Member postings for Roger Woollett

I am not sure what the problem is. I imagine you know to only change the speed when the motor is stopped.

If the problem is that the levers will not click into position, rotate the chuck by hand while trying the levers.

If the levers do click into position but there is no drive to the chuck you may have a more serious problem. It is a long time since I had mine apart but I think the levers operate dog clutches to engage the right gears. It is possible someone has tried to change gear with the motor running and damaged the clutches which in mine I think are made of paxolin or similar. The left cover can be removed to see what is going on.

Try these from IKEA. Sorry these are 30x30. I have them on my Prusa. Maybe you could cut them down to 20x20.

Edited By Roger Woollett on 12/07/2023 17:25:00

Thanks for all the comments.

The die is marked Apex so probably run of the mill. I do not often need to use taps and dies on aluminium so will just stick with what I have got. Will definitely experiment with lubricants if I need to do this again.

I agree Andrew is probably right. It is an alloy - not sure what but probably H30. For the second test I used a smear of Trefolex but what would you recommend - WD40?

I have ducked the issue by switching to brass for the part and the thread cut perfectly so the die is probably fine.

I am finding a die cut thread in aluminium coming out udersized.

The die is 1/4x40 ME and has cut perfecly good threads in brass and phospor bronze. The o/d of the cut trhread is close to 6.35mm.

I turned an aluminium bar to 6.35mm and used my normal die holder. The resulting thread was a very sloppy fit and when measered the o/d was 6.06mm. A second attempt with the die opened as far as my diie holder would allow gave 6.16mm, still a sloppy fit. Is this normal?

I think 500g is the smallest tin.

I have been filling the little jam pots you get in hotels with it for the benefit of SMEE members (and society funds).

I have usually get free P&P by buying two tins.

I assume you have locked the head with the two handles at the back. You do not say how much the movement is but I have found that the head does move left/right under slight pressure. Although the column looks substantial I think it must be twisting. When milling I try to use the X (left/rigjt) movement rather than y (front/back).

You are quite right. I was thinking of the end of the push rod.

How about a ball ended endmill in the drill chuck?

It keeps the clock going when the computer is disconnected from the mains.

You may be interested to know that SMEE do a one day course that covers this. The offhand grinder is covered with safety, choice of wheel and dressing to preserve the cutting surface discussed. Students then get to finish a knife tool having been shown how to get the desired clearance angles accurately.

The next course is on the 23rd September.

You might also consider joining the SMEE.

Not in Romford but easy to get to by public transport (Elizabeth line to Farringdon

then Thameslink to Loughborough junction). You could easily machine your flywheel in the workshop there.

Two minor forum issues.

The menu bar (white text on black background) appears in the wrong place using Firefox 102.0.1 (64-bit)

Also the copyright notices at the bottom of the page is still for MTM

Drill Service also have 4.70mm drill blanks. 89mm long and £2.28 + VAT

I have clamped the work direct to the milling machine table using the tee slot. Use a sqaure when rotating to the next face.

Gloster Tooling do variious ER collet chucks on 1MT. I have an ER20 chuck and collets from them.

Thanks for all the replies. Interesting that noone seems to have tried the cheapos but I can see the reasons for being suspicious. Further searches through my stores have turned up one machine-dro and two dubious unbranded so I will hold off until these are used.

I need to stock up on SR44 bateries used by my measuring devices. Major brands seem to be around £2 per piece but eBay have multipacks of "Pound Max" or "Eunicell" much cheaper. I imagine they are lower capacity but has anyone tried them?

Might be worth mentioning that the next Polly course starts on May 14 so there is still time to book.

Not quite if you are quick. The part one course got delayed by a week and will now start next Saturday (the 19th).

You may also be interested in the part two (Polly) course which starts on May 14th