Member postings for Mike Crossfield

+1 for Smith and Allen. I get all my machine lubricants from them, and I have no complaints. Very helpful, and happy to supply in 5 litre quantities even when these sizes are not listed on their website. Fraction of the price of many other suppliers. Very good range of paints as well.

A while back my wife complained about her cooker apparently not reaching temperature. The fairly new high spec. electric cooker has two fan ovens, one large and one small. She found she got different results in them despite setting the same temperature, the small oven apparently being cooler than the large oven. Also variable results depending on quantiles of food in them. To try to get to bottom of the problems I ran a series of tests with thermocouples in the ovens, over a range of temperature settings. What I found was that it took a much longer time for the set temperature to be reached on a tray in the centre of the oven than indicated by the oven thermostat, and the problem was worse in the smaller oven which had a smaller heating element. Things also got worse as the temperature setting was increased and the loading of the oven increased. My conclusion was that the oven thermostat effectively measures air temperature at some remote point remote rather than the “body” temperature of the oven, and that there is a significant lag before the true required temperature is reached within the cooking vessel.

To give an example: In the case of my cooker the small oven, which has a smaller element than the large oven, took 3-4 cycles of the thermostat before a temperature within 5 degrees of the demanded temperature of 180 degrees was reached. The large oven took 2-3 cycles to reach temperature. This was with effectively empty ovens.

My wife now allows a few minutes extra time after the thermostat light on the oven has gone out for the first time before assuming that the required temperature has been reached, and she now gets consistent expected results.

Jason

Thank you for posting the link. I am not into model making myself but I greatly enjoyed the video. Lovely work.

Regarding the problem of rust stains from steel grinding particles.

I find that "Jenolite" applied with a small stiff brush such as a nailbrush, or (if the surface will not be damaged} one of those green abrasive pads, works well. Available from car accessory shops or online.

Also very good for removing rust marks from stainless steel sinks when someone from the workshop with filings on their hands has washed in the kitchen sink..........

Bandersnatch

Look under the category “digital readout systems”. You will then find magnetic encoders in both the hobby and industrial sections.

Brian

I can only offer comments on magnetic scales. I fitted these to my Dore Westbury mill a year or two back. I chose them because I had very little space available, and they were much more compact than optical scales. They have proved to be 100% reliable, and I am very happy with them. My set up came from MachiineDRO. From memory the magnetic scales increased the overall cost by about 15% compared to the version with optical scales.

I switched to using a spotting drill a year or two back, and only now use centre drill when I need a 60 degree centre for between centres turning.

I wish I could find a low cost source however. Spotting drills seem very expensive compared to centre drills.

David

I have sent you a private mail. Check your inbox.

Also takes care of any minor surface imperfections.

I like to see a finely turned finish on weights and pendulums, so need a suitable grade of brass.

The grade matters because I will need to skim it after filling it with lead. Some grades of brass are chewy, and tear, so getting an attractive finish is very difficult. Guess I need to speak to the man at Maccmodels.

Yes, Maccmodels was the supplier that triggered my question. Unfortunately they don’t state the grade of brass.op

As others have pointed out, condition and extras are crucial.

If you want to see some dealer prices for top-end machines take a look at www.myford-lathes.co.uk.

I need an 8 inch length of 2 inch diameter 16 or 18 gauge brass tube (to fill with lead for the pendulum of a clock I am making). My usual supplier of clock making brass sells CZ121 at around £2.50 per inch, but I've seen others selling 16 gauge brass steam pipe for 1/2 the price. Does anyone know what grade this would be, and if there is a snag to using it in my application?

Dave,

If you are buying a collet chuck for your ML10 you might want to consider one which screws onto the spindle register, rather than a MT2 mount. The MT2 version is fine for holding milling cutters etc, but very limiting in terms of the length of stock material you can hold.

Steve

I was put off buying one of these by the high prices, so I made one. Interesting little project. I don’t use it a lot, but when I need to drill very small holes, e.g. for clockmaking, the extra “feel” is invaluable. It only takes a few seconds to pop it into place, so much more convenient than swapping over to the standard Myford lever feed device (which I also have). I’ve never felt that lack of rigidity was an issue.

Mike

Woody

Would 1/2 inch be close enough?

If so you could cannibalise an extension from a 1/2 inch drive socket set.

Seasons greetings

Mike

Bob

You might want to try flycutting the surface. You could easily fly cut 75mm in a single pass, and with a sharp cutter and a fine feed the finish will be very good.

I would have expected terminal A2 to be at a lower level than the blue wire shown in your photo. Like terminal A1 shown the previous photo. If we’re right about it being where the floating blue wire should go it will have nothing currently connected to it

Just a word of caution. The terminal indicated in Dave’s sketch seems to be clearly labelled A1 in DAG’s photo. From experience with similar components I would expect A2 to be on the other end of the contractor.