Member postings for Ian B.

This country was warned of this despicable "acedemic drift" as far back as 1970 and the engineering industry training board chaired by Finiston. The destruction he wreaked has proved almost irrepairable.

If we need up to date examples. Just look around at the moment. If you can find your way to to your own anal sphincter muscle with the help of a map and compass you can call yourself a "professor". A statistician calls themselves "scientist". All this when the deputy medical director of the United Kingdom announces on national television in answer to a journalist that decisions in committee were taken on FEBRUARY 30TH 2020. I need say no more about professors chartered engineers and academic drift.

Regards.

I am not going to enter the discussion concerning the various DPA machinations. Suffice it to say that with the assistance of the ICO my case turned a certain ombudsman and a number of officers, senior NHS managers, executives and board members plus a number of civil servants and politicians into nothing more than common criminals under the clauses of DPA 1998 Section 10 and its implications.

However as regards the subscription issues with MTM I have already commented elsewhere about an appalling service. It seems to all be contracted out via a raft of shadow and proxy companies. The left hand knows not what the right hand is doing. My affairs were and treatment was so bad that a curt letter was sent to the directors of MTM having had to trace the principals via companies house and we were on the point of informing Met Police Action Fraud who were actually requesting information on the sort of strokes that had been pulled by "secure-order". Only then was money refunded after agreements had been rescinded unilaterally and the directors of MTM have never acknowledged or responded.

The whole edifice seems to be operated by an e-commerce outfit who could not care less about you and I the subscriber, the customer and along with advertisers their paymasters.

Fortunately my ME subscription is paid by DD. I wanted to subscribe to MEW and the troublesome one Model Boat. No one can give assurances that they have any grip on the total shambles.

Regards

Ian

Edited By Ian B. on 24/11/2020 13:07:18

I would also beg to suggest after examining the photos closely that those bearings have been replaced at some stage with basic open frame bearings which are not the specification for these machines. A quick fan through my notes, books and mini lathe info shows 100% sealed and shielded bearings on the layshaft (correctly the input shaft). Just check carefully the size. The basic size will be etched on the side of the outer race. E.g 6201. They do vary manufacturer to manufacturer and may not always be the number listed in the parts list. The Clarke did in my case, the Conquest was one size down on OD and thickness (ID same) to the listed item in the parts list.

Regards

Ian

Interesting. I have owned personnally 2 mini lathes and worked on a couple of othersb. Still have one in use after loads of work. The first one a Clarke CL300M dated back to 1996. The second is a Chester Conquest dating to early 2017. Both bought new and in sealed crates. NEITHER machine had covers fitted in this area from the factory build. The bearing on the layshaft is exposed. The larger plastic covers for the mandrel bearings are deliberately moulded with the half moon cut out to clear the layshaft bearings at both ends being a common part.

The bearings are specified as shielded bearings anyway ZZ suffix. In this time and the Clarke did work commercially for me did not suffer any harm at all by being exposed over those years. I have replaced the Conquest bearings during the major strip down for other reasons with steel sealed and shielded units. Naachi branded units for a couple of quid each.

Regards

Ian

Edited By Ian B. on 19/11/2020 22:38:42

Hi Diogenes, For the brass question, I really don't know. I want to find out. Certainly it work hardens and is harder than the possibly poor cast material of the OEM originals as supplied. The other thing is that most of the suppliers now advertise these machines as having hardened bed ways. How good generally I could not comment. However with this latest machine the Conquest the underside of the ways was hard and could not be filed and it was needed. Hence all the work with cheap diamond laps of the plastic backed variety in the tight spots.

The machine had barely been used when I made the mod. Yet the original items had only been in contact at each end with telltale marks tapered by maximum 3/16" x 5/16"long tapering to nothing at 5/16" length and had been gouged away. It was almost nothing at the bad saddle corner but the corner of the bed had dug into it about 1/8" in.

Yes Anthony, there are designs out there for taper gibs. Again one of the better ones is detailed in Dave Fenner's books in the Workshop Practice Series. These were taken from another exponent of the mini lathe. Frank Hoose. His website www.mini-lathe.com is a mine of information. You can also find references to the work of Vikki Ford along with links to further information.

Hope that helps.

Regards.

Sorry Anthony, I have just checked my old notes from the work on the CL300. I also had the problem of running out of adjustment with jacking screws. When I removed the saddle and did some deptchecking one corner (right hand front) was over depth. The face of the shear plate was clear of the bed no matter how much clamping force was applied. The saddle had been machined a little out of square shall we say. I set it up on its back ensuring the root of the Vee groove was parallel to the mill table along with the flat rear face. Then with trepidation milled off 10 thou across the shear plate mounting faces. It was surprising just how far out it was with the cutter removing only a couple of thou at the parts which could be clamped. So I ended up when returned to the machine with a gap such that measurements could be taken and a start point for the solid shears had opened up.

