Member postings for Ian Johnson 1

Crikey! how much brass did you take? I have just machined a load of brass bushes and ended up with two margarine tubs of swarf, never thought of dumping it though. I have got a few tubs of brass swarf waiting for the day when I need it. I was going to use it in a tray for blueing small parts or something, then I ran out of ideas!

Ian

Here you go! here are a couple of photos of my 4 jaw mounted onto a backing flange to suit the Mini Lathe..

It's a Pratt Burnerd 4 jaw with front mounting holes, but the method will be the same for rear mounting holes, although it might be a bit trickier marking out the hole positions, and you might need to counterbore the holes to suit the bolt heads.

Hope this helps

Ian

Jason beat me to it! I have a Mini Lathe and you normally need a separate back plate, this is fastened to the lathe spindle flange by using three M6 studs. This back plate is then machined to suit the back of the four jaw chuck. you will then need to mount the chuck onto the back plate using studs or bolts. Now you have a chuck which you can mount or dismount just like a normal three jaw. The back plate can be left on the four jaw permanently.

I'll try to post up some photos of my four jaw chuck mounting if I get chance.

Ian

I bought an old imperial set from a stall at the model engineering show for £30. I didn't need a set of slip gauges, it was a present to my self. I have used them for checking the tee slot gaps and key way slots, and they are regularly used to check my micrometers. They are the most accurate thing in my workshop, much more accurate than I will ever be!

Top tip! If buying second hand check for matching serial numbers, on mine they are all 414.

Ian

And for giggles those grease nipples on the end of the M16 bolts are 1/8" BSP All good fun!

The boat is kept alive by the hard work of the volunteers. If I can help out with my small workshop equipment I will do my best.

The boat is the 'Daniel Adamson' moored not far from me on the River Weaver. I don't think they'll mind if I give it some publicity.

Ian

It was overhauled some years ago and some metric nuts and bolts found their way on board! I'm the new boy on deck so I'm slowly finding out the quirks. Apparently there are some hand made nuts and bolts where you need three different size spanners to undo! I did notice a few five hole flanges too!

The port engine LP piston has been inspected and is being reassembled, and we will be steaming in the new year for next years excursions.

Ian

Been busy making new brass bushes for steel rollers on a 116 year old heritage steam boat I'm volunteering on. The rollers guide the steering bars on the port and starboard side. New M16 bolts were supplied, chrome molly! Tough stuff! which I have drilled through for a grease nipple. Should get them all finished this week.

Ian

Just reading through the latest issue of MEW 288 and Readers Tips is always a favourite page for me, even though I usually have seen them before or use the tips myself.

But congratulations to Geoff Harding for his novel use of a cheap drill press vice, for holding long work pieces. Chopping the vice in half! I think this is the best readers tip for a long time!

Nice one Geoff

Ian

I think you just solved your problem all by yourself! Buy a car wheel dolly for 20 quid, use the wheels and turn the curved wheel plate thingy into a garden ornament or something. Or use the wheels and put the other stuff in the bin.

Ian

Got my copy today with MEW, and with lovely big colour photos of every item it is easily one of the best catalogues I've seen.

Thanks Ketan and everyone at Arc.

Ian

Try a larger size drill The normal M10 tapping drill is 8.5mm, try 8.8mm, if the Nylon swells up it may swell to the correct size.

I drill a larger hole when tapping stainless steel, usually the next size up size drill, as long as you get 75% contact everything will be fine.

It works the other way round for using dies too, just make the outside diameter a few thou smaller. Less stress on the dies and taps is always a good thing.

Ian

My tuppence worth: It could be the metal, B&Q bar stock is hot rolled steel for garden gates, it welds nicely but isn't too good for machining. Although it can be machined successfully.

Check the clearance angles on the sourced HSS tool, it could be a generic cutting tool, you may have to grind the relevant clearance angles yourself. The tool might be rubbing more than cutting.

Don't bother with the 29 degrees offset, it just complicates things. Unless I need the room to clear the tail stock I never offset my top slide when screw cutting, I just keep it on zero degrees in line with the bed, and feed in with the cross slide to the required thread depth, the top slide is advanced slightly by a thou or two every cut until the last few spring passes to clean up the thread. Keep it simple.

I have a Mini Lathe and it cuts threads nicely at around 100 revs or so.

Ian

Looks like a rotary 4th axis for a milling machine. The tenon locates in the tee slots of the mill bed.

Looks well made too, and the chuck looks like a grip tru type and is worth a few bob itself, is it a 3 inch or 4 inch chuck? I've got a rotary 4th axis otherwise I'd buy it off you.

Ian

I have real Prazisionsdrehmaschinen MD65, but it's in the shed under wraps, so I checked the manual and there is no mention of tailstock adjustment.

My machine came with an inspection report, and from factory it is a very accurate machine, see photo. Your clone, wherever it came from, may not be as accurate from factory and the tailstock misalignment could be as it came from the factory.

Ian

That table looks familiar! I have just done the same improvement to my mill, and the old table is now sat on the bench annoying me too! Very good idea to use it like this. I think I'll hack off the dovetails on mine and make it into a mini pallet for my CNC mill. The table is big enough to drill lots of holes into it for various attachments.

Ian

'It was supposed stand out'! Mission accomplished! and wow does it stand out! Trouble now is, it's like a brand new car just waiting for the first ding! Nice job by the way.

I'm heading for something in-between Jim Nic's Meadow Green and this Apple Green

Ian

Nice job Jason that's a very elegant conrod

Ian

Mick B1 yes the colour was a bit bright! and in my defence I am colour blind! That's why I am not an electrician! So I'll tone it down a tad.

I do like the finish on Jim Nic's engine, so I'll be aiming for something like that, but a darker green, and satin / matt. And a thin undercoat is a good idea, but I am wary of building up paint thickness on a fiddly engine like my Stothert & Pitt, everything is a close fit.

We'll see what happens when I start mixing paint colours.

Ian

Some good advice here. Thin coats are good. I did thin it down with Acrylic thinner, and maybe I should have done more practice on a bit of scrap. I did undercoat it you can just make out the white paint (the Acetone is old used stuff from decorating the house the other week). And the air pressure is tricky to get right, I've not airbrushed for a while. And it was a tad cold.

So! Plan B is try again with enamel, I do get better results with that stuff. And I'll give the airbrush another go before I get the paint brush out.

I'm undecided if it's really worth undercoating or priming aluminium before painting with enamel. I have painted bare metal without primer and it is still there after many years, so stand by for disaster number two!

Ian

I've been building the Stothert & Pitt beam engine for what seems like an eternity! And despite putting it off for ages, the time has now finally come to painting it. I like green by the way.

So I got out the trusty Aerograph, filled the pot with green acrylic gloss. The unlucky base, beam, bearing stand and top plate was duly sprayed, and bingo! nuclear pea green! complete with runs and blotchy finish! That was Wednesday (see nuclear pea green photo).

After about three seconds of deep thought I came to the conclusion it had to be destroyed, so the very next day all the bits were immersed in a bath of Acetone, the paint melted off.

I'll start again with gloss or satin enamel, with a slightly nicer shade of green, probably sprout colour or runner bean maybe! And practice my airbrushing skills too!

Ian