Member postings for ega

The Taylor chuck is rightly revered and, judging by the yellow paint on Robbo's, the projection of the jaws is also feared!

I have one of these but feel it is rather over-heavy for my Super 7.

Have you tried the WDS website?

Neil Wyatt:

I think you make a very good point.

How would you achieve the apparent slight doming of the face? By spinning, perhaps.

Or the craqelure?

Edited By ega on 30/09/2017 19:04:03

I successfully turned down the shanks of a number of square taper shank drills some years ago so as to be able to use them in a standard drill chuck. As I recall, the method was to chuck a suitable blank in the lathe and bore a hole a close fit to the drill which was then forced into the hole by pressure from the tailstock centre in the pre-existing female centre in the drill. The shank could then be turned, as it were, between centres.

I have no doubt other ways would work but I had in mind that the drill has a tiny taper along the fluted section and holding it directly in collet or chuck would be less satisfactory.

Edited By ega on 16/09/2017 17:29:13

Luis Trincao:

Thank you for reminding me of this interesting old thread.

As Clive Foster implies, it is well worth reading GHT on this. He explains why the "pointed screw in dimple system" is improved by dowelling.

I have had some success by interposing a steel ball between screw and dimple, an idea gleaned from the Practical machinist site where there was extensive discussion of this issue.

John Stevenson:

Whilst I agree with some of what you say I think it fair to point out that GHT himself was a JAR fan and made no secret of the fact. To write him off as a purveyor of bling is, of course, amusingly provocative but clearly wrong.

For me at least, a considerable part of his appeal was his excellent way with words where I think he outshone JAR.

geoff walker 1:

Thanks for the tip; don't worry about the angle of the picture - my lathe isn't set level either!

I know that many authorities recommend a travelling swarf tray; I once used one myself but now prefer the device shown here

which is just a length of unequal aluminium angle held to the saddle via the tapped hole for the travelling steady. The short leg of the angle is covered in self-adhesive velour Fablon which slides nicely against the edge of the cross slide.

I like your namesake, Geoff Theasby's, idea of the magnet although as has been said there are some real disadvantages to their use.

Edited By ega on 08/09/2017 16:02:20

Michael Gilligan:

It is I who should seek forgiveness!

I meant, of course, Chapter 19 Renovating a Myford Lathe in the 1998 TEE book. Thank you for spotting this.

This is the edition which erroneously showed "the author in his study" on page 183.

I am glad to see that JAR is getting some attention - I have often mentoned his work on the forum.

I take Andrew Tinsley's point about the need for castings but some very useful ideas of his can be made from stock materials. There are a couple of photos of his QC tailstock tooling in my Miscellaneous album and another photo in Super 7 showing a support bush in use.

I think that lathes.co.uk suggests that the "wide guide" Myford saddle change (see Chapter 20) is attributable to an Australian engineer but JAR was, of course, a New Zealander.

The Super 7 was JAR's main machine and today some of his designs are less relevant. You have to admire the ambition and ingenuity of his elevating heads.

Clive Foster:

Thanks for your helpful comments.

I wonder whether Geoff Walker's tip about a container secured by a screw to the cross slide could be adapted to provide a "catcher" for parted off work pieces?

When they have a central hole it's often possible to catch them safely by means of a rod held in the tailstock chuck but solid pieces often end up in the swarf tray.

Woodturners simply grab the offcut with their free hand, of course, but this would be inadvisable on a metal lathe, even assuming a hand was free.

Edited By ega on 07/09/2017 10:19:48

Edited By ega on 07/09/2017 10:24:51

I picked up, semi-seriously, on the title of the post. I imagine Vic might well have been able to return the drill to the eBay seller but, on the facts, doubt if he would have got much joy from the authorities if he had chosen to complain.

Incidentally, I would be interested to know the application which required a 12.3mm hole in wood.

Trade description: 12.3mm would certainly be a trade description but whether it is "false to a material degree" so as to make its application an offence is another matter.

Here is my version of the taper pinned topslide:

I think I got the idea from Sparey's excellent book but couldn't find the reference just now. My small taper pin is rather fiddly and I have been meaning to install a larger one (the "meat" here is rather limited, however).

My machine is about the same age as Robbo's but is mutton dressed up as lamb; I went for Myford green when refinishing many years ago.

I, too, think that the thrust pads are handed and made the point about not inadvertently swapping them in a post in an earlier thread. The pads contact the male taper at a tangent, as it were.

Edited By ega on 05/09/2017 09:50:28

This reminds me of something which is not, I hope, too far OT.

Some years ago I bought from Myford (Nottingham) a new nut for my Super 7 tailstock screw. This is a triple start thread which I felt would be well beyond my ability to screwcut.

On receipt of the new nut I found the old screw would only just enter and then refused to go any further. Whilst I pondered what to do about this I decided to fit the lever feed tailstock attachment which came with the lathe but which I had never used. This has proved so much better than the screw feed that it has remained in place to this day.

The expensive answer, of course, would have been to buy a nut and screw together.

Hopper and Michael Gilligan:

Shortly after posting I went back and counted the holes; my "66" circle has 65 holes! I will re-do this on a spare plate and try to figure out what actually happened.

I had the earlier versions of GHT's books and certainly worked from them for some of his dividing devices. Ironically, having treated myself to the revised editions by Tee, I gifted the old ones to a good friend in Christchurch, New Zealand. Newer is not always better and, in fact, having got used to the layout of the original, I have occasionally struggled to find my way in the revised editions.

Most, if not all, of the content appeared in ME first and it will be worth looking to see whether this area was correctly printed in the magazine.

PS Shame one can't "edit" a dividing plate!

Edited By ega on 28/08/2017 14:26:47

Edited By ega on 28/08/2017 14:27:20

Edited By ega on 28/08/2017 14:28:10

Hopper:

Thank you for pointing this out; I have made a note to check the maths when I am feeling up to it.

In the meantime, I have just visually checked my own plate made to the GHT words and music and the 66 hole circle seems to be OK. I would have remembered if the plunger had not holed out correctly at the end (and, I hope, gone on to find the problem) so I need to follow up on this. Maybe the error is very small.

Would you mind posting your working for the maths check?

I recall being told by a former Myford fitter that the tailstock bases were made in varying heights so that the height of the tailstock centre could be made to correspond with the headstock centre. This suggests that the answer to the original question is "yes"

JasonB:

"Anybody got some old Dore literature"

I don't think the original Dore bars had this feature (the idea of a long hole with push rod was probably already known when Arnold Throp came up with his castings).

See my 14 August post in the Dore small boring bar thread.

Edited By ega on 24/08/2017 10:27:18