Member postings for John Coates

I have made a swarf/splash guard for my Barker from the clear plastic
screen off an old sun bed held rigid by two metal L brace pieces

One uses an existing 6mm hole in the base plate and I went to drill and tap a new hole for the other using my Bosch power drill. Well this is proving less simple than I thought. I can't get any drill bit to bite and cut. I've tried TiN and cobalt but nothing is working.

The base plate is 3/32 or 2mm steel

Is it because I am just not exerting enough pressure, unlike a drill press?

All workey finey on Linux Mint and Firefox 17.0

I'm saving up for a Scheppach but that is way above your budget. I'd looked at the Clarke ones from MachineMart when they have their "Save the VAT" offer but the fact the table was at a fixed distance from the column made me think "how will I do PCD's?"

The Scheppach head is a long round beam so it can be adjusted for angle and distance. It's under £400 but the delivery is £60. Ouch!

If we didn't have dreams life would be so dull

Richard

I don't have a Myford but would support JohnF's comment about choosing a lathe where tooling and accessories are readily available

When I was in your position in 2009 I wrestled with the same dilemma. In the end I bought a big old lathe which, years later and further down the path of experience, I can now find problems with as regards accuracy and usability. I can overcome these but it would be better if lathe steadies and spare parts were readily available

To replace this with a new lathe at a price I would be happy to pay means I would be looking at Warco, Chester or Amadeal

Best of luck

John

Terryd - agreed but at the time the local suppliers didn't have what I wanted and SWMBO was getting very irate and buying some plastic from the local supplier and turning it seemed the quickest way out of my domestic hell

In the end it was Les who provided the solution as Toolstation were on the same road my lad works on in Doncaster (25 miles away). He picked one up yesterday and I fixed it this morning at 7am (was out watching Skyfall last night). Got a a hug from SWMBO so domestic bliss is restored. Didn't know about Toolstation but I do now!

Thanks all. John

Edited By John Coates on 20/11/2012 07:16:27

Cheers Bob, will look at Screwfix

Our handle shaft is 18.5mm OD whereas the Wickes kits were about 22mm

Cheers Paul

That's the problem with weekends - the plumbers merchants all close at midday on Saturday and my problem didn't synch with their opening hours!

Will give them a visit tomorrow

Roy

I thought of that but am worried that metal will grind/wear against the ceramic cistern - the flat part (imagine a top hat with the cylinder going through the hole in the cistern)

Do you reckon brass will be okay?

Thanks Neil

I'm mainly in trouble because I paid the maintenance guy from work £60 to fix the two toilets that weren't working very well. This was three weeks ago. He said he fitted two service kits but neither toilet was much better. He said he would "do me a deal" on two replacement cisterns if they weren't fixed

So I searched the t'interweb, read about replacing the syphons, bought two new ones and fitted them yesterday and today. In the process I found he only fitted one service kit (or else the new one deteriorated bloody quickly in 3 weeks) so was extra angry.

Hence sorting the broke handle is top priority to recover some of the cash I paid to this muppet

John

One of our toilet handles has broken and none of the repair kits fit as they are larger and too big for the hole in the ceramic cistern

Basically imagine a threaded cylinder with a flange at the end to stop it sliding through the hole in the cistern. To tighten this against the cistern is a locking nut.

These are plastic and trying to repair the existing one by plastic welding with a soldering iron results in a weak joint that just breaks. Having replaced the syphons in two toilets and spent most of the weekend doing this and stopping them leaking (close coupled) it's time to turn to that recalcitrant handle

SWMBO is getting fraught that one toilet is still out of commission and I thought "I have a lathe and this is just a turning job, right?"

So any tips on how to turn a replacement fitting on the lathe? Will my normal metal cutting tools work on plastic? I intend to just screw cut the cylinder to match the existing lock nut (one less job) and reckon on using nthreads to use my set of change wheels to get somewhere close

I've only cut and threaded steel (FC and stainless) and brass so plastic is new to me. Think the existing is ABS but will see what the supply store has in stock tomorrow during lunch break

Thanks for any help

John

Thanks for that Michael

I always thought they bought a Linux distro. I am now wiser. I remember trialling BeOS

Wouldn't count my 7 year old in that camp. She happily turns on a PuppyLinux PC, logs in and surfs the web and watches stuff. And to date (2 years) I've never had to go near it

Why not just install Linux Mint on your exisiting laptop?

It's the best version I have found and I've been using Linux since 1996. My HP laptop broke and after swapping motherboards I put Mint on instead of the previous Vista. It found everything including the wi-fi which other versions of Linux struggled to set up out of the box with no human intervention. I just turn it on and go. Updates occur every three or so weeks.

