Member postings for clivel

I have stripped and am currently rebuilding my 10" Logan 200 lathe, other than the headstock cover it looks almost identical to yours. Very nice machines.

You are probably aware that many of the parts, including manual, are available from Logan Actuator in the US **LINK** unfortunately they are not exactly cheap especially once one adds on shipping to Canada in my case.

For oiling the machine something like ISO 32 would be suitable i.e regular hydraulic oil. ISO 68 is much thicker and should be reserved for the slides and ways.

Clive

Right on the front page of the website **LINK** it shows that the site was updated in May this year. It also shows two email addresses, one for orders and one for technical questions. So it appears that Guy is still very much in business.

Soon after moving to Vancouver in 1994, I called Guy up to find out where I could purchase his books.

He invited me over for coffee and I spent a pleasant few hours in his kitchen chatting about metalwork and model engineering. I left with copies of his 3 bedside readers and a slimmer volume entitled "Hey Tim, I gotta tell ya...." all very reasonably priced at the time.
The books make for pleasant reading, and I still page through them occasionally for inspiration, but I don't think they deserve the almost cult-like status they seem to have achieved in certain quarters.

Clive

Actually, in my experience, automatic bed levelling works really well and is definitely not a software fudge.

Perhaps it is the term levelling that causes some confusion. Levelling the bed, like when levelling a lathe, does not actually level it with reference to the earth, but instead merely ensures a constant distance between the bed and the extruder.

Automatic bed levelling constantly monitors the position of the extruder over the bed and adjusts the distance between them. Whether this is done by raising or lowering the bed by means of stepper motors or whether it is done by adjusting the vertical position of the extruder is immaterial, the net effect is the same.

As mentioned in an earlier post one of the best, and actually the only change, that I have made to my printer is the installation of Crealty's CR Touch auto bed levelling probe along with the firmware to support it.

At the start of a print, this probes the bed at various points to determine what offset if any needs to be applied in order to keep the relative distance between extruder and bed constant while printing.

Clive

I am very happy with my Ender 3 V2.
The V2 has some worthwhile improvements over the Ender 3 Pro, but only if there is not a significant difference in price. When I bought my printer there was only a few dollars difference

Off the top of my head the V2 improvements are:

• Carborundum glass build surface
• A "silent" motherboard which makes the stepper motors a little quieter.
• Belt tensioners
• Colour LCD - purely cosmetic
• A built-in accessory storage drawer.

When I first got my machine my first few prints were really disappointing until I realised just how critical bed levelling is. After faffing about for ages with bed levelling I installed Crealty's CR Touch bed levelling probe along with updated firmware to support it - an upgrade I can highly recommend, it has made an enormous difference.
The machine is now truly plug-and-play. After installing the probe I have done dozens of prints without making a single adjustment.

I am using the Jyers Marlin firmware from **LINK** this adds support for the bed levelling probe along with a number of advantages over the stock Crealty firmware.

Clive

I eventually manage to contact someone at Mortons/Classic Magazines. It turns out that subscribers have been allocated new customer IDs that allow them to log in and manage their subscriptions.

They have now sent me mine and I am now able to renew MEW. It really should not have been so hard or taken so much effort, I should not have had to drag this information out of them - this does not bode well for the future.

Clive

Oh, and I just noticed that one also has the option of signing in using an email address and password.

Unfortunately, it didn't recognise my email address even when I tried to reset my password.

It is not that hard to test a system before foisting it on the unsuspecting public, this is disappointing!

Clive

or copied from the subscription renewal letter, I get the message: "Invalid customer ID or customer ID doesn't match surname"

Clive

I usually renew my subscriptions to both ME and MEW as soon as I receive the renewal letter, so as not to forget.

However, this year the MEW reminder letter arrived within days of the Mortons takeover so I decided to wait a few weeks to let the dust settle before renewing, and of course, promptly forgot.

Today, I received another reminder letter informing me that I only had one issue left before my subscription expires.

WIshing to renew I typed in the online renewal web address as shown on the letter http://me.secureorder.co.uk/MEW/MEWRLUN2  this redirected to https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/promotion/holding-me  displaying the message:

"Subscriptions and back issues are currently unavailable for Model Engineer Magazine."

