Member postings for AndyB

Hi all,

It has been some time since I posted on the forum, even not getting wound up enough over holding an end mill in a 3 jaw lathe chuck in the Lathes for Beginners series, but the article in the latest magazine has me having to complain - sorry.

I am all in favour of a comparison of names for different countries so that we all understand what is being discussed but I would prefer that an American explains what is meant by the names and terms that he uses, rather than decide on the terms that we are supposed to use in the UK and give an American comparison.

To describe the English usage of Boxford as being South Bend in American is ludicrous; there are Boxford lathes in America, and why particularly these? He goes on to describe the English flat bed lathes as having an American equivalent of South Bend or Boxford - what is the point of using a term in the American description that Americans are not supposed to understand?

A dog clutch is definitely NOT a fastener with a short unthreaded length at the end, and I have never heard of dog point screws.

A sticky pin is only one form of a centre finder and I know that Americans have many.

Whoever here has a telescoping damper on their car? I have shock absorbers on mine.

Baize is not actually felt; you don't see stetsons made of baize.

The Permanent Way is the track, not somebody's right of way.

Something described as High Street is not what I would think of as overly fancy, snob goods.

I could go on through most of the list but I will finish by asking the question; who in the UK ever uses Mole Wrenches? I have only ever heard them called Mole Grips.

As I said, I am for sensible comparisons but I suppose that Mr Widin means well but I feel this to be patronising.

Andy

Hello chaps,

I think that I may have been guilty of that in the past. Sorry.

While looking for information I have found an old thread that dealt with my problem but did not have a vital piece of information so I have posed a question.

Are you saying that I should start a new thread instead please?

Many thanks

Andy

Hi Andrew,

Are you going to the right site? It should be DrummondLathe.

What makes me think that you are not in the right place is that I have just been on and the current discussions are about back gear on M Types and change wheels for screw cutting - hardly brainless.

Andy

Hi Martin,

There is a complete one on eBay right now, item number 182652846395.

They come up fairly regularly and are more common than castings

Andy

Hi all, sorry, I haven't been here for a while.

Just to say, another fantastic day!

I had my new (to me) 3" Burrell, and I had to rush about fairly when called to demonstrate the Victorian lineshaft workshop - thank you to James for looking after it for me when called away...I know you really hated riding around the site

A brilliant turnout of just about everything you could want to imagine - the Stanleys were stunning!

If some of you think you travelled, we had an American visit. I think he is going to take a Lykomobile home with him he was that fascinated with Ray's.

For those able to make it, don't forget LOWMEX on the 22nd and 23rd of October - we will all meet up again!

Andy

Hi Neil,

I agree entirely. A different society has different needs. To carry on John's jest; what you are doing, turning a sow's ear into silk purse, is what many seem to have to do with new Chinese machines (according to what I read).

The fact that there are still Adepts around speaks volumes. There is a chap on an eGroup that I am a member of who asked what to do with a worn chuck. The first answers came back to chuck it away, then several people came back with ways to repair it. After that, several people came back to say chuck it away, but somewhere that they could retieve it!

Isn't this a wonderful hobby.

Andy

Hello chaps,

Sorry, a bit late finding this thread which I am finding very interesting.

Sir John; although I have enormous respect for you and your achievements, I do feel that you are a little harsh over your comments about the bottom of the market lathes produced between the wars.

These lathes were produced at a price, like the modern Chinese lathes, to supply an enormous need by demobbed servicemen who had been taught a little engineering and wanted to do something with it upon their return home with a meagre pocket. This magazine (at least Model Engineer) has survived through also catering to that need.

I think that the criticisms laid at the modern versions is the electrics and the fallibility of drive lines but these have upgrades listed in every model engineering reference. However much crap you feel we produced there has to be something said about how many are still in existence, and how many people started their model engineering on second hand models, while starting out with buying houses, raising families etc. before moving to higher priced/higher quality machines.

I realise that you will say that so many still exist because they were not used enough to wear out, and this is undoubtedly true to an extent, but at least it gave those who wanted to try their hand at the hobby the chance without investing their lifeblood into it. A lot of these lathes were bought by apprentices (remember them?), and you can't get much lower on the pay scale than that, particularly in the 50s.

I am all for the KISS principle, as a rank amateur can learn at his own pace, like I have with my old Drummonds - yes, I know they are not in quite the same league, but my great grandfather's B is now 101 years old. He was an engineer on the Southwold Railway so you can imagine that his lathe got used in earnest, and with a treadle.

