Member postings for Ricky Walker

Hi Brian,

I did think it rather odd, but I milled and filed a small bit of mild steel down til it fit the keyway on the shaft, and it was 4mm wide. When I fitted one of the change gears, the key slot appeared wider than it was tall, and a quick measurement with digital calipers gave me 3.5mm high. This did surprise me a bit, as I was expecting it to be 4mm, although measuring the height of the key slot accurately was a bit difficult with the digital calipers, so that may account for it. It does look physically wider than it looks tall, though.

The bit of mild steel I cut down to 4mm is still 6mm on the other dimension, and I am having difficulty on figuring out how to hold it in the vice to be able to mill it down to size on the other dimension, so I'll have to think about it for a bit before I continue - I may end up having to make a special jig to hold it for machining! Just realised, I may be able to clamp it directly to the milling table, as the piece is longer than I need for the key, so I could clamp it at either end and mill to 4mm high in the middle.

And as you say, it is a straight key, not a woodruff key, sorry, old mart

Thanks

Ricky

Hi All,

Whilst changing the change gears on my Mini Lathe (A Warco Mini Lathe) I lost the small key that fits the change wheel on the end of the lead screw. Does anyone know offhand what size this is, so I can order some key steel stock of the right size? A quick examination makes me think it is 4mm x 3.5, or possibly 3.4, so I'd need to order some 4mm square I think, is this right? I'd rather buy some key steel instead of ordering the made key as a spare from Warco(if they even have it!) as I'm still building my stock of offcuts, etc

Cheers

Ricky Walker

Thanks to all who have replied, I have now bookmarked that 200w motor and controller, I should be able to buy it in a week or so. My next decision is as to what size to make the mandrel nose. The original drawings call for a 1/2" BSF thread, but I'm thinking I may go for the Unimat 3 nose size, it depends on what chucks are available at what price. It will be a while before I get that far, so I have plenty of time to look into it

Cheers

Ricky

Hi,

I've started building the small lathe from L C Mason's book, and wondered what sort of motor I should be looking at for driving it? Nothing is mentioned in the book about powering the lathe, that I can find.

I have a 12v DC motor and speed controller I got off Ebay, of Chinese origin, for another project, not sure if it is big enough or powerful enough though, I know it revs to 3k rpm, but not sure of the power output. I may try to use that, or see if I can get something a bit bigger.

Any help in deciding what motor I should be looking for would be much appreciated!

Edited By Ricky Walker on 10/02/2021 12:58:13

Thanks for those measurements. I've made a start today on machining the head, as I found a piece of round bar 2" dia by around 6" long, looks like it is cast iron, so I'm using that

I'kk post pictures as work progresses

Cheers

Ricky

Hi Dave,

I agree with you on the aspect of building up of materials and tools by building instead of buying ready made, since I am really just starting out, and don't have much in the way of stocks of metal, or do I have a lot of experience in machining.

I do have some experience, as I have owned my Warco Mini Lathe, and Clarke micro mill/drill for around 10 years, but I had them in my shed, which is also the shed for my gardening stuff and my motorbike stuff, so I needed a good 20 minutes of clearing out before I could even get at my lathe! I have recently moved those tools into my spare bedroom, so I am starting to do all those projects I have been dreaming of doing for the last 10 years, LOL

Currently I am making improvements and accessories for my mini Lathe, and have also made a start on BAT, an O gauge steam loco, and started making L C Mason's small lathe - just because it looks cool, I'm planning on making C J Thorne's Clockmaker's throw, as well. So with all those projects, I should start building up a decent stock of metals, and get some valuable experience too.

As regards the boring head, I need it for a specific job, making a modified cross slide for my mini lathe, but I'm sure it will get a lot of use once I have one. I am inclined towards making it, because the experience will be good, and at the end of the day, I'll be able to point to it and say, "I made that".

