Member postings for Ketan Swali

The sensor, reads a specific graduated disc. The disc is similar to the type used for digital callipers, but circular and with specific graduation for each turn. I can’t remember what the specific measure it is designed to read.

In any case, I don’t think that anyone has managed to connect this to any external processor. Even if they did, this particular type of DRCD unit had reliability issues due to swarf/liquid ingress, so it was removed from ARCs range a very long time ago.

Ketan at ARC

Thank you to the collective for trying to help the OP to solve his problem.

I have to admit that ARC's catalogue and website were responsible for the OPs confusion. Our Ian is the process of resolving the matter with the customer.

The factory produces these toolposts for the U.S. (imperial) and the European (metric) market. European demand for this product is lower than the U.S., and the quantity we need has to fit in into whatever is being produced at the time. Normally this is fine as long as our website is updated to reflect what we have received into our stock - metric or imperial stud/nut.

ARCs failure to check the specifications received vs what was stated on the website led to the confusion. This has now been corrected.

Ketan at ARC

Hello Philip,

I think you maybe looking for a Drawn Cup Needle Roller Clutch Bearing (DCNRCB): RC02, which has a 1/8" bore (after compression).

If you do a google search, you will find it. Try to get from known U.K. or American suppliers.

ARC stopped selling it as it is getting rare and expensive in U.K./Europe.

If you can design your lubricator box incorporating a 3mm shaft, then consider the link suggested by Speedy**, or similar for an HF0306, which will give you a 3mm bore (after compression)

These bearings function in a similar way to Sprag Clutch, but they are different in the way they are made, and have a smaller overall dimensional profile than a sprag. RS Components incorrectly refer to HF0306 as a sprag clutch.

"After Compression bore of 1/8" or 3mm : DCNRCB have plate outside body. It gets support from its housing, so the bearing before fitting will be loose in the bore dimension. The outside diameter/hole in the housing needs to be made slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the bearing. Then make and use a top hat type mandrel with 1/8" shaft or 3mm shaft depending on which bearing you get and press fit the bearing into the housing. the bearing should be pressed from the side which have the bearing number stated, as that side of the outside plate is hardened. When you press the bearing in, the plate will compress (for want of word), allowing the needles of the bearing to come into correct contact with the shaft of the mandrel.

I used to hear of bearing slipping and failing to function properly. This was always as a result of poor understanding of how to fit this type of bearing, rather than the bearing itself.

Good luck.

Ketan at ARC

** Edit: I have not had any experience of the Chinese version of HF0306 for 3mm - so uncertain of its failure rate. Original HF0306 would be INA/FAG - Germany. RC02 original 1/8"- Torrington or its current owners KOYO only. 

Edited By Ketan Swali on 22/08/2023 16:46:42

Edited By Ketan Swali on 22/08/2023 16:48:05

It’s all good Derek. We have known each other for a very long time, and I am very grateful for all your help over the years, going beyond the seller - customer relationship. So thank you 😊 🙏🏽

It is frightening to read about your situation. Hope there are some good moments of happy memories for you to look back on. I also hope you continue to read and get some pleasure from reading posts on here and perhaps make comments when you feel like it.

Take care my friend.

Ketan

I decided to visit the warehouse to have a look at the said products.

Took some pictures which are presented below.

You were right about the tang type adapator. the hole is indeed around 6mm, so impossible to get 3/8" Whit drawbar through it:

On opening the box which was supposed to contain ISO/INT30 to MT2 adaptor (drawbar type), I discovered that we had BT30 type instead!.. Left message for Ian and team to check the stock in our warehouse next door on Monday.

BT30 will fit INT30/ISO30 taper, but INT30/ISO30 will not fit in BT30 taper mills. So in your case, the BT30 adaptor will be fine. However, after checking our stock, Ian or a member of our team will give you a call to see how you wish to proceed.

Then I put in a MT2 boring head arbour into the BT30- MT2 drawbar type adaptor, and used a 3/8" drawbar to see if it will go through without difficulty... and this was fine.:

Thank you for raising my curiosity.

