Member postings for AlanW

I've always had good service from Simply Bearings but, this time, they really excelled. I ordered some bearings at about 4.30pm on Friday and they arrived by post by 9.30 on Saturday morning. I did pay extra for first class post because I didn't expect dispatch until Monday. Clearly staff at Simply Bearings don't suffer from POETS-dayitis.

If anyone from SB happens to visit this forum, well done!

Alan

Is this why the digital archive conversion of MEW is STILL stuck at issue 180?

There seems to be some reluctance to answer the question. When can we expect all MEW issues in the digital archive to be viewable on PC? The last info was from JasonB that the target was the end of the year (last year, that is).

The oldest accessible issue in the digital archive seems to be hung-up at 180, where it was before Christmas. When are we going to be able to see all issues?

Chris,

I have answered your pm but photos of the conversion are in my albums. Also in my albums is a photo of my spindle mod.

Alan

Edited By AlanW on 28/01/2022 16:14:45

Hi Chris,

I adapted a Corona 12FX for milling and the article I produced to describe the saga appeared in MEW issues 216 & 217, if I recall correctly.

My original adaptation of the spindle for milling involved machining a bespoke ER32 chuck incorporating a female J2 taper. The spindle end drilled readily to accept an axial screw to keep the thing attached. The closing nut was bought in. This arrangement worked fine but anything other than fine cuts (< 0.1mm) led to sideways deflection. I half expected this because the 72mm chuck length produced far too much overhang from the bottom bearing. I should quickly add that I replaced the ball race with a tapered roller bearing ground down to size to fit the existing bearing housing. Eventually the lack of rigidity became too much to live with and I tried a different approach; one that may suit you better than welding. I cut the end off the spindle, and fitted a sleeved and bored ER32 collet chuck extension, glued using anaerobic adhesive and pinned through with a roll pin. This runs in a much larger tapered roller bearing in a housing with a spigot that fits into the original bearing housing. Retention is via the existing three screws (not equi-spaced, incidentally; I spotted through the original retaining plate. I allowed sufficient 'hollow' length of the spindle extension to accommodate a MT1 to parallel adapter in one of the larger collets to make use of some imperial taper shank drills I have. Larger drills are held directly by collets and smaller ones in a Jacobs chuck on a 19mm diameter straight shank arbor.

The original three-speed flat belt drive has been replaced with a two stage poly-vee system, giving eight speed from approximately 160 to 2,500 rpm from a 2,400rpm single phase motor (the original was 3 phase.

Although it could never compete with a proper mill, performance is not bad at all and edges produced by side-milling are square, so no deflection as before. The slim (around 5/8" spindle has survived so far and I have done quite a bit of milling of steel and aluminium. Incidentally, my machine did not come from a wood working shop and I don't believe it was ever designed for such use. The 12FX is a high-speed drill and was sometimes supplied as a 'ganged' machine with up to four spindles.

Alan

JasonB

At the rate of conversion since August, someone needs to wave a magic wand to 'get it done' (Sorry Boris.) by the end of the year.

The conversion process still seems to be happening far too slowly. I raised this subject back in August when I couldn't view back issues beyond No 220; it is now No180. If a facility has been paid for by readers, then some urgency should be put into making it available. Not that it should even be happening retrospectively. Neil responded at the time that he would look into it but nothing forthcoming since.

My subscription is up for renewal soon. Do I really want to pay for something I can't access?

Alan

I initially kept the guard on my WM240, but not for long.

Did you manage to get an answer Neil?

Thanks Neil.

The conversion of the archived MEW issues seems to be dragging on. I tried to view issue 117 the other day but could only go back to 220. Don't know why I paid for digital issues!

Alan

A useful find Tim. My calculator is usually buried 'somewhere' under a pile of useful stuff (rubbish).

The .pdf reader reader recognizes the un-numbered cover and inside cover, hence page 316 rather than 314 as printed.

Ron & Not done it yet. Nice to know that accuracy (or lack of it) hasn't been an issue. The quoted figures will be over full travel anyway and can always be compared with handwheel graduations where important. Thanks for the feedback.

Alan

Those of you who have used the remote readout version of ARC's scales must be aware that their quoted accuracy is much worse than for the more expensive scales with integral displays that can be connected to the one-, two- or three-axis display units. How have you found the accuracy in practice?

I queried this as a possible misprint with ARC a couple of years ago because this addition is on my 'to do' list. No, the specs are correctly quoted.

Alan

Hi Chris. Is it an annular groove that you want to machine? If it is for an 'O' ring, it doesn't need to be semi-circular in section but rectangular. An 'O' ring should deform towards the corners of the groove.

Alan

If you have a vector drawing application (I use CoreDRAW!): Scan the profiles; using the 'guide lines' function, set two guides the required distance apart (somewhere off the page will do); pick up and drag the required profile and place it accurately against one guide; drag an opposite corner handle to uniformly enlarge to meet the other guide; copy to a page of its own and label accordingly with frame number.

I recently went through this exercise to enlarge a Starlet model yacht drawing from a small low resolution download. In my case, I used half-profiles and flipped a copy down the centre line.

Alan

NDIY

I can only speak as I find. When I needed the torque at low revs turning a large diameter, it just wasn't there. My old Hobbymat with 300W ac motor would have coped easily where the 240 stalled.

Nic

If the motor has been changed (presumably up-rated) what other mods may have been done to the electrics?

Alan

Mine has two fuses, one on the front panel and one on the back.

Hi Nic

Check the fuses on the control panel. You may have got away lightly but, if not, it could be the control board gone phutt. These variable speed dc lathes are not very forgiving of stall conditions; you need to be very quick on the stop button. They are very easy to stall anyway, despite the alleged 1hp motor. I added an intermediate pulley pair to my 240 to increase low-speed torque and avoid just this kind of problem.

Alan