Member postings for Ian Johnson 1

Hi Dave I have made small parts in black acetal. To get a nice uniform finish I have flame polished the parts, just waft a propane flame over the part until it looks glossy, but not too long or it will bubble and ruin it. I ended up with a lovely satin gloss finish which felt really smooth to the touch.

Another technique is to use use a nail polishing buffing block, like the manicurists use. they have the sequence 1,2,3,4 with 4 being the polishing side

IanJ

Got my Model Engineers Workshop today in the post. Any delays to my post (UK) is almost always due to Royal Mail, they have horrendous backlogs according to our local postie, I'm still waiting for two parcels after nearly three weeks . Deliveries by carrier is usually pretty good.

IanJ

Sounds promising! It's something I've been meaning to do for a while now. I use Vectric Vcarve and they recently upgraded it to include thread milling, although its orientation is mainly towards wood work CNC I think it will work okay with metal.

I'll give JB tools a try, I usually get my carbide tips from them at trade shows, so I know they are good quality.

IanJ

They look incredibly useful Andrew, I'm thinking of doing some CNC thread milling on my KX1 and they look like they would do the trick, maybe?

Two questions where did you get them from, and are they going break my meagre monthly budget!

IanJ

Try 10 thou undersize and see what happens

IanJ

Funnily enough I actually made three stainless 10-32 UNF washer faced bolts tonight for my Norton air filter box, but didn't have a die, so I used a 2BA die instead which is near enough.

I always make the diameter a bit smaller when die cutting stainless threads, so ended up at 0.182 not 0.185 as it should be for 2BA, everything worked out great and fits great too. Although when machining brass its nice and easy to thread so I would make the diameter to size.

So don't worry too much about outside diameter if it's under by a few thou, if you get 75% thread contact area that is certainly good enough for model engineering.

IanJ

I bought a tail stock die holder and it produced results like yours, never used it since then, its destined for the bin unless I can make something else out of it!

They tend to firmly hold the die off centre which results in the thread being cut off centre.

I suggest you use a normal die stock instead, and let the die align itself onto the bar, it will naturally follow the diameter. Just make sure you press something up against the die stock with the tail stock, I use a drill chuck or a Morse taper shank to keep the die true to the bar I'm threading. Rotate the lathe chuck by hand and keep the tail stock pressure evenly applied.

IanJ

Just been browsing your build thread and what a great result! I like the way you overcame problems and cleverly sorted them out.

And those finished photos should be in the Stuart catalogue!

IanJ

I have started my Norton commando MK3 restoration yet again!! So I'm determined to at least make some of it look prettier! So I started making new polished stainless nuts and bolts and stuff.

One of these days I'll assembly everything into a bike shape!

IanJ

The 50mm one would be ideal for my small mill, this is a contender for a next project. Superb work Gray, the ISO20 version is especially nice!

IanJ

I haven't used backlash compensation yet. On my Z axis I do have a few thou backlash so I was going to tighten things up ready for a bit of 3d milling, but you have made the Z axis looser? How does that work?

IanJ

That turned out great Jason nice work. It looks like one of those jobs which will be awkward to fabricate or cast.

I use Vectric Vcarve on the KX1 which has some 3d ability but I'm not sure if it's as clever as fusion 360, i need to play around with it to test if it's any good.

IanJ

Excellent work Joe, I'll be following your progress on this build so keep the photos and info coming please. It's amazing what you can find hidden in a lump of Caterpillar scrap, and 4-5000 rpm is pretty fast for a lathe spindle, it'll be fun to watch it make something at that speed!

IanJ

That is correct Lynne the Mitutoyo calipers don't auto turn off. I have the Mitutoyo Digimatic 6" /150mm caliper and the battery life is excellent, but I always tend to turn them off after use, force of habit I suppose after using cheapo calipers with three month battery life! And my 12" Moore and Wright calipers have a very poor battery life too, so I think Mitutoyo have the best electronics.

You've got six months to save up for a new battery

IanJ

I looked at the advert photo of the collets and all your sizes you need are there, didn't realise they were sold out!

Try arc euro they have some R8 square collets in their clearance section.

Advert in the right side menu

IanJ

What do dry cleaning companies use these days? They used Perklone (ICI tradename) a solvent which is banned.

I use acetone, brake cleaner, cellulose thinners, all work quite well but not as good as the banned stuff

IanJ

Football! Nah! It's a gentleman's game, with two opposing sides having a friendly kick about on grass with a sheeps bladder. Any disagreements are rapidly sorted out with a quick slap here or there and a swift kicking if the other side doesn't come round to their way of thinking........ and... er.... oh yes maybe you're right!

How to start a fight in a pub? Just start a conversation about religion or politics!

I'm glad the moderators are looking out for this political nonsense

IanJ

This is an interesting topic! The big chemical site where I used to work is investing heavily into hydrogen manufacturing. The added benefit is oxygen as by-product.

It is has also been a by-product of chlorine manufacture on site for over a hundred years, and has been used in the site power stations as a supplemental fuel for decades. It's a very useful gas!

And the go ahead has just been given for live trials of mixed hydrogen and natural gas for domestic use in the North of England.

IanJ