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Member postings for Billy Mills

Here is a list of all the postings Billy Mills has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.

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Thread: drill stand
22/11/2011 13:11:03
The tap set recently on offer from Lidl has seven taps and tapping drills, the taps work fine while the drills are 4 facet drills! you also get a wrench in a steel box for next to nothing. So I'm very glad that Ady didn't get my set. As Gordon said they have their uses. Their value is as a standby when you have just lost or broken your good tap and you have to finish the job.
 
There have been numerous other offers, recently some wood carving chisels came up, they look exactly the same as sold by a national chain for almost exactly twice the price. The quality of the steel is very good for the price, Even when you pay £30 for a single wood chisel you still need to polish the back and hone the bevels. So I am very happy to check what the German Supermarkets have on offer, The drill stand into a "Universal Pillar Tool" conversion by Mike Cox might shift a few more stands when they come up.
 
Billy.
Thread: New Blocks on the Block
18/11/2011 19:40:12
Calm down dear Bogs, for every silly poster there are a load more people who do read and learn from others. It would be tragic if those who can't see the wood for the trees burn down the forest. Don't let them win. Stick to your guns/lathe/mill and carry on!
 
Billy.
Thread: Car Alternator as Traction motor?
18/11/2011 18:30:05
You can buy the VFD's for electric flight for not very much, they run around 20-50A for flight times of 10 min or so. The VFD is very simple. An oscillator drives a counter which then outputs the phase drive signals to the mosfets via a standard IC. You do need to know about fast switching, a 100MHz scope or faster is needed to check operation properly if you were rolling your own.
Scrap PC motherboards are one source of free mosfets, motherboards don't last long these days, but heavy current mosfets are dirt cheap anyway. Have a google for electric flight Peter.
 
Billy.
Thread: How do I
18/11/2011 17:30:04
Yet another version..... Drill a strip with two holes then find the centre with a compass or whatever and drill. Turn two cylinders to the same diameter and centre drill. Bolt the cylinders to the outside holes of the strip. Same use as the channel version, rotate the strip until both cylinders are against the opposite sides of the job then drill through the centre hole.
 
Billy.

Edited By Billy Mills on 18/11/2011 17:33:27

18/11/2011 17:22:40
This one could run for some time...... If the rod will go in the chuck then chuck it.Position the fixed jaw of the drilling vice against the chucked rod then bolt or clamp the vice down. Now put the bar in the vice and tighten. and the drill in the chuck, drill the hole. No other bits needed. ( yes the drill is smaller than the rod!) ( you also need a plain face on the vice)
 
A nice gadget to do centre drilling is in Stan Bray's "Useful Workshop Tools"( as is the previous tip). It has two bars held parallel by three equal length links which are bolted to the bars. The middle link is drilled in the middle. You close the bars each side of what you want to centre drill then drill through the middle link hole.
 
A very quick and simple device is a short bit of U channel. Square the ends to be about twice the length of the width then scribe lines to join the corners on the outside of the lower U face. Drill the intersection. Put the channel over the narrower bar/rod you want to drill then rotate the channel so that opposite ends of the channel are against the job. Drill through the hole.
 
Billy.
Thread: Car Alternator as Traction motor?
18/11/2011 16:49:01
Rollers do have two accumulators. When your driver is waiting for you he can run the electrics without the engine running. The other battery will always be able to start the engine.
The combined motor/generator idea is described in a book called "Modern Starting,Lighting and ignition systems" it was published in 1917.
 
Billy.
18/11/2011 16:37:49
The motor demo has been at MEX. It is a great idea, the car alternator has three delta wired windings so you can drive it from a variable frequency drive as a variable speed motor. The VFD was made from a couple of IC's and 6 Mosfets. The designer had a very nice demo rig on show.
 
As the rotor is designed for a 12V system the voltages for motor use are conveniently low. The idea of 2 or 3 phase drive of very small motors is widespread in electric flight. Some of the early pioneers rewound floppy drive motors. The power to weight ratio of these motors ( with rare earth magnets) is very high at about a HP per pound weight.
 
Billy.
Thread: New Blocks on the Block
17/11/2011 14:57:10
Thanks to both Johns and DC2 too. There have been lots of times when I have been very grateful for the odd word of wisdom posted on a forum or an idea from a magazine article or a chat with someone at a show. That's what it should be about, learning about new stuff and picking up on clever ideas so that workshop time gets even better and life gets richer.
 
Although it just happens to be a very rare event here it comes. Thank you to the Johns, Mikes, Chrisses, Richards, MGJ and all of the other innovative and creative people who do make this and other forums such a rich seam of useful information. And thank you to DC1 and DC2 for being moderate moderators and producing such good mags.
 
 
Billy.
16/11/2011 12:02:02
What a very good idea, you can build up all sorts of fancy jigging for measuring, marking and milling quickly and then take it apart for the next job. With a few strips drilled with regular pitched holes and right angle brackets all sorts of structures are quick and easy. Meccano for machinists!
 
Well done John!
 
Billy.
Thread: Building a miniature universal lathe
15/11/2011 21:03:52
Yes I was mentioning the Concrete lathe however the "Open Source Hardware" project does not need to use cement, it could be epoxy-stone or steel. People tend to think of Lathes as being built of cast iron sections with machined ways however you can build whatever you want however you want at whatever size you want it.
 
John's epoxy-stone grinder gets enormous stiffness from clever design without the problems and cost of iron castings. Many manufacturers of precision tools are leaving cast iron for stone or composite structures. A home made lathe could follow their lead.
 
There are a few other home built machines on Tony's site, the Stepperhead lathe is now in the Lathe manufacturer's section.
 
