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Member postings for John Coates

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

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Thread: This months MEW are 3 CNC features two too many
31/05/2011 21:07:21
Well I can sympathise with Ian
 
As a recent comer to lathes and mills to accomplish some home engineering, in the second year of a subscription to MEW, the vitriol in this post has convinced me that I will not be taking out a third year (obviously to Tony's delight).
 
I have come across many factions in my time in many forums, mainly motorcycle and computer OS related, and I guess I should not be surprised to find one here. Up until now my questions have been answered with the utmost help and fullness and I believed this forum to be somewhere I could enjoy for many years to come.
 
But I do not have CNC, CAM etc due to being in my mid-40's and raising a young family (2 and 6). It was a stretch to my budget to acquire both a second hand lathe and mill and all the accompanying tooling and accessories (still not complete as I learn more about what I should have and I never realised that it would cost more than the machines!). My first task is to acquire the manual skills to achieve what I want. And I find immense pleasure in turning those handwheels back and forth, watching the swarf, wondering whether the outcome will be fit for purpose or end up in the scrap box.
 
I will continue to learn what I need to do to with the help of some on here and I am sure another web forum will be found where the membership is more welcoming to those who do not own the most expensive equipment.
 
I am lucky that having found MEW I began to collect the back issues and there are loads of articles relevant to me and my skill level and the little job that I want to do. In fact they are replicated in a lot of the Workshop Practice Series which I have found worth collecting as well. And I must admit there were more articles per issue then together with lots of useful little helpful hints in the side bars, kind of like the asides a good teacher or lecturer passes on to their pupils.
 
Thankyou for the helpful replies I have received to date and I will restrict my activity to the Beginners section and keep from straying into these elitist areas where I do not feel welcome and I believe are very off putting to newbies.
 
I am sure points have been scored but as I do not know the rules I do not care a jot for the outcome. It has come across as very bitter and unwelcoming.
Thread: Converting CAD files to PDF
31/05/2011 09:43:45
For a Linux user there is the program lx-viewer
 
Here's the How to and here's the program lx-viewer
 
Thread: Reply to Post Disappears
27/05/2011 19:27:35
Richard
 
Sometimes when you navigate the site, moving between posts and threads, the site can lose the fact you are logged in. Usually the "Post a reply" box is lower than the top of the screen so you can see if you're logged in. Hence when you hit the "Add Posting" button you've no idea you're not logged in and you lose everything you've typed. Happened to me on a few occasions, mainly using my son's Macbook.
 
John
Thread: MEW 156 tangential toolholder angles
23/05/2011 08:38:55
Posted by chris stephens on 23/05/2011 00:40:58:
This all may sound complicated but it is not, it just takes a little longer to remove all the metal that is not to be part of your shiny new holder.
If you want clarification of any point do ask.
chriStephens
Oh that's clever, and so blummin' obvious! Obviously I have a long road still to travel on the path of newbieness.
 
I am pressing on with the ones I was maing as I did cut two tool blanks but as these will be first attempts and no doubt as rough as a docker's fishwife I shall bear your suggestion and previous design in mind.
 
But then again things suffered a set back with the bolt holding the cone pulley in my mill shearing, leaving the remains buried in the shaft. So at them moment I am without a mill until I make an adapter to get it all up and running again. The brain was on fire at 4.30am this morning so I got up, made a mug of tea, went into the garage and cleaned and tidied the bench and go the motor off. Several measurements later I was sketching up a design on the white board.
 
Nil desperandum
 
John
Thread: Headstock Tachometer
22/05/2011 21:23:15
Sigma (or other make) bicycle speedometer. Magnet on chuck or mandrel or backplate and small bracket for the magnetic pickup . Isn't there something on this in next month's MEW?
Thread: MEW 156 tangential toolholder angles
22/05/2011 07:16:37
Had a go at making one of these yesterday. First problem to overcome was that the width of the jaw opening on my new K4 Vertex vice freshly bought at Harrogate was insufficient for the design shown in MEW 156 or what I wanted for the size of my QCTP. I would have to hold mine with the shaft lengthways in the vice, not perpendicular as shown.
 
I ended up milling two blocks with the 12 degree angle on one side. When clamped above and below the tool blank it held it at the correct angle to allow the flats and the groove to be milled.
 
