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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: Yet Another Tangential Tool Holder
30/12/2011 16:35:08
No Chris, it's before that at p535 , the page is headed Brunel's Cutter. This is the earliest that I've seen at around 1803 when the Block Works started making blocks.
 
Happy New Everything,
Billy.
 
PS for those that have not seen the books they contain loads of interesting ideas.
30/12/2011 14:22:10
Found a very interesting description of a tangential toolholder in Turning & Mechanical Manipulation Volume 2 by Charles Holtzapffl ( reprinted by Tee Publications).
 
Page 535 shows the device with a round toolbit ground with a single flat and then the author's
version with a triangular bit. The original was used in the Portsmouth Block Factory (1802) to turn wrought iron pins. Another version had a centre hole through the bit and was used for wood turning. So Marc Brunell and Henry Maudsley could well be the source of the Tangential tool concept around 1803 when the factory started production so it may have been going for over 200 years!
 
The same book p996 has further material, an illustration of a toolholder on p998 is almost identical to the pictures in this post, the book was first published in 1843!
 
The three volumes cover a vast range, the sections on screwcutting and the problem of producing leadscrews are very interesting.
 
Billy.
Thread: NEW MAGAZINE FOR MODEL ENGINEERS
29/12/2011 11:43:40
Future Structures (Europe) Ltd. were incorporated on 12/12/2011, the registered address is a private house :-45 Covert Crescent, Radcliffe-on Trent, Notts NG122HN which is somewhat different from the West London Post Box number. The phone number is 07595 284874 on their home made web site. All of this information is in the public domain and very easy to find. It is possible that the postings were not made by anyone connected to Future Structures however as such a very newly listed Company it is strange that anyone else should know about them.
 
 
Billy.
Thread: Axminster Power Tools milling vices on offer
29/12/2011 11:26:52
David, Well intentioned but one man's precision vice is another man's doorstop/turd. One issue here is that some far away makers knock out products without checking them. So sometimes you get a usable vice sometimes not.
 
I have just purchased a tiltable vice which has jaws that don't meet. You can see why, a hole was drilled at an angle. So it will get plugged and re-drilled. Very much agree with the point that you cannot expect silk purses for sow's ear prices. Perhaps the cure is for suppliers to quickly check products that are troublesome BEFORE sending them to the buyer. At least there's a chance that the seller would avoid the cost and bad publicity of a returned vice or twenty.
 
Billy.
Thread: Bandsaw Blade Length
24/12/2011 11:14:56
Sorry Neil, Didn't intend to risk Wrath Of Swmbo with tape measure getting oily, should have said a steel tape. Don't know if you have used bimetal bandsaw blades but they are vastly better than cheaper options, well worth the extra squids.
 
Billy.
23/12/2011 23:31:15
If you find Swimbo's tape measure you can fit it in place of the blade with the adjuster wound fully out and fully in so you get the measure of the thing so as to say.....
 
Billy.
Thread: Precision Levels - calibration
23/12/2011 23:26:11
Neil,
You can colour the liquid- which could be IPA ( the alcohol not the beer ) or use a coloured card underneath the tube. The MEW 77 article is a great deal better than has been given credit for. The method is based on one developed by the NPL in the 1950's and is most definitly not Mickey Mouse. The glass tube is internally honed on a steel rod which has been flexed into an arc set on a bending jig. After honing the tube will have a barrel shape, if the honing is done with reasnoble care then there is NO reason why it should not be BETTER than a commercialy made vial. The honing makes sure that the bore is round, the barrel shape makes the sensitivity independant of axial rotation.
The article also describes an easily made calibration rig which is very simular to a sine bar. The final section has a short section on calibration.
 
My comments on amateur accuracy are based upon experience of telescope mirror making, many home made mirrors are very much better than commercial mirrors because of the time element in perfecting the figure. If you want to get obsessive about shaping the bore then you can test/rework/retest untill you have as good as you want or need.
 
The most expensive telescope mirror in the world was figured by experts at very great cost and all of the high tech available. They were so sure of their abilities that they never tested the figure, had they done that they would not have left out the bit that every home mirror maker understands. The mirror is now corrected by a lens, the telescope is called Hubble.
 