Ketan at ARC

I understand clearly now. Thank you for the clarification Bob.

Ketan at ARC

Oh… I see thank you.

Ketan at ARC

Hi Bob,

I am a little confused.

A. First sentence suggests tang on Morse taper interference with drawbar. Do you mean tang of MT tooling interfering with drawbar which holds INT30 in place on your machine?

B. Your second sentence suggests needing an INT30 with through hole to enable use of 3/8” drawbar to pass through the INT30 adaptor to engage onto MT2 tooling which has 3/8”whit. female thread.

Notes:

1. All the INT30 to MT2 adaptors sold by ARC have an M12 thread to hold INT30 in place.

2. All/most MT2 tooling have 3/8” or M10 drawbar thread. The INT30 adaptor has an M12 thread. So, to the best of my knowledge (which is a little rusty):

a. As long as you have a through hole in your mill head, you can make a 3/8” drawbar/studding long enough to engage directly through the adaptor into MT2 -3/8” female tooling. Similarly, you can make and use 10mm drawbar/studding long enough to engage directly through the adaptor into MT2 - 10mm female tread tooling.

b. Some machines have a captive drawbar in the mill head, to hold INT30 tooling in place. In such cases, one needs to find out and be aware of what is the thread of the existing drawbar in the machine, and how easy/difficult it is to access or change, and do you really want to. INT30 tooling do come in different female thread configurations. This is when things become interesting, and certain changes in drawbar may need to be considered.

As it stands, I would suggest reviewing the drawbar arrangement on your mill for the existing INT30 tooling, and adaptor you have in hand, before considering a new purchase.

If I am wrong in my thinking or have misunderstood something, please accept my apologies as its been a while since I looked at this product, and I am semi-retired, leaving the younger generation headed by Ian Davidson to run daily business.

Ketan at ARC

Further note..: Chronos link suggestion made by Jason is good... especially when using new boring heads to screw directly onto INT30 arbors. However, to unscrew existing boring heads off existing MT2 arbors can be difficult, as they can friction weld (for want to phrase) over time... especially if they have been involved with interrupted cuts over a certain period of use.

In my opinion, if brand is less significant, this set also from ARC link would be just as good as the Dormer set link, and a lot cheaper.

Ketan at ARC

André Santos- Tomé Fèteira referred to brand registration documents in his point 2. I have converted the pdfs to Jpeg and paste below. If you are unable to enlarge them from below links, they are also in album 'Tome Feteira' if you select photos under my name:

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Ketan at ARC.

Hello Mick H and others following this thread,

Had an interesting response from André Santos- Tomé Fèteira this afternoon, which I would like to share:

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Nice to see that people still like to discuss about files. Let me see if I can help :

1. Logo – Our logo, as strange as it may seem, is a shirt collar. In the past Tomé Feteira had many different brands & logos, depending on the quality and the country of the buyer: Crown, Lion, 20, and of course the most famous and top quality Collar brand. Our files were known in many countries mostly by Collar brand ( English countries), Limas Cuello (Spanish countries) Limas Colarinho ( Portuguese speaking countries), Col ( French countries) etc. But beneath the logo was always written Tomé Fetéira, and Portugal. For the last 30 years, , as the logo does no longer resemble so much a shirt collar, we are known worldwide as Tomé Feteira Brand. The story is that during a board meeting, and after many hours of trying to find the right logo for the best quality files, one of the owners was fiddling with his fingers on his shirt collar, and Eureka !! …. he decided that the shirt collar would be the new logo….
2. Attached (edit - I will post tomorrow after converting the pdf images to jpg) are brand registrations from different countries and from different periods. Also advertisements and the guarantee certificate that was put in each box. All of them have the logo and Tomé Feteira Portugal written underneath. The new logo starts in the late 80´s.
3. New old stock is possible. We have over 500 thousand files branded with the old logo. Mostly files of odd sizes: 5”, 7”, 9”, 11” etc. or sizes over 16 “, or special files. These sizes production was stopped as an agreement between all manufacturers over 40 years ago. New old stock , would however now be delivered in new boxes. If sold in the past, the boxes should be like the ones in the attachment.
4. Is the file in the OP picture from us? Black rough tang is consistent with the period. Scratches from grinding the steel before the cutting, look less smooth than normal, but can be. Logo without Tomé Feteira written underneath is not normal, but sometimes happened. Below is a picture of a small rasp with a strange tang I found the other day and kept on my desk among with my pens. It shows only the logo and Portugal.

