Member postings for chris stephens

Hi Norman,

Who cares what it looks like, as long as it works. On the up side it doesn't look that bad.

As for the screws, I use something similar on my "roller box" small diameter turning tangential tool, works for me!

Now to Bob, "parking a nightnare", when you were there did you see that very large area of grass in front of the building, well that was the car park. Admitedly it is all up hill on the way in but downhill when leaving with oodles of purchases under your arm. The club stands can be a bit awkward to find, either hidden away up or down stairs, but it is quite difficult to miss the best of all (SMEE) as you just have to look out for the blue coats, of which there one or two dozen. Trade stands, mmmm, could be more?

chriStephens

I think the answer is to do the best you can and if it is not good enough for others that is their problem not yours.

chriStephens

Hi Mark,

Don't be put off using Stainless in future because of a few difficulties making a M12 thread. I suspect you would have had similar problems cutting the same thread in Mild Steel, anything over about M10 can tend to slip in a chuck when using a die, depending on equipment available. Stainless does indeed have its little foibles but it is not that difficult to work, despite what some would say, and for me the ease of getting a near chrome like finish out weighs any troubles you might get drilling or die-ing. As for straight turning, you hardly notice any difficulties, save maybe having to take smaller cuts than leaded MS.

So, if you don't like rust appearing on something you have just spend your hard won spare time on making, make it from free cutting 303 stainless. Don't, however, ever assume that that nice looking piece of SS is 303, there are some real swines called stainless out there and I suspect that most model engineers are put off using this very useful material by someone in the trade having a joke by giving a newbie a lump of useful looking of unmachineium.

chriStephens

Hi Terry,

Thanks for that, try to make it look good.

chriStephens

PS For those who missed it at A-P earlier this year where I was demo-ing, it's the same one that worked relatively vice free.

Edited By chris stephens on 28/10/2012 14:08:31

Hi Mick,

Not at all, feel free.

chriStephens

Hi Guys,

If any of you who expressed an interest in my Tangential parting tool want to see it in the flesh, it will be on the SMEE stand at Sandown. You will have to scrutinize the stand hard, as it is not very impressive to look at, but then scrutinizing a SMEE stand at Sandown usually warrants close scrutiny.

chriStephens

Hi Guys,

I feel this show was better than his last, discounting his dog trials one for obvious reasons, because there was more of interest to us lot (the engineering minded) than the social historian. Unfortunately I feel as though I might be on the verge of becoming a "vocal snob", for although I admire the heck out of his abilities both in the garage and most particularly on the track, not to mention his balls for appearing on TV, I do find his use of language a bit hard on the ear. This feeling will not stop me watching his shows, for I know it is my failings, not his, that his words jar.

What I am waiting for is his next series, whatever that may be, because I feel he has had more of his input into this series, than the boat one. He is I feel the sort who will now only do a program on his terms, whereas his first one was on the producers ones. As he begins to realise the powers he has as the star of the show, he can guide the direction the way he wants it to go, which is probably the way we also would like it to go.

Thank heavens this show does not have "tarbie's twitterings" but a half decent narrator, who only has to fill in the blanks rather than constantly droning on as though she was the star of the show.

Final verdict, thumbs up and looking forward to the rest.

chriStephens

PS for those who like white metal pouring, take a look at;

**LINK**

Hi Terryd,

A word of caution if you are going to use those cutters for milling HSS, in my opinion, two flutes are likely to be problematic because of the shock loadings. As I believe I am the first person to mention HSS milling on this site I feel I should offer some advice.You can mill hard metals, but let us not forget how hard HSS is and even though Carbide is harder it is also extremely brittle. For this reason, ideally, you keep as many of the cutting edges in contact as possible and so a 4 fluter or better yet a 6 fluter is recommended. Keep the depth of cut to perhaps 5-10% of cutter diameter and don't try to be too quick with the feed rate, let your experience tell you when you are doing it right. Milling HSS is not a job for the Hasty, but does have its uses.

chriStephens

Hi Guys,

Truing up a 3 jaw is easy, just hold a washer in the chuck at the very (inner) edge of the jaws, then bore using a good quality tip. Once all evidence of bell-mouthing and out of roundness have been removed, and no more, take out the jaws and hand finish the small area that you missed because of the washer.

Yes, you heard me right turn not grind, even on a Pratt-Burnard, they are not as hard as you would hope. Or it could be that the tip was very special? Anyway, it is a joy to use a chuck that is pretty damn close to true and lack of bell mouth helps with parting or should that be parting is a problem if the chuck is bell mouthed.

chriStephens

Hi Terry,

Glad you got satisfaction from your supplier, but not surprised as, when presented with the evidence, most reputable traders would exchange faulty goods and I hope that all traders at the show are reputable. I wonder if we will now see the market flooded with "special" Vee tools?

Out of curiosity what pitch BS thread you are cutting?

chriStephens

Just a thought for future purchasers, if you are going to fit DROs to your machine, it is completely irrelevant whether it is IMP or Metric, as you will be able to convert from one to t'other at the press of a button. Looking at handles will become a thing of the past and i doubt that many will look back with misty eyes.

chriStephens

Hi Trev,

Drill chucks, yes. Milling cutter chucks probably not as there might not be any way to use a draw bar, unless it goes all the way through the R8/MT3 adaptor, ie it would have to be small enough to fit inside the 7/16" R8 thread.

chriStephens

Hi DC1,

Remember the fun and games the last time Bog's words were in your magazine? His words and deeds but someone else's name appeared as the author, with the true author's permission, which upset a few people who knew who had written it.

christephens

EDIT. I do hope you can persuade John to write for you, his words of true wisdom are sadly missing laterly.

