Member postings for Baz

It seems that whatever you do you can’t win, I am in the throes of pulling my old Polly 2 apart, she is one of the very early ones and just about worn out, removing the pistons revealed severe pitting at the bottom of the bores despite oil being injected in to the cylinders after each run and pushed up and down to disperse it. Loco is stored with drain cocks open and oil dribbles out through them but for some reason water does not. In future I may give it a run on air every few weeks using the air supply for the spray gun, I don’t get problems with water when spraying so maybe the air is dry enough for a quick run of the loco.

Attached to a length of rope it can have a new life as a boat anchor.

Jacob regarding the clutch, as it hasn’t been used in a while I would move the headstock belt to give the fastest speed you can get and try again, be brutal with it, really brutal. A spray of WD40 or something may help, if the clutches engage too easily they tend to slip so most people seem to set them on the tight side. Regarding feeds, you don’t need the spindle running to bleed the system, just the auxiliary motor, the 3 in 1 motor as it drives the hydraulics for feed, air compressor for the bar feed and coolant pump, this is located directly under the tailstock. Undo the little valves a couple of turns and move little lever at front to vertical or left and leave it there and eventually if you have oil in the system it should work, if it doesn’t it is quite easy to get it all out, usually it’s only the air compressor that gives problems and if it is beyond repair it is easy to just plumb in to the shop airline with a suitable pressure reducer, cannot remember actual pressure but is about 5 to 10 psi. Thinking about it it may be an idea to clean the hydraulic oil reservoir out and treat it to some new oil. For changing belt position on headstock you will find a lump of 3x2 timber handy to just lift the motor while you move the belt.

Jacob it looks like you have all the important bits there, left hand drills are a bonus as they are getting hard to find second hand nowadays. Get it all cleaned up and you will have a fantastic little machine. I know of quite a few running daily in industry turning out excellent work. Spares etc are only now obtainable by cannibalising an existing machine but fortunately they don’t seem to break or go wrong. A fantastic little machine that is hard to beat for short production runs.

Jacob changing speed using the clutch lever is usually done with the machine running, doesn’t matter what speed or direction, it will be stiff, power feed is hydraulic and air obviously gets in to the system so every time you use it you need to bleed the air. Move the whole bed to the right and open the two valves then move long lever to the left, the whole carriage will eventually judder it’s way towards the spindle, repeat a few times and all will be good, there are two feeds both infinitely adjustable so roughing and finishing. You appear to have the desirable indexing tailstock turret, do you have the rear splash back and the guard that goes in front of the operator and the bar feed and stand?

Nice machine, one of the later ones and looks like it’s 1 1/4 capacity model. First of all make sure the black knob is lifted up, it is a stop that can be set for boring holes, also right at the back of the cross slide is a square headed screw which adjusts the stop, maybe it has been wound in too far, another thing may be causing it is the spring on the right hand side of the slide, there is a little chrome plated button which when activated holds turning tools against the guide plate, the way to release it is to give the cross slide lever, the long one a very sharp push backward, maybe you are not being brutal enough. There is nothing else to stop the slide moving and as it goes back it will auto index to the next tool.Got exactly the same model in the workshop and used them in industry many years ago, they are fantastic machines to use and once you have got the hang of it you will be amazed how fast you can make stuff.

I seem to remember it being held at the Royal horticultural society halls in London, that was about fifty years ago, the one thing that sticks in my mind was that it was packed, you couldn’t move for people. I remember purchasing a rotary table, cost me fifty quid, it was a six inch diameter Criterion brand.

The ones on my genuine Multifix are M7x1, don’t know where you buy screws but Tracy Tools will sell you a tap and die if you need one.

Not just bike thieves, garden sheds with a padlock, my workshop door, caravans, trailers, the list is endless.

Before the days of readouts, digital, mechanical or optical, backlash in leadscrews had to be taken in to account and was always taken up in one direction, hence Martins point 6

I updated Alibre Atom to the latest version V27 a couple of weeks ago and as Jason says it loads a complete new version then deletes the old version, mine was all done start to finish in about 15 minutes.

I am in full agreement with Andrew, readouts on lathes especially smaller lathes get in the way, an example being the Myford 7 series, you cannot use the rear bed stop or taper turning attachment with readouts attached, how do I know, I fitted two axis readouts to my super seven and regretted it ever since, I still have not sussed out how to store offsets for multiple tools, despite having used dozens of lathes and mills equipped with readouts in my working life. I have got to remove them soon so I can use the taper turning attachment, I doubt very much if they will be put back on. On the other hand I have a set of Mitutoyo 3 axis readouts on the mill and would not be without them.

You must have other holders that fit your machine, put one of those in and see how far out that is, also have a good look at the taper in your spindle, all it needs is a bit of swarf embedded there and surprisingly in industry where your machine most probably came from the operators don’t always look after machinery as men in sheds do, also if you have them remove any spindle drive dogs, the arbor slots can be undersize and catch on the dogs causing a runout.

Totally agree Martin, amazing how many bits fly off. We used the light brown grade which is quite coarse and after half an hour you were covered in dust. I don’t use them at all in my workshop, if I had to use them I would do it in the garden.

Last aerospace company I worked for used to use them a lot, we had a 8 inch grinder with a drill chuck either end and a plywood template to cut the circles of scotchbrite around, they were mounted on a 1/2 inch bolt with a couple of ply washers supporting them and that was it. Used to get a lovely finish with them on stainless bits but you need a mask and safety glasses because of all the bits and dust that comes off the scotchbrite.

Lovely little three way vice, shame someone decided to make it a bit lighter by drilling all those holes in it.

As Alan says the Deckel was an engraver cutter grinder and the clones have had attachments made for them to attempt milling cutter grinding, my view on these machines is that you would be better off with a bench grinder and Harold Halls book of grinder accessories. Regarding Clarkson grinders you could easily make enough tooling to get you started, things like drill point grinding attachment and radius attachment are available, price may be a problem though, I am fortunate in having a fully equipped Clarkson, and after 25 years of ownership the radius attachment has only been used half a dozen times, mainly for sharpening ball nosed cutters. Have you considered a second hand Quorn, ok the build quality could be variable depending on the skill of the original builder but it should be capable of doing all that a Clarkson can and if it’s missing some attachment they can easily be made.

Never heard of Fast Tracks, how about posting a link to whatever track work you refer to.

Congratulations on finishing a Quorn, the coated cutters when sharpened and the coating ground off just become normal uncoated cutters, industry may well throw them away because their processes need the coating intact but for our needs it doesn’t matter at all. Get yourself a small diamond or CBN wheel for the Quorn and you will be able to get them sharpened back to as new sharpness.

If it were my compressor before I messed about with pressure switches etc I would get an air filter put on the left hand cylinder, as it is at the moment it is sucking in all the c**p in the workshop air. The right hand air filter doesn’t look too special either.