5. But mostly, what makes me question the origin is that the logo is badly stamped / stamped twice, causing a visually unpleasant result. At the time, and until the late 80´s all files were literally tested one by one, for hardness, for cutting and for visual imperfections. A file with such a bad logo normally would not have passed inspection and would not have been sold / exported. It would have been redirected for the local market of second quality files. But who knows? Does the file have a shiny finishing? Like a varnish? From that period files were protected against rust with a kind of coating/varnish made from pine tree resin.
6. Brand copying – Yes our brand has been copied since the beginning until today. People forget that outside Europe, files are still sold in volumes of hundreds of millions. 2 months ago I had a person writing from South Korea asking to buy directly from us a special diamond coated file. He sent the picture with our logo and name on the file. Well, we did not ever produce such a file. Somebody just put our name on it. Last year the same happened in China with our Silver Bullet Horse rasps. So it is also a possibility. But a recent copy for sure would exhibit the new logo.

Ketan, no definitive answer but I think this could help your friends at the forum

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Ketan at ARC.

Tristan,

I would suggest that you employ the services of a time served 'machine tool fitter', to recondition your existing machines. Would you suggest that your service engineer fits the bill?. By this I mean does he have the required skill or can he recommend an appropriate person/company who you can visit personally to verify and perform due diligence to ascertain that they posses required skills. i.e. visit their workshop to check how they recondition old Boxfords.

If you can manage the above, you maintain consistency in the way you train your students, and the students who are already using the Boxford can continue to carry on doing things as they have been trained.

ARC is a distributor of SIEG machines, but for education enquires we direct to AXMINSTER due to various reasons mentioned below:

A. Axminster are used to education requirements. If you decide to consider the SIEG SC4 lathe from them, consider buying the Lathework for Beginners link from ARC. In USA, there are a growing number of schools and collages installing the SC4 machines in their workshop - supplied by Little Machine Shop, who in turn purchase this book from us for supply to the schools/students. The technics in the book are universal, but the book has been written for a model brushless motor machine, and the machine used for this purpose is an SC4.

B. ARC, along with many schools and collages have (in my opinion) limited understanding of Health & Safety requirements... for example placement of E-Stop button / e-stop switches, central E-Stop mushrooms, correct guarding for machines. We have only supplied lathes to one school in Harrogate, and that was only after assessing all the risks with evidence of appropriate safety issues being addressed. The installation of all the lathes was successful. However, we refused to supply milling machines to the school in question, based on my own risk assessment for the machines they were intending to buy.

C. Most of the hobby machines we sell are ideal for the 'single user' environment. When there are more than one user using the same machine, there can be a basket of good, bad and ugly operators, resulting in correct use/abuse of machines. Here the level of after sales service combined with regular maintenance required goes up exponentially. This is usually reflected in the high price an education order would entail, combined with the school having a good maintenance program in place. This is outside the scope of ARCs business model.

Regardless of who you buy from, school/collage orders always carry a high price tag. Cost is not in the machine - it is always in the after sales maintenance program.

ARC is happy to supply products other than machines to schools and collages.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 03/05/2023 15:29:12

The hobby market cannot afford to buy the super high end drill bits the Chinese manufacturers produce for their high end CNC production users. Having said this, it is next to impossible to promote their well known China brand in most overseas markets, as they are not known in the West, or they have JV collaborations. ARC therefore sells HSS TiN coated Chinese drill bits to compete with rest of the offering available in the U.K., followed by Cobolt (better than the general TiN coated), and a known brand - Dormer. Our cobolt range is close to or on par with Dormer - depending on application. We can get better than Dormer from China, but I am afraid that the marketing required to promote the product range would be exhausting and the demand would be too limited for both the factory and ARC to consider.