Edited By chris stephens on 17/10/2012 12:53:17

No question, R8 for preference any day.

Once you get your mill, start saving up for a 3 axis DRO, you would not believe how much easier it makes life.

chriStephens

I suspect that Michael is asking which style of collet to get, not whether a full set is required.

Personally I would say to get an ER32 set of collets with the holder to fit your, about to be purchased, mill. In addition I would suggest getting a myford screw on collet holder, be it direct fit or flange and back plate , do not bother with a Morse one for the lathe as this prevents using long lengths to fit through the head stock.

Again, given the choice, I would pick a collet holder with a separate back plate for the lathe because a. it allows you to, at some time in the future, fit it to another back plate for a larger machine and b, it allows you more scope to get the thing running truly by means of "bump true" and judicious use of tin foil packing. If you were to buy a direct mount holder and it were to be a off, the only way to correct it would be to re-cut the taper, which would then not align to the thread which in turn holds the closing taper. Re-cutting the taper accurately is perfectly possible but it might be outside the scope of some of the less well equipped machinists.

It would be worth reading Harold Hall's words of wisdom, posted a few weeks ago, about collets not closing, but don't let that put you off.

chriStephens

PS if DC1 is reading this, why does the spell checker not recognise "collet", seems a bit odd for an engineering site.

Hi Neil,

Still using a New World gas cooker, must be nearly 60 years old by now, hate to think how many modern ones we would have got through if it had been made to modern standards.

It was condemned by the Gas man, till I cleaned and re-lubed the gas taps, then someone more senior came and checked it again and passed it fit. Methinks the youngster felt anything old MUST be unsafe, could be right about bipeds but not necessarily about domestic appliances.

christephens

Hi Ian,

I too liked the look of that tool, well the insert part of it, so I made my own version.

But as I have a GHT retracting holder already, and forgive the blasphemy, I was not impressed with its benefits so I made it fit a clapper box (also known as a swing up) style threading holder.

Judging by the prices of genuine Ifanger I am glade I made my own.

Just as an aside, I made one of my tangential tools for a Swiss friend who uses Ifanger and apparently it gives a better finish than his home grown and expensive variety, but I have not seen for myself yet., so only hearsay.

chriStephens

PS it was making the insert for this tool that I found how easy it is to mill bog standard bits of HSS with carbide end mills.

Hi Terry,

While I agree that the "tool" you bought appears to be not of merchantable quality, I don't quite understand why you had to wait a minimum of overnight delivery to get one, and now wait to get a replacement. I hope you don't take this as antagonistic but surely you had have a bit of HSS left from pre-fire days, I would be even more surprized that you don't have a threading one of some description, and a grinder MUST have been one of your first purchases post fire. There is no way that HSS tooling would have been affected by a domestic house fire, save for bit of discolouration, and so should still be useable.

Now, as to loosing concentricity don't you have a four jaw? i would have thought that a man of your experience would not think twice about taking out and then replacing a work piece as many times as is needed.

Now, again, assuming you do have a tatty old bit of HSS to hand but don't have a grinder, yet (limited budget quite understandable), a 6" self adhesive abrasive disc stuck to an old bit of MDF, and spun in a lathe, makes a perfectly useable grinder. The fag of having to cover the bed ways out weighs waiting till the Midlands to get a replacement any day in my book.

As I said this is not meant to be antagonistic, so don't get all het up at what is meant to be helpful advise. It is just that, although I am a patient man, i would never let the lack of a simple tool bit stop me if, with a few minutes and some means of grinding, I could get one straight away.

chriStephens

PS to all those knocking chinese stuff, are you sure it not from another asian country of questionable quality control?

EDIT, Yes, you were right to warn newbies which was the reason you initialy posted, I suppose.

Edited By chris stephens on 14/10/2012 14:56:11

Terry, my dear chap,

You did not tread on any toes and your picture explained better than words could ever do.

Re toes; I always wear steel toe caps, both physical and metaphorical.

chriStephens

Hi Terry,

If you read my post again you will see the improved version of your round bar mentioned. The magnets really do help by holding the bar to the movable jaw, allowing you to operate the clamp whilst tapping the work down on the parallels with a rubber hammer.

For any beginner reader, when tapping the work down on to parallels you will find that any form of metal hammer tends to bounce the work of the parallel. From experiments carried out with all the different types of knockometer that i have, the best is a rubber one. I found it to be even better than a commercial "dead blow" hammer and much cheaper too, as it is made from a rubber door stop! Any form of metal, even a copper one, tends to send "shock" waves through the work piece which then lifts the work. I dare say a new copper hammer is soft enough but the head soon work hardens while the hide end, from my experience, is too soft.

Perhaps another tip for beginners using a milling vise, if you have one permanently bolted to your mill table don't put it in the middle. If you put it towards one end a. you will have room to mount other devices at the other end and b, if after everytime you have to remove it, to fit larger work, you put it back at the other end of the table you will even up the wear on the lead screw and gibs. Putting the vice bang in the middle causes all the wear will be in a small range only. Although there many ways of holding work on a mill you will find that a vise is by far the most convenient., once you learn to hold work squarely that is.

chriStephens