Member postings for pcb1962

Thanks all, I've never done hardening and tempering before so I guess this is my chance to have a go.

Hi, the 5mm transfer punch from my cheap Chinese set has become too blunt to use. I'd like to replace just this one size with one of good quality, however all I can find is the ubiquitous cheap set. Does anyone know where in the UK or Europe I can buy a single 5mm quality punch? Thanks

Thanks Jason, you've been extremely helpful, but I think this time I will go with a tap, what's "plenty of room" to you is I feel still going to be very tight for me, thanks again.

The other annoying thing about RS is that they post you an invoice separately the day after you get your delivery. What an absolute stupid waste of money - either put the invoice in the parcel or make it available online and I'll print it out myself if I need to. I guess this comes from the old days where the parcel would be sent to the workshop and the invoice to the accounts department.

Edited By pcb1962 on 22/05/2020 03:17:40

Thank you all for your responses, the link that Jason posted shows that although the diameter would be ok I'm going to have trouble with the 35mm depth and I don't fancy my chances of going in from both ends and meeting up in the middle. Thanks also for the APT recommendations, their inserts are certainly more reasonably priced than the Glanze, but I have a question - how is it that Glanze sell only a single insert for their internal threading tool, yet APT have a different insert for every thread pitch?

Thanks, Peter

I've never cut an internal thread, I have taps up to M14, now I need an M16x2 thread 35mm deep (open ended). If I buy this 10mm internal threading tool will I be able to cut an M16 thread, or is that going to be too tight? I'm guessing it will be.

That is far, far, far from being the case.

As well as the work of David Wardale as suggested elsewhere in this thread, look into the work of Andre Chapelon and Livio Dante Porta, in particular the proposals Porta made to the builders of Tornado which were mostly not adopted due to time and cost constraints but would have resulted in a step change in engine performance.

Here's a good place to start: http://5at.co.uk/

On the point about your son, I'm not sure if the analogy of learning to drive an automatic car without learning how to use the gears applies. Using a manual lathe enables you to learn about feed rates, depth of cut, how different materials behave etc in a way that cannot really be learned from books. I can see the point about the arthritis, we all get tired of endless winding back and forth, even without any associated pain. Regarding manufacturers I have absolutely no experience but Wabeco is the mfr I would look at, having seen some nice looking machines of theirs.

I'm interested in how a CNC lathe is going to help you with "speed & convenience" when building locos, unless you're doing volume production.

Whereas a CNC mill can make things that are extremely difficult or even impossible to make by a manual machine, I thought the benefit of a CNC lathe is in volume production; for one-off parts I can't see that there's much benefit. Happy to be told I've got it wrong...

Patrick, as others have said, you really have been handed a poisoned chalice here, it's hard to imagine a demographic less likely to engage with facebook and twitter than model engineers. Since you don't seem to be a model engineer yourself (apologies if I'm mistaken) it might be a good idea to get out and meet a few at your local society and at some of the exhibitions and find out what the typical grumpy old git model engineer is actually like.

Yes, I've got one and I'm very happy with it. I'd like to swap it for a Bridgeport one day but it does me fine for now. I've had it for 3 years and haven't got around to stripping it down yet, but I need to soon as the fine feed on the quill is sticky and uneven. I wont be surprised when the speed control electronics blow up, when it does I shall fit a KB Electronics board with a pot, as I don't particularly like the pushbutton method of setting the speed. As Stew says, adding a DRO will make a huge difference, I bought a Shumatech a couple of years ago but haven't got around to fitting the scales yet. Highest priority for me is a motor on the Z axis, I get fed up of cranking that wheel.

A similar engine to Simplex that you might like to take a look at is Speedy. It has the advantage that a very reasonably priced construction manual is available (look for 'Building Speedy' on Tee Publishing's website). A third option is the LBSCR Terrier 'Boxhill', which is the one I have chosen to build from a shortlist of those three.

I used to work on traction engine restorations. On the cast iron and the thick steel plate we used an air tool that we called it a nail gun at the time but it seems to be called a 'needle scaler' now - video here: **LINK** It's really the only way to do it, a wire brush is completely useless.

Just realised it was Interlink Express that delivered my order from ArcEuro last week, not DPD. Good to see that they have copied DPD in giving 1 hour timed delivery slots

Edited By pcb1962 on 20/09/2012 10:46:49

Agreed, DPD are extremely reliable, in complete contrast to the pathetically inept HDNL / Yodel outfit.

One more suggestion and a bug (I think):

When an item is in the basket (or the wishlist) it would be useful if the item name was a link back to the product page. Many website baskets work like this (for example, dare I say it - Chronos) and it's very useful if you want to double check the item you're ordering before the final checkout.

Secondly, yesterday I tried to place an order for delivery to my work address, but when I got to the Sagepay page it had my work address as my billling address, which obviously wouldn't have passed the credit card company validation, so I aborted. When I got back to the checkout it had my work address as the billing address there too - something a bit mixed up there.

dup post deleted

Edited By pcb1962 on 20/09/2012 08:07:47

When the motor control board on my Warco variable speed lathe blew up, rather than obtain a replacement Chinese board frfom Warco I spent a little more money and fitted an industrial quality board from KB Electronics. The original-fit Chinese boards are blatant copies of the KB boards (they may licence the design, but somehow I doubt it) so in many cases it's a direct plug-compatible replacement. I opted to upgrade to a board with regenerative braking, which brings the chuck to a stop much faster. KB boards are available in the UK here: **LINK** (no connection, but very happy with the service)

Don't get me wrong, I'm a happy customer too, I bought my SX3 from Ketan and quite a bit of stuff since. I just found it a bit frustrating that every time I get a free ten minutes at work to choose some more stuff, my basket is empty again. Fortunately the wish list feature solves the problem. Unfortunately the extent of my wish list vastly exceeds the depth of my wallet.

Here's a bit of a complaint Ketan - why does my basket empty itself whenever if I leave it for a while?

I like to take my time putting together an order, adding things over the course of the day. But each time I come back to the basket it's empty again.

I realise I can use the wishlist to collect stuff then move it all to the basket when complete, but is there really any reason to keep emptying the basket. Unless you're allocating stock in real time I can't see any reason for this.