Member postings for Andyf

In our first house, I built a 10' bench across the end of the garage out of 10"x3" floor joists from a demolition site, supported on three brick piers. It proved pretty sturdy, though no doubt moved a bit with temperature and humidity.

Andy

PS "Tanking" turns a cellar into a waterproof box, so damp won't penetrate from the surrounding soil. Obviously, it must be non-porous, and also be capable of withstanding a degree of pressure if the water table is high.

Some folk make heavy weather of converting from metric to imperial. For example, the diameter of this Ebay item from Hong Kong.

Andy

"Official" binders have thin metal rods inside the spine, each rod passing down the fold between the centre pages of a magazine. Taking my cue from this, I use old lever arch files, with the mechanism removed and string stitched through the top and bottom of the spine and running up the inside of the spine. Each magazine is opened out at the centre, and slipped under the string.

Problem is that, being retired, I no longer have access to old lever arch files with broken mechanisms.

Andy

Ian, I think you may be thinking of a different machine. This manual for the CMD300 shows a "drawbolt for taper shank" as item 10 on page 7.

The manual also shows that there is some sort of cover which must be removed to gain access to the top of the drawbar.

Andy

You might look around for a place that engraves signs and plaques on plastic, and see if they can do one on material with a white base layer overlaid with blue.

Andy

Assuming that the drill chuck fits into a taper in the milling spindle and is held in place by a drawbar, the usual procedure would be to loosen the drawbar and give the top of it a tap or two with a brass hammer to free off the taper. If no brass hammer, interpose a bit of brass or ally so the drawbar isn't damaged.

It shouldn't have been tightened up so hard that heavy blows which might cause damage are needed. If light taps won't do the trick, some sort of C shaped wedge between the chuck body and spindle is called for. It is better to use two wedges opposed to one another and squeezed together with a clamp, so pressure is exerted by parallel surfaces.

Andy

John, with me, it's clamping kits. The unthreaded middle bit (why is it there?) on the first stud chosen always stops you tightening the nut, and when you dismantle them, the triangular stepped blocks seem have a life of their own and end up on the floor. The first problem has been overcome by chopping up some M10 studding, and I'm beginning to remember to hold on to the block as I release the clamp.

Oh, and the fact that the hole down the top of the spindle on my Dore Westbury is 5/16", so I have to swing the head out from over the table so I can feed a 3/8 or 10mm drawbar, with the upper end suitable thinned, into it from below and then add an M8 nut to the top.

As to a toolpost, there are several recipies around, the simplest probably being the Norman Patent. An alternative approach is to use a "standard" toolpost, and keep each tool, with the shims needed to get it to centre height, in an individual container. But the height of the tool tip will alter on re-sharpening.

Andy

The details don't have to be accurate, Len. I've forgotten who they think I am - maybe a 23 year old good time girl, or some such fiction.

Andy

Ian, I have a very similar vertical slide for my Perris lathe (still produced as the Cowells). Fixing is by a single stud into one of the Tee slots on the cross slide, a somewhat precarious arrangement.

As to your dial, you mentiond that you could go up to 2" diameter. The one I made for my Iarger (but still small) lathe is about 2.05" diameter, and the 100 divisions are thus approximately 1/16" apart. Without stooping, they can be read easily using my varifocal specs. On a 2" dial, 125 marks would be about 1/20" apart, and should still be pretty readable. The fine downfeed on my Dore Westbury miller has 130 divisions on a 1.5" diameter dial, and those are getting a bit close together (and hard to see on the brass collar), though at least the dial is around neck height.

Andy

Johan,

You said earlier "I am too lazy to make a big project yet, as I would like to evaluate first before I do the mod permanently, and only if it works." It seems to work very well, so don't fix it unless it falls off!

Thanks for showing such an ingenious adaptation of hardware store items..

Andy

I found it pretty essential when all I had for miling operations was a vertical slide, Ian. The dial on the topslide would cope perfectly well with most turning down or facing operations which require a degree of precision. But, as my lathe is a small one, its topslide is usually set at an angle so it doesn't foul the tailstock, and I have got into the habit of using the leadscrew dial.

