Member postings for Samsaranda

Vic, I was in the same situation as yourself, fed up with cheap calipers eating batteries, I bought a Moore and Wright 6” calliper from Machine - DRO, advert at top of this page. It cost me £23 pounds odd and I am well pleased with the quality, it doesn’t eat batteries and it has a quality feel to it when using it. They are currently on offer again from DRO and well worth consideration, however at that price you won’t get Mitutoyo quality.

Dave W

As regards height requirements, read the machine specs carefully and then calculate how much you will need.

Dave W

DRO’s will switch from metric to imperial no problem, once you have used the machine with DRO’s you will forget about the calibrated dials, you don’t need to use them the DRO will measure much more accurately, no more counting the turns of the dials and getting lost and having to start again.

Dave W

George, Cream and Aero Blue go well together, they were the colours of our Corporation buses here in Eastbourne, till they went bust, the buses always looked smart in that livery, the Council still paint their street furniture in those colours.

Dave W

I have a Champion 20VS mill from Chester, bought a few years ago for about £850 if my memory serves me right. I purchased with the intention of fitting a DRO myself, bought a glass scale DRO from “Machine DRO” cost in the region of £400 for two axis, Z axis already had digital readout built in, no problems fitting it, plenty of brackets with it to suit fitting. I can say that I have never regretted purchasing the Champion mill, it has done everything that I needed of it. My other choice at the time of purchase was an X3, both mills are equally capable it all hinges on what you will be making with the mill and of course the physical space available, particularly ceiling height in your workshop.

Dave W

Bob, you state that customer is a nuclear power station, one would assume that they know their metallurgy and would have specified accordingly, if they are of the opinion that 400 grade “stainless” is not going to rust then they are either deluded or have made a major error in specification. I have worked in companies who contract supply to nuclear customers and my experience is that they are meticulous in specifying materials and processes, if they required a passivation process then my experience is that it would have been clearly documented as required. It is nearly 30 years since I was involved in making for nuclear customers and they were always very thorough in their dealings with contractors, unless things have changed drastically then in your case they have specified incorrectly. If this is an error on their part then one wonders how many other components, perhaps critical components, have also suffered from specification errors.

Dave W

Dave, aka SOD many thanks for your input, maybe consider resurrecting the project as a laser device but with an upper limit on the diode of 1 mw or less because this limit would appear to be much safer than a 5 mw diode.

Dave W

Martin, one reason for my posting was to ascertain how compliant Chinese laser diodes were in respect of specification, your post demonstrates that they probably vary widely and even if I used a 1 mw diode then I couldn’t rely on it being within classification. Many thanks.

Dave W

.Clive, many thanks for your input, perhaps a rethink and optical would be the way to go, much safer with no dangerous light to worry about. Grey cells are working on a design.

Stuart , many thanks for the link to Laser Safety, interesting information.

Dave W

Thanks Dave, just the sort of advice I was seeking, my knowledge of lasers is virtually nil which is why I posted this topic, looks like back to the drawing board with a lower spec of laser. Many thanks.

Dave W

Our local paint suppliers here in the South East, a firm called Brewers, have the equipment to scan paint samples to reproduce the exact colour, or near enough anyway, whether the process is available to supply the required type of finish that you are requiring I don’t know. I would suggest you explore any large painting and decorating suppliers in your area. Good luck.

Dave W

I am just about to start constructing a laser centre finder to use on my mill. It will consist of a demountable unit which will be held in the chuck or collets, whichever is fitted at the time, and will consist of a small laser unit projecting a cross image and this will be driven by a small battery pack. The laser unit that I intend to use has a wavelength of 650 nm and 5 mw power and is classified as a class 111a product. My question to all who are electronically conversant is, are there any safety precautions that I need to be aware in respect of the laser emissions other than obviously not staring up the beam into the emitter. It would appear to be on the upper limit at 5 mw in regards of classification and avoids the mandatory safety requirements of higher classifications, how reliable are Chinese statements of compliance to specifications when it comes to these mass produced laser emitters?

Dave W

I acknowledge my mistake re: administration but still consider Maplin is a dead man walking, I don’t think they will survive for long.

Dave W

Needed to purchase a battery box (container) to hold 4 AA batteries to power a project that I am constructing, went online to Maplin last night, they sell the item I required but not in stock in my local Maplin, no forecast of restock so I had to resort to Amazon, item cost £3.99 and postage also £3.99 so not cheap but it was cheaper than a journey to next closest Maplin who did hold stock. My opinion is Maplin is virtually dead now, just prolonging the agony with the receivership.

Dave W

Simon, you are certainly not alone, I see what I consider amazing model projects that I would like to achieve and purchase the plans in readiness for starting, then reality kicks in and I realise that I already have about 4 projects under construction and I should perhaps attempt to complete at least one of them. The overriding element is that it is just a hobby, no need to get stressed about it and we should just do what makes us happy, we don’t have to work to strict deadlines so just do what makes you happy.

Dave W

John good luck with a cobalt drill on your Dickson tool holder block, I had to open out the mounting stud hole on the one I recently fitted to my lathe, I needed to open out the hole from 11.2 mm to 12 mm, you would think that would have been easy, it certainly wasn’t. The hardened alloy steel just wrecked a number of cobalt drills and left me wondering how I was going to achieve the objective, I decided in the end to use a diamond core drill, obtained from Arceurotrade, they had a 12 mm size one and it was only about £4 or thereabouts, it did the job and easily ate it’s way through the toolpost, although I was only using it to remove .8 mm from the hole so I don’t know how you would cope with a solid hole, if you know what I mean. The hardened alloy steel that they use is incredibly hard, most cutting tools just bounce off it, have you thought about having the hole spark eroded? Let us know via this thread how you get on? Dave W

Bob, there’s no mystic art involved it’s just a simple pipe work job to connect with any wastepipe contained within the walls of the house, mine is connected to a basin wastepipe in our downstairs toilet which coincidentally houses our condensing boiler as well, the basin waste is then connected to a 4 inch internal soil pipe. Not so easy if your boiler is mounted in the attic which seems to be a fashionable place to locate them now.

Dave W

Dave, your wildlife will soon adapt to the noise from a generator, they are intelligent and when they no longer see it as a threat they will just ignore it and carry on with life.

Dave W

Hi Journeyman, glad there is an easy solution to your condensate drain problem, just needs doing, not the weather at this time to mess around with your boiler, definitely a job for warmer times.

Dave W

Hi John, I remember it was November when I was in Canada and five days before our night refuel at Gander we stayed overnight at the Canadian Armed Forces base at Trenton, temperature in the morning was -5 degrees Celsius but the air was so dry and the sun was shining so we were in shirtsleeves servicing the aircraft before we got airborne. On that particular trip we left Trenton and flew to New Orleans via Chicago, a bit different doing our refuel that night in New Orleans where it was beautifully warm. I must admit I can hack the cold in Canada when it is dry and comes with sunshine. Here in the UK our winters always very moist and the cold seems to seep into every bone if you are working outside all day. The good news is that our cold spell is coming to an end, it is forecast that by Sunday morning it will be about 8 degrees but with the prospect of rain so I will probably get very wet when I go Clay pigeon shooting. Yesterday was the first official day of Spring so it can only get better weather wise from here on in.

Dave W