Member postings for chris stephens

Hi Chris,

Quite frankly if you are only machining those metals you would be better off in the long run, and short come to that, to make yourself a tangential/diamond toolholder. I have been using the same bit of 1/4"x 1,5"HSS for the last 4-5 years and still have about just under an inch left, beat that for value. One little mishap can ruin an edge, or snap a tip, with a tangent tool you probably wouldn't damage it at all, in the same circumstances.

Insert tips are mainly for the overly thick wallet brigade, or people who turn something tough or bulk remove stock, or use CNC machines. Sure I have lots of insert tooling but only use it when it is justified.

Now if you are thinking about boring, that is a whole new ball game, where the very precise geometry of tips can work wonders but at a cost.

Call me jaundiced but been there, done that, and got the collection of blunted tips as souvenirs.

another chris

Hi Len, they are useful enough but there will be times when you wished they tilted past the 45 degree limit. For such times an adjustable angle plate will fit the bill. If you can only afford one, then go for the angle plate, as it will do everything the tilting table will do and more, though angle setting is marginally less easy as you need a protractor with a spirit level.

chriStephens

Hi Neil, Bob and others,

"Standard" colour chart, perhaps "similar" might be nearer the phrase, take a look at Acton Bright's list, some colours the same, some are completely different. EN1A the same,green, but EN24T completely different, brown versus blue.

It all depends on where the suppliers get their stock, so best check rather than assume.

chriStephens

Hi Guys,

To paraphrase Nelson, "bodges, I see no bodges" , just quality get-customer-out-of-the sh*t repairs using years of hard won skills and intelligence, and without running to the, probably, non existent spares shop. Good on yer, John.

chriStephens

Correction to above "spindexer indexer 1"

Hi Clive,

Tom Lipton over on youtube did a series on doing just that conversion, check his channel "oxtoolco". the series starts at "spin indexer 1"

chriStephens

Hi Neil,

What a sheltered life you must lead. Although in fairness I lean more to the John Stephenson end of the spectrum than some here.

Three wires are a nightmare and if parallels are not available then wrapping copper wire of correct diameter around the thread and measuring across that is far easier.

ATB

chriStephens

Or, you can buy Marlco thread measuring parallels which are so much easier to use than wires, but regrettably at a considerable cost .

chriStephens

Hi Clive, I can highly recommend watching Tom's videos at Oxtoolco, damn nice chap, he shows TIG brazing/ silver soldering but there is very little capillary flow, which normally provides a lot of the strength, as the heating is very confined to the area of the arc. It does seem to be a very good technique if you want to build up a fillet, Maybe flux would help with making the filler flow but he didn't try it.

chriStephens

"While on the size of nuts - early Morris cars used metric threads throughout the engine but they were fitted with Whitworth size nuts. Presumably so that garages could use their existing spanners."

The opposite is also true, early Lancia cars had Unified threads with Metric head sizes, presumably for the same reasons.

chriStephens

Ian part two,!

"Anyway, with a sloping cutting edge how does one know which bit of the cut is the point that should be on centre"

Er, maybe the same way you do with a ground in top rake?

Sorry if that reads as flippant, but I don't see a problem or am I reading it wrong, not for the first time. If you are talking about the holding taper, then I quite agree. When I bought a new 5/32" blade for my Dixon, the first half inch or so was already flattened, attention to detail or what?

happy partings

chriStephens

Hi again Ian,

When I mill the top taper away I only go deep enough to take the minimum off so leaving the blade to full width, so depth of parting is irrelevant. I use the mill for such purposes as it is much more controllable than a grinder and I can stop just where needed.

ATB

chriStephens

Hi Ian P,

absolutely correct but the OP was asking about thin blades and 1/16th inch was mentioned, I would caution against parting 4" stock with such a blade. I have a number of parting tools and my favourite is a 1/16, at an angle of 6 degrees, and have it set for centre height at about half inch projection, which is actually more than Eclipse recommended for their blade/holder combo but it still works very well. Sharpening is dead easy only needing the front to be ground. I do mill the taper off the top of the blade, so it is horizontal left to right, before fitting it in the tilted sub base. For deeper parting I use a horizontal 5/32 blade, with a vee ground in the length of the top as suggested by GHT, which also works fine but I only have just enough blade projection to do the job in hand

chriStephens.

Hi Guys,

If you want top rake, as you should, angle the holder and not grind the blade which will cause problems when parting deeper than the grind allows.

chriStephens

Hi Gray,

As to how to quench, I always do it from the cold end, so there is far less thermal shock than plunging the hot bit first, and as I don't like the smell of burnt fingers I shall still have a bucket of water handy, besides flood cooling might be a bit messy on my B&D 8 inch .

ATB

chriStephens

Hi JohnS,

"Modern technology has proved time and again what we were taught by rote and everyone since has repeated parrot fashion is not always the correct way."

Ain't that the truth.

Chris, the other John Stephens' son

Hi Neil, It sounds like you have a particularly brittle tool, are you sure it is HSS and not, say, Stellite?

If you suffer chips on the cutting corner, I found that grinding a larger radius helps, this is definitely required when using a solid carbide tool in a tangential holder.

chriStephens

Hi Rik, It looks not unlike a rotozip cutter called a spiral saw, take a look at

**LINK**

chriStephens

Sir, You flatter me, but I should warn you flattery will get you nowhere, I'm too used to it

chriStephens

PS it wasn't just one (puffs out chest with pride, or is that embarrassment )

What ho Gray,

That's the beauty of Google, your post came up about the use of the parallels. It also gives the current makers price list, including the plastic bits. I don't however expect them to sell many parallels at their present mega rip off price.

There is a better way than three wire, single wire. Wrap a bit of copper wire, of the right diameter, around the thread pull tight and then measure. Copper wire comes in the same gauges as the three wire wire.

Just so you know not to look, my visage will most likely appear in the next Journal, they gave me an award.

ATB

chriStephens