Cheers

Ricky

Hi

I downloaded these plans with a view to building one. First thing I did was priced up the materials and tools I'd need to buy, eg the 2" steel round bar, and a set of boring tools. Turns out it will cost in the region of £45 if buying cheap Chinese or possibly Indian carbide tipped boring tools. I compared this with what it would cost me to buy a boring head already made, and in a plastic case, including the boring tool set, around £60. So now I'm just debating on whether to build or to buy!

Another thing I noticed was that on the drawings, for both the body(figure 3) and the slide (figure 7), the height of those parts is not given. On the body, there is a 16mm dimension for the depth of the hole the arbor screws into, and the height of the dovetails is given as 7mm, but there is an undimensioned section between those 2 points, that looks about 5 or 6 mm. Again, on the slide, there is a dimension showing the depth of the holes for the boring tools(15mm), and a dimension from the opposite end to the threaded cross holes for the boring tool fixing screws at 24.5mm, but no overall height - I'm guessing it to be about 32mm or so.

I only noticed because I was trying to work out how much 2" bar I'd need to buy, but it didn't matter in the end as I'd just buy a 6" length of it quite cheaply.

Really pleased with the one I bought, no maker's name on it, and it doesn't match any of the ones I looked at on the shapers archive site i found (lathes .co.uk, or something like that) so I'll be trying to find out what make it is over the next few weeks

I just couldn't believe how much traffic there was around the M25, especially as it is Sunday! Got the shaper home now, I just need some more space to magically appear, so I have somewhere to keep it

Ricky

Edited By Ricky Walker on 11/03/2019 01:36:06

Hi Paul Lousick,

I'd not seen that one before, now it is part of my collection of plans

Cheers

Ricly

Today I made the cross feed screw for the worktable on my shaper mock up. Tomorrow I'll be travelling from Hull to Dartford to collect the hand operated shaper I won on eBay I;ll still be building this design though, as it is smaller than the one I have bought.

Here is a pic of the one I have bought:

Should be interesting, and will help me to build the one I have started

Excellent resource! This is going to make fascinating reading, downloading now

Edited By Ricky Walker on 07/03/2019 15:52:42

I have bought and downloaded the Acto 6 hand shaper plans from the Australian website machineryplans.com. Very impressive set of drawings, however, looks like it needs a fully equipped workshop to build this design. Firstly there is a lot of welding involved, and secondly, the components need a fully equipped machine shop to make, such as dovetail slide ways at 40cm long. Worth looking through to see what ideas are useable on my shaper, but not a design I can build as it is.

Ricky Walker

Yes, I was considering building this one, until I remembered the FT Leightwood design i had read, and dug out the relevant article.

I am pretty much decided now on building a modified F T Leightwood design, as i seems so compact, and the machining procedures have less problems than any of the other designs. I just have to decide whether to build it using metric or imperial materials - I will be using metric fasteners.

I am already thinking about how I would convert this design to a powered model, and my first idea is that a countershaft, mounted slightly above and behind the machine could hold a bull wheel and linkage to the ram.This countershaft would then allow me to add an auto feed mechanism for the worktable and a flywheel with a crank handle, which could in turn be driven by a motor using a belt drive. But first things first, I have to get a working shaper built

Ricky Walker

Hi Dias,

I have already been looking at your posts regarding the Gingery Shaper (As I said, I've been reading a lot about shapers just lately, LOL), excellent work!

Cheers

Ricky Walker

Hi John,

I have the set of Gingery books, and have got as far as building a furnace, not used it in anger yet, I am hoping to do so this summer Building the Gingery shaper is one of the options I looked at, and I may still do that - I'll probably want a powered shaper at some point

I've managed to get the pictures uploaded into an album, so here they are, hopefully:

First picturre showing the thing assembled.

From a different angle, showing the ram more clearly.

The parts separated, clockwise from top left: Ram (not complete), worktable - still needs holes drilling on side, worktable slide, and main base.

