Member postings for chris stephens

I repeat, "in the civilized world", you haven't mentioned any parts that match, so far. :>

Hi Vic, marked yes but wrongly. In the civilized world down is on, they must be meant for the USA.

My local Poundland does coated rectangular baking trays in two different depths, these make excellent trays of course but I made a holder and use some as a small tool holding set of drawers.

Wholeheartedly recommend Stefan Gotteswinter, but let us not forget "Clickspring" whose video production is second to none. Both of these guys only seem to put up videos on things they are working on and not "ooh look what I bought at the flea market" or "see how much I'm appreciated by my viewers by the things they sent me", Do I sound cynical, not true (well maybe just a bit), just bored by hours of seeing "viewer appreciation gifts" on the table I would rather see them in use.

Hi Guys,

Yet again I'm glad I'm getting old and don't have many years left, reading the above and seeing the way H&S regulated paranoia and society in general are going I'm glad I wont be around to see how it all works out, not for the better I suspect, correction, know.

chriStephens

Hi Mike, I see you have got the shape now but reading your reply to my note, I would have put it as mill to less than half diameter not greater.

I think you will find the idea of having greater than half Dia is to stop the tool bit chattering, or otherwise moving about, and therefore cutting a larger hole than itself. If for instance the flat is less than half thickness it could move about as the cutting edge is less than its diameter. If the D is greater than half, the cutting edge is also less than Dia but it now has support.

The better shape would be to have only a quarter or third section removed, which would give far better support, and this is indeed one of the commercial shapes for gun drill and the like.

Hi Mike, that D bit looks about right but you really should hone the cutting edge after heat treatment as the heating tends to blunt sharp corners. Oh and it wants to be slightly thicker than half thickness by a few %.

Hi KWil,

Of course you can but, and it is a big but, they have to be the right ones. To a lot of newbies a carbide insert is just a carbide insert, without realising that there are a myriad of different types often with very specific purposes. Anybody buying a load of industry surplus tips hoping they have solved all their problems is surely in for a disappointment.

Buying tips from, say, JB you are pretty certain to get the right purpose you have asked for, but if you ever look in an insert catalogue looking for tips, watch your step as you have entered a minefield. The general majority of tips are for industry, where the money is, not with the penny pinching old farts, sorry, cost conscious old farts, in model engineering (myself included)

chriStephens

Hi John and Neil,

Where's the thumbs up button, I want to press it.

chriStephens

Hi John,

That must be an adult, their children seem to have even less and ours are rapidly following suit.

I remember when one of the "experts" on that show screwcut a thread for a gate valve, couldn't stop laughing all evening, makes me smile even now at the thought.

If you want to know about shafts, props and the fitting of same, take a look at Keith Fenner's YouTube playlist on "Marine Propulsion" at www.youtube.com/user/KEF791/playlists. His attention to detail impresses me and I don't impress easily being an old cynic.

chriStephens

One would hope that it will be available from the usual sources, WHS, as well as from the publishers. I am really quite interested in the article on Dill grinding, see the second link.

Hi JA, so you are one of our former customers, glad that some still remember the old shop. From memory we only had problems with BMW valve head dropping on the 450/650 range, my own 75/5 has 150+Kmiles and the heads have never been off. You might remember the bike as the one parked out front on Ladbroke Grove.

chriStephens

Hi Vic, I must admit I am in two minds about which looks better, but i always try to file away machining marks so it makes little difference in the end one way or the other.

c

Another very good video on fly cutter tool grinding is my mate the other Tom, Tom Lipton at Oxtool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCrJVYF95aE

I can heartily recommend his grind, although i do do it slightly differently myself but that is because I don;t have a standard design flycutter.

As for cross hatching, it is a sign that your mill is set up right not a flaw.

chriStephens

One of the best threading primers on Youtube is "Toms Techniques" (youtube.com/user/Figbash3) "thread cutting on the lathe" in his playlist. Some of the others on YT are, at best, awful and a waste of time to watch but I doubt you will go far wrong if you follow Tom's advice, even if some say he is doing it all wrong because that is not how they were taught. His way is logical and it works and that is all that matters.

Excellent, now we have found the award for the JohnS Challenge

What ho Sir John,

An excellent and welcome idea, but no more than is expected from a real tool user who has and uses his little grey cells to great effect,. If there is a minor problemette with the idea it would be that seeing a lovely bit if shiny metal innovation on a table, even when accompanied with a description, says absolutely nothing to the average stick-in-the-mud old fogey about its use. Granted there a few who will see and understand straight away, but to many the only way to show an innovation's benefit (if no benefit it would be a solution in search of a problem) would be to see it in use. Speaking from experience of demonstrating at shows, taking for example a tangential tool holder, many paid absolutely no interest in it till it was shown to work and work well, then they got interested and asked for plans and info. Perhaps any bit of innovation should be accompanied with a you-tube type video, instead of a paper description, to show the the great unthinking masses (T firmly in C) its use.

As for the presentation cup/award for the JohnS Challenge, why not have a competition for the design. Oh maybe not, you would need a cup for that design and then a design for that etc etc.

chriStephens, (also a John Stephens' son )

Hi Robert, all is not lost because, so far, I have not found the need for one.

I do realise that machining all over is the only true way to make one but I figured that the fork stanchion would be a wizard way of getting the parallel bit done for no effort, especially as it was literally lying around on the floor. I could easily file the ends true, after all it is only a few microns that need to come off. Or, I could hold one end trued in the four jaw and the other trued in the tailstock. I will make a dedicated squareness checker first, instead of relying on a lash up, before bothering either way to remove any measuring inaccuracy.

Thanks for your comment

c

Hi Les, My four jaw must be far worse than I thought/hoped, I checked the cylinder square using standard methods and you are right it is miles out, I read a total lean of 1 thou in four inches, read on both ends equally. Still for this amateur bodger that will have to do till I resurrect the surface grinder.

chriStephens