I felt quite good about overcoming the problem ..... until I realised I had made another newbie error. I'd had the tool blank upside down. Instead of the angles being cut on a L lying on its back with the foot down, my foot had been up. Hence the eventual cutting height of the tool would be too high!
 
Ah well. At least I've proved the two 12 degree blocks work. Time to cut another tool blank !
Thread: New technology in Model Engineers Workshop
20/05/2011 13:40:42
Posted by Keith on 20/05/2011 13:31:41:
There are a number of contributors to this forum who believe that if they are not controlling their machine tools themselves then there is no skill in it. Perhap this country has lost its innovators, hence we are going down hill!

I do hope I'm not in that list. I am still learning the basics hence my pleasure in the manual methods and I'm afraid CNC is just out of my budget league. The Law of cold hard reality of accessible cash determines that one I'm afraid!

20/05/2011 12:19:45
John McNamara: thanks for some thought provoking words
 
pcb1962: I'm only a couple of years behind you and spend my daytime working at a computer producing contract documentation. Leisure computer activity is restricted to website wandering, emailing and ebaying!
 
I think my general response to John's points is that I am a newbie but am not doing model sized work, I am making tooling to use my lathe and mill to work on my full size motorcycles to maintain or adapt them. I am still learning how to mill, turn and hold work pieces to meet tolerances and produce to a good finish. My beef with the CNC route is that I will have to replace my two machines and possibly my non-Windows computers. This adds cost to a budget which is small to begin with and as a mid-40 year old new dad with 6 and 2 year olds who, together with SWMBO, has claims upon all my money for the long term, that budget has to be well spent. That's why both machines and a lot of tooling have been purchased second hand to help control costs.
 
And right now at my point on the road away from newbieness, turning the hand wheels and watching the action of the cutting tool on the metal is giving me immense pleasure and satisfaction knowing it is ME that is achieving what is before my eyes.
 
John
Thread: This months MEW are 3 CNC features two too many
19/05/2011 12:05:13
Posted by John Stevenson on 19/05/2011 00:17:43:
Draftsight, the 2D CAD offering from Solid Works which is free with no strings attached has versions for Linux and Mac.
 

Thanks John. Another one to add to the consideration pile. At some point I will definitely need to turn all my sketches from the whiteboard copied onto odd bits of paper into something more readable and durable !

18/05/2011 21:54:10
Posted by blowlamp on 18/05/2011 14:04:39:

Frankly, this says more about the mentality of some people rather than the reliability of Windows software. After all, if a stranger took a hammer to your Mac and destroyed it, then you'd surely agree that it wouldn't be fair to blame Apple for that - I think the principle carries through in this context too.
 
Martin.

Martin - my mentality is fine. I blame the openness of Windows for its vulnerability, not the attackers. If your car wasn't easy to steal they would eventually give up and go away. Linux is more secure because it is a full implementation of the basic Unix dispersed model of access rather than the bodged affair that is Windows. Hence the ease with which it can be subverted. I can harden our Linux installations to stop all but a direct attack i.e. gaining control of the PC past the logon password. Linux doesn't fall over after a simple system update which was the reason for my last visit to a friend to spend 2 hours fixing his Windows PC because the update had disabled its DHCP.

I know there are CAD programs for Linux (QCAD) so I'll give them a look
18/05/2011 13:31:39
Posted by Tony Jeffree on 18/05/2011 12:57:55:
You can still get CNC software that runs under DOS too...
And just thought I'd mention that the latest MAC OS is actually a flavour of Linux; unfortunately, although the main target for virus attack is Windows, the MAC (and other flavours of Linux for that matter) isn't immune.
 
I've been using Linux since 1998 and never had a problem that was not of my own making. I have lost count of the number of friend's PCs I have been asked to fix because they suddently stop working or won't connect to the internet.
 
The allegory I use is that I enjoy my motorcycle because I can fix it. It has carburettors I can strip down and tune and I can get at everything else. It is a labour of love which I enjoy. I appreciate my car which has computerised everything but even the garage mechanic has to plug a laptop in to understand whats going on. I don't think he enjoys it but I clean it and enjoy its beauty once its clean.
 
Both do the functional job they were designed for, getting me around, but only one excites passion in me.
18/05/2011 12:34:38
Posted by blowlamp on 18/05/2011 09:22:08:
Posted by John Coates on 18/05/2011 06:43:31:
... My budget simply won't stretch to CNC machines...
 
