Member postings for Gone Away

I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned the usual reference source There's some explanation of the "light milling" reference there including several pictures with the drill-press set up to do so.

Interesting. I came up with the same thing independently 3 or 4 years ago .... although mine used plastic rod. I'm honoured to be in the same company, John.

And talking about cheap and nasty pliers mods, if you take a pair of end-nippers (this kind of thing) and machine/grind the tops of the jaws (to remove the top part of the bevel), they're handy for removing most of the burrs left by machining even when these are quite heavy. The merest stroke with a file will finish the parts off.

You'd probably want to use a cheap imported pair for this.

That seems to describe a "milling attachment" rather than a "thread milling attachment"

I believe issues 3437 and 3438 are the ones in question.

Make something like this.

easy to make

as low-profile as you can get

as long as your milling table

drops in and out (aligned) in seconds

There was one listed off and on for a year or so in the Toronto Craigslist. He started off at $150, which I thought was kind of "up there" considering its condition (poor but possibly restorable). Then the asking price was raised to $200 (perhaps in the hope that the inevitable "offers" would come in at around the original $150).

The ad seems to have disappeared recently - I don't know if he sold it or got fed up.

A 40-tooth gear will have .... er .... well .... 40 teeth

Are they plastic lenses? Coated?

Thanks for the spoiler (haven't seen the race here yet). Wasn't expecting a spoiler in this forum.

Edited By OMG on 06/07/2014 17:04:29

Since it hasn't been suggested and it might be food for thought .... what about making the pin in two halves so that you can accommodate both the smaller knurl ID and the caliper larger holes and still assemble it? Probably key the two halves together with a counterbore on one and a shoulder on the other with a though screw to join the two halves of the pin (counterbored if you don't want any projection).

Thinking out loud ..

Edited By OMG on 06/07/2014 16:54:30

I'd be careful what you clean coated lenses with too. I'm pretty sure dish-detergent (washing up liquid) is bad over time also home made concoctions using isopropyl alcohol with or without dish-detergent (ask me how I know).

These days, I mostly just run them under the tap (warm water) and lightly swab them at the same time with a paper handkerchief. Then just pat off the excess water with a dry piece of the paper hankie. (I don't rub dry paper hankies on the lenses - bit too abrasive for that). Normally, that's all it takes.

Occasionally, if the lenses are really bad, I go the whole hog and, after washing as above to get the dust off, I clean them with proper lens-cleaner and a lens-cleaning cloth.

And you call yourself a Model Engineer?

Given that "dark" is usually taken to mean outside the visible spectrum, I wonder if they define "dark" in this instance.

I seem to recall from way back that a piece of unexposed, but developed, slide film makes a tolerable IR filter.

Don't you get these kind of kits from the Far East in the UK? Fairly inexpensive. they come in all kinds of flavours: nuts & bolts, SHCS, snap-rings, clevis-pins, o-rings, cotter-pins etc etc including roll-pins.

Looking at the Machine Mart ads I would have guessed them to have this kind of thing.

Edit: I just checked and they list them here.

Edited By OMG on 04/07/2014 21:59:19

Don't know how that works for you. In order to work at all, the anti-reflection coating must be on the outside - i.e. on top of the anti-scratch. The AR coating is (relatively) vulnerable to scratches. Granted these scratches are not on the lens itself (which is protected by the anti-scratch coating) but on the AR they are just about as noticeable as they would be on the lens (I'm looking through one right now ).

For that reason, my optician will not furnish both on the same pair of glasses.

.... and when you have the anti-reflection coating, you can't have the scratchproof coating so the lenses scratch easier.

Regarding cost and its minimisation that has been referenced s few times: I long ago decided that my eyesight, its protection and improvement was not the worse place, by far, to sink my hard-earned cash and I no longer worry too much about it. If I need it I get it.

I don't think "cheaper" is even in the vocabulary of the printer manufacturers when it comes to ink cartridges,

The reason they use a separate black cartridge is because, although you can theoretically get black by mixing the other colours, it's just that - theoretical. The result is at best a sort of muddy colour.

