Member postings for Tony Ray

Doe anyone know how to remove the gear from the end of the dog clutch?

There is very little to get hold of with a puller and no visble centre on the shaft. I'd like to remove it so I can remove the end cover and take out the worn leadscrew. The last thing I want to do is to break that spur gear

On attempting to screwcut a bushed faceplate for this lathe I discovered that the spindle nose is a threaded insert as it uncsrewed ast I was attempting to remove the tight faceplate. The nos is nominally 3/4" 10 Whit. and the stud is 1/2 ish Whit - the thread form is a bit off. I wondered if anyone has seen this before or if this is a one-off ?

Richard,

Try this company inthe USA

**LINK**

They have been recommended on the Practical Machinist forum

Do check that they are imperial though.

I have used their enquiry service before and received a reply in two or three days that they were OK to ship to the UK and the cost of shipping was very reasonable. At that price you might consider a second set as it's not likely to push up the shipping costs that much.

Richard,

They are available from Rotagrip but will set you back £56. Could you change the backplate to a metric one? They usually come withe the pins Eg Warco sell them.

What model of Drummond are you going for and why ?

I ask as having owned a 1908 model ( still have it but don't use it) I found the spindle bore very limiting. If it were me I would sell the collet chuck and put that and any other funds destined for the Drummond towards buying something more capable.

Brian,

They have no right to refuse a second return, you local Citizens Advice Bureau or trading Standards will confirm. OK so the visible damage is relatively minor but what other damage has been caused ?

It is not your problem that they cannot get the item to you in a satisfactory condtion.

Stick to your guns !

Tony

Another lathe not mentioned so far is the Viceroy 280, probably similar to the Boxfords of the D1-3 variety, They seem to go for lower prices , probably because they are less wheel known. I agree if you really have no room for a D1-3 lathe, sell the chuck. A L00 nosed Boxford is probably going to set you back the same as a Bantam which really isn't a lot bigger

Tony

I too have an older Vertex 6" that is well made. If you need the dividing facility do consider using a stepper motor and controller, Google World of Ward, DIY rotary controller.

Jack,

Lathes are like houses - you need to view a few before you'll get an idea of what suits you and what looks like good value. Unfortunately you can't readily pay someone to do a survey. But when house buying you will have an idea of what you are after beds receptions garden workshop etc. You need to establish

swing or centre height

bed length

min spindle bore - nothing worse than too small

spindle nose fitting - screw, L00 or. Camlock

single or 3 phase

accessories - far cheaper usually together them with the machine than searching afterwards

IMHO you'll need a 3 jaw, 4 jaw and a fixed steady.

Personally I did not find Sparey that useful particularly as the images are poorly reproduced.

You will want a mill at some point and be prepared that tooling will be 1/2 the cost of your lathe.

Although the likes of Bantams look aged they are built for industrial use and may wel still out perform far eastern machines.

I agree ebay is a bit risky unless you have a knowledgeable. Friend and can view the offerings. Far better to pay more forma reputable dealer and be totally satisfied than end up with a lemon that you are constantly being let down by or have to sell on. A good lathe is an investment

My ipad and You Tube, where I discovered Tom Lipton's Oxtoolco channel and his Oxtoolco blog. I liked his tailstock tool tray so much I stopped mid project and made one followed by tone for the headstock. If you Google Oxtoolco blog tailstock tool tray & scroll down you'll find it.

I have learnt so much from him, I now make things faster and to a higher standard but there's always room for improvement!

I too tried varifocals and persevered, they just make me feel sick. The only way I could recommend anyone to try them is on some sort of money back guarantee if they are not suitable.

Steve,

Smartphones have accelerometers and free or cheap apps, Google 'dynamically balance EDF units' it's all there.

Tony

Steve,

There is an excellent article by J. Hugel, Google his name and Vibrascope. He uses an acellerometrer device and a true RMS meter. You can download it from Sribd. What about using a steel guitar string and a pick up ?

Tony

Ed pretty much has it covered but if you can use a couple of Vee blocks or even a couple of strips of wood fixed to a bit of Mdf it will stabilise the cylinder: they doo have a habit of rolling.

I made a counterweight for my SX3 mill - it certaily makes raisng the head a lot easier now. I was inpired by this:

**LINK**

Chis,

A fixed steady is the solution but depending on your lathe they can be rare and expensive to obtain but are essential for this type of job. One option is to fabricate one - there have been a few articles in MEW. I did make one successfully in wood 50 mm thick to give good support. I used maple but any close grained wood will do. I tapped it direct to hold some studs and used t nut for others. It was one piece and slid on to the job.

There are several ways to make the fingers but if you can use you mill it's probably a good method.

Do persevere with your mill, I find turning comes more naturally but milling takes more time to set up and is much less forgiving. Post your milling woes and someone will advise.

Failing all this perhaps there is some one local to you who could bore it for you ?

Good luck

Tony

John,

Inverters are sized in kW eg 1.5, 2.0 ,2.5 each time you jump up a size the cost increases. Your lathe was made for industrial use 5 days a week most home users find that they can downsize a bit save cost.

A VFD used correctly is a superior solution to a rotary or static converter - if it wasn't then Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Huyundai, Scheider, ABB etc, would be making static and rotary converters - they are not.

I have had VFD on my M250 for a year, how many times have I use the VFD to change spindle speed ? - not once.

Why ? Its like riding a bicycle with gears. The gears allow you to go faster whilst maintaining the same pedal rpm, you could go faster or slower by changing your pedal rpm but there comes a point where changing gear is more efficient. So I use the lathes gearbox to change spindle rpm because that is the most efficient way of working. You can use the VFD instead but there is a point at which changing gear is more efficient and as Jo ? said you will lose torque at low rpm (and risk overheating the motor too) Probably not the most techically correct explanation but it works for me.

Ignore claims that a VFD solution is less efficient - the losses in the VFD are not worth considering

John, I agree that VFD is the way to go but do you really need 3HP ? You could save a fair bit on the inverter by going down to 2kw that's still 2 2/3rd HP.. I have used Newton-Tesla professionally and Gavin (homeworkshop) I for my own lathe and can recommend either, I would much rather use someone in the UK over an unknown in China for something as costly as a VFD.

Wallace, I can see why you would want to grind tools in their holders especially when touching up an edge during a job but it seems overkill to use a T&C grinder unless you only want to do this for eg threading tools. I could be back machining way before having used my off hand grinder. It sounds like a nice project to make a block and for your application mild steel is perfectly adequate..

Yes you could use a 127/100 but there are more compact alternatives. I'd encourage you to join the Boxford user group on Yahoo . Members are friendly and knowledgeable & you can find details on the 73/65 ( I think - I no longer have a Boxford) ratio there is a spreadsheet that shows the change wheels you need and the gearbox selections needed in the files section.