Billy.
23/12/2011 19:31:25
Justfollowed Bog's link then found a reference to MEW 10, 33, 36 and 77. Had a look at issue 77 ( page 6 archive Oct 2001) in the digital archive, the artice tells you about making a honing jig and a small angle calibrating device, all from stuff we might have in the workshop so it's already been done. Vial sealed with brass lug and epoxy, filling by hole in the plug sealed with a screw and washer. Nice article.
 
Billy -on the level!
23/12/2011 19:09:59
Perhaps you could mount the tube to be honed against a bar with the centre of the tube shimmed out and the ends clamped. Hone the tube then fill and use. It is easy to bend a hard glass tube by the required amount without damage. Once the honed straight tube is released from the clamo it will then have the honed bore.
 
Merry Xmas All, May Santa get you some nice tools.
 
Billy.
Thread: Power drawbar
20/12/2011 01:52:02
John, there is a simple design for a clamping spindle at:Buildyouridea.com from 2004. The site is worth looking at, I like his home cast tripple ballrace assembly and very simple spindles.
 
regards,
Billy.
Thread: Was this the birth of CNC ?
18/12/2011 00:47:14
Richard, I was wondering how the gears were made in ancient times. The Antikythera needs a lot of well formed gears to run at all smoothly. Perhaps the main tool would be a tapered edge file and we could assume a simple lathe was available so how could it be done? Perhaps you could make an equally spaced rack by marking an edge with a small rotating roller with a notch. By inking the roller you could evenly mark the edge then file rack teeth into the edge. A disc could be turned then marked with the roller and the marks counted, the diameter could then be turned or filed down until the right number of marks was around the circle then you file teeth gaps into the circle using the rack as a meshing gauge. Now this would not work because you would be marking the outside diameter not the pitch circle however you could correct this by having a very slight taper on the roller so that the marks were slightly further apart making the bare disk larger. or by over cutting the teeth.
 
How did they do it?
 
Billy.
Thread: Cadmium, simple test for?
17/12/2011 12:57:04
Very low level long term exposure can cause tolerance to develop to substances that are lethal in small doses but sometimes low level long term exposure can also lead to sensitisation to other substances, it is a very complex issue.

A very interesting study of the animals living around Chernobyl has shown that long term exposure to radiation levels way above normal limits has not lead to the expected DNA defects but to the development of a remarkable resistance to ionising radiation. Another major benefit to these animals has been the almost total exclusion of man.
 
Allergic reaction and food intolerance was just not around decades ago, either a very large proportion of the population has been sensitised or we did not recognise the problems.
 
I did A level Chemistry semi micro anl 40 years ago. I think the Cd test used dilute Hydrochloric acid to put the metal into solution then Hydrogen Sulphide gas was bubbled through to create a precipitate which was then nitrated then conc Sulphuric was used to produce a yellow precipitate, could be a bit out after 40 years. Not the sort of test easily done at home. The flame colour was light blue but you would not want to do that these days unless you were certificated insane.
 
Many of the nasty heavy metals tend to form insoluble white carbonates when weathered which is why lead pipes are not that dangerous.
 
Billy.

 
 
Thread: Was this the birth of CNC ?
16/12/2011 13:28:12
Dick,
I've seen the astronomical exhibits at Beijing, been there, stood on the roof. Very impressive, there is also the very long period of recorded observations at Beijing. However it pails compared with the Great Wall. We tried walking along the wall during a local public holiday, half of China was up there that day. Sharpened elbows honed on the London Underground were very helpful as was being an Ugly outsider somewhat taller than the locals. The Wall takes the most difficult route possible up hills and down slopes, much of the Wall is in good condition.
 
The "Seismograph" is really only an indicator of movement, although it was claimed to be directional that is perhaps a triumph of hope against reality. But it did have a suspended mass.
 
The ancient world did have a lot of trackways- which tended to get well rutted- so I would not want to depend on differential rotation of wooden cart wheels on a trackway or averaging rock hits out.
 
Thanks for the Antikythera reconstruction link, there is also a 3D model on www.mogi-vice.com with a video on the tube following your link. However the use of the term Computer is perhaps misleading, Calculator is more appropriate. It remains a great achievement for the period, all of those different gears!
 