Undeterred I clicked on the subscribe button at the top of this website, which took me to the subscription page https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/editorial/page.asp?p=695

I clicked on the subscribe button which unfortunately redirected me straight back to the classicmagazines.co.uk website with the same message.

I guess that can't be too reassuring to new potential subscribers, and of course, how do existing subscribers such as myself, who just want to renew for another year do so?

Clive

Edited By clivel on 25/05/2022 00:32:06

Hi Chris,
When I got my used ML7 a few years ago I was faced with a similar dilemma.
I really baulked at spending an eye-watering £66 (before VAT, or in my case international shipping) on the Myford Wanner Oil Gun.

So, I decided instead to buy a Press Parts PP632 oil gun for less than a third of the price. This performs flawlessly - the oil goes where it is supposed to without mess and I have never had a single leak. I can heartily recommend this oil gun EXCEPT for one problem. It is impossible to reach the oil nipple on the headstock pulley.

I tried to come up with a way to modify the PP632 nozzle to reach this nipple but in the end, admitted defeat and bought the expensive Wanner from Myford.
This is inferior to the PP632 in many ways. It is long and awkward, making it impossible in my case to oil the cross-slide nipple as it does not fit between the cross-slide and the back-splash.
And, unless I interpose a piece of cloth or paper towel between the nozzle and the nipple as well as hold the gun absolutely in line with the oil nipple it messes oil everywhere.

So in the end, buying the overpriced and inferior Wanner from the outset would probably be the cheapest solution in the long run. It works, you will have oil everywhere, mostly where you don't need it, but I guess that is the Myford way!

Clive

I am no expert, so a dissertation is probably way beyond my capabilities

I use a double-sided oilstone with a few drops of baby oil - I have no idea what grit the stone is as I bought it at a garage sale.

I struggled at first but after watching a few Youtube videos I picked up the general idea. Searching for utility blade sharpening on Google will turn up a few.

The one thing I noticed is that many on Youtube sharpen back and forth, that may work for them, but my preference is to always sharpen and hone away from the edge.

For many uses, the edge left by an oilstone is often good enough. but for the ultimate in sharpness one really needs to hone on a leather strop.

For a strop, I use a scrap of wood about 8cm x 20cm, with a piece of vegetable tanned leather glued to it flesh side (rough side) up to retain the honing compound. Something like this leather strop

Clive

Well, I guess that the proof of the pudding and all that ....

I used a 1,5mm drill bit as a template. Unfortunately, the only scrap of thin leather that was easily accessible without going into the freezing cold garage had been used as a punch backing, hence the numerous diamond-shaped slits.

But to be honest, I don't really see the point of a 0,75mm corner radius, it is barely noticeable without a magnifying glass or close-up photo,

Clive

Edited By clivel on 26/02/2022 19:00:01

Judging from some of the responses in this thread, I guess that for many Model Engineers, the pleasure is in the journey and not necessarily the actual end result.

The method I outlined earlier in this thread is effective and quick, it only takes seconds to create precise rounded corners using tangential cuts against a metal template such as a washer or rod. In my leather work I have done this hundreds of times, and it can be done by almost anyone with a little practice.

The secret is an extremely sharp knife that won't drag against the material, and in actual fact, I do almost exclusively use a Stanley knife that I keep well sharpened and honed, it can take an excellent edge.
However, in this case, given the size of the cut, something smaller like a well-honed Xacto blade or straight-edged scalpel blade would probably be more suitable. The honing is critical, I use a leather strop charged with green honing compound

The other thing is to make sure to keep one's fingers well out of the way of the blade. Just a single drop of blood can instantly leave an indelible stain on some leather that can completely ruin a piece. Of course, on rubber, this is probably not as much of an issue

Regrettably, the OP hasn't bothered to give any further details, so we have no idea of what sort of quantities he is looking at. If it is anything more than a few hundred then a custom punch would probably be the best solution - search for clicker press dies or templates to find someone to make it.

Clive

These tools are intended to bevel the edge of the leather, and would not be suitable for rounding a corner.
It is slid along the edge in order to take off the square corner prior to burnishing the edge,

Clive

If you only need to make a few, then use a very sharp knife and a metal disk of the right diameter.

Hold the disk firmly in the desired location, and rather than trying to cut around the disk, instead make a number of tangential cuts against the disk.