For un-branded premium Chinese, our carbide inserts are procured from a factory which has state of the art Swiss made production facility… I could eat off the floor… if I was allowed to, but I couldn’t because the production facility is inside a temperature controlled ‘clean room’ environment with special overalls and feet covering to be worn. ARC purchases less than 1% of the range of types and sizes they make.

For endmills - we offer the standard TiN coated end mills, and we offer the Premium ARC branded end mills made by a factory under a Joint Venture agreement with a well known Japanese brand. Again, unfortunately I am unable to reveal the name of the Japanese JV partner to piggy-back off for the marketing, nor is it possible to reveal the Chinese JV partners name for reasons of competition. The end mills we purchase again represents less than 1% of the range they make. Normally, they would not entertain ARC, but again, a case of the right introduction by the right person, at the right time opened that door.

In the mid 1980s, the Chinese government made it a policy that if any foreign company wanted to sell its product in China, they would have to make the product or most of the product in China. That policy included majority of the components to be made in China. That is how VW, Nissan, Toyota, Tata - Land Rover / Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and similar, came to create manufacturing operations in China. Having said this, the cost to buy all these vehicles within China is more expensive than the west, and the equivalent models are better specified in China. Within Beijing, due to the pollution, any new car purchased can only be driven in Beijing for limited X number of years, after which they can be sold off to people outside Beijing.

Ketan at ARC.

What your friend said is correct in many ways. The issues are a combination of many factors. In the 1980s I used to go to cities, towns, villages to source fabric and dyes for printing, and large bearings for steel mills. The cotton fabric I used to buy was made from a mixture of American cotton blended with Chinese cotton, technically proven to be better than any Japanese, Korean or India product which purported to be better, based on ‘marketing’. Similarly, the dyes were far better than Bayer or Ciba. The large bearings for steel rolling mills would compete against Russian or Torrington or FAG offering. The biggest issue was branding - or rather - lack of it, but at the same time, the great thing was that most of these factories were were/are in hard to find locations, with poor marketing, or poor political backing for various reasons.

Back then, I used to travel by Russian/China collaboration trains, old Dakota planes from very small airports - it was cheaper and faster to travel this way than the train back then, because there were more plane crashes so the locals were nervous. I also travelled by army equivalent of jeeps driven by very rough drivers going through small villages in the forest at speed running over the odd chicken, duck or something along the way. Some of the locations were in restricted areas located statically for MOD requirements.

Nowadays, most of them have collaboration JVs with the very same American/Western/Japanese companies with whom they competed.

The first city I visited was Guilin - famous for its game food. They had a Holiday Inn (Hong Kong franchisee) but I couldn’t afford to stay there back then, plus, I am a vegetarian, so interesting times were had. KFC was only in Beijing and the only thing they served vegetarians back then was smash potato. Milk, sugar, salt were difficult to find. Visiting the first Pizza Hut in Beijing in the first week of its opening in 1990 was a fascinating experience. The Chinese didn’t know what hit them. They found everything expensive and didn’t really like the cheese.

Nowadays, one travels around China on bullet trains, with McDonalds and Pizza Hut in every major city, with queues forming outside to get in at peak time, and Chinese restaurant offering for vegetarians has come a very long way.

As far as this business is concerned, I have visited factories which make components as well as finished products for well known brands. Due to certain agreements, it would be wrong to disclose such brands. These factories have state of the art tooling combined with old machinery, and they all supply to customer demand.

DMB thought that the high quality products were restricted to supply within China. This is true - but only to a small extent. High end tooling is mainly made for CNC / High End blue chip factory requirements. In turn, this is already very expensive. Rest of the world demand for such tooling is far smaller than within China. The tooling factories will supply anyone with the right credentials - local or export at a price, with or without branding. The right political connections or the right friends are required for the purpose of purchasing, along with the right attitude, rather than money.