The ram still needs the head and clapper box making, and I haven't started on the slide screws yet. Also, I still have to make the operating arm and linkages. Then I have to start again doing it all in metal

Making this version in wood has really helped me in working out any design changes I want to make on the metal version, and it looks cool too! First step I'll be ordering some 1/2" thick alloy for the main base plates. I have decided to make this from a mixture of aluminium and steel - steel where the dovetail ways are involved, alloy for most of the rest of it.

The machine tools I will be using are a Warco mini lathe, and a Clarke CMD10 micro mill/drill. I'll post pictures as my build progresses. And who knows, we may end up with a working shaper at the end of it all !

Ricky

Hello all,

I've been reading a lot about shapers recently, and it re-kindled my on and off desire to own one for myself. I don't have room for a normal size powered version, so a hand operated one is the option I am going for. I remembered reading an article in the Best of Model Engineer Volume 3, a reprint from June 9, 1949, entitled "A hand bench shaper" by F T Leightwood.

I had dismissed this article when I first read it, as being unsuitable due to the materials needed (6" x 5" x 1/2" steel angle), techniques (welding), and equipment needed to build (The author used a full sized shaper owned by a friend for some of the machining).

However, recently I have been rethinking, and I wondered if it would be possible - or reasonable - to build it using aluminium and/or steel plate, screwing or bolting parts together instead of welding, etc.

So I decided to build a mock-up using plywood and MDF, screwed and glued together, with M8 threaded rod for the slide controls. It is coming along nicely, and has proved the concept that it would be possible to make one of these shapers by built-up methods. I've not finished the mock-up yet, but have made the main components, and will be finishing it off over the next week or so, before starting to build one for real. Making the mock-up version has shown me a few things, one being helping visualise how to make and assemble the shaper, another being just how small this shaper is, considering it has around a 6" ram travel!

As soon as I figure out how to add pictures, I'll upload some pictures of what I have achieved so far

Cheers

Ricky Walker

edit: Sorry, thread title should be "build a.". not "build as "

Edited By Ricky Walker on 06/03/2019 14:47:43

Hi all,

I have been spending my time drawing up the driving wheels in both O and 2-1/2" guages for this loco (and learning how to use the CAD program I have, as well), and been thinking about how to cast the wheels.

I think, especially for the O guage wheels, that a lost wax, or investment, casting process would be suitable. I have been reading up about the process, and bought a book on the subject from Camden. However, most of what I have read deals with lower melting point metals such as aluminium and bronze, and uses plaster of paris as the "investment" or mould material. Obviously this would not be suitable for cast iron, so I need to find a source of investment material suitable for casting in cast iron.

Another option would be to maybe cast the wheels in aluminium or gunmetal and add tyres machined from steel, more like the prototype

Anyway, that is where I am so far, I have the machining drawings done for 2 of the 3 differeent driving wheels, and have drawn up casting patterns for cast iron wheels in 2-1/2" guage (although I still have to play around with the dimensions, trying to get them big enough to read, but not so big they overwhelm the drawing)

Cheers

Ricky

Thanks for that link, John, I have downloaded the files, and will have a look later today. Should be very useful.

Neil, sounds about right, lol

Cheers

Ricky

HI all,

Well I have a set of works drawings now, and I have been having a good look. the main engine chassis (what is the plural for chassis?) seems to be a huge hollow steel casting on the original, and the drawing is so covered in dimension lines, hidden detail lines, etc, that it is difficult to make out the overall shape of it, but I'm getting there. I made a little start today, drawing the wheel layout of the O guage version, and immediately saw that there may be a problem with the driving wheel spacing. Since the flanges on a model are over scale, on the model at scale wheel spacing, there is just 1mm clearance between adjacent wheel flanges. I just have to decide whether to reduce the wheel dialmeters, or to increase the spacing between axle centres. All part of the fun of own design I'll post again when I have some more done.

Cheers

Ricky