Member postings for Mike Poole

I have worked on a sophisticated hydraulic shear that the top blade could be adjusted for shearing angle, I think as the thickness of material increased the angle of the blade shearing action would increase. The burr on the edge can be negligible with the blades sharpened correctly and adjusted properly. Worn trim dies could produce extremely sharp burrs and edge distortion. A well set up guillotine should produce parts that require very little fettling. Industrially they would probably be tumbled with an abrasive to produce safe to handle burr free parts. A tumbler is not hard to make, Google will probably take you to lots of rock polishing sites but the principles and equipment are similar.

Mike

It seems that the latest generation of EV chargers will be managed to share the load, part of the charging procedure will be to specify when the vehicle will be required so charging can be managed to balance the load across the charging window.

Mike

In a bored moment I signed up for a smart meter, it has not saved me a penny yet. It would save me a fortune if I cut the plug off the tumble dryer. It has exposed what the always on standby and chargers use though, a few solar panels to just offset this constant drain of around 200W might help not too useful at night though. If electrickery prices remain high then solar panels should become more attractive even without a feed in payments.

Mike

A gearbox is very convenient for the feeds and pitches in the standard setting of the box, anything out of the standard range and you will be back to adjusting the gear train driving the box. Some people will probably never need to use anything other than the standard range but if you regularly swap from metric to imperial then some drive train changes will be needed. Electronic motor driven lead screws are generating quite a bit of interest and commercial options are available but will still require the motor and encoder to be mounted on your lathe.

Mike

How it works this adds some more explanation to his original video and a demo of it working.

Mike

For material of this thickness a junior hacksaw would be most suitable, some frames allow the blade to be turned at an angle to get the frame out of the way of the material. Using the saw like this can feel a bit awkward but a bit of practice is all that is required. Building prototypes is something that is easier with a good workshop and equipment but that requires a major investment and a learning curve to use the equipment. I understand that coming up with something innovative requires keeping your ideas under wraps until it is proven and protected and obviously an open forum is not confidential. At the moment you seem to need a partner who has good facilities and skills and can be trusted, the parts you are struggling with are a bit fiddly to make but with the right equipment it could be a whole lot easier but limited finance and skills are adding another degree of difficulty. I don’t think people are being unhelpful but the parameter limits you describe make the jobs very difficult indeed.

Mike

I understand the vulnerabilities of Alexa but being able to ask her to adjust the heating, turn on lights, play music from Spotify on my Sonos system and interface with the tv is more convenient than launching an app or finding a remote control. My brother in law who has a very debilitating illness finds she can do many things for him, unfortunately his voice is also becoming affected so her usefulness may become limited. I also don’t mind Marmite although I am not a big fan.

Mike

My recent email from Alexa informs me she can now fart, well I had to test her and she has a pretty comprehensive library. The question now is should I get her to showcase her skills while my wife is on a work zoom call?

Mike

Brian if you PM me an email address I can send you a pdf with some useful information, it is for the M4 but I think the gearbox is common to the M5.

Mike

I would think the mechanical stresses are more likely to cause damage to the machine rather than the motor. I worked on a 20 ton crane that had a 40hp hoist motor with electronic speed control. The control was simply a thyristor control but if the load was heavy enough it could cause the motor to over speed when lowering so a reversing contactor would swap to hoist and the motor would be driven in reverse to control the descent speed. I used to feel for the poor motor but I only remember it being rewound once in about 20 years.

Mike

I would think most people who are the wrong side of 60 will have noticed a significant impairment of their hearing compared to their youth. Having been a fan of Motörhead and Ted Nugent as well as noisy motorcycles I am surprised I can still hear at all. I have mild high pitched note type tinnitus and I hunted high and low for the machinery hum but it seems to be only me that can hear it. I also find conversation in a noisy environment challenging now. I still enjoy noisy cars and bikes though.

Mike

I have used them for bearings, belts, pulleys and motors, always efficient and well priced. I would recommend.

Mike

I wonder if robots will pay to watch robots?

Mike

I shall go if it doesn’t get cancelled, fortunately I don’t need to make any arrangements as it is only a 1hr drive away, if it goes ahead I think we will be well on the way to normality, well fingers crossed.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 14/01/2022 12:40:53

Doncaster Show At the moment it would appear that the show is yet to be confirmed. I would not want to be in the position of having to call it one way or the other. I have usually booked a hotel by now but I am keeping my powder dry. I could just book anyway as a weekend in Yorkshire is a pleasant experience. I expect the organisers will post on the forums when they can make a firm decision.

Mike

You can certainly drill on a mill and it can be very useful for setting out holes accurately and even drilling the holes while the job is set up. It is my preference to have both options but I think Jason has said his drill gets little use. You can drill with a lathe and a tailstock drill pad or use the vertical slide if available. A drill makes a poor mill and trying to use it for milling will not be easy and is not to be recommended. The biggest problem is usually holding the cutter safely as a drill has no drawbar to retain the tool holder and a drill chuck is not an effective milling chuck. People have and probably still do only have a lathe as their only machine tool, but machinery is much more affordable and easily available now so many people will have the choice of what to equip themselves with. I like to have the mill and the drill but if I was short of space or money I would prioritise a mill as it is a capable drill most of the time, it will stumble if a large job comes in but that is likely to be rare. If choosing a mill for drilling duties as well then a quill and drill style feed are useful.

Mike

A 2 litre pop bottle with dry ice and hot water produces a spectacular bang, good luck if you find any of the bottle pieces.

Mike

The RS catalogue used to arrive in our plant by the pallet load, every maintenance foreman had their own copy although they shared an office and every building had its own maintenance team. The maintenance supervision was an electrical, millwright, jig fitting, pipe fitting and welding Forman, so five copies in every area then add in facilities engineering, the buyers and stores it all added up to a lot of copies. My wife does not understand loudspeakers and I have had to move on a pair of Celestion Ditton 15XRs and a pair of Castle Conways, she doesn’t seem to mind the Sonos sound bar and Play Ones, I suspect my ears are well beyond hifi after 40 years of megadecibel rock music and equally loud motorcycles.

Mike

Fusion will save us, it’s only 30 years away, I think it was only 30 years away when I went to the JET project open day in the mid 80s.

Mike

A very convenient device that should avoid the horror of broken bull wheel teeth but always remember that the bull wheel is keyed to the spindle with a woodruff key, they do break and if the shaft housing for the key is damaged then a new housing will need to be cut. I would be wary of a weld repair and recut. For normal chuck changes this is great but for a chuck that is really stuck I would be dismantling the spindle.

Mike