Member postings for Anthony Knights

It would appear from the above information, that it is better to leave the tops off the plastic milk containers when putting them in the re-cycling bin and chuck the tops in loose.

I am about to do some turning between centres and was curious as to the relationship between the centre hole size on the work piece and it's diameter. I have tried various searches on the internet to see if a table of dimensions exists, but without success. Of course, trawling the internet is an art, which means devising the correct search terms to enter to get a sensible result. Some people are better at this than others. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I noticed the newer glossy finish, but didn't think it was worth commenting on

Severely lacking in my experience.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 12/05/2022 09:01:05

A scroll through the Freeview channel listings shows most programs as having "strong" or "offensive" language, as well as violence, sexual content, nudity and drug use. A sign of the times I suppose.

Hi Steve. The dotted line is a drawing convention to indicate that the two switch contacts are mechanically linked and operate together. NB lines which cross WITHOUT a dot are not electrically connected. I wasn't sure what the PW connections were for and the controller works OK with no connection to them. Just leave them open.

Regards Anthony

As I said in a previous post, I fitted the control pcb in the lathes original control box. This was so I could use the existing emergency stop and reverse switches. The diagram is below, with the reversing switch on the left. The contacts are shown in the centre off position.

My reversing switch is a 3 position (centre off) toggle switch, while yours is rotary. The same connections apply. If the switch come without documentation you may have to meter the connections out to determine the correct ones to use. The centre off position is to stop you switching directly from foreward to reverse, although I always switch the power off before operating it anyway. Please note, I did not use the PW terminals on the control pcb. There does not appear to be any form of feedback with this board, so expect a reduction in speed when you load the machine. I can live with that in view of the difference in price between this controller and the expensive "proper "one.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes Anthony

I made something similar for my Clarke CL300 some time ago. This was based on a article in "Mike's Workshop" site. mikesworkshop.weebly.com/lever-feed-tailstock.html

This has the advantage of a lever feed or lock it and wind the handle as before. It makes "pecking" while drilling easier and I find it very useful if using tailstock held taps or dies. Also of course, an interesting construction project, which is what this hobby is all about, whether one is making some simple tooling or constructing a model railway engine.

I am quite aware of that. The purpose of the "Chinese watts" quip was to highlight the different ways people specify equipment. This point has been very well stated by S.O.D. in his treatise above. We've had the same thing with amplifiers and loudspeaker (Peak versus Average versus RMS etc) and just about every other piece of electrical kit you can think of.

I dug the lathes old motor housing out of the "might come in handy" box and have found that despite the written lathe specification, the actual motor plate states 250watts.

Shown here is the old motor housing in front of the half HP 3phase motor which I am hoping to fit, as just about everyone on this site sings the praises of the 3phase inverter plus motor.

Looks beautiful.

The motor on my Clarke CL300 lathe is a 180volt DC permanent magnet brushed motor, rated at 350(chinese) watts.The control unit shown is rated at 500 (chinese) watts and works fine on my lathe. There is an internal adjustment for the output voltage. I fitted the pcb in the original lathe control box. While this voids any warrentry, for £20, I thought it was worth the risk. This is only a temporary measure as I already have a 3phase half horse power motor with inverter which I am in the process of fitting now. Keeping the lathe running with this cheap control box enables me to make the bits necessary for the conversion. Interestingly, the 1/2 HP motor is physically twice the size of the DC motor and they are both in the 350watt range (1hp=746 watts). It must be the difference between Chinese and British watts.

I have used the item shown in the last two posts, to successfully run the motor on a Clarke mini lathe (CL300).

There is an arithmetic method of finding a square root using something resembling long division, but having never used it in nearly 70 years, I can't remember how it works. If I need a square root these days (not very often) I use a calculator, although I still have a couple of slide rules and some log tables stuck in a drawer somewhere.

Like the OP, my garage AKA workshop suffers from damp in the winter. My solution for the measuring kit was to treat myself to a cabinet (See photo below) to store it all. The cabinet itself is kept in the house.

Other stuff like MT chucks, lathe chucks, milling cutters etc are stored in the workshop in plastic food boxes with sealable lids. I also use several protective products from Arc Euro (other substances and suppliers are available). These are used both in the boxes and on the machinery, where any horizontal surface attracts condensation.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 13/04/2022 13:42:10

I was taught the old imperial measurements at primary school. Then physics in secondary school introduced the cgs system (centimeter, gram, second). Then it all changed again and we get MKS (metre, kilogram, second) with all its really large or impossibly small basic units, which I then had to re-learn the names for. I tend to use feet and inches when doing woodwork and metric dimensions for metal. I still think psi when inflating the car tyres because Pascals and the multiples thereof are meaningless to me. Not that I am supporting imperial measurements as I think metric is much more sensible. The only thing about imperial was, it made you good at mental arithmetic.

I took "Practical Electronics" from it's first issue in Nov.1964 until sometime in the 80's when work pressures made it difficult to do stuff at home. I just did an internet search to see what happened to it and discovered this site. **LINK**

https://worldradiohistory.com/Practical_Electronics.htm

which is a full archive of the magazine until it's merger with "Everyday Electronics" in Nov. 1992.

The home page for this site has dozens of links to other archives including one to "Practical Mechanics UK" which may be of interest to those with no interest in old electronics.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 11/04/2022 07:29:37

Comma not required between "boiler and". Also possibly full stop instead of comma after "Hi"

Perhaps I should get a methane fuel cell and make my own electricity with those prices!**LINK**

If it ain't broke...................................................................................

I wish someone would tell Microsoft.

I blame my6 disexik keybored.