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Member postings for Tony Jeffree

Here is a list of all the postings Tony Jeffree has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.

Thread: What is happening to this site ?
09/10/2013 08:49:06
Posted by fizzy on 09/10/2013 00:12:54:

There wont be a forum in 10 years time...everyone will be dead, senile or too poor to participate! And I really mean this....not to mention the fact that no one will know how to opperate a non cnc machine.

Bollocks.

Regards,

Tony

Thread: Warco lathe conversion article (MEW 207/208)
08/10/2013 18:20:59

Thanks John - I guess I will have to take a look once I'm done moving the workshop smiley

Regards,

Tony

08/10/2013 14:09:42

With LinuxCNC, are you stuck with using the parallel port for I/O, or are there other options? I.e., is it possible to use it with a laptop/USB ports etc? There seem to be a fair number of non-parallel port options developing on MACH, if you are stuck with using a desktop/tower PC that would be a limitation.

Regards,

Tony

Thread: CNC'd Sieg X3 - listed on Ebay
07/10/2013 14:58:14
Posted by Stovepipe on 06/10/2013 10:10:39:

Stevenson doesn't seem to realise it's a quid pro pro.

Dennis

People have been shot for jokes way better than that one wink

Thread: What is happening to this site ?
07/10/2013 13:54:02

Peter -

Spot on.

Regards,

Tony

Thread: Warco lathe conversion article (MEW 207/208)
07/10/2013 12:59:11

I was interested, but somewhat bemused, to read the articles by John Pace on his Warco lathe conversion. The bemusement arises from the fact that he has introduced mechanical metric to Imperial conversion via the use of a 127-tooth wheel into the drive train in order to make the resolution per stepper motor step a convenient number in Imperial units. This seems to be necessitated by the fact that he is using Compucut software that appears to be limited to operating only in one set of units. This seems to be an awful lot of fuss and bother, especially as CNC controls that can understand G-code (for example, Mach 3, Desk CNC...) would be able to handle the conversion in software.

Am I missing something here?

Regards,

Tony

Thread: CNC'd Sieg X3 - listed on Ebay
07/10/2013 10:46:38

I'd forgotten about the scales - just re-read the article!

Regards,

Tony

Thread: Cowells renovation
06/10/2013 22:22:28

Norman -

I wouldn't dream of putting a car in a garage - they get soft if you do that.

Thanks - yes, Manchester is certainly "Up North" for most people, but I am moving about 400 miles further Northsmiley

06/10/2013 17:23:39

Stephen -

I am keeping my CNC'd ML-7, my Taig (Peatol) lathe, and my Taig CNC mill. The fact that the latter two have interchangeable headstocks, chucks, backplates, etc. makes that combination particularly versatile.

I like the Cowells a lot; it is a fine little lathe, and it was a lot of fun restoring it. However, I didn't feel that I could justify keeping two lathes with essentially the same capacity/capability (actually the Taig has a bigger capacity). The problem is that at least in the short term my workshop will be smaller than my current one, so something had to give. The room I will be using is in a loft space above a garage, and the pitched roof means that bench space will be at a premium. Long term, once we have made the move and I have figured out how much space I have, who knows.

I did seriously consider selling the Myford instead, but having got the CNC side of that sorted to my satisfaction, that was too much of a stretch.

Thread: CNC'd Sieg X3 - listed on Ebay
06/10/2013 09:58:40
Posted by John Stevenson on 05/10/2013 19:21:59:

My God only 99p that's an absolute steal.

That robbing ba$t@rd at Leicester charged me a quid for a CNC'd X3

Is that the Buy it Now price ? How much to put it on a Pallet ?

Cheap at twice the price laugh

A tenner to put it on a pallet...but you didn't ask what I would charge for the pallet smiley

06/10/2013 05:39:00
Posted by Ketan Swali on 05/10/2013 20:07:23:

Oh boy Tony, that brings back memories. Does the weighing scale come with it too ?

So when are you hoping to move?

Ketan at ARC.

Weighing scale??

We are hoping to move around the end of the year, depending on how quickly the build goes (and how quickly the house sells!)

Thread: Cowells ME lathe on Ebay
05/10/2013 19:17:56

I have just listed my Cowells ME lathe on Ebay as I am downsizing my workshop in preparation for a move Up North:

**LINK**

The renovation of this lathe was the subject of a series of MEW articles over the last year or so.

Thread: CNC'd Sieg X3 - listed on Ebay
05/10/2013 19:15:59

I have just listed my CNC mill on Ebay as I am downsizing my workshop in preparation for a move Up North:

**LINK**

This was the subject of a MEW article some while ago.

Thread: Is it just me?
16/09/2013 17:06:58
Posted by Harold Hall 1 on 09/09/2013 14:11:43:

For me, I do not see any benefit in using CNC in my workshop as almost all tasks amount to time (a few minutes to perhaps an hour) deciding how to set up the operation and doing this and then time to carry out the machining, when, in quick time, it is done.

One exception would be the crossing out the wheels on the clock I made. Also, producing the main frames and other odd shaped parts. If though I had had the facility and used it, would I have gained the same lever of satisfaction, the answer is "no way"

Harold

Harold -

Clockmaking was actually the reason I got into CNC in the first place - and hopefully at some point will again become one of the reasons that I still use CNC (been too busy playing with the machines to have any time to make the clocks), so your comments are interesting.

To me, there is no particular virtue in doing repetetive tasks, such as cutting gear teeth, crossing out wheels, cutting clock frames, by hand; it is simply tedious work that is getting in the way of the parts of the job that give me real satisfaction - the final finishing/polishing and getting the clock to run. If I can find ways of making the tedious bits go away, then all well and good; you also get the benefit of actually being able to cut wheels that have an integral number of teeth, and the right tooth count, if you go the CNC route, which is a considerable attraction to me - if I never use a manual dividing head again, it will be far too soon.

