Member postings for Ian P

Without dimensions or knowing what lathe this is it is hard to offer an opinion or make judgement on the arrangement, however from the picture it looks as if the cross slide will be well out of its dovetail engagement by the time it gets anywhere near the encoder body diameter.

At full travel does the cross slide pass over the encoder?

To minimise angular accereration errors in (pairs of) Hooke (and I presume beam type) couplings, the input and output shafts need to be parallel but also the 'phasing' of the two couplings has to be correct. On a Hooke joint the pivot points are obvious but on the helical coupling it would be a bit more difficult to define just where the beam starts.

Ian P

Look like a couple of 'out of line' inline couplings!

Ian P

If I understand your posting, it seems the only part of the grinder that you want to re-use is the motor, so what is it about the Aldi grinder that make the motor so ideal for whatever you are making?

Ian P

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I have contacted some of the repairers mentioned via their website enquiry forms so I await their responses. About ten years ago I had a similar experience to Clive which has made me wary.

I am not a watch wearer and the Eterna-matic is worn by my wife and has some sentimental value, actually we have two identical examples both with the same symptoms. Whilst I suppose we only need one to be usable it seems a shame to keep a broken second one in drawer indefinitely.

Ian P

I honestly cannot remember when I last had this watch serviced but it has recently taken to stopping at random times.

I know there are some members here with an interest in horology so hope that someone can recommend a trusted repairer.

I have not yet investigated whether there is an official Eterna matic workshop but suspect that it will not be cheap

Ian P

My understanding is that most brushless motors (from model aircraft engines to those in EV's) are 3 Phase?

Ian P

Looks like preference 3 on the OP's original post rules out Clive's suggestion.

Given a choice I choose non-brushed motors for all the projects I get involved with and an induction motor with VFD would normally be the best choice for this application but it depends on what the existing off grid electrical system is.

Ian P

Using an IC engine to drive an alternator and then feeding its output into a VFD to drive an electric motor involves lots of losses due to all the conversions involve. Why on use an engine to drive the lathe direct?

If the generated electricity is being stored and you already have a 240V supply then yes, the VFD route make some sense but if you have to run the generator whilst you are machining why not take trip to the scrapyard?

A small petrol engine can have quite a wide usable speed range and drive the lathe direct

Ian P

My point was that its not a good example to show a beginner.

I too have frequently held endmils (and other inappropriate cutters) in a drill chuck but I dont think I have ever applied a side load. The keyless chucks I have (Albrecht & Rohm) all grip tighter with increasing torque between the cutter (drill) and the chuck. As I said its not obvious from the picture what the actual machining operation was but it does appear to be cutting laterally.

I will remove the magazine from its wrapper shortly, maybe it will all then become clear.

Ian P

I have not even opened the poly wrapper off my copy of MEW which has just arrived through the letterbox but I feel I must comment on the front cover.

Combined with the 'new series for beginners' text the central image shows a endmill held in a drill chuck, something we are frequently reminded not to do. Its one thing gripping say a small diameter endmill in a geared drill chuck but the chuck in the picture appears to be a keyless type which (in my experience) the jaws of which seem to have a shorter gripping surface than say a Jacobs type.

Its not clear from the picture what is being milled and in which direction but the setup overall looks a bit dodgy.

I do however like the very fine pitch thread on the toolmakers clamp! hard to judge the size but it does not look like the usual Eclipse/M&W offering.

Ian P

P.S. Cover image quality (rather than the image content) is really good.

The OP though had already prepared tapped holes in precisely the right positions based on the VFD holes, so the round file/hole dragging technique would not work.

Ian P

Do you mean you have a machine with the retracting function, but you never use it?

How do you know 'most machinists' set the topslide to half angle? I for one have never done that.

Ian P

I dont think I would ever use a bolt that fits the slot, all the work fixings I use on the mill is far smaller than the slot width. I use mainly M6 to M8 to the odd M12 (and imperial equivalents). I have just measured the lot width on my set of four Eclipse 302 angle plates (picture below) and its 17mm at the face, narrowing to about 15.5mm mid thickness.

Setting up jobs can be quite fiddly, if I use M8 or M10 bolts the washers have to be specials to span the 17mm slot and the bolts then can be a long way from the end of the slot (so I have flats on the washers). As manufactured the slots do not suit any standard bolts unless one sacrifices some of the slot length.

Ian P

But is it a casting? or just the corner of the plastic moulded VFD casing.

Ian P

+1

Very true

Ian P

I think its a bit unfair to blame the Chinese for this! The HuanYang inverters are a low cost commodity item and not perfect although the hole location is a bit of a howler. I can see also that if you have carefully prepared tapped holes than getting any standard M5 fixing is going to be a bit challenging. Judging from the picture I would say that if you reduced a slotted or Pozi head to 5.60mm diameter it would do the job.

I have an expensive set of British made cast iron, machined all over (apart from the slots/holes) angle plates. A large proportion of the slots lengths are unusable because of the fillet between the internal faces. I cannot get to take a picture just now but have grabbed this picture off Google images that shows exactly (Well its 45 degree fillet on my plates but you get the idea).

I see the same sort of out of proportion features, like massively wide slots on many pieces of workshop tooling and workholding items like lathe faceplates and machine vises.

Ian P

Is 'Who' Peter?

Last post at 22:02:38 has confused me (I've not been drinking but it is getting late).

Anyway, if covering the indicator is an acceptable option then the only solution is to alter the circuitry driving the LED.

Technically fairly simple and might only need a transistor or some other very cheap components, from a practical point of view though it might get very complicated! Whilst the indicator might be on the front panel it is (in 90% of modern electronic equipment) likely to be surface mount LED and possibly coupled to the front panel by a 'Light Guide'. Sometimes even just accessing the circuit board can be difficult so unless you are familiar the product so I suggest searching on YouTube for ' Teardown.

Ian P

Edit, All clear now Peter beat me to it.

Edited By Ian P on 11/10/2022 22:53:38

It depends on what you mean by LEDs

An LED is a single 'Light Emitting Diode' but has nowadays become the term for all sorts of lighting equipment that incorporates LEDs. This lighting equipment can contain anything from one to hundreds of diode elements and may or not contain the specific circuitry that is needed to correctly drive the LEDs.

If you purchase a light unit containing LEDs and its labelled or marked as being suitable for (say) 12 Volts then it will already incorporate the necessary current limiting components and can be connected in place of a incandescent lamp.

Ian P

Looks like a 'Goscut' nibbler to me.

Ian P

The pictures show almost conclusively that the chuck jaws must have had an influence on the surface profile of the part. Whilst I agree with that statement I am curious as to the actual mechanics or nature of the influence.

If the part had the proportions of a sheet of paper then support would be essential but I dont consider 1/16" at about 2" diameter to be anywhere near 'thin', brass is a rigid hard metal and it surprises me that, especially for a finishing cut, it flexes enough between each chuck jaw to leave a witness on the face.

I wonder if the part had been chucked with gap left between the jaws and the workpiece, whether the part would have ended up flatter? (as no influence from the jaws). My money is on (as speculated by the OP) that it was the radial pressure of the chuck jaws on the spigot that caused the distortion. Having said that the spigot itself looks quite substantial and I would have thought that it easily coped with the cutting forces involved.

Just food for thought

Ian P