I have got a Super Adept and it really needs a lot of tlc to get it to work accurately, but it can be done, as Neil's thread is showing. There is also a slightly different skill set to be learned to use these smaller lathes, and isn't that one of the reasons for it being a hobby? We all know of the apprentice's first job to file a block square; there is a lot to be said for it, firstly, patience and fortitude. Most people now just want to go straight in and use a vertical milling machine and why?

It would seem that we have reversed the old trend - we are now wealthy but have no time; earlier hobby engineers had no money but more time. Obviously our machines are now produced with this in mind. There is no right or wrong to it; it is that the machines produced reflect this, but at least both previous and current starters in the hobby have the means to make a start.

Just my opinion,

Andy

Hi Martin and Jason,

Terribly sorry, I missed the bit where the thread was rolled, I assumed cutting with a die.

You know what they say about ASSUME...

Andy

Hello Martin and everyone,

Just reading the latest installment and I have to admit to being a little confused.

"7BA can be tapped onto 3/32 diameter rod but the resulting thread will need to be reduced with a file or machined back down to 3/32 diameter" (page 372, last paragraph).

The nominal diameter of 7BA is 0.0985"; 3/32" is 0.09375" so smaller than 7BA. Why would you need to reduce a 3/32" rod to...3/32"?

Actually, just doing the maths, the thread form would be full at 95% so a good fit for something like a piston which could work itself loose inside the cylinder.

Andy

Edited By AndyB on 08/09/2015 22:53:06

Hello chaps,

I think that Neil has got it right Jason; as I said, they were requests for confirmation, not marketing adverts.

They seem to have stopped now but 5 requests with two confirmation replies worried me a bit.

I am already registered with ME and MTM so I wouldn't get any more than I already do (I would have thought).

If I get more than one lathe please put the rest back in the pot

Many thanks

Andy

Edited By AndyB on 19/08/2015 22:15:07

Good evening all,

Have I just made a fool of myself?

I entered the competition to win a Chester Conquest lathe in issue 4515. Not wanting to cut up the article on the back of the page I emailed my entry as per instructions.

I am now being bombarded by confirmation requests. I confirmed the first two but they are still coming.

Am I now going to receive all the spam in the world? It seems a bit off that this should happen with a published competition.

Andy

Hi Graham,

Likewise, I have not tried to add to your woes with my pestering.

Whenever you are up to it will be fine. As others have mentioned, it would be nice to know how things stand.

Many thanks again,

Andy

Oops!

Sorry, I have just reread my post.

The head would NOT be over the edge of the job, it would be half the thickness of the barrel away from it...which is why they stipulate the width of it on the packaging.

Sorry again.

Andy

Hi Graham,

You are a fabulous fellow!

Thank you very much.

Andy

Hi Frank,

I would agree with the book choices but wobblers are not only for mills. I use one for centring jobs in the four jaw chuck.

Mark your centre with a fine pop, mount the body of the wobbler in the tailstock chuck and set the point in the centre pop. Rotate the chuck by hand and set the job in the chuck for no run out, use a test indicator to check your run out if it is critical, otherwise your eye is pretty accurate - you are looking for no sideways movement of the wobbler - er, no wobble - to set the job on centre.

If you have one of the sets that are common now, the different ends are for different size centres and for finding the edge of a job - same principal as for centring, but you use the barrel-ended wobbler. Set the machine (lathe or mill) going and watch for the wobbler to straighten as you bring the job up to it, When it is straight then the machine head is dead in line with the edge (assuming that you have a good set and the barrel is concentric with the shaft. You then zero your dials and work coordinates from that datum.

As Nobby points out (I think), a wobbler is east of the pond, a wiggler is west of it.

Andy (I will duck down below the parapet now)

Sorry Bazyle...

Fire risks of coal?

Do they want stuff that doesn't burn?

And gas is safer is it?

Andy

Hi Graham,

I hope I am not too late. I have sent you a PM.

Many thanks.

Andy

A subject close to my heart!

I have just looked at a picture of your DB8 on Chester's website and I think that you will really struggle to convert your existing lathe.

The problem is design; your Chester will need an access for the belt to the headstock and this will require a countershaft in the position where the electric motor is. Unless you get your gearing right you will stuggle to get speeds of any use.

Why not keep that as it is and get an existing treadle lathe for when the power gets turned off?

I have several Drummond lathes and I have three 3 1/2" flatbeds that are complete with treadles; a 1907, a 1914 B type and a 1927 longbed M type. Treadling is HARD work, especially if you are screwcutting, as you are driving so much resistance through the changewheel gearing. It can be done though, and was, by everybody who used small lathes (up to 6 inch centre height) throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, who had no lineshafting (my great grandfather who owned my 1914 B type which he got in 1916). Just look at how many lathes were sold with treadles.