For larger diameters, one could use a washer or a coin, but in this case a metal rod of the correct size would be easier to hold.

Clive

I am in Canada, not the US, but I guess that shipping times are probably similar.

Since the pandemic International postage times have been completely random,. Occasionally magazines will arrive within days of posting other times it takes 6 to 8 weeks, and every now and again a later issue will arrive first e.g I received 308 two weeks after 309.

You might also want to check that your subscription starts with 310 and not 311.

Clive

For a minute there, I thought that I had stumbled into the wrong forum, as stamp collecting is one of my interests, I do sometimes frequent one or two stamp related forums.

Trades and artisans often appear on stamps.

Glass blowing seems to be one of the more popular subjects, I particularly like this 1972 stamp from Sweden, part of a set of five.
The design was engraved by Czesław Słania, one of the world's finest engravers.

Another example of trades on stamps is this 1977 block of four from the US

Personally, I don't find these particularly attractive and in comparison to the Słania engraving, they seem a little amateurish.

Clive

Having spent a good deal of my professional life developing embedded products, working on both hardware and software, from 8-bit microcontrollers without an operating system to complex products running embedded Linux, I can assure you in every single case where embedded Linux was used, it was almost always because it made solid business sense.

Despite many years of concerted effort Microsoft has failed to capture the embedded market with the various versions of embedded Windows it has released, including for ARM processors. Instead, Linux has captured the lion's share of that market because of a combination of technical and commercial merit, and not because some spotty nerd in his mother's basement enjoys playing with it.

As for the assertion by Mark that there are no commercial users of Linux for user applications, again that is not really true. One of the first applications I installed after switching to Linux some 10 years ago was Eagle CAD for PCB layout, which was a commercial product that I bought and paid for.

The main reason for a lack of commercial software on Linux has nothing to do with the expectation by Linux users that they want everything free, in my experience Windows, Mac, and Android users are no different, but instead, because the Linux desktop with a smaller market share offers less opportunity for profit-driven commercial software companies
- a bit of a catch-22, Linux market share on the desktop is hampered by a lack of commercial software, and commercial software is not being developed for Linux because of the smaller potential market.

Clive

Edited By clivel on 05/11/2021 20:17:40

Actually, that is not strictly true. I am the author of a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) open-source software package that is fairly popular in its niche market.

It is not available from the Apple store, yet users have no problem downloading and installing it from my website. Worst case is that they get a warning message that is from an unidentified developer.

The procedure on Windows prior to Win11 was not that different, however, I did first have to go to the trouble of submitting my software to the various manufacturers of anti-virus software for "whitelisting" prior to release.

To my mind, for MS to try and force users to only install software from the MS store is primarily a cash grab. MS does offer the option of distributing free software via the MS store, but only if I want to pay them for the privilege which is not going to happen.

So any user who would like to continue using my software after switching to Win 11 would first have to leave S Mode which prevents one from installing any software that does not come from the MS Store and also prevents one from running any browser but Microsoft Edge.

S mode is only available on Win 11 Home Edition. Leaving S Mode is a permanent change, once one has left there is no going back.

Clive

A while back I was considering making a ball turner. As the Repton was no longer available one of the possibilities was to make a Repton clone.

While searching for info on the Repton I came across two videos on setting it up on the Little Machine Shop website - https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4920 perhaps one of these is the video you are referring to.

The videos could be viewed by clicking on the "Chris's Tips" tab about halfway down the page, Unfortunately, all one sees now are two black boxes "with this video is unavailable" inside.

I realise that this is not particularly helpful other than perhaps to save you wasting any more time searching for the video. On a positive note, the site does still includes a link to setting up instructions in PDF form that may be useful.

Clive

In 2008, ME carried a series of articles by Graham Howe entitled "Making the Most of the Myford" in which he described the construction of some well thought out accessories e.g rear toolpost, ball turning tool, knurling tool etc.

I wonder though what the point of the series was because the drawings were presented without a single dimension and often little detail, thus not really of too much use to anyone who would like to duplicate one of the designs.

The one item that caught my eye is his design for a simple clutch for the ML7 as shown in ME 4322. This operates by lifting the drive belt when the belt tension is released by the belt lever.

As I am keen to fit a clutch to my ML7, I was wondering if anyone has made this or a similar device and is able to provide dimensioned drawings?
Thanks,
Clive