It sounds an awful lot but doing it is not so hard as writing itand remembering the detail. The other thing is those push-me pull-me plates as delivered seem to be made from poor quality cast material which is very prone to cracking.

Regards

I followed Dave Fenner's method from his books on the mini lathe for my CL300. I used EN3A and managed to buy some 3/4" x 1/2" section. I had to mill out some clearance over the saddle traverse gear. Then just drill the outer two clamping holes. Tip is to change socket cap screws for hex head screws. Its easier to make adjustments with a spanner than dropping the leadscrew to get an Allen key in. Now comes the patience bit. I made brass shims with a hole in small squares of shim just to go between where the bolts are and the saddle. Aluminium drinks can material is allegedly good for making shims. Not tried it myself. By trial and error got the saddle to feel as if it were floating on a film of oil without play. The rear one is most important to get right. Almost certainly you will have to remove paint and use cheapy diamond laps on the underside of the bed. I can assure you the effort was worth it.

After the CL300 sadly died on me I have just been through it all again with a Chester Conquest. Yes it is worth it. I am experimenting with a CZ121 brass front shear plate which is 3/4" x 1/4" section and will just go in above the traverse gear. The rear shear plate remains EN3A.

If you are worried about shimming or making shims. It is written that Myford use this technique and you can obtain a range of laminated shim thicknesses from their spares people.

Regards.

Edited By Ian B. on 16/11/2020 09:14:13

Update for you. I've just looked they appear now to be on the Shenstone Industrial Estate in Halesowen.

Regards

Ian

Hello Speedy, I used to buy my pressure gauges from Miniature Pressure Gauges. Believe it or believe it not. They were/are in the Jewellery Quarter in Hockley In Birmingham. I bought 3/4 inch diameter but they also did 1/2 inch diameter as well as others. Definitely made in UK.

Regards

Ian.

Have you tried the little questionaire DaveW on the website? I also wear varifocals but with distance vision correction. The result returrned a negative unlikely to help.

One and Zero. 2 States.

However it appears that its ok for some who should know better to imply and state that I and others are Neanderthals or worse opposing changes to something which works. But like so many internet functions your face has to fit. Welcome to the data world. One rule for some other rules for the proles who are remiss for not digging the latrines and picking up the litter.

There is a well known quotation from a certain John Ruskin from many many years ago.

"There is nothing in this world that some man cannot make worse and cheaper. The man who buys by price alone is that mans lawful prey" or words to that effect.

No where does this apply more than the software industry.

However I do object to standing accused in my 70's of objecting to "change". Without pushing my own load but I was one of the early pioneers in the plasma physics industry. Yep designing from scratch and mad scientists dreams the equipment that did the research into all the processes that YOU ALL make use of in these machines. I was an early CAD user late 70s 80s 90s and fully advocated good change. I didn't work 120hours a week to have "influencers" on farcebook and tweety pie tell how to put my underpants on.

Due to the way digital computers actually work just remember that software "engineers" must necessarily have a logic mindset of a 4 year old. Simples a 2 state society.

I have been an advocate of change for many many years but not the appalling things now feted on soshul meeja. Change to improve all lives has to be good change to dictate is not good.

Brilliant Mick. Last week our smart meter display (EDF) told us that we had used -£1341.67 (yep minus) electricity without the gas that day up till lunchtime. Called the help centre. Guess what. The software "engineers" had rolled out a new update without telling anyone. Call centres inundated. sorry for the delay. It would take a fortnight for the bright sparks to sort the mess out.

Apologies to the OP for the hi-jack.

Hi Martin Used to use the "Crafty Papers" decal sheets quite a bit. Available in white or clear. Unfortunately the waterproofing issue is common with all of them. Its not the paper its the ink if you are using inkjet. I used artists acrylic varnish matt. Three very light coats would provide the waterproofing necessary. Another little tip. A statement of heresy. I found on occasion that cheap inks do not have enough pigment in them and had to resort to (heaven forbid the cost) OEM ink. Another route you might consider is dye sublimation onto aluminium coated sheet. Its used for mugs and tee shirts as well

The kit is a bit specialist but there are companies out there who will print your designs for you. I used to have the kit and its a good process.

Regards

Ian

Well said Mick. We are still using the digital computer based on silicon for civilian use. Invented by Fairchild in its modern use in 1948. We reached the maximum switching speed of silicon based semi conductors in about 1982. Its all still just ones and zeros. What we haved developed is redundancy, i.e. better miniaturisation and more devices per unit area. Hence giving the false impression of improvement. At the advent of CAD the most intuitive system was Lockheed CADAM. It actually remains so. It was designed and built by real engineers and designers who actually drove drawing boards and made real things. But has been superceded by lesser products because of our intrinsic idleness and fancy flashy front ends. We are dazzled by glitz and false bling.