But I doubt that they use "carbon" black as the laser printers do. Rather a black dye of some description.

I love it!

rotfl

I think it also probably depends on the strength of the user's prescription. Logically strong prescriptions and those with large differences between near and far ranges would imply large variations across the lens and would be harder and take longer to accommodate.

My spherical for instance is just about zero for distances over 4 feet (once advantage to ageing with initial short sight) and quite mildly positive for reading. A constant cylindrical on that for mild astigmatism. So I found varifocals relatively easy. I imagine it's not so easy for some others. If you use a separate ophthalmologist for eye checkups (one that doesn't dispense glasses and has no axe** to grind) (s)he might be able to estimate the difficulty in specific cases.

** or lenses presumably

Edited By OMG on 03/07/2014 22:15:28

I wear varifocals and don't have any problem with them. I also know a number of people who couldn't get on with them. As far as I can tell, that was mostly because they didn't persevere with them for long enough.

It does take a considerable time to get "tuned in". If you hold them away from your face and look through them you can see they do moderately strange things to the field of view. When wearing them the brain has to compensate and direct the eye to the appropriate part of the lens (and the head to the correct position). That training doesn't happen overnight.

That said, if i want to read a book or mag for a long period, I still find a pair of single-vision (reading) glasses more restful. I also use single vision (distance) glasses for TV because i use a recliner and it's difficult to position the head correctly when at full recline with the varifocals.

I used to use single-vision (distance) for long-distance driving because it gave more freedom for head position but with the advent of nav systems, I've reverted to the varifocals to be able to see the display.

Overall, I probably wear the varifocals at least 90% of the time I'm wearing glasses.

Edited By OMG on 03/07/2014 15:31:02

The ones I got did indeed measure 1/8" .... they were even labelled as "shank dia 3.175mm"

The parcels are certainly not speedy here (Canada). I placed two orders for cross-hair laser modules on May 10th. One order finally showed up a week ago. The other is still pending. Of course a lot, perhaps most, of this is delays in local processing (customs/post-office). This is not untypical of past orders.

[As an aside, this reminds me of a dodgy practice - I hesitate to say scam - I've come across. These vendors are paranoid about getting bad feedback. They tell you to contact them if you have any problem and they will fix it. Particularly, let them know if the shipment is not received in a stated time. Above all don't leave negative feedback.

If a parcel doesn't arrive in the stated time, you inform them and they say don't worry, have already shipped a replacement - no cost to you .... don't leave negative feedback. If you contact them in the succeeding few weeks, communications are quite good. They are all help and assistance. Then, suddenly, they disappear. The replacement doesn't show up and you decide to leave feedback stating the situation.

Surprise! You have just been run out of eBay's limiting period for leaving feedback. The replacement obviously never existed. Ditto for Paypal complaints, although if it's the kind of $2 or $3 item discussed here you might not want the hassle anyway.

This has only happened to me once - by far the majority of vendors are genuine in my experience and I certainly wouldn't stop using them on this account. I did find an eBay forum discussing the exact same practice though, so it's happened to others.

if it happens again, I plan to leave feedback (neutral perhaps) stating the situation and saying that the feedback will be changed if the replacement arrives within the eBay feedback window .... assuming I can fit that in to eBay's miserably small comment space. ]

The actual ones I got were a couple of years ago from another vendor who's now gone - or changed names. As with most of this stuff from the Far East, there are many vendors selling identical products (probably from a single source .... maybe they band together to get a humongous-quantity price).

Often, these vendors seem to copy text/pictures from the ads of other vendors and it's quite possible that the "double-ended" bit was picked up in such plagiarism without the vendor understanding what it meant. Perhaps there are some listed for sale that are, in fact double-ended; I haven't looked.

Certainly the ones I got were single ended.

At the free shipping rate, they may (will) take several weeks to arrive of course so you need to be aware of that. They will undoubtedly show up described as "Gift" which I'm sure Customs in the UK, as here, cheerfully ignore on Far East packages.

Edited By OMG on 02/07/2014 22:41:05