The finish you get with CNC is, in any case, a long way from the kind of finish that you would like to see on a clock - so there is plenty of scope for satisfaction gained by the use of elbow-grease to get a crisp, poliched finish that you can see your face in, there if that is what floats your boat.

CNC is just another workshop tool as far as I am concerned; I use it when the use is convenient and appropriate, and I use manual methods when they are appropriate/convenient. I have a major confession to make on that front - my CNC converted ML7 spends much more of its time doing manual operations than CNC; however, the CNC facility is there for when it is needed (cutting threads and tapers; repetition work such as matching clock pillars would be a good clockmaking use too).

Regards,

Tony

Thread: Rapid Prototyping
08/08/2013 11:45:04
Posted by jason udall on 08/08/2013 11:34:32:
"( Why? " posts John...
++++ SYNTAX ERROR MISMATCHED PARENTHESES ++++
..

His parents were obviously well matched or he wouldn't be here. And what are "heses" anyway? surprise

Regards,

Tony

07/08/2013 15:39:45
Posted by Michael Gilligan on 07/08/2013 15:26:09:

You say "my Huxley has a feed-rate of 12m/min, and it needs it." ... but the spec. shows a maximum "Building Speed" of 1,800mm/min, so I presume that the 12,000mm/min is a "Fast Traverse" speed.

I'd be a tad concerned if my building was travelling at anywhere near 1,800mm/min smiley

Regards,

Tony

06/08/2013 17:29:37
Posted by Bazyle on 06/08/2013 17:12:02:

'Surely' for anyone with a CNC mill all that is needed is a decent extruder head. Although the reprap bods like the idea that the print head is itself printed, again 'surely' a CNC cut version of all parts would up the game somewhat. Add to that borrowing the stepper off your 4th axis for the feed ought to make a trial printer no more than a few hours and pounds for material for a CNC operator.

Why isn't the above happening all over the place?

Edited By Bazyle on 06/08/2013 17:12:53

Good question. No very good reason, except that some CNC mills might be a bit pedestrian speed-wise - with a machine that essentially has no cutting forces to deal with and where the head is very light, you would choose rather higher speeds for the axis movements than you would be used to on a CNC mill. Starting from a CNC router table would make perfect sense though - swap out the router for an extruder head, put a heated platter on the bed, and off you go. Funnily enough, I was chatting with John S just this morning and he was suggesting exactly that kind of approach...

Regards,

Tony

Thread: drill doctor sharpener worth the money?
06/08/2013 17:18:40
Posted by Ian Welford on 22/09/2009 21:09:59:
Got a friend going to the usa in a few months and wondering about a drill doctor drill sharpener. Anyone used one- got any views on it?

I bought a used one on Ebay, complete with the (VHS!) video, and never managed to persuade it to cut a decent point on a drill. After occupying space on my bench for way too long, I sold it on Ebay. Obviously, starting with a new one might be a more rewarding experience, but it isn't an experiment that I would repeat any time soon.

Regards,

Tony

Thread: Rapid Prototyping
06/08/2013 16:48:38

Michael -

No particular reason in principle why you shouldn't use wax in a 3D printer. Sure, the feed mechanism would be different, but there are ways to fix that - for example, use a stick of wax and feed it into the nozzle in the same way that a glue gun feeds its glue stick, or force the wax down a tube using a plunger on a feedscrew. A hopper full of granules and an Archimedes screw feed would be a possibility - that is essentially how the plastic extruders that make the filament work. The challenges would be around accurately controlling the feed rate and the nozzle temperature; might also take some experimentation to get the right wax mix so that it stays put after extrusion but also properly adheres to the layer below.

Thread: Feedscrews
22/07/2013 17:14:57
Posted by JasonB on 22/07/2013 10:17:14:

Well you could start by Googling "Ball Screws" there are what most people use for CNC conversions to eliminate the backlash associated with the usual Acme type feed screw and nut. Then "Stepper Motors" to surn the screws.

 

J

I know that somehow it has become ingrained in the collective conciousness that ballscrews = zero backlash, but that is just not the case. Any screw system can be made zero backlash with suitable anti-backlash treatments - double nuts, preloaded nuts, etc. etc., but you don't get it for free, even with ballscrews.

Ballscrews come in a wide variety of grades and accuracies, just like conventional screws; for example, the mechanism used for raising and lowering hospital beds often uses ballscrews, but these are installed because they are more efficient than conventional screws, not (for obvious reasons) because high accuracy or zero backlash is needed, and you certainly don't get either with that grade of screw.

The two primary advantages of ballscrews over conventional screws of equivalent accuracy are high efficiency and low wear rate. If you want low backlash as well, then, just as you do with conventional screws, you pay a premium.

With lathe use, for most purposes you don't actually need zero backlash anyway - on the cross-slide, if you are turning the outside of a part, and you are actually cutting metal, then there is always a component of the force on the tool that is pushing the tool away from the work in the direction of the cross-slide feedscrew, so any backlash is always taken up in that direction. The only problem you get is if you change from cutting on the LHS of the tool to cutting on the RHS, as would happen (for example) in machining a complex profile like a chess piece. In that case, as you change flanks, any backlash taken up in the leadscrew would reverse direction also. However, if what you are doing doesn't involve such a change of cutting flank, then you can cope with backlash in the leadscrew with little problem.

My ML& CNC conversion uses the standard screws both for the cross-slide and the leadscrew - I have not had any problems from that source so far.

Regards,

Tony

 

Edited By Tony Jeffree on 22/07/2013 17:15:55

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