Member postings for David Colwill

Not sure about lino but I used this **LINK**

which has been OK.

Regards.

David.

I bought a load of 2 and 3 morse taper drills off him a couple of years ago. So I will continue to remember him each time I use one.

RIP John.

I have recently bought a Clarke 1 ton beam trolley (manual not electric) and was very impressed with it. Even overloaded by 50% (the machine was 2 inches off the ground) it was surprisingly easy to pull along. It might be worth getting one of these and seeing how you go. If it is impractical then rigging an arrangement similar to a curtain opening system would not be too difficult.

Regards.

David.

I use easychange on my Bridgeport clone and have had no trouble at all. Mine has an allen screw that you can tighten if you are doing heavy cutting but I doubt you will be able to over work it with the Triac. It looks like you have a good selection of holders, So even if you decide it isn't for you, I'm sure it would make a handsome price on ebay (possibly enough to cover the refit. Personally I would keep it.

Regards.

David.

Hi,

You could almost certainly keep the old stepper motors (I did on my Easiturn and they have been fine) which means you just need drivers. I have used all sorts of drivers on various CNC conversions and they have all been very reliable so take your pick. You should also be able to keep the spindle motor / controller and interface it to Mach3 via your parallel port / motion controller. As for which motion controller, I have used the UC 300 and not had any bother with it but there have been many new offerings that I have no experience of so I can't really help on that.

There is no reason in the short term why you can't use an old PC with a parallel port on windows XP to get you going. My triac is still running as a parallel port machine and it is fine.

Also in the short term you don't need to have Mach3 run the spindle. You can do this manually using a pot to set the speed. later you can have a relay to switch the spindle on or have Mach generate the 0-10v for full speed control.

Regards.

David.

All of the information I have seen says 5 degrees, also it seems to be the usual practice to flip it over and do the other side so that you get two go's. I sharpened mine on one of the cheapo diamond cup wheels and it gave a pretty good finish straight off but following the advice on a youtube video by Stefan Gotteswinter (he did a two part video on scraping which is well worth watching) I bought one of the lapidiary diamond discs which is about 3000 grit but I haven't mounted it yet so can't say how much improvement it will give.

Regards.

David.

Edited By David Colwill on 07/10/2017 11:09:17

And it's here **LINK**

David.

Some things that Axminster sell are remarkably good value for money, that however doesn't look like one of them. To me it looks as if they've bought a thousand of them for a tenner each and are now ready to maximise profits.

There you go.... Just my thoughts

Regards.

David.

I would strongly advise you to update the hardware / software to something more modern. The first triac I owned was a working non atc version. I had it for 2 / 3 years and hardly used it. I then came across the one I have now which was a non working Fanuc one with an atc. I refitted it to run Mach 3 and I started to use it all the time. It has remained unchanged ever since. Although converting it may seem complicated it is in reality not that difficult and you would be following a path that many others have trodden. The Denford software is rubbish and will only frustrate you. The memory in the older machines is very limiting and although you can drip feed (send one line of code at a time) it is very very slow. That and the fact that any modern cam package is unlikely to have a Denford post processor that will suit your machine and there is a dwindling number of people familiar with it to help you.

Whatever you choose to do good luck with it and I guarantee you will learn something new .

Regards.

David.

I have had a triac for 10 years or so. They were built for education (who invariably didn't use them) and are very well put together. If the capacity of the machine is enough for your needs I would say that you are unlikely to find anything better. As for the control, yes it is outdated but refitting them is not complicated and there is loads of information about how to carry this out.

Which of Emgees photos does it look like?

Regards.

David.

All this talk about quick change. Has anyone ever timed how long they take! I have 5 different types all have there pros and cons. They are:-

Multifix. Very repeatable very expensive. Toolholders are impossible to make Very nice though.

Dickson. Toolholders are more common but hard to make but still a good system.

Dovetail type model 200 (as sold by Arc) I really like these. They are repeatable enough for my needs and you can easily make new toolholders.

Dean Smith and Grace type. Very solid but hard to find the holders at a sensible cost. Wouldn't be too dificult to make though.

All of the above are great if you have a massive range of tools but quick change they are not. If you want speed you have to go to number 5 on the list.

Herbert 2D 4 way toolpost. I tried to time a tool change with this but couldn't easily do it. So I changed from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and back to 1. It took just under 3 seconds. Obviously you can only hold 4 tools and then you have the issue with boring bars and turning tools in the same configuration but all the same it is a pretty impressive thing.

I recently bought a load of them off ebay and plan to take one apart to see what makes it tick.

Just my thoughts.

David

I would recommend that you look out for the watchmakers apprentice, which is a documentary about George Daniels and Roger Smith. It was on Netflix but I think they have taken it down now. It shows in some detail how exacting their work really is.

David

I think the CJ18A is a great idea. Provided you bid a sensible amount you are unlikely to loose much if any money on it. Yes a good Myford will be better but there are plenty of people who believe that a worn out lathe can be fixed with a coat of paint and you are unlikely to be able to spot that. If you end up with a mini lathe it may very well have its problems, learning what they are and how to fix them is very valuable information. Should you ever decide you want to get something more expensive this will stand you in very good stead. As for what you are going to make that is fairly obvious...... Tools to fix the tools to fix the lathe etc There are a good many people on here (myself included) who spend a significant amount of time doing just that.

Good luck.

David..

A six inch rule

A quick update on this.

The discs arrived this morning and I used one to lop 10 mm of a 20 mm carbide endmill. I'm not sure how long they will last doing this kind of duty but at that price,,,,,

Many thanks for the input especially Neil for the link to Arc.

David.

Once I have cut the end off I can resharpen them

David.

Thanks for the replies.

I've ordered a couple of the 100 mm discs from arc and will report back soon.

Many thanks.

David.

Thanks for that. I hadn't seen those on Arcs website. For that price they have to be worth a punt.

David.

Hello,

I have a selection of carbide endmills that I picked up for next to nothing because they have chips on the ends. I had thought that I may be able to lop the ends off with a 1mm abrasive cutoff disc but having tried it, it is not going to work.

I therefore need to find some other way, presumably involving diamonds. I tried an old tile cutting blade but that wasn't any good either.

Has anyone used anything particular or have any recommendations. I don't mind spending money on the right thing but would like some assurance of success before splashing out.

Ideally I would want something 100mm diameter but I could probably accommodate 115mm at a push.

Many thanks in advance.

David.

At a guess it is part of a cable operated bell system for summoning the servants. They often had handles in the main rooms (the doorbell was similar but outside). These led back to the servants quarters where there were a number of bells on springs. Upon hearing the bell the servant would be able to see which room had rung. the spring kept the bell moving for a considerable time.

Many thanks.

David.