from the right is projected on the left.

What is seen from above is projected below.

3rd Angle Looking at the front elevation- What is seen from the left is projected on the left.

What is seen from the right is projectied on the riight.

What is seen from above is projected above.

The spacing of views on the paper is first worked out and normally the FE is drawn, then one side elevation. By projection lines directly from these views, and via a 45 degree line, the plan view can be drawn without measurement.

My extras to all the good advice.

I would utilise your time to make useful and necessary attachments for the lathe and thereby also save money and gain practise. For instance a tailstock die holder is probably one of the most useful attachments and a good item to learn turning, boring, driling, threading. Remember that to machine a threaded hole you must drill, tap taper, then mostly have to use a bottoming tap. If you only have one chuck, this means constant changing of tool, and time wasted. My advice is to obtain at least three small chucks. Larger chucks create problems of interference with the toolpost and constant winding in and out of the cross-slide. I mainly use Jacobs 1" chucks, and have obtained them all for chicken feed at my local boot sale. I have recently after a life-time extended this directly to taps and converted some small pin chucks to mount in the tailstock. I mount the mostly used taps ready for use. I bought fiour of these and 10 x 1.5mm drills on Ebay this week for a Fiver, and they are excellent.

Presuming you go along the steam engine or similar line, you will constantly be faced with drilling anf tapping holes on accurate pitch circles. If your lathe is not provided with indexing, ensure that you fit it out. Also if you can knock up a small drilling head to mount on the cross-slide, this will make drilling these holes a doddle. You can also use this to mount small milling cutters and mill slots and ports. There is a lot of parallel in making clocks.

Many useful tools like D bits can easily be made and correctly heat treated are as good as any commercial items. Familiarise yourself with heat treatment and give it a try. It is not difficlult ,solves a lot of problems and also save on costs.

Stuart Turner engines have used BA series threads in the past. So you will have to determine whether to obtain these or buy the metric equivalents. Lots of the required tapping drills are Number drills. If analysed, you will find that 15 out of the 60 in a full set have no direct use for tapping, clearance or reaming of all the standard sizes. So buy only the necessary ones (Tracy tools - no connection)

I could go on but figure that is enough for starters.

I have a Kennedy Hacksaw and I made up a belt from a discarded motorcar camshaft belt, I ground the scarf joint at at least a 30Deg angle and joined it wit superglue. The joint was clamped in a vice and left for 24 hours. Considering the belt is driven by a thin sleeve on a 5/8th in motor shaft it has stood up for two years. I also cut sections off a poly v belt and joinn them similarly for my Pultra lathe. This has the big advantage that I do not have to dissemble the main spindle to fit the belt,but glue it up in situ.

I recently bought some 4 metre lengths of HE15 alloy at the AALCO of Gateshead depot, which of course saved on their delivery charge, which is not inconsiderable. The 1/4 dia. cost me 75p/ft., the 1/2in dia. - £1 /ft. and the 3/4 dia. - £1.50. The main dealers are not so dear if you buy their standard lengths. I split the deal with a friend.

At the Harrogate show I was asked £15 for a 2ft length of 1 in. by one dealer and £5 per ft. by another.

For many years I was able to access the scrap end bin of the Corus Steel stockholders by the foreman. Steel ends stlll have the steel colour code on one end. It is as well to know this code beforehand, than you can be sure to select the EN1A and other grades needed. Some dealers have their own codes but there is one fairly standard one.

I follow the sales of diesels on Ebay fairly regularly. The high priced example quoted is highly unusual and not to be taken as a bench mark. The DC Rapier is more desirable and scarcer than the Sabres. This example is Marine with flywheel and silencer, and has the box, which is worth quite a lot. Sabres go in the range £20 to about £45. I reckon this example to be worth maybe £45 - £65.

Diesels can be choked in 3 ways - finger choked, prime through intake, and prime through exhaust and each one has its own particular requirement. Radial port diesels like a prime through the exhaust, but with a silencer fitted resort must be made to the intake prime. Some people are good diesel starters, and others struggle. The difference is in the speed of the flick and the setting of the propellor. I favout the prop set at 20 past 10. The flick should carry the arc well past TDC, and be very fast. Initially after the prime the compression can be slowly increased until it suddenly becomes a little hard. Then it is backed off slightly, which should result in firing. The needle setting is critical and taper on the needle and the threads vary. Before starting,some idea of the setting can be obatined by connecting a length of fuel tube to the spraybar nipple and blowing through. There should not be too much back pressure, but it should not be too easy to blow through. Some needles do not actually open the jet at all until maybe 2 turns.

Pubs pump the beer with beer pumps electrically driven. I have two Pultras - one a capstan, both driven directly by these motors, which in fact are made by Stuart Turner. I got these very cheaply at my local boot sale. I cannot make out all the ratings on the label, but the rpm is 2800. This is not too high for a small lathe, and my Pultras are rated for use up to 6000 revs. Some people have been known to run them at 10,000rpm. Try some local boot sales - a lot of pubs are closing down nowadays. Tomol.

I have silver soldered many bandsaw blades with easiflo No 2 and they have never broken at the loint. Scarf as suggested. The main problem however is keeping the blade in alignment. My jig is an 8in length of 3/4in x 3/4in steel angle iron. A notch is cut out a the middle to allow the flame of the torch to heat from underneath. Hold the jig in a vice and clamp up the two halves of the blade with two small G cramps. Apply the flux as a thick cream and place one tiny piece of silver solder on the flux. Heat gently at first or the flux will bubble up and disturb the solder. Increase heat until solder flashes into the joint. Too much solder wll build up and is not easy to remove. TomOl.

Tungsten carbide burrs with a 1/4in dia. shaft are readily available and not too dear. They are infinitely better than carborundum. I have done various similar jobs and TC. is definitely preferable on cast iron.. It would not be too difficult to fix up a tubular extension to create more reach. I find that Loctite is extremely useful to fix steel to steel, instead of brazing..

I have just checked Ebay and a set of 5 suitable burrs is available for about £18.00 which is a gift.. There are also long shank ball ended cutters available. TomOl