... I loathe Windows and have a Windows-less home for all our PCs and laptops so if CNC runs only on that pile of rubbish I can't actually use it...
 
 
 
I see what you're saying, John.
 
But if CNC only runs on Windows, then I conclude that the other Operating Systems either aren't up to the task, or they don't have a user-base that is large enough to warrant development of the technology.
 
My experience of using Windows is a positive one. Without it, I wouldn't be able to do what I do with CAD, CAM and CNC, because there is no affordable equivalent at this time.
 
 
Martin.
 

Hi Martin

 
One of my points was that I cannot/will not add the cost of Windows to buying the CNC kit itself. I am glad that John S confirms that CNC/CAD/CAM programs can run on Linux as that is my chosen OS.
 
I work for a local council for my industrial/business experience of computing and their Windows based PCs don't tend to have problems but the network suffers outages. At home its a different story. I got sick of SWMBO moaning that the Windows PC was slow or wouldn't work because the teenager's internet trawling had loaded the thing with viri and malware. We now have one Mac (using this now) and everything else is Linux as I can install it and maintain it and we have been problem free ever since (excusing the actual failure of hardware).
 
It's personal choice and I prefer to be using the tool rather than constantly fixing it.
 
John
 
18/05/2011 06:43:31
As a newbie, subscriber and non-Myford/Tom Senior/Boxford etc owner I have simple choices when it comes to relevant content in the magazine. My budget simply won't stretch to CNC machines. Having bought a lathe (1947 vintage) and mill (90's vintage) my money is now going on tooling and stock. I loathe Windows and have a Windows-less home for all our PCs and laptops so if CNC runs only on that pile of rubbish I can't actually use it.
 
At the end of the day if MEW doesn't meet my interest I will cancel my subscription. Don't we all have that choice?
Thread: MEW 156 tangential toolholder angles
14/05/2011 22:34:28
Well I've bought some 3/16ths and 1/4" tooling steel and a Vertex K4 swivelling vice from Harrogate so the tangential tool project is go!
 
Thread: This months MEW are 3 CNC features two too many
13/05/2011 20:32:55
Hmmm interesting views guys. As a newbie I am only interested in manual machining as I am trying to learn the basics. Lathe and mill work is what I'm interested in learning and right now that is about finish, depth of cut, feed, type of tool, sequence of operations, for which you guys have been most helpful in answering my many questions over the past months.
 
I thought I could learn things from the CNC articles but I was wrong, There is nothing in there for me so the number of pages that are relevant are reduced. And once the survey was removed it's a very thin issue this month.
 
I know David has a hard job to do to please such a vast readership and I wouldn't want it and he probably has to use the articles he's given. Luckily there are books to aid me and the Foundation Course book by Peter Wright I got for my subscription free gift is coming in very useful.
 
I agree with NJH and will be completing my survey form because if you don't vote you abdicate all rights to moan about the buggers who get in!
Thread: The SURVEY !!
11/05/2011 23:02:29
My brief flick through the mag made me think there was loads in there when I finally get round to reading it. OK maybe not the CNC 4th axis I grant you
11/05/2011 22:41:13
Dunno yet - I'm still ploughing through the Arc Euro Trade catalogue gaining inspiration for my shopping tip the Harrogate ME show on Saturday !!!
Thread: MEW 156 tangential toolholder angles
10/05/2011 22:24:12
Chris
 
How did you make the square hole for the tool bit? Is it a round hole filed out?
 
Have looked at it several times and admire the clean lines over the MEW 156 version. Any drawings perchance to enable reproduction?
 
John
Thread: Adjustable Dials for Feedscrews
10/05/2011 12:24:59
Hi Buddy
 
A member on here kindly sent me the GHT article on the micrometer collars. I have since bought the book (and his other one on the universal pillar tool) and will happily recycle them in your direction.
 
Just send me a private message with your postal address
 
John
Thread: MEW 156 tangential toolholder angles
10/05/2011 12:18:31
Must admit I am giving one of these tool holders serious consideration as CT inserts are on the shopping list again for Harrogate. Instead I think I shall buy some steel to make the holder and some square tooling steel and have a go at making one.
 
So well done for this timely post and excellent reference material chaps !
 
John
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