Member postings for Terryd

Hi Peter,

What type of collet chuck did you buy, ER collets are very versatile and a 7mm collet would be able to hold 1/4" as well. It is that versatility as well as the concentricity which has made the type so successful.

Best regards

Terry

Hi Again Ron,

Here is a link to a 'Paddleduck' build on MadModder - a good forum to join as Jo has pointed out these forums are excellent sources of help and advice as well as a source of inspiration seeing how others overcome problems, (and the struggles and mistakes that they overcome). There are also some good individuals sites that are worth looking at - here is one, full of good advice.

Best regards

Terry

Hi Ron,

Both magazines are complimentary rather than competitors. However if you are new to machining you could do worse than get Mr Hall's books on lathework ('A Complete Course' ) and Milling Machine (again 'A Complete Course' ) There are many other good books on the Lathe especially as it is the parent of all other machines, but Mr Halls books include projects and excellent instruction which will give a basis for future work (and you will get a lot of help here on the projects).  I would wait a while before investing a lot in magazine subscriptions, you can buy a lot of good books for the price which provide enjoyable and instructive reading.

For small engines and simple boilers I would recommend Stan Bray's book and the two books by Tubal Cain ( building Simple Steam Engines Books 1 and 2). It is a truly lovely experience when your first simple steam engine bursts into life, you can graduate to more complex work when your confidence improves. It is all too easy to try a complex engine and give up in frustration when you realise your experience is too limited to succeed, it is best to try a few engines using bar stock rather than expensive castings as mistakes are much less expensive.  Once you have mastered these there are some good projects making Elmer's Engines, but you need quite a bit of experience as the instructions are limited and expect you to understand sequencing of operations for example.

There are a couple of basic engineering courses running in MEW but I would recommend the books by Mr Hall as a good basis which encourages you to make good practical projects which are of use in the workshop - I have made several, the most useful being his tool and cutter grinding device. ME tends to be for more experienced modellers but there are occasionally projects for beginners.

After a few projects are completed you could try an intermediate project such as Bogstandard's excellent 'Paddleduck' which has pages and pages of excellent instructions by the man himself and is also built from barstock. In fact I would recommend reading his project (free download) as it contains much advice on basic machining techniques. John (Bogstandard) has been immenesly generous in providing this excellent and inetresting work.

To Quote:

"This is not just a set of free plans for a working model steam engine. It's a well-written, well-organized, profusely illustrated 113-page tutorial "

Most of all, enjoy the hobby, don't ruin your interest by being over ambitious initially.

Best regards,

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 16/01/2013 10:05:26

Hi Steve,

I don't know if this has been pointed out by others but RE taper is not a collet system it is an alternative taper system to Morse tapers. The 'E' system of collets are used in holders or chucks which can have Morse or R8 tapers (there are other systems but these two are the most common).

The ER collet systems are useful because they can hold a range of size in each collet, unlike other less versatile systems. Hence a 6mm collet can hold work or cutters between 5 and 6mm because of the 'compressibility' of the collet. The system can be used to hold work or tools so is very versatile. So if you have an E collet chuck with a few collets for the milling machine that is really all the toolholding you need. There is no need for a different 'milling' chuck. My MT3, E32 chuck is hardly ever removed from the milling machine and it can hold all but my largest drills and milling cutters. I have a seperate lathe collet holder which I can use for much of my turning when I need accurate concentricity and repeatability

As another 'old schooler' I can honestly say that I never have to do more than nip up the drawbar in my milling machine with an MT3 taper housing and my MT2 drilling machine has never dropped it's chuck or the large MT drills I sometimes use and the MT taper in my lathe headstock and tailstock have never let me down.

The problems with morse tapers combined with drawbars is that folk tend to tighten them with too much force and consequently need to hammer the drawbar to free the taper. Worst problem is that they then use a steel hammer instead of a copper one (or similar) to bash the poor thing when struggling to remove the chuck. In all my years of machining I have usually just had to give the drawbar a light rap to release it, only rarely had to use a lot of force but have used a copper hammer and caused no damage to the machine. Then again I was taught in the toolroom but did witness a few gorillas in the production machine shop who thought that they had to use a lump hammer on every spanner and locking lever in sight.

The advantage in the home workshop of MTs is that tooling is common to lathe, drilling and milling machines, I can transfer my E32 collets and other tooling from lathe to milling machine or drilling machine with ease. No need for duplicate collet chucks.

My advice as to actual machine is to get the most solid you can, I have the equivalent of the Warco WM18 with a similar pressed steel stand and find it perfectly adequate and solid when bolted down. It's not a patch on my mate's Bridgeport but it does what I need without complaint.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 16/01/2013 08:44:41

I also have an excellent Chinese import (Warco WM280V-F) bought new with a good selection of extras at a Sandown show some years ago. Cannot fault it's performance so far and it is as accurate as I can hope for - in fact better than most Myfords I have used, and the spec is impeccable.

