Member postings for Mark Rand

Please ignore this post. I was reading it as the apron moving, not the leadscrew moving. Stupid boy!

Or they missed it .

I think I'm in the Midlands, specify a where and when and I'll get off my backside and come.

Hard as you can get it for the dead centre. Either soft or about 30HRc for the live (headstock) centre, so you can turn it concentric when needed.

That definitely implies that either the saddle gib is loose or there is enough wear in the bed near the headstock that it can't be adjusted sufficiently to get free movement at the tailstock without slop at the headstock end.

I've only got some 'recent' advertising stuff that relates to the BCA MkIII. But Tony's website has some more information, plus manuals.

It does work . With the induction heater, you can put 10-20kW of heat into the outer 1/8" of a 1.5" diameter toolholder. The expansion of the outer layers opens the bore before the heat can transfer to the tool shank.

Marvelous things for the production shop.

The 2012 LBV port I've been testing tonight seems a bit young, compared with the real stuff. But I don't think it's going to be getting a lot older (long day, injured wrist, yada yada)

Quick change Gibraltar toolpost .

If all else fails, at least Martin Models are still carrying the torch. They have a couple of useful options as well, a 5C/R8 capable toolholder casting and a 2 1/2" centre height option for the tool holder/ spiraling head/tailstock instead of the original 2".

Usual disclaimers etc.

Groan.

That needs a thread all of its own...

Edited By Mark Rand on 04/05/2018 22:23:42

Since it was a lovely day, once the morning chill had dissipated, I spent most of the day in my little greenhouse. Planted out a collection of tomato and cucumber plants for us and Mother-in-law.

Model engineering contribution was that I spent an hour fitting a temperature controlled opener for the louvre vent at the end of the greenhouse. That might make it less likeley that all the plants will get fried if we get another hot spell while I'm still happliy tucked up in bed thinking it's still winter.

Bah! Humbug!

It is the weather, or are people suffering from holier-than-thou/miserable old sod syndrome over the last week or so?

I buy an occasional lottery ticket and pay the Revenuers their tithe. If Kew gets a cut of it, I'm happy for them.

JACK CADE. Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be in England seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass: and when I am king,- as king I will be,-

ALL. God save your majesty!

JACK CADE. I thank you, good people:- there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.

DICK. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

nearly got finished with the welding trolley I've been knocking together. The welds are unimpressive, but the paint job makes them look good in comparison. Still needs some plumbing and electrical work doing. I'd like to make some cable racks but I'm not sure if the extra width it'd need is worth the convenience.
 

Edited By Mark Rand on 02/05/2018 22:58:37

I put the phone on a pay-as-you-go tariff with Three. A bit pissed off because I had to buy a second £10 worth after only ten months. I guess I had used the mapping facility on the phone a couple of times when I got lost and needed to turn on mobile data for those occasions...

If you've got any functional chuck or face plate to hold work in, a casting from the nice folks at College Engineering* can be a good way to get a perfectly fitting backplate. Their web site seems to have lost its prices in a recent re-design, but they were reasonable when I bought a couple. I think they are at Doncaster.

*No connection other than being a happy customer.

Needed to slit a metre of square ERW tube lengthways and the only way I could think of was to use a slitting wheel on the surface grinder. First attempt failed because some moron had not lined up the magnetic chuck properly when I'd put it there several years ago.

Ended up grinding the table and the bottom of the chuck to get the rust off them, spraying some zinc rich paint on them to slow the metal worm down, then grinding top of chuck, carefully aligning the chuck and skimming the chuck's fence.

That took two days. The slitting of the tube was quite quick. Now I've just got to take the banana shape out of the resulting two pieces of 'channel' after the built in stresses relaxed. .

Sorry, I'd got my head stuck on Clive Foster's idea of having the grub screw back in the tapered part of the holder.

Got a trivial bit of milling to do on a too high item. Haven't got enough headroom even with zero stickout, so I've got to make a raising block.

Fresh clothes every day? Why?

I suspect that you might have been using MT3 shanks though. An MT2 one would have a negative amount of metal left is you stuffed a Rotabroach 3/4" Weldon shank up it.

Added:- or was that in the 'sticking out' bit of the arbor?

Edited By Mark Rand on 30/04/2018 22:02:21