Member postings for David Colwill

Hmmm. The Zoro / Cromwell pricing is a sore point.

Last I looked Cromwell are nearly double what Zoro charge in some cases, despite being under the same ownership.

David.

This may be why eBay keeps trying to sell me a shed!

First class large letter posted on the 14th arrived on the 24th just to give some idea of how bad it can be. some second class has arrived in two days, so not all bad.

David.

Personally I would have a go at it. Try not to spend any money on it or if you do spend it on things that can be kept if you get rid. This can include chucks, toolposts and the other bits needed to use any lathe. There are many videos on youtube that would guide you in everything from adjusting and painting to completely rescraping it.

At the end you will either have a serviceable lathe or a good education.

The fact that you haven't gone out and bought gleaming example from a showroom says that either need or budget will not allow you to spend a huge amount on a lathe (nothing wrong with that). My point being that there are many lathes out there that look much nicer than yours but are just as bad and learning how to spot them is the difference between having something that is a joy to use and constantly being frustrated by it.

Good luck whatever route you go down.

Regards.

David.

I trade on ebay and was notified by them, earlier this year, that they were going to start penalising traders that did this. The reason being that people were complaining. That said I still notice huge numbers of people doing just that so nothing much has changed. You can generally tell by the delivery time.

Regards.

David.

Looks like a cheap copy of my Mitutogo.

What did you expect when the real thing costs £7.50?

Still when you drop it, I doubt the tears will flow.

Regards.

David.

My Bridgeport clone Has ballscrews and stepper motors. It still has handles and does get used as a manual machine. Yes you do need to be careful with the screws moving but experience and an independent DRO says that this is not much of a problem. That said the machine is a bit of a Frankenstein and is not doing anything of any great accuracy.

The type of control may or may not allow you to add more than 1 encoder and closed loop stepper motors won't let you turn them when off (at least the ones I have won't) so you would need to check out before you commit.

I also have a CNC lathe that currently runs on Mach 3 and while this does only get used with the control on, I have recently bought a couple of rotary encoders to provide some degree of manual movement. When I get chance I will set this up.

You do get faster at using a CNC machine as you understand both the hardware and software you are using so it may not be as much of a problem as you think.

Regards.

David.

As per other replies, carbide inserts do have a slight radius on the cutting edge to prevent premature breakdown. This means that they don't do well on small cuts. You can, however, sharpen them on a diamond wheel. This will give an edge that will take a very fine cut but won't be as durable. I keep a second tool holder that is used for recycled inserts.

As to the possible damage by the blue, well while I wouldn't rule it out, I doubt that it is abrasive as the idea of coating a precision surface plate with it and then rubbing what would effectively become a lap on it, would obviously not be great and I'm sure that this would cause wear that would have been flagged up by now.

Still, as you say, an interesting question.

Regards.

David.

I use a UC300 on my lathe running Mach3. Although the milling does support rigid tapping (with an encoder) the lathe only supports screw cutting with a single pulse per rev. I have emailed them at intervals over the years that I have had this set up and this was certainly the case last year. I don't know about their own software as I haven't tried that.

Regards

David.

I believe "Big Clive" on youtube did a test on AA batteries including Duracell. They did not perform well.

The best ones came from the pound shop!

Regards.

David.

I looked at these but was put off because I didn't quite get the thing with the computer ( something about single thread )

I wasn't sure how easy they were to find and what they would cost.

Can anyone expand on this?

Regards.

David.

No you are wrong. It's just that you have misunderstood "rated output".

In China this means maximum value attained before failure. This value only has to be maintained for 1µs.

David.

Having spent some time tidying up in my workshop, I have come across something I didn't think existed. A bench! I have seen photos of these but had always thought they must be staged. I can't believe that I have actually found one.

Anyway as the spring clean continues I am now looking to find other mythical things. Bigfoot, a unicorn, a flying saucer perhaps even.... A lathe!

No wait, let's not be silly. Everyone knows they aren't real!

Regards.

David.

Sorry when I read the title of the post I thought you had written my autobiography.

Nice job though!

In a word yes.

I have had this happen to me.....Well sort of!

The linisher had been used for pretty much anything including wood aluminium and rusty steel (that was what I was doing )

Anyway all of a sudden there was a bit of a flash. I'd like to be able to say that I was blown clean across the workshop, through the brick wall and into the pub but alas it wasn't so.

The most serious aspect of this was the loss of productivity as I spent at least half an hour trying to repeat it.

I always thought it was a thermite reaction but in reality it was more likely dust being ignited by a spark.

Regards.

David.

Hmmm I'm not sure how I missed that.

To answer your question, yes I'm sure it will.

Thanks for finding that!

Regards.

David.

I have just acquired a Studer type 01 cylindrical grinder. Sadly there doesn't seem to be much information out there on the internet.

I have come across the Anglo Swiss site which contains information about its slightly more well known cousin the 0B and also the rather unusual gauge grinding machine on lathes.co.uk but neither of these are like mine.

Whilst I seem to have figured out most of it, I'm quite sure that the finer points of it escape me at the moment. It is quite a lovely thing even in its slightly neglected state and I would be very interested in any information about it.

So has anyone heard of this machine?

If anyone has or has any information I would be very grateful to hear from them.

Regards.

David.

The centre height issue is something I could live with given I would only want to do it in an emergency. The second issue is the more important. Perhaps I should give it a go!

Andrew,

Most of my work is in EN16T, which machines very well. I do reduce depth of cut as I get nearer to finished size but not in any scientific way .

So you would think, however both of those inserts are labelled ER16 1.5 ISO and are listed as full profile.