Member postings for Metalhacker

Hi All,

In point of fact Harold you did publish a list of materials for all the later projects in Milling : A Complete course. The MEW article on the boring head which I am currently making has a list of all the materials which you will cumulatively need for the boring head, dividing head and toolrest. It is not however repeated in the book. So if you use Harold's MEW index you should find the aricle and hence the list.

BW

Andries

The drill sharpener is in fact the only thing I bought for the Tormek kit. Inherited the rest from my Dad and rarely used it till that MEW article came along. Now it sits on the bench and gets used regularly.

Andries

The article on using a waterstone grinder for tools actually grinds HSS excellently if slowly. Tormek certainly recognise this and suggest their jigs are used with an off hand grinder for initial shaping and with the waterstone for sharpening. They sell a kit to adapt things for this but in fact an aluminium block suitably drilled with a locking screw works well at scrapbox prices. The adaptor fitting for the waterstone can then be used on either the high speed off hand grinder or the low speed wetstone. I was about to build Harold's grinding rest but I'm now not going to bother particularly as the tormek 4 facet drill holder/sharpener can easily be modified to sharpen milling cutters.

BW

Andries

I have the Allendale Sino units on my SX3 mill and Newall units on my Boxford Lathe. Newall are probably better quality but twice the price. IMHO the Allendale units are better value than any old Sino ones for one simple reason...The Manual. The Sino one is absolutely incomprehensible but the Allendale one for the same units is really good. They rewrote them themselves and it was certainly worth the effort. I don't use most of the features on my upmarket reader head but no doubt will do so as I get more experienced. I have X,Y and Z axis features and the machine has a short range DRO on the Quill. The Z scale is really helpful and probably the one I read the most, tho' currently cutting dovetails for a boring head a la Harold Hall and the Y axis is great for not taking too big a cut a lunching the dovetail cutter. So in conclusion you gets what you pays for and as David Littlewood says the pleasure of quality lasts far longer than the sting of the price

Andries

Hi,

I bought my 920 in 1990, a Taiwanese version but it has been ok. Bought a spare belt as a precaution and have never actually used it. Due to the speed change/clutch mechanism it is easy to swap so if you got a replacement or two swapping them every couple of months would probably make them last forever. Incidentally the 920 yahoo group has an excellent file, Rebuilding the asian 9X20 Lathe, by Cletus L Berkeley, which tells you all you need to know abouit setting this lathe up right first off. I wish I'd had it in 1990. Would have saved a lot of hassles. I have the Pitkin Donut Topslide mod which is really solid compared to the standard 2 bolt one. Again on the Yahoo site.

Enjoy it

Andries

Firstly, I would hate to have your job David: keeping all of us happy with our varied experience and interests must be a nightmare. Some issues are of course more interesting than others but overall MEW knocks spots off HSM its major competitor.

I have almost no experience of engineering in an industrial environment. A day on a capstan lathe during a holiday job while at medical school is about it. Now as a psychiatrist the hobby is so far from the day job that it is great to unwind with it. I am always interested in how to do something better or differently and differently may be quite basic to you experienced chaps out there but not to the rest of us. So please carry on the beginners articles. I have had a Unimat, a 9x20 and a Boxford in the last 30 years but I am still very much beginning and he who is so confident that he has nothing to learn is likely to make mistakes. I am not going to be making a Stepperhead anytime soon but love the articles. So keep up the diversity. As to models, well thats what ME is for. The digital Sub is a great way to see if the latest edition is woth buying. Trains leave me cold but some of the other stuff is great. They are different and Vive la difference!

Andries

Sorry you deleted the thread david. I did have a moan about this one. The article on the 'Poor Man's Shadowgraph' The drawings change units all the time with some dimensions imperial some metric and some ...well who can guess. back in the days of harold Hall...Yes I am that old, drawings very definitely stated the units they were in and marked any deviations from that. This latest set of drawings are super confusing because of it. Yes I know we are all intelligent grown ups but our ageing brains can find it difficult to keep up!

More clarity in future please.

Andries

As a semi legal aside the responsibility for supplying goods of merchantable quality lies with the supplier not the manufacturer. You have a contract with them and therefore they are required under the Sale and Supply of goods act to make sure what they supply is what you thought you were buying. It may be of interest to any of you that own Saab's you thought were under warranty. Since they went bust your dealer will tell you the warranty is void. It aint necessarily so as the warranty is between you and the dealer. There I go digressing off topic again, but if you can remember who sold you the duff gear at the exhibition contact them, they will be closer than the manufacturer and probably are more fluent in our native tongue

ATB Andries

I realise I have read this before and had an equally embarassing accident because of it! In medical circles ( I am a psychiatrist) we have some equally silly tricks to play on our newbies. A common one is getting a student to ask Sister for a Recumbent Posture, as it was recommended in the past that some medicines were taken in one! The battleaxes of 60's nursing were rarely amused, and the poor students life would be dire from then on. Ah Happy Days!

Andries