Andy

Alan, if your leadscrew is fractional pitch like 8tpi, choosing the right gear ratio between the offset handle and the leadscrew would enable you to put 100 marks on the dial, each representing 1 thou, and one full turn of the dial reflecting 0.010" travel.

Compared with 125 graduations, this would eliminate some mental arithmetic if you want to shift the saddle along by (say) 0.460". With the right ratio, four full dial turns plus another 60 thou. That's easier than than 3 x 0.125 = 0.375", which when subtracted from the desired 0.460" leaves 0.085, so 3 full dial turns plus another 0.085".

Being a bit of a duffer at sums, I fitted a geared dial to my 12tpi leadscrew (a really awkward 0.8333" per turn) which has made life a lot easier, even though there's no idler and the dial contra-rotates.

Andy

I'm reminded of the arrangement in older portable radio tuners, with a knob turning a small pulley, a nylon cord to a larger pulley to which the free ends of the cord are attached, the larger pulley being on the shaft of the tuning capacitor. A tensioning spring is incorporated in the cord. The pointer for the long tuning dial is attached to the nylon cord. It may be (I haven't been inside one for years) that the cord took a couple of turns round the small pulley for extra friction. The small/large pulleys "geared" the arrangement for finer tuning than a knob on the capacitor shaft could provide.

This might translate to a wire drive for a table, if the table was substituted for the pointer. But a scale of some sort to show the table movement to any degree of accuracy would be difficult, unless a dial indicator or DRO was employed.

Andy

I think that the original Presto got into difficuties and went into administration (probably followed by liquidation) around 2007, Martin. The current Presto is called Presto International Limited, operating from a different address in Sheffield. It may be that the name was bought up by someone else, and the new company might just be a distributor rather than a manufacturer.

Andy

David, I doubt that you are any more likely to receive such complaints than the Met Office and whoever issues those "Don't travel unless you absolutey must" warnings.

That said, you are the boss on here, and I can appreciate your wanting to avoid any possibility of accusations that you are raining on someone else's parade. Or snowing on it, for that matter.

Andy

Here's another potential bodge, Ian. Take a look at the penultimate picture. Hang up a variable speed mains electric drill, and use a flexible drive to connect it to your mill spindle.

Andy

I am developing quite a pile of MEWs, If the advertising pages could be printed on Andrex, it would ease pressure on storage space.

Andy

The hard to navigate Peatol website (that being the UK name for the Taig) mentions a 1/4HP Brook Crompton motor for £60 inc P&P. I don't think Taig/Peatol motors are variable speed, though. Elsewhere, it suggests a motor between 1/8 and 1/4HP (say 120W to 250W input power, to allow for losses).

Looking at the Cowells website, their vertical miller, which may be of similar size to yours, uses a Parvalux DC motor, 125W output (1/6HP), with a speed controller. I mention this only as an example of the sort of power needed; I'm not suggesting you invest in that particular setup unless you have deep pockets.

Andy.

Searching Ebay for "24V motor" turned up a number of possibilities, including this 250W one for a child's scooter. The same seller has a 300W version in his shop, and a 24V controller for about £15. Of course, you then need a 24V DC power supply, so costs begin to mount.

Andy

I know from other forums that there have been occasions when small (up to around 600W) Chinese DC permanent magnet motors have overheated and burned out. The problem arises in high torque, low speed situations such as turning large diameters.

My lathe has such a motor, and even when running at high speed its internal fan doesn't shift much air. I fitted a computer fan to the end, blowing the same way as the internal one when running forward; Of course, when the motor is reversed the two fans fight one another, but the internal one is so weak that the external one wins, and in any case the motor is only reversed to reposition the carriage, rather than to do any real work. I'm not sure if Johan's mini-mill has a reverse switch for its motor, but if it does it will be used very rarely.

Andy