For example, I kept knocking on the doors of certain factories who wouldn’t give me an appointment, let alone supply. However, they all opened their doors to certain buying agents which we use, without hesitation due to their old friendship when they all started at the bottom of the ladder back in the day. Now most of them are factory owners or holding high positions. A case of who you know, and the right introduction.

Continued…

This brings back old memories. I have been travelling throughout China since 1986. Back then, foreigners were issued with FECs rather than Renminbi Yuan. Here is a link to the FECs which is an interesting short read about official and unofficial values which prevailed at the time. Later after removal of FECs, standardisation took place, and foreigners could use RMB - Renminbi Yuan when visiting China. For foreign trade however, companies wishing to buy from China in RMB have to jump through hoops to open a CNY/CNH Chinese Yuan account. RMB/CNY/CNH mean the same thing, with the same foreign exchange rate. Have a look at the video in this link. We do some of our buying in USD and some in CNY. Although we have CNY account, very few Chinese companies are permitted to conduct foreign business in currency other than USD. If we had a choice, we would conduct all our Chinese business in CNY. This would make ARCs life easier because we would only have to think RMB/GBP conversion rather than RMB/USD/GBP for costing.

Just for further clarification… the packaging shown in Bill Phinn’s eBay link example looks genuine, and Tomé Fèteira normally supplies these files in 12pcs (Dozen) box as shown in the pictures in Bills link.

The pictures in Jasons link, are standard packing as supplied by ARC. They are a single piece packing. Cardboard paper sleeve provided by TF, covered with plastic sleeve supplied by ARC to TF, so that the packaging can take place at the factory. When we first started selling TF files, we found splitting of 12 pcs pack added time at our end, and introduced an element of rust for certain files. So decision was made to get the whole process done in Portugal.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 30/04/2023 15:17:53

Hi Mick,

I am guessing that they are probably genuine. I came to learn about them back in July 2016 from Dias Costa - a member of this forum from Portugal.

You will probably get a reply from Tomé Fèteira in due coarse once they are back from holiday. Out of curiosity, I too asked them when I saw your post. Perhaps Dias Costa also knows as he has their old files, I believe which were handed down to him over time.

As a result of discussion with Dias Costa, the late John S and I visited Tomé Fèteira in Portugal in 2016. Here is a link with pictures and some factory footage of our day trip to Lisbon.

A bit of recent history: the factory was purchased by Blu-Dan from Austria in 2005 and you can read about them here.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 30/04/2023 14:06:59

Hi Thomas,

Glad you have got the right items now.

It’s been a while since I did a belt change. It should be straight forward. Just make sure it’s running true. The motor mount needs to be correctly adjusted to make sure the motor is mounted horizontal rather than at an angle.

This is discussed somewhere in the past on this forum, but I am sure someone will be able to explain better if I failed to explain properly.

Difficult for me to check as I am away from office ( for the coming week) with limited internet access over the mobile.

Ketan at ARC

Hello Thomas,

Do you really have a Clarke CL300M, or is it some other make?

If you have a Clarke CL300M, then you have ordered the wrong spare.

A Clarke CL300M is a C2 - brushed motor base model mini-lathe.

A C3 mini-lathe looks different from a C2 / CL300M mini-lathe.

You have ordered and received Spare part C3-148 - which has a nominal bore 9.0mm as specified in the details on this page link

You should have ordered C2-148 - which has a nominal bore 8.0mm as specified in the details on this page link

• A C2 mini-lathe is the same as a Clarke CL300M, and to the best of my knowledge, made by SIEG.
• A C2 brushed motor is smaller in frame size than a C3 brushed motor, made by SIEG.

For further clarification, C2 and C3 and CL300M are brushed motor minilathes made by SIEG.

The above models are different from SC2 and SC3 which are brushless motor minilathes made by SIEG.

Minilathes from Axminster, ARC, Clarke, Zoro/Cromwell - Osaki, to the best of my knowledge are made by SIEG.

When buying spares, it is best to be sure about which SIEG machine you... i.e. specifically SIEG C2, C3, SC2, SC3.

Hope above informarion helps.

Ketan at ARC.