Member postings for Nicholas Farr

Hi Jack, I've made chuck backplates for my father's old RandA B lathe using a 1" UNF tap, and they fit without any problem. I've also made a chuck backplate to fit my mini lathe, to mount the chucks from his lathe, to use on my mini lathe. When offering up a 1" UNF tap to the spindle thread from a RandA lathe, the thread angle is the same.

Just be sure you don't use a 1" NF, as they are 14 TPI.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 23/04/2023 22:29:37

Hi DiogenesII, as Craig has said, it's for pipe bending. I don't have an illustration of the No. 75, which is a garage vice, but the scan below shows the similar No. 74, which is an auto vice, and is smaller.

Regards Nick.

Hi, today after three days of trying to un-seize my Record No. 75 vice by using penetrating oil and a bit of bashing with a hammer and letting it soak in penetrating oil overnight. Mine you, it had been sitting in the footwell of an Austin car derived van for a few years, and as I've not been able to open the front doors for quite some time as the locks on them have been seized for quite a while, and I hadn't realised that the footwell filled with water every time it rained. So today was a Monty Carlo or bust kind of day, as I showed it how hot it could get with my big burner on my propane torch, with a couple of heating sessions and some hammering, it finally yielded, but it still needed a bit of toing and froing with penetrating oil and hammering before it finally gave up altogether.

After a bit of wire brushing using my 4-1/2" angle grinder, it looks a lot tidier, and maybe next week I might get a new coat of paint on it.

I'll probably ditch those lever operated swivel base bolts and use socket head ones instead, as I can see those levers are going to bug me, as they are bound to get in the way of something.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 22/04/2023 22:29:30

Hi, nice job, but I was thinking exactly the same as JasonB.

Regards Nick.

Hi David Halford, not much difference than B&Q/Screwfix, and many other joint companies. Of course dedicated Myford users will only buy Myford spears, Boxford users will only buy Boxford spares, Ford car owners Ford spares, I could go on and on.

Regards Nick.

Hi Paul, no I don't think that ring should be there, as the spindle does have taper at the front of the bore. Maybe someone used the ring as a backstop when doing some repetition work.

Regards Nick.

Hi Paul, Chucks are precision pieces, and while the registers are technically all the same size for a given size and style of chuck, they still have a tolerance to the actual size depending on many things such as quality, so the ones they sell with the chucks fitted with backplates, are a matched pair, and of course the greater the accuracy of fit etc., the higher the price will be. While hobby machines are made to an affordable price, all engineering is made to a price, even in industry. so the more extreme the accuracy that is needed the higher the price is going to be.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I was talking to John at one of the exhibitions once, and we got on about some of the smart, I know it all, kind of people that used to be on here, and he said that he wound them up all the more till they made a fool of themselves. He certainly knew how to shot shrift those types.

Regards Nick.

Hi, yes a very knowledgeable and helpful man he was.

Regards Nick.

Hi Paul, yes backplates can come as just plain castings and also as part machined, which is what you've got from Myford, but you can get them from RDG Tools also. You then attach it to your lathe spindle and turn the register to fit the chuck, this being the truest way of doing it, and of course, not all chucks have the same size register and that's why they are part machined or just plain castings. You can also mark the PCD of the holes at the same time with a scriber or pointy lathe tool in your tool post. The trouble with new people, is they very often don't know which traders to look for, as many of them don't go to the exhibitions now, and not so many advertise on here. When you don't know, this is a very good place to ask, as someone is likely to point you in the right directions.

Regards Nick.

Hi Bob, your welcome, pleased that I could help.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I've given my drawing that I've shown earlier a go with my Canon 400D with 18-55mm lens, set at about 31mm. While it took a decent picture, I think a studio level lighting would be a lot better, mine is done with daylight coming in through two windows, which are at right angles to each other, and a certain amount of washout can be seen from the light on the right hand side window.

I think I prefer scanning, as even this quick way of doing it, took longer to set up, but if one is doing a lot of them, I guess one would have a dedicated set-up.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 21/04/2023 12:49:09

Hi Bo'son, if you mean the type from DIY stores, many of them have slightly barrel shaped ones.

Regards Nick.

Hi Bob, is this the page you require?

Regards Nick.

Hi, well if the O/P has any doubts, just get a wider piece of steel.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 21/04/2023 09:55:53

Hi Justin, I've tapped hundreds of holes of all sizes into mild steel in my lifetime at work and at home, which probably have held much more forces than your tips are likely to take, and to my knowledge none of the threads failed.

Regards Nick.

Hi Dave Shedman, If the gib is tapered across its width and only contacting the top of the dovetails, then I suppose that could deform your table they way you say. As far as replacing it with a parallel gib, that might not work very well as at least one one the dovetails will also be tapered along its length with respect to the others. It would be best to check that all the dovetails have been cut at the correct angle, as that may cause the same effect if one or more are wrong.

Regards Nick.

Hi, about 20 years ago HP.com sold 4600 & 4670 scanners, both of which could be used in their holders or just on top of anything. The 4670 came with a transparent materials adapter (TMA) which you could scan negatives etc. Both of the scanners were really the same and worked in the same way, and the best thing about them was that you can scan large documents and stitch them together. Photo below shows my 4600 one out of its holder.

So I set up a drawing, which measure about 705mm wide by 505mm, with the base lines of the top two views, parallel to a piece of Conti board as an index for my scanner.

I then took three scans across the drawing, which overlapped slightly, then turned the drawing round 180 degrees and set it up again to the same two lines as before and took three more scans. Then turning the upside down ones around stitched them all together to make a drawing of the same size as the original, with the use of some software. Below is an A3 size copy of the finished document.

Doing it this way can be a little time consuming, especially if you what a really good clean drawing, as the tones are often different in each individual scan, depending on how dense the sections are of lines, and it can be a labour of love. The biggest one I've done was a little larger than an A0, and took 28 individual scans and quite a lot of cleaning up, as it was a copy from a tracing from the same period as the one above, but the process does work to an acceptable level.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/04/2023 09:38:26

Hi Rachel, I agree with John that it looks like their VMC Turret mill, but they don't seem to do the 5015 now, but is listed in their older catalogues as a 3MT machine, but the ZX is not quoted in the listings. Maybe the ZX was on their much earlier models. I'm sorry but I don't have anymore information. VMC Turret Mill

Regards Nick.

Hi Rachel, is this the machine you are talking about.

Regards Nick.