Member postings for Alan Jackson

I have an old Colchester Chipmaster (1956). It was removed from a university. I have fixed and modified it to increase its versatility, fitted a new motor and inverter drive. It works very well and is accurate. These lathes seem to be occasionally available on ebay for good prices compared to Myfords etc and I think they are well worth consideration if you are prepared/able to fix them up

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121885394219?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131721873996?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Alan

Get well soon Neil, our company needs you.

Alan

Absolutely brilliant Dean, an inspiration.

Thank you

Alan

I made a base with a slope so that the upper part can slide to the right height.

Alan

"The BBC should stick to broadcasting stuff the likes of us don't watch and shut down most of their radio, tv and website channels. Also scrap the licence fee, I object to about £150 a year so the wife can watch Eastenders.. "

And the like.

What a virtually unanimous response from every post and you have certainly got my vote.

Alan

Hi SteveM,

I have also added a detailed description in MEW 210,218 & 219 which also used a Lever locking topslide on the Stepperhead lathe. You may not also have these copies. I tried to copy a PDF file but could not work out how to do it.

If you look at my album you may see some more photos in the Myford and Chipmaster albums.

The toolpost is my version of the MLA toolpost you may be able to Google that.

Alan

Hi Danny,

In MEW mags 119, 120 & 121, in 2005. I described it in great detail with variations for various lathes including Myfords. In the article I tried hard to describe the idea to the MEW world, and even had subsequent discussions with Mr Moore the Myford boss then, to no avail. The one in the photo is a newer version incorporating some other ideas, notably an oval gib, notice the absence of gib screws on the sides. This works very well and enables the slide to be locked along the full length if desired, virtually turning it into a form of Gibraltar toolpost. The flexibility enabled by being able to move, rotate and lock the topslide anywhere and easily remove the topslide from the cross slide cannot be overated. It really enhances the lathe operation.

Alan

Mine is a Lever Locking Topslide. This is the latest version on a Chipmaster lathe. It is so useful to be able to position and angle the topslide anywhere on the cross slide and instantly lock it in position. It also has a screwcutting retract and a slide locking lever below the feed dial.

Alan

Michael, thank you for that here are the details of my version, discuss

Alan

John,

I made this centre about 40 years ago and it has been fantastic and never given rise to any of the problems you seemed to suffer. The hardened steel centre has a close running fit even today. It has been used and abused and very rarely lubricated. It does not suffer from chatter or affect the surface finish. Just does its job.

Alan

Ian P this is what I found on Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2MT-SMALL-BODY-REVOLVING-CENTRE-FOR-MYFORD-LIVE-CENTRE-/370825984005?hash=item5656f37805:g:bzgAAOxyHE5RqKa6

Your milling machine column will also have to be as vertical as your reference line otherwise your movements will not be in line with the column as it raises/lowers.

Alan

Neil,

"Neat in the execution. I assume Stepperhead is continuing to earn its keep then?"

Yes, I used it to make the Morse taper by setting the X and Y axes to cut the taper and I also ground the points after hardening them using the milling head with a diamond grinding wheel.

Alan

Geoff, Clive

Thank you for this interesting, amazing subject.

Alan

Hi All

Years ago I made a rotating lathe centre using a crowded needle roller bearing at the front with a ball thrust bearing behind. The outside diameter was just below 1" diameter as this avoided the restriction of the then conventional rotating centres featuring a large diameter body. This proved to be very useful over the years so recently I gave it a makeover and reground the point. I had a similar needle bearing and thrust bearing so I made another centre for my Stepperhead lathe. The reduced diameter body can retract into the tailstock barrel for maximum access. The reduced diameter point was just to see if it would be advantageous. The points can be exchanged if required. After doing all this I looked on Ebay and found that you can buy these quite cheaply, Ah well. I have added a couple of pics in my album.

Alan

I was a draftsman in the plastic lead era and the technique required when using plastic leads on polyester film was to lean the pencil backwards and push it forwards so that the lead was always in compression. This way enabled dark lines without breaking the weak lead. I preferred a 0.7 pencil for virtually every line type. To create a fine thin line you rotated the pencil as you pushed it forward. The saying then was "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be led".

Alan

I have been wondering for some time if I could replace the toothed belt drive with a Polyvee belt drive with the object of making the lathe run quieter. The problem is to get the belt to fit without much slack as there is no adjustment. Well I did the sums and the plan was to press aluminium grooved sleeves over the existing toothed pulleys. Well luck was on my side and it has worked out very well and is considerably quieter. The toothed belt gave a whine varying from a loud wasp buzz to a high pitched scream, but now that is completely gone its like a different machine.

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 03/11/2015 18:42:11

Hi Eric,

Thank you for your generous comments. The motor can be run in either direction and the blade can be mounted either way round but I have found that it seems to work best with the crank rotating anti-clockwise with the blade cutting on the return stroke. This keeps the blade in tension and the crank seems to pull the blade into contact with the cut metal. This was not my first attempt at making this saw. At first I tried to make a geared down rotary blade cut off saw. It sort of worked but was just not rigid enough and chattered terribly. You maybe able to see some circular cut grooves in the base channel. So I accepted defeat and rebuilt it as you see it now.

Alan

Hi Brian,

Thank you for your kind comments. Yes the inclined vice jaws was my own idea and it has worked out well.

Alan

I have just given my old machine saw a well deserved clean up. I made it years ago and it has done great service. I use a worm driven Parvalux motor fitted between the pivot supports. The tapered jaws on the vice firmly hold down the cut material. It can clamp smaller sections by introducing a large diameter in the jaws so that the jaws can clamp. I have added some more pics in my album.

Alan

Hi steamdave, I like you have just brought a Mitutoyo 500-196-30 to replace my older same brand one which still gives exellent service. The new one is called Absolute which can be set to zero or any number when the battery is first fitted, then the recessed origin button is pressed to retain this setting until it is again reset. So I do not think it should show the number you say comes on every time it turns on if you have reset it to zero (thats my understanding). The advantage of this absolute model is that you do not have to keep zeroing it every time for the correct measurement. One of the irritations of the older model was that when I zeroed it, it could get a small metal sliver between the jaws due to magnetic attraction, which would upset a correct zero setting. I was constantly wiping the jaws to achieve a correct zero setting. This has now been solved somewhat by making a simple demagnetizer that Mike Cox wrote up in MEW234, Thanks Mike.

Alan