At the advent CAD it was mantra that CAD will NOT make you a better engineer or designer, it is merely a tool to make life easier. Just how true that remains. The physicists always used to tell us once 3D came along that using the digital computer there are only 3 fundamental mathematical engines to generate 3D computer models. Everything else is software engineer BS. I think it is still fact that we are using digital computers? Anyone is free to correct me. Let us take the top end 3D modellers. I will leave them nameless. But during my professional engineering life of some longevity the annual "update" and "improvement" became dreaded. In those complex systems you would find that something you had been using for a number of years had been removed, something pretty useless had been inserted and irrelevant. The original was a bolt on paid for option. Then the next year the useless bit would be removed and another useless bit added and a bit of the useful part put back in. The overall was never improved just "modernised" by dreamers who didnt have to use the systems at the coalface. All for 30 grand GBP per year per seat without the additional hardware resources required at every "improvement" and "modernisation".

Regards

Ian.

Yes Nick. Just have a look at what Pajero is in colloquial Spanish in certain parts of the Iberian peninsula.

As regards the origins of this machine, Neil is correct in that the mini lathe design originated in Russia under the Soviets. Its spec was for taper roller mandrel bearings, confirmed also by Dave Fenner in his mini lathe books in the Workshop Practice series and others. The move came to deep groove radial (not angular contact) ball bearings at the hand over of the design to China.

However I would disagree over the manufacturer. The Chinese government approve a basic design then it is handed to a number of factories to make of it what they will. In the sealed crate of this machine there was no paperwork. However in the photographs you can see the shape of the saddle casting which is parallel sided. Every SIEG machine of this type I have seen badged in a number of liveries and names have an H shaped saddle casting in plan view. Pictures of Real Bull machines show the parallel sided saddle. Further on two points. On the strip down particularly the headstock, the Chester paint finish chipped or peeled away revealing a blue livery not the same as Amadeal's. Closer to someone like Harbour Freight or Grizzly. Secondly a kind gentleman posted earlier on this thread who also had a Conquest. His crate actually contained paperwork which confirmed in writing the Real Bull connection.

Finally what I know for certain is that SIEG travelling steady which fits the Clarke/ArcEuro machines does NOT fit the Chester machine. Its a completely different configuration of mounting for the saddle. Yep I have one loitering uselessly on the workshop shelf.

Regards

Ian

Thank you Howard. I can tackle some M2 studs now without the trepidation I was feeling and kept putting off. I don't have a large collection of die sets for the diehead but for those small sizes like M2 and 10BA it removes so much of the uncertainty. It has been sorely missed.

Regards

Ian.

Lee, Whilst your comments have aroused a lot of interest, the later ones made my "ears" prick up even more. You say you are heavily involved with Open Source software. Well firstly I respect that and express my gratitude to people such as yourself on that front. I use an awful lot of open source and legitimately free software for computing facilities that I could not otherwise afford for personal use. Examples being LibreOffice, GIMP, and I paid for two licences for QCAD having been a long time professional user of the most sophisticated CAD systems including complex surfacing with CATIA.

II should point out that not all updating and moving to modern platforms is either successful or an improvement even with open source material. Much is done purely for the sake of it. It almost without exception drains hardware resources for the average user (yes I have worked for one of the biggest hardware companies in their day like the inventors of the hard drive). I dumped LibreCad because it is cumbersome and bears like so many others the stamp of the software designer and not the user with all the symptoms of new bits just being bolted on without any thought for the whole and cleaning up the whole concept with proper streamlined integration.

And so many good forums have migrated or been updated to their complete detriment and subsequent demise.

Regards

Ian

Well after all the saga I thought to show the finished job. It has been a long process but outwardly much looks the same as a standard machine but as you have seen above it is now far from being a standard mini lathe. It is perhaps closer to a hand built special than an off the shelf item with a few tweaks. However there is no claim to it being a silk purse from a sow's ear but it is now a tractable machine that achieves what I need it to. There has been much blue/ hand scraping to get parts to fit, new shears set up with shims (not the push me pull me set up) diamond hand laps, new bearings thoughout, pulley machining, belt cover mods, a proper belt fitted, lead screw mods and so on.

Visibly you can see the modified tailstock from the old Clarke machine to a lever operated one with camlock to bed also now fitted with a new quill and adaptor for the Coventry Diehead. Its now fitted with a piston/wedge type toolpost and an ER collet chuck. Should provide a useful adjunct to the WM180.

You can also see the homemade 4 way adjustable saddle stop. This was based on the Colchester saddle stop 5 way which I made for the Bantam from the sketches in their parts list at the back of the manual for that machine. This may be useful as an idea for the OP whose thread discusses saddle stops. I claim no originality.

It has been frustrating and annoying that all this has had to be done but I have learned a lot and take postives from it as well as the hard lessons of who can be trusted in our suppliers and those who cannot.

Edited By Ian B. on 11/11/2020 09:20:23