As stated earlier Mac OS is built on Linux (not Unix as stated, they bought out a Linux distro) so why not use Linux if you don't need Mac specific software

We have Mac's at home (iMac and Macbook belonging to my stepson) and I find them very unintuitive and hard to use. Stuff just doesn't work logically. I use a WInXP machine all day for work and Linux at home and can interchange between them seamlessly. Mac's need your brain re-wiring. And when things go wrong (which is very rare I hasten to add) they are very hard to fix usually requiring a full reinstall.

If you like Windows but are annoyed by what you are experiencing then keeping your hardware and changing your OS seems the best option. You can try a live CD to test that Linux Mint recognises and uses all your hardware too

John

Must admit to rather liking my Champion. Converting to variable speed using an inverter made a big difference and got the high speeds for the small cutters. The round column is a pain when going up in drill size to open out holes but as Russell says a bit of planning can get round most jobs. There have been some good articles in MEW about adapting it and I will be doing one of the mods to retain register when taking cuts at different heights requiring unlocking of the quill

One advantage I enjoy is being able to swap tools between my MT3 tailstock in the lathe and the Champion. Make one tool but fits both machines. Simples!

Edited By John Coates on 08/11/2012 12:39:55

Advertised at work is a 3kw 1200 degree electric kiln. Diameter 22" and 23" high

Wondered whether it would be worth buying for the workshop?

Would that spec be useful and what for? Having read about folks using the domestic oven I think this would go down far better with SWMBO !!

John

As MEW is about machinery, tooling and repairs perhaps an issue that would stand alone as a "best of" with examples of each which would also be a useful roundup for newcomers who might pick it up off the magazine shelf. A wide in scope review of our hobby with stuff to whet their appetite. Less of a magazine for the old curmudgeons and serial complainers and a bit of a celebration of what home engineers can achieve ( a bit like Brian Blessed in the first Blackadder fighting his way out of the Turkish horde with his trusty fruit knife). I recall the thread about the guy who built that amazing full size Meccano three wheel car in his workshop which would be a great example.

For myself I have old bits of kit - lathe 1947, shaper 1964 and mill/drill 80's or 90's. I don't have CNC but I wouldn't object to it in the mag (changed my opinion since last time I wrote about this).

I have spent silly amounts of money on single back issues of MEW so I now have a complete set. I think the main difference between issue 1 and now is that the early ones were all about "make do and mend" with people designing and making bits of tooling for their lathes and mills that now folks just buy because they have become more affordable (but not necessarily equal or better quality). As I have old kit I tend to find myself referring more to the early issues than the latest ones as they have the projects I need. In 22 years the focus has changed to being less self reliant and having the technology do it for us (a bit like cars heh? but I much prefer my motorbikes as I can fiddle with them but the car is left to the main dealer and his laptop jiggery pokery)

I think a catch up (where are they now) of all the editors would be a great idea (we know HH is active on his website and this forum). A photo montage of what can be achieved from the largest (that Meccano car?) to the smallest (some of those diminutive engines or the scale machinery done by Barry Jordan)

That's my idea pool exhausted for now

John (old fart in potentia)

Edited By John Coates on 24/10/2012 12:34:36

I didn't - I'm going in there now. Today I have been mostly riding my motorcycle

Tomorrow I shall mostly be cleaning it !

Gray

I have no problems with pseudonyms. If people start spouting off, whether under their real name or a pseudonym, it is the quality of their words that define them, not the name they post under. A nasty boorish oaf is still the same, whether he be commoner, lord or cartoon character.

Your post reminded me of my old history teacher who would launch chalk, board rubbers and books at inattentive pupils with pin point accuracy no matter how far towards the back of the class they were

John

I must admit as a middle aged newbie (is 48 middle aged these days?) that the level of scrutiny on this forum over what seems to me to be incidental mistakes or trivial matters is quite unbelievable

I can understand that a wrong number or dimension can have serious consequences, but bad grammar or spelling? Unless it is describing a procedure and the writing conveys incorrect instructions what is the problem?

I really enjoy being a member on this forum. You lot are enlightening, entertaining and very knowledgeable. Sometimes you are curmudgeonly, bitter, argumentative and nearing downright abusive but I'll take that for all the pearls of wisdom you leave around the place

Keep up the good work

John (real name, don't understand why you don't like pseudonyms!)

PS. you've almost made me want to go and get a copy of ME to read what was written but being a tight fisted Yorkshireman I'll just find one to borrow

What seems like ages ago in the demise of Myford thread I asked which company would step into the void and become the new "Myford" to have but there was no answer from anyone

As with Kelvin I am progressing from newbie to tyro (hell I even managed to make new footpeg pins out of stainless that are the correct diameter all the way down their length which for me is an achievement) and one day the question will have to be addressedas tof what new lathe to budget for to replace the second hand 1947 Barker I am currently abusing

So I'll open it up again to those more knowledgeable and experienced than me - if you had to buy a new lathe tomorrow which makes and models would you be looking at?

To start you off are the Ceriani lathes advertised in MEW good?