Billy.

Edited By Billy Mills on 16/12/2011 13:28:46

Thread: Lubrication
15/12/2011 15:50:00
I've seen a few milling machines which have had grease injected where oil should have been used- slideways, some bearings & leadscrews ( not Myford lathes) , the grease then stops lubrication and wear occurs. Some manufacturers suggest that grease should not be used on their machines. So when the oil gun runs dry don't use the grease gun!
 
Billy.
Thread: Rotary table dividing Calculator
14/12/2011 16:22:19
John, there is a total answer to the risks of infection by zero day threats or other exploits which can trash a Windows machine in seconds. Linux. It also happens to be free.
 
 
Billy.
14/12/2011 13:46:23
Thanks John M,
I too have no problems downloading your spreadsheet using Linux without any AV products or win with NOD32 which is often updated several times per day. Perhaps RJW has been the victim of false positives which are pretty common on some AV products, a right pain in the works, people think the AV has saved them from something nasty so the AV is working well !!!!!
 
Spreadsheet is a good un John, well done.
 
Billy.
Thread: Was this the birth of CNC ?
13/12/2011 13:03:30
The south pointing machine only had one little problem, although the gears were a digital ( or toothed) device, the wheels had an analog diameter so unless they were exactly the same you ended up going around in circles which is not good if you are in a featureless dessert. Perhaps that's why they switched to loadstone.
 
I'm not knocking the craftmanship however. The Terracotta Warriors are absolutely amazing, everyone is an individual, the regiment includes horses too. There was also some very high quality bronze casting in that period, much better than what was happening in Europe at that time. None of this has anything much to do with CNC machines.
 
Billy.
Thread: Number Drill Sets & Ba Tap sets
13/12/2011 12:47:30
Bob, you have to read between the lines on a lot of questions.If you seek advice on drills taps and dies that suggests someone is starting out in the hobby so they need the general run-of-the-mill tooling for general work with easy to work materials- could be wrong but the questioner is an early poster and there is no other data.
 
So there is no point in talking about machining exotic materials at this level, that would ony create complexity where none were needed. That kind of answer can only follow on from specifying the particular material.
 
Sometimes however your crystal ball can get foggy, there was a question a while ago about stopping machines rusting in a workshop. All kinds of helpful comments about keeping North European workshops warm and dry were made then the initiator revealed he lived in the Tropics.
 
Billy.
12/12/2011 17:12:58
Would agree with David and Norman, buy a cheap set of metric drills 1-6 by 0.1 to start then replace the blunt/broken ones with quality European drills as needed.
The far eastern sets are very cheap and convenient from almost anywhere however as you progress you will appreciate the accuracy of the more expensive products and will only need to spend just as much as needed to top up the set.
 
Numbers and letters are pretty oddball these days, might be one of those things that sit on the shelf- apart from the sub 1mm sizes - although there is no great problem in buying small metric drills. The 0.1mm steps differ by roughly 0.004" which is good enough for most jobs, the others you ream or bore anyway.
 
I don't bother sharpening smaller drills - just replace with a good brand drill. One point -discussed at lenth elsewhere- is to check tapping drill sizes, slightly larger than dead tight is a very good idea, it does not weaken the thread significantly but greatly reduces the risk of tap breakage.
 
Billy.
PS measuring the shanks of the cheap imports can be interesting and explains their price.
Thread: Was this the birth of CNC ?
11/12/2011 19:16:21

Thanks Sir John. Perhaps there was a golden period in machine design from -say- 1700-1930 in which a lot of clever ideas were applied to mechanical machines by people who were very skilled in metalworking. The ambition and scope of some machines is very impressive. Two months ago I visited a very good museum in Germany which was devoted to printing from prehistory to date. The size and complexity of Composing machines and some presses was way beyond what we deal with in our humble workshops. These machines - like John's example- will often run for 50-150 years with only minor repairs. Something that will never happen with today's CNC machines.
I also visited a wood veneering factory to buy some very specialised ply. They use a pealing lathe which is now 60 years old but, It weighs around 30 tons and cuts a ribbon of wood up to a Km long in one go. The MD said that the machine is not replaceable. Old does not mean backwards, it often signifies superior design and build.
 
Billy.

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