Member postings for Michael Cox 1

I have used the Tome files, referred to above, in Portugal and they are the best files I have ever used. ArcEurotrade now stock them here in the UK.

Mike

Hi Geoff,

Brilliant stuff.

Mike

The gib strips are brittle cast iron and they can break easily. Many have dispensed with the adjusting screws and shimmed the gibs to get a nice sliding action. It is tedious and takes a long time to do but once done there is no need for further adjustment for many years.

It is also worth considering replacing the screws with studs as described here:http://www.toolsandmods.com/lathe/mini-lathe-saddle

Mike

Many years ago I bought an ultrasonic fog maker in Maplins. At the time I think I paid around £10 for it. They no longer seem to stock this type of equipment but they are still available on ebay. Here is one example priced at £3.99:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultrasonic-Mist-Maker-EU-Plug-Fogger-Water-Fountain-Atomizer-Air-Humidifier-24V-/322118701179?hash=item4affc5507b:g:ljYAAOSwNsdXQsyT

I have used mine on many occasions to clean my wife's jewelry. I just put the fogger in a deep contained with the jewelry and then fill with water containing some detergent. It is amazing how much muck comes out of an expanding metal watch bracelet.

It could be useful for cleaning small parts. I am not sure how resistant it would be to non aqueous solution such as kerosine.

Mike

The worlds first commercial nuclear power station was designed for scratch, built and was running in 10 years.

That was the Calder Hall Magnox reactor designed and built in Britain.

We have been talking about Hinkley C for more than 10 years and still have nothing to show despite all the talk.

I have made and used a dovetail cutter with a single insert, see:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/dovetail-cutter.html

Carbide inserts like to cut fast so you can compensate for having only one insert by running at twice the speed.

Mike

How about one of these:

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p28938?table=no

Mike

Here is an interesting conversion of a mini-lathe touse a brushless dc motor:

https://letsbuildone.wordpress.com/mini-lathe-motor-upgrade/

Mike

If you use a thick washer with countersunk screw you will find that this limits what you can cut especially when it is held in a vice.

I prefer this style of slitting saw arbour:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/slitting-saw-arbor.html

I agree with others that there is no need for a key.

Mike

Its much more likely that some safety zealot in Brussels will ban the sale of strong acids to private consumers throughout Europe.

Its already happened to cadmium, borax, creosote, to name a few and glyphosphate weedkiller is next on the list.

Mike

I purchased a X1L from ArcEuroTrade many years ago. It has done everything I have ever asked of it. It has a large table compared with the standard X1 (eg from Machine Mart). The motor is small, only 150 watts output power, so you cannot make massive cuts but having said that you can achieve the same result with a succession of small cuts. The good thing about being an amateur is that time is not money it is pleasure!

In addition ArcEuroTrade have a first class customer service reputation.

Mike

I saw it yesterday in Wilko in Warrington.

Mike

Timothy,

In the rows labeled "My Gears" you can put in what gears you have and any other gears that you might want to try and then see what answers come up.

Mike

Dave,

If you click on the arrow at the side of the leadscrew box it will give you a long list of both imperial and metric leadscrew pitches so just select the pitch you have which is 2 mm. Where it says target you can input a pitch in mm or a tpi that you want make. You must then click to indicate whether it is tpi or mm oi the box to the right of the target. You can put in 8 as the target and click tpi. Then press search combinations and it will come up with the best combination. To reveal other possible combination then click the drop down button at the side of the results.

You can also add in other gears in the boxes below the row headed my gears, if you have others that are not listed.

If you have a 2 mm pitch leadscrew and you want a to make a 2 mm thread then the final gear ratio required is 1 which is the result given by the gear calculator but not by your manual.

The LatheNovice gear calculator is extremely versatile and I have been using it for a couple of years and it works very well.

Mike

Aluminium naturally forms an oxide film on exposure to air and/or water If you put aluminium into sulphuric acid it will react and dissolve. This is because the acid dissolves the protective surface oxide layer and then the acid can attack the underlying metal. Eventually the acid become to weak to dissolve the oxide film and the reaction stops. The solution then contains aluminium sulphate. It is still quite acidic.

The oxide that forms on iron is not protective at all and iron will rapidly react in acidic solutions to give iron ions (Fe2+) and liberate hydrogen. This is what happens when iron reacts with aluminium sulphate. The iron dissolves to form iron sulphate and the aluminium comes out of solution as aluminium hydroxide.

The potassium content of alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) plays no part in these reactions.

Some of the posters on this topic have suggested poking copper wire down the flutes of the drill. "to ensure that the solution goes down the flute". Copper wire may also be effecting the reaction in another way. The copper in contact with the iron creates a galvanic couple and this can greatly speed up the rate of corrosion of the iron. This is why you should not use brass fittings on steel pipes because they will cause rapid corrosion of the steel adjacent to the fitting.

Mike

The lathe novice program actually 17 different combinations of gears which have a low error.

Mike

Hi Dave,

If your leadscrew is 2 mm pitch and you want to cut an 8tpi thread, which has a pitch of 3.175 mm, then you need to turn the leadscrew by 1.5875 turns for every turn of the spindle. Your first combination (your manual) gives a ratio of 72/40 = 1.8 which is hopelessly out. The second combination (gear calc) gives a ratio of (20/24) x (72/60) = 1 which is also hopelessly out .

If you use the lathe novice calculator that I posted above the best combination is A=50, B=72, C=80, D=35. This gives a ration of (50/72) x (80/35) = 1.5873 which is an error of 0.013%. This is an insignificant error.

Mike

This simple gear calculator from lathenovice is easy to use.

http://www.imagesalad.com/lathenovice/lathegears/lathegears.html

Mike

You can join Jubilee clips together to make really big ones.

Mike

Forget this idea. It will only work if the end mill can be rotated at the same time as it is pressed against the rotating pulley.

Mike