I also have a Boxford BUD - would prefer an AUD but got this for a great price - and for my money it is superior to most Myfords in all but cosmetic finish. There is too much mythology surrounding the Nottingham product, ithey are expensive and no better than many other less expensive alternatives.

Regards

T

Hi Norman,

The slope in garage floors towards the door is to ensure that any petrol fumes are not allowed to accumulate. Under current building regs there must also be a step up of at last 100mm into any occupied part of the property if the garage is attached with a connecting door (30 min. fire resistant, self closing) into the house for the same reason.

Petrol fumes are very heavy and difficult to disperse, and of course have a low flash point - very nasty stuff,

Best regards

Terry

Hi Chris,

Try this reference for an explanation of both ISO and ANSI designations for defining standard carbide inserts,

As a hobbyist now I must admit that I tend to stick with good HSS tools and prefer it for parting.  If you have low speeds on your machine large diameter parting is no problem, they arise when the diameter becomes small and the tendency is for the tool to submarine and be pulled into the work when using a front mounted tool.

Regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/01/2013 16:35:55

Hi,

D2 is a very tough steel to machine even in it's normalised state, but there is some data that may be of use here,

Regards

T

Hi Z,

With Mr Mundays Utilities it is possible to calculate gear ratios, spring sizes, pcd,  sine bar calcs, sheet metal bending data, compare drill sizes, cutting feeds and speeds, as well as easily get thread data, and very much more, all with a couple of clicks in one place with no need to Google anything.  perhaps I'm just lazy

For the record, I am a MAC user (+iPhone, iPad, etc) but when I need to run programs that are only available for Windows I am quite willing to use an emulator - which is definitely not the same as using Windows.

Best regards,

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/01/2013 14:16:49

Hi H,

( a proper name would be nice ) there are programs which allow MACs to emulate Windows machines, I'm not sure if they will work for Alan Munday's utilities but it may be worth a try.

Terry

Hi (sorry to be impersonal but I don't have a name to address you properly),

It would be worth installing a copy of Alan Munday's Model Engineers Utilities on your PC. It has a lot of extremely useful data (including data for most screw threads you are likely to need). I cannot recommend it highly enough. best of all it is a free download from here.

Best regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 14/01/2013 07:27:06

Hi all,

I came across this unusual and amusing use for a triple cylinder oscillator, I put it in this category as it's a road locomotive (rather than a rail locomotive)

Enjoy,

Edited By Terryd on 13/01/2013 17:22:43

Yet again, to clarify, H&S regulations apply only to commercial premises and workplaces and not to private workshops. the full title is 'The Health and Safety At WORK Regulations'.

What has this guy donning his safety gear got to do with the H&S executive? He chose to protect himself with his own well used equipment as far as I could see, whether he wore shorts or not was up to him.

Sounds more like the Moaners and Groaners club "gorn mad" to me

T

Edited By Terryd on 13/01/2013 14:51:46

And who could forget this lovely garment made from spider silk:

Regards

Terry

Quote:

"Spider silks are just about the toughest material on the planet. Stronger by mass than steel and more durable and flexible than Kevlar, they are also alive to ambient conditions and made to adapt and retain their tensility as humidity and temperature change"

See Here,

And someone said 'poison' - shame on you,

Best regards

Terry

Hi Mick,

You could do worse than to look on the ARC Eurotrade site itself.

Regards

Terry

Hi Callum,

Jeff mentioned 'pot metal levers' on Chinese Lathes, I haven't come across these on any Chinese machine I have owned. My present lathe, a Warco WM280V-F is a well made and accurate machine, no 'pot metal' here, nor is there any on my Chinese Milling Machine, equivalent to the Warco WM18.

You will need a lot of tooling to support you machines and hand work, including good measuring equipment. A list of the latter ranges from rules through various micrometers to vernier gauges and can include vertical marking gauge, sine bar (very exotic and probably never used) dial test indicators with stands and lever dial gauges etc etc.

here is a thread about Black Holes here, in fact the whole workshop can become a black hole for money if you're not careful,

Best regards and welcome,

Terry

Hi Brian,

the standard method for domed rivets is to set the joint, form the dome with the ball peen and then final finish is with the domed set. If you try to shape the rivet solely with the set the rivet will bend and produce a very poor finish. Soft iron rivets should need no annealing.

I have always used the 1.6 x dia for the dome allowance plus the required length, this gave good results. There was a good article which included advice for rivetting just a couple of years ago. I will look out the reference.

Best regards

Terry

the title of this thread reminds me of the scarecrow that was awarded an MBE for being outstanding in his field ,

Sorry, I couldn't resist,

Best regards

Terry

Hi Brian,

are you rough forming the dome with a ball peen hammer before using the snap?

Regards

Terry