Member postings for Geoff Causon

Same as Bill, I received MEW 308, 310 & 311 in the mailbox on the same day. MEW 309 arrived weeks ago.

Even after reading the online version way back then, I still enjoy reading the real thing.

Regards, Geoff.

MEW294 featured an arduino based tacho, & promised that the code would be posted on the forum.

Despite searching the forum posts , I can't find any news.

Hope I can get the code before I finish my tacho. Otherwise?

Thanks Paul.

After your suggestion, I paid for MEW 293 from Pocketmags to check it out.

Much better.

I will muddle through the rest of my subscription with Mytime then switch to Pocketmags. It is good enough to go digital only rather than print. Now all I have to figure out is what to do with 10 years of MEW magazines.

Thanks again. Geoff.

I've been forced to the digital version & need some guidance. Having used the archive in the past I wasn't expecting anything flash.

I use Firefox as my browser & the magazine uses about 1/4 of the screen.

When I click "full screen" the magazine disappears, ( replaced by a white screen with the sidebar & toolbar still there.)

Switching to Chrome, it will go "full screen" , sort of. The sidebar & toolbar disappear but the magazine is the same 1/4 size.

If I zoom a page to readable size, then turn to the next page it reverts to the original size.

I will not be fiddling with display resolution, this will affect everything else I do.

Is there some way to hide the silly little page icons? (this would help). Is it possible to view the magazine some other way?

Hope someone can help, we may be stuck with this for a while.

Stay sane, Geoff.

Nigel, the gasket may be wrong. It's hand made & much wider than the lip on the lid. Strange, I bought the lathe new & have not replaced the gasket. A proper factory one would be die cut. I can't see clearly enough through my perspex lid to check if the modified one drains, but it can't hurt.

Like you, I suspect the sight glass is too low. The absence of any clever oil management features on the underside of the lid suggests the design /testing process was short. Also, the drain plug is too high, I had to make a vacuum sucker to drain the last half. It's all starting to add up.

Dave, The new oil level is 18mm above the middle of the sight glass, & the lowest shaft is about 15mm below the sight glass. That's well below the new level, but I'm not at all worried about leaks. Every drop of oil I put on the ways & cross slide ends up swimming with the swarf. I wouldn't notice a weep from the gearbox.

I like the idea of a catcher to direct more oil splash to the problem gears. There's plenty of room & the 2 center gear trains throw up lots of oil.

Dave, you are correct. That's the reason I over-filled it, in an attempt to get that gearset to pick up.

I made a clear acrylic lid (as suggested by Nigel B) & filled it a bit more to get those gears lubed.

The groove around the housing is sealed by the gasket, so is not draining onto the main bearings.

It's hard to get a decent photo, but the spindle gear & it's driver are misaligned by about 3mm. The spindle gear shows damage, but it's not as bad as it looks in the photo. I just wonder what the mating gear looks like.

I investigated spare parts, the big one is listed but not the small one. I'm not brave enough yet to ask prices, no use just replacing one anyway.

Regards, Geoff.

Edited By Geoff Causon on 10/02/2020 05:26:43

Thanks for all the advice. It's a typical Chinese lathe, 38mm spindle bore with huge taper roller bearings. No back gear, 6 speed gearbox & 2 speed pulleys. Overall, I am very happy with value for money & don't regret my purchase.

I hadn't considered EP oil attacking bronze bushes. The only bronze would be in the selector pivot bushes. (although they may just run in the cast iron casing)

I will investigate a 90 weight manual trans oil, which I don't think has the EP additives. The noise reduction is so good I would sacrifice any pivot bushes.

Russ B, Thanks for your diagnostic offer. Chances of being close enough are slim, but here goes. I'm in Drysdale, Victoria, Australia. That's about 100 km south of Melbourne. And yes, it's still smokey.

Regards, Geoff.

My lathe gearbox has (over a few years) become increasingly noisy. It's bad enough that it has to doing some damage.

I have periodically changed the oil & carefully filled it to halfway up the little window.

In desperation, I over-filled it with EP90 car diff oil & it now sounds "not too bad" ( Very scientific)

It got warm after approx. 1 hours intermittent use, so heat may not be a problem. (car diffs get very hot).

I filled it so the gear that drives the main spindle gear was just picking up oil. It is the highest pickup gear in the box.

Is there a problem with too much oil?

Geoff

If you want to add a black finish to your homemade steel masterpiece, heat it to dull red & dunk it in old sump oil.

Do this outside with the part on a longish wire, as it will flare & smoke.

Obviously won't work with heat sensitive parts, but you will be amazed how professional it looks.

Thanks everyone for your help. I have decided to make some "wedges" for the commonly used angles (like 29 1/2 deg) that don't need extreme precision & use Joe Piezinski's method for more accurate jobs. His method doesn't need a long travel DTI & I have a DRO on the cross slide. He also has a good video on milling angles on wedges. A good result all round, thanks again.

Does anyone have a clever idea to set the lathe topslide to a precise angle. My top slide swivels 360 deg & the crude plastic dial goes +/-50deg. Anything other than that I use my protractor but this means eyeballing the ruler to the edge of the cross slide. There must be a better way.

Hello Everyone.

I have booked a trip to the Weybridge exhibition in September.

Can you recommend any side visits after the weekend?

Would prefer Engineering/model related but tourist OK.

Thanks.

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