Member postings for Metalhacker

I have prescription varifocal safety glasses. Not cheap at around £150, but my eyes are valuable particularly as only one works. Very much worth it IMHO.

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Andries

As this thread is about indexabletools, has anyone tried the HSS indexable tips from A R Warner in the US? Any good and do they have a UK distributor? It seems to me that foramatuer use these could be ideal, at least until one had made a decent T&C grinder.

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Andries

Tubal Cain and for that matter Harold Hall's reference book are most likelyallyouwill need, but... I have a 21st edition, redundant library stock when I lived inOz, which is very rarely used, aand the latest pocket edition which is already well thumbedsince it came for my birthday at thebeginnig of thismonth. Son is a marineengineer....... It even has gcode tables in it if that is your bag.

sorry about the elliterations. Touch screens hate me. Perhaps I am a bad conductor!

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Andries

ps my stuff from Tubal Cain is printed out and laminated. Really useful thing to do.

Thanks for that information Ketan, I hope it clarifies things for the 'knockers'. All I can say is that I have been highly satisfied by my SX3 supplied by you and when I broke something, the replacemnt part was with me very rapidly. I for one am a very satisfied customer and will be buying a Super C3 and an SX2 plus for my holiday house, as soon as I have saved up the mazuma.

Keep up the good work,

Andries

Picked up an Adept 2a ( ie powered) at an auction about 15 years ago for not much loot. Cuts well but will only feed left to right not back right to left. Even that winding is hard work and I am not sure if the table is square to the ram. May need to put on a subtable machined in situ to get it square and enable use of rather smaller T nuts. Any info on restoring the R-L feed gratefully received.

Andries

In theory if you go onto th subscribe area on the right of the header you can then enter your digital subscription no. Worked for the ME's but not the MEW one. Iemailed about it and they want ALL the info from the plastic wrapper. Who keeps that? So I have to wait till next month's edition. Hmmmmmm.

Andries

Chris,

those look good! Do you have a link? The narrowed chisel point will make them easier to start on a centre punch mark. If it wears too much they can be gashed in again from the side with a very narrow wheel or perhaps with a Dremel in a jig.

I had been myopic for years and wore glasses all the time. Then I had a cataract op and for a couple of years 'made do' with over the counter readers. I got fed up with carrying around 3 pairs of glasses however. I got top of the line varifocals and persuaded my optometrist, afriend, and the local vicar, tomake some varifocal safety glasses. Magic! You can see almost everything and infocus without the grubbiness of over the lens ones. For really small work I have one of those magnifier lights which is also good, bbutfrequently trips the RCD when starting which can be a pain. I would say go for it everytime in regards to. The varifocals. Afew days of peculiar vision but then it is almost like seeing was when you were 21 rather than 61!

Andries

Have you thought of simply using an M6x0.5 tap and die. I got a set from Tracy Tools for a boring head I made. Work fine.

saves a lot of Hassle

Andries

I, like Derek, have a US one, a 396, bought in Perth Aus. In 1989. Only repair I've had to do was replace the clutch last week. A plastic tube which had perished over the years.. I also bought some new brushes as a precaution but it didn't need them. It's had a hard ish life over the years and is still going strong, but the chuck doesn't grip well, collets are much better. Dunno about newer ones though!

Andries

Thanks Keith, Neil, and of course Harold. I will be sure to take that all into account when making the dividing head. One last thought. As I have the VSL Boxford lathe it would be very unwieldy to use an L00 mounted chuck. But I would think using a unimat chuck on an MT2 taper might be too small. Any ideas anyone?

Best Wishes

Andries

I do have a question about the dividing head of Harold's. Will there be a need for dimension changes using Module 1 gears, ie 25.4 DP. I am about to embark on construction having finished the boring head and on to the next project of the milling book. I cannot see that it makes a lot of difference but not being an engineer I may be in ignorance of the salient facts!

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Andries

I have an sX3 from Arc. Good machine and great after sales service. in my experience Warco lose interest as soon as they have your money. What about their SX2? Looks good on paper at least and eliminates all the problems of the standard X2.

checking out the options is part of the fun of buying a new machine, so look long before you buy. Amadeal may be worth researching too.

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Andries

I think Issue 200 grows on you. When first opened I also had a slight feeling of letdown. Once I had perused it for a bit I began to get echoes of issue 1 and the complete articles with all the drawings in were really evocative of the first years editions. As for the Bentley , Looked great but most of us will never aspire to own one. But as the success of those prats on Top Gear shows, being able to afford something does not stop the entertainment of being informed about it. After all we have had articles on Motor cycle restoration without major complaint. On another subject you are right Neil about Radford's articles being dry as dust. No explanation of the intent or principles involved, they just start with 'take a 3" length of BMS bar etc etc.' Keep up the good work David. BW to all Andries

The more important deficiency on the Small Chinese Lathe is the lack of tumbler reverse in the majority of cases. It can be very tedious having to wind the carriage back by hand when screwcutting and of course left handed threads are impossible without a leadscrew reverse. I can be done by putting an idler in the gear chain to reverse the direction but it can be tedious to arrange. I looked at the 280vs last year but ended up buying a boxford VSL. Much more versatile and far better than I am. Andries

I had a similar setup to Mike's which was marketed by warco for their 918 type lathe. When setup on the cross slide, to which it bolted with little trouble via 3 T nuts as soon as the smallest cut was started it vibrated horribly and tried to tear the already fairly flimsy cross slide off the lathe, I didn't use it again and now have an SX3 which is great. I do however plan to use the slide again to try to bore 2 parallel holes in a block for a tool and cutter grinder (Brooks design from an MEW yonks ago). I hope this might work as a height adjustable boring table which I plan to fit to the cross slide on my Boxford. We shall see if it can redeem itself. Andries

The arc euro trade SX2 uses a Dc brushless motor and belt drive. It would be my choice every time. Andries. (usual disclaimer)

We have several Henries, both for the house and the workshop. The workshop one dates from 1995 and is still going strong. I tried it without the bag but generally find a bag controls the crud better. Vacuums are great for swarf but NEVER EVER use compressed air to blow it away. your eyes are too precious to have flying metal chips in them. Andries

I had to buy a new laptop as the old one wouldn't send emails any more. It came with W8 and I initially hated it. Now I have spent some cash on manuals it is beginning to make sense. The jury is still out as to if I like it but it sure works awful quick, thoughit could be the quad core processor and the 6 gb RAM!. If you're happy with what you've got don't switch but if it came with then all is far from lost as the desktop function works more or less as Vista did. best wishes to all Andries

I totally agree about Warco manuals. I bought a bandsaw off them and the manual was rubbish with several pages missing. I complained at their stand at the next show I attended and they said they would send a new and complete manual...did they 'eck. I have seen nothing from that day to this. I eventually got a manual from Dias Costa for an Identical German version of the saw which was great. I rather got the impression that Warco are very much less attentive after they have got your money than before. Arc however have been very good with parts and info on their mills though again the best manual for an SX3 is found on the grizzly site. The Arc strip down is however very useful to show what goes where.

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Andries