Member postings for Michael Cox 1

I have never tried this but I would make a holder that could press a 3/8" endmill against the edge of the pulley and allow the side flutes to shave the metal off.

Mike

Dave, I have just uploaded some more pictures of the ball turner to my album "Ball Turner".

The slot is not angled. As stated earlier the hole was drilled with the toolholder clamped in base block. This ensures that the ball is exactly on centre. The tool is filed to half diameter. This puts the tool just on centre. The tool is held in the tool holder with an M4 screw. On one of the pictures you can see the screws in the base that clamp the toolholder in the slot.

Regarding the pock marks, I have to say that I made this very shortly after I started aluminium casting. The aluminium was melted, skimmed and poured. Nowadays, I would add "Low Salt" as a flux, stir, and then carefully skim the dross before pouring. This gives much cleaner castings.

I have no experience of PLA but I can imagine that a hollow PLA pattern might well behave like a foam pattern.

Mike

Dave, the toolholder was made from 12 mm x 50mm steel bar crudely cut to shape by chain drilling and then filing.

The 6 mm hole for the tool was drilled using a drill in the lathe chuck once the toolholder was champed to the base. This ensure that the hole is on the lathe axis.

The tool was a piece of 6 mm silver steel shaped with a file and then hardened and tempered.

Cutting the slot in the aluminium base was achieve by mounting the the base on an angle plate attached to the cross slide and then milling the slot using a 12 mm end mill.

Lost foam casting does produce a small amount of smoke and flame when the aluminium is poured. However, the amount of smoke and flame is small. Most of the polystyrene melts and goes into the sand and does not burn. I think it would pose little nuisance to neighbours.

I hope this information is useful.

Mike

I made my first ball turner with just such a piece, see:

I have since made two other ball turners and the first one , shown above, I gave to someone in the USA.

Mike

Hi Brian,

The flexible shaft are still on sale at Toolstation (item number 28938, price £14.79)! The shaft is not 12 mm diameter but 6.7 mm diameter. It has a small cross hole in it. You can see this hole in Photo 4 of the article. If you insert a small bar and tap it anticlockwise with a hammer then the shaft should release and it can be unscrewed. Of course this is probably easier on a new unit than one that has been lying around for sometime. The shaft is only 6.7 mm diameter (see Fig 3 of the article). Once the shaft has been removed then the chuck end diecasting can be drilled out 12 mm for the phosphor bronze bush.

I hope this helps

Mike

I have only rarely needed a tilting table and Icould not justify the expense of a purposed made unit. However, I had a tilting vice and I made a small tee slot table that clamped in the vice, see:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/tilting-table.html

Mike

One of the recent innovation in cork technology is to veneer it into thin sheets. To do this the cork is first impregnated with plastic. It can be veneered into thin sheets that are used to make handbags, purses, wallets, shoes and even skirts. I do not know what process is used for the veneering.

Mike

Helium is so light that it can escape earth gravity and fly off into space. This is why there is so little in the earth's atmosphere. It is however continually being produced in the bowels of the earth by decay of many radioactive minerals. Alpha particles are just helium nuclei and once they pick up electrons then they become helium atoms.

The helium released by radioactivity in the earth sometimes gets trapped in porous rock formations capped by impervious rocks. These are just the same formations that trap oil and natural gas which is why most of the helium produced commercially is extracted from natural gas.

Mike

I can only second the sentiments already expressed above.

I have enjoyed reading his articles and it is a sad loss to the magazine that there will be no more.

I send my very best wishes to him and his family

Mike

Robbo, my nibbler from RDG came in a nice case complete with a circle cutting attachment, see second picture here:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/nibbler.html

This will cope with holes from 20 mm up to 250 mm diameter. However, it would be easy to modify, by adding an extension piece, so that it could cut bigger circles.

It is easy to cut straight using a straight edge as a guide. You are right about the mess. The little crescent shaped cut outs go everywhere and get stuck into shoes. I made a nibbler table, see link above, for small precise work and this keeps the nibbles all in one place.

I do not find the nibbler so noisy unless cutting a poorly held sheet that resonates.

Mike

RDG do a cheaper nibbler at around £25. I have one and it works well. See:

http://www.rdgtools.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=nibbler&PN=TWIN-HEAD-SHEETMETAL-NIBBLER-740%2ehtml#SID=241

Mike

Hej Anders, I have a few words in Swedish only.

I lived in Jonkoping for two years so you pick up all the essential words for foods, transport etc in order to survive. However, I do not speak Swedish. Most Swedes are only to keen to practice their English so language was never a barrier. I addition, although I was living in Sweden I was travelling all over Europe with my job so often I was only there at the weekends.

Gothenberg is a lovely city and very cosmopolitan compared with Jonkoping.

Mike

Hi Iain,

I have basically the same mill as yours but sourced from ArcEuroTrade. I replace the feedscrew mounts with new ones incorporating ball bearings and the difference is amazing. Very smooth, low torque movement is now possible.

Further information here:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/mill-feedscrew-bearing.html

Mike

Hej Anders and welcome to the forum.

I lived in Jonkoping for a couple of years. Where are you based?

Mike

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks for the update. I am sorry to hear about the eye problem. I hope you can get it resolved quickly.

Mike

Hi Malcolm,

Has there been any progress with the video. I keep watching your youtube channel but nothing seems to have been added.

Mike

If you put 12 volt dc motor into ebay you will get many hits. Most of the 35 mm diameter motors will have sufficient power to drive the leadscrew of a small minilathe. I have fitted a motorised leadscrew to my lathe, see:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/leadscrew-motor.html

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/new-threading-banjo.html

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/control-circuits.html

Mike

Hi Neil,

Is this your contribution to the "ceramics in the workshop" discussion!!

Mike

If the article is heat treated after plating then the hydrogen will diffuse out. Normally heat treatment for a few hours at 200-250 degrees C will eliminate hydrogen from steels. This is well below melting point of zinc so there should be no problems. This temperature is easily accessible by normal domestic ovens.

Mike

Michael,

Thank you for your kind words.

Mike