One of the tricks though is to have an apprentice...there were the ones who treadled while the master did the work! Have you got grandchildren? Everyone these days complains about kids not getting enough exercise.

Incidentally, the 1907 flywheel weighs half that of the B and M types, and being a lighter lathe, may have been so designed to reduce the amount of hard that the operator may be tempted to try. The later B and M type beds weighed twice as much and the M headstock can take a phenominal cut for such a small lathe. I mainly use a motorised 1948 M that came from the de Havilland works (still has the works plates on) and, just for a one off experiment, cut 1/4" of cast iron in lowest backgear with a carbide tip on a facing cut. I don't know if any of you would dare try that on a modern lathe of the same size?

There is a booklet, produced by Drummond in the early 20s, that demonstrates the work done by amateur craftsmen and has a 9 cylinder radial engine entirely produced on a treadle Roundbed, with some of the setups used. If they could do it, why can't we?

My point is: get another lathe, one that was designed to be used with a treadle, rather than try to convert a modern shape lathe.

Just another point; pitmans. I have both types, slotted and round. Both have merits. the 1907 has a round pitman with a bush, the 1914 has a slotted one and the 1927 goes back to a round one but with a ball bearing. I suppose that it comes down to the price of ball bearings, that the cost of manufacture was reduced significantly during the First World War.

It is not my intention to inflame the ready (pointless) debate about the merits of this or that machine tool, I am just pointing out the old chestnut "horses for courses". Anyone can use whatever they want or can afford and I don't care; I am happy with what I have got.

All the best,

Andy

Hi Hopper,

The secret to having a shed (actually 2) full of lathes is to encourage SWMBO into a hobby of her own and provide a shed for her to do it in.

Miranda does fish. means nothing to me, they look like bonsai versions of real ones, but it has all the benefits of a real hobby as she is too busy looking after them to notice what I am doing.

Err... I have just realised that several people on here know where we live, and I know one who has the same hobby as Miranda. Tongue in cheek Sue, I promise! But you haven't got 11 tanks though have you (one more than I have got lathes), THAT is the secret! She can't and would not argue. Haha

Seriously though, I did not intend to get so many, I was buying parts to rebuild my great grandfather's 1914 B Type Drummond and the cheapest way to get them was to buy the whole lathe. Then, of course, I found that they were in such good condition that I could not strip them, so I would have to get another one for the parts I wanted and it would be the same! I ask you, how do you strip a 1948 M Type that has de Havilland works plates attached to it? The lathe has worked in the factory where Tiger Moths, Mosquitos, Venoms and Vampires were made; wouldn't you keep it?

Andy

Edited By AndyB on 23/10/2013 11:26:39

Good evening all,

This discussion has also been taking place on the Yahoo Myford forum. I answered there and a gentleman asked me to copy that post here as it explained it all very clearly to him. Rather than rewrite it all I have just copied and pasted; please bear in mind that it is an answer to the Yahoo forum, but the point is still made, particularly in the comparison between this forum and that:

I am not connected to Model Engineer in any way but I can appreciate the problem.

While this forum is private and only expresses the opinions of individuals, the ME forum is a corporate entity and is liable to various sanctions, notwithstanding their business relationship with RDG/Myford.

As the forum is owned by MyTimeMedia Ltd, the views expressed on the forum by individuals become the official opinions of MyTimeMedia. If the RDG/Myford companies were to fail in any way (in the extreme case, become bankrupt) the shareholders can sue MyTimeMedia for loss of revenue due to the views expressed on their forum, and this would not be cheap. This would, most likely, lead to the demise of MyTimeMedia.

As British law works by precedence, a barrister of any worth would cite the media views expressed about Northern Rock, for example, and would win their case. It is called a self fulfilling prophecy. MyTimeMedia have no choice but to remove the thread.

It is not that MTM are censoring the views expressed by individuals, they are protecting their business.
To be fair, the thread ran for long enough for individuals to read about what is going on and to partake of their own opinions. But all forums run the same risk, even this one. The forum owner could become liable which is why forums (fora) have moderators; as Yahoo is the ultimate owner of this forum it is unlikely that RDG/Myford could afford to contest the matter, and I would think that their legal department drew up the contracts very carefully. But all angles have to be considered.

I would say bravo to David and Diane for letting the threads run for so long.

Freedom of speech is still available, it has not been removed; it is just that many people do not choose their arenas very well.

Andy
 

Edited By AndyB on 09/09/2013 19:58:05