Billy.
14/11/2011 16:06:44
Have a look on lathes.co.uk for "multimachine"  under home built lathes. This is one of the most interesting articles that I have seen for years.
 
Billy.

Edited By Billy Mills on 14/11/2011 16:43:53

Thread: turning a standard bolt
13/11/2011 19:46:54
You can always try a file on the bolt, if it skips then the bolt is hard! The modern thin woodscrews are formed by a succession of rolls at very high pressure, deformation rather than cutting- same process as rolled ballscrews. I have seen a website in the past that had some cutters made from ground up HT bolts so it ain't that soft!
 
Billy.
 
Thread: Milling from a sheet
13/11/2011 17:26:42
The Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield houses the 1905 River Don 12,000 HP Steam engine ( 3 x 41" bore by 48"stroke) which still runs for visitors at 5 psi air instead of 160 psi steam. It's appeared all over the place, on Industrial Revelations and on Youtube. I think it might also be the inspiration for the man devouring monster in the 1927 Fritz Lang "Metropolis" film.
 
Apart from the raw power it's the very quick reversing-even at 5 psi- that impresses. That and that four were made but one went missing!
 
Billy.
10/11/2011 15:13:45
The Monodex nibbler has an easier action than the Gosscut and will nibble thin steel very well. The big disadvantage with nibblers is that they tend to mark both sides of the cut.
 
Electric and air nibblers can be very useful in roughing out however the little crescent nibblings are very sharp and nasty!
 
Billy.
Thread: MEW, would less be more?
06/11/2011 17:23:48
I agree with Sir John, stick with 13 per year if DC1 can keep it up. I cannot understand how you can get a new issue and not read it the same day. How do you explain that the adverts help pay for the printing costs, without the ads the cover price rise would make MEW unaffordable for many retired people [which is possibly the majority of readers].
 
 
Very much hope that DC1 is better now.
 
Billy.
Thread: pitt bull carriers,
20/10/2011 15:37:19
Many multidrop drivers make between 20-50 deliveries per day so making someone wait for half an hour is not helpful neither is it likely to prevent future items from being dropped in anticipation.
 
Signing "unexamined" should not be a problem, the World would stop turning if every item ever delivered was examined and tested.
 
The only time that a delivery driver might have an allowance is where a specialised delivery is made- perhaps a BIG machine tool- and there is a risk of broken castings but that is not the run-of-the-mill (unless it is a milling machine - when it is a delivery-run-of-the-mill.)
 
Billy- waiting for a delivery.
 
 
Thread: gracesguide.co.uk British Engineering 1750 to 1960
16/10/2011 16:15:19
Don't get too excited, that is a very broad canvas to paint. For machine tools Lathes.co.uk is about a million times better and far more use to ME's.
 
We have such a fantastic engineering history in the UK that any moves- such as Grace's- is good news, at least someone is making an attempt at recording stuff that is now almost gone. I would also like to see the more recent stuff -say from 1950 to 2000- be recorded. Many of the good people who did wonderful work in that period are reaching the time where their memories will be lost. After that it is down to the archives, a few dates, magazines and adverts and those silent unloved machines in museums that are often set up in some silly way. So much about people's lives and work has been lost.
 
Billy.
Thread: Electric motor on my Tom Senior Vertical Head
16/10/2011 15:56:20
Sounds like shorted turns. Something rubbing against the windings will wear through the enamel insulation and short a few turns together. The winding then looks like a transformer with a shorted secondary so the shorted windings get very hot even though the current draw from the mains may still be within the fuse rating.
 
These days good re-winders are few and far between, so could be a replacement motor job.
Probably nothing to do with the milling work at all unless the motor had been badly overloaded in the past.
 
Billy.
Thread: Setting up a bandsaw
04/10/2011 21:40:45
The Grizzly model number could be G0622. The manual has some very good advice, the "Chip Chart" and the adjustment details are as clear as clear can be, the guide adjustment is at the back of the book.
 
I would agree with Terry that these manuals are very much better - chalk and cheese- than the junk we get from most vendors in the UK. If you are supplying a machine tool then you should supply the information needed to make good use of the machine. Setup and running adjustments and essential information on lubrication and consumables ( blades) should be included with the machine. Much of this stuff is generic- it applies over a large range of machines so there is not that much original writing for each machine.
 
Grizzly have shown how it can be done, they are a much bigger Company than the UK vendors but they are spending a little income on ensuring that they are out performing the other vendors, a wise investment, a great service to their Customers and - lucky for us- on the web.
 
I go to the US quite often, I would not say that their Hotels or Restaurants are better, however the waiting staff get most or all of their income from tips so they do try to earn them.
04/10/2011 20:59:52
The blade is twisted into the vertical when it passes through the roller guides. If the clearance between the rollers is not set correctly then the blade will not be vertical over the length between the rollers. The adjustment is not obvious, one roller has an off centre mounting which is very well hidden! It is inadvisable to make a deep cut until the alignment of BOTH guides is sorted out.
 
There are several other very well known issues such as errors in the position of the wheels, blade throwing, excessive wear, the floppy stand, swarf and the stand wheels. Once these are sorted out the machine is a very useful workshop tool, it is greatly improved with a bimetal blade.
The fixes have already been described in detail on many workshop websites such as www.gadgetbuilder.com and www.mikesworkshop.weebly.com . Both of these sites are brilliant.
 
These kinds of metal cutting bandsaws look very much the same as those sold by Draper, Clarke, Axminster and loads of other people in different colours and with different vices. Some people think they are made in India. They have been around for about 20 years.
 
Hang on in there with the adjustments and the mods, the ugly duckling with attitude turns into a beautiful workshop swan.
 
Billy.
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