Member postings for Simon Collier

How about plastic conduit? Comes in several diameters and probably could be formed around a radius if softened with paint stripping heat gun. Relatively cheap.

Be very careful. A friend paid for castings which were never sent, and all attempts to contact were ignored. Being in another country, there was nothing he could do. There were other similar experiences on here some years back.
The 5” engine is tiny. I don’t think you’d want any smaller. The friend ended up fabricating the cylinders and wrote it up in AME magazine.

This is the tool from 6 mm Al. It sits in the bottom of the casting. Slots for spindle and oiler. The two front bolts holding the headstock casting on are missing!

All done but a brain teaser. I made a split spacer to go around the shaft and against the pulley with room for the key and used the press to push the shaft with key clear of the pulley. It took a lot of force. Then the problem was obvious and you are right: someone had tightened up the two grub screws, missing the slot in the shaft and catching the edge of the slot, raising two huge burrs that would have help up an elephant. I filed them flush and tapped out the shaft, freeing belt and pulley. A good day, first the chuck and then the pulley. I was surprised how soft the countershaft steel is.
By the way, the chuck is a Griptrue. Also, the tailstock has the Myford lever attachment. The cross slide is the long one, and he has 4 jaw and fixed steady, faceplate and boxes of more stuff. 4 way tool post. Not bad for a gift from another member.

I am just back from young David’s place and my aluminium tool worked a treat. I leaned on the wood lever in the chuck, and it let go with an intensively satisfying crack. Took off the main shaft and the journals looked OK. There were only single, home made sheet metal shims. The big problem that remains is getting the countershaft out. The triple pulley can be slid on the shaft but not to get at the key, and when I tried to push it out, it comes to a definite stop. I brought the frame home and tried a moderate lean on my 3T press but something stops dead. Grub screws removed, even oilers removed but no go. I will try to polish the shaft that has to go through the bushed so no bit of rust etc can stop it but I don’t think that’s the problem

No Swarf, not from a sleeper but from a fence picket bought new to use for bits and pieces. Jarrah grows in the SE of WA and is a beautiful, dense deep red coloured hardwood that is fire resistant. I made the cab floor of my loco from it. Also jewellery boxes etc.. I’d be surprised if it was used on the East coast of Australia as there was plenty of local hardwood, but I’m not a railway expert so don’t know. It was often used for barbecue trolleys but they are all metal these days.

I got the big pulley off with WD40, heating with propane, tapping with nylon hammer, brass drift on shaft, and finally gear puller. Got it off OK with no damage.
The chuck was another matter. My bit of jarrah under the cap screw head was just mashed when I levered the chuck with a length of the same wood. I’ll try a piece of aluminium next. I don’t want to break the casting I’m levering against. I don’t much like the idea of heating the chuck.

Thanks, I plan to cut a bit of hardwood for just that purpose. I can size things on my own ML7. Shame a spindle lock wasn’t designed in. Recently someone 3D printed a special spindle locking tool.

Yes, it will be interesting to see the condition of the main spindle.
Assuming the chuck is stuck, what do you think about putting the spindle in something like wood V blocks in the vice and levering chuck with wood lever in the chuck jaws?

Thanks Hopper, I was hoping you’d answer today. I said to a mate who was just here, “I’m hoping Hopper will answer as he knows everything there is to know about Ml7s”. I’ll report back after I go over to young David’s place tomorrow. I hope the shaft isn’t scored as I am only committing to getting new belts on. I’m pretty sure the chuck is stuck fast too. What fun.

A young club member was given an ML7 with all the accessories, but in filthy condition and grease not oil evident. The belts need changing and as a first option, I would like to use normal belts, not link belts. I’ve searched for videos and found one where the bloke cracked the boss of the big motor pulley using a gear puller and a heat gun. The manual shows insertion of the shaft from the tail stock end, with woodruff keys for pulley cluster and motor pulley. Can the motor pulley be left on and the shaft pulled out that way? Perhaps the woodruff slots are blind. Otherwise, any tips for removing the big pulley without damaging it? I assume it will be extremely tight.

I’ve lived all these years in this world and never once noticed a torque ripple. I’ll have to start paying attention.

I’ve just done a bit of googling and there isn’t much at all in Australia. One mob has a motor for about $400, and VFD for $1000. For comparison I spent $300 on my very clean original ML7 and zero on my beautiful ARL Hercus. The main machinery warehouse for hobbyists, Hare & Forbes, don’t mention them on their site. Had they been displaying and demonstrating them on their big sale days, they might be more common. So in that sense, it is marketing, or the lack thereof. Like Hopper, I’ve never felt the need.

All of the advantages I appreciate, but that still doesn’t explain why no one in the ME community that I know of has a single such conversion. Prolific loco builders I know have ordinary, single phase lathes and mills. Chinese geared head 6” lathes are common but there are many with Myford and Hercus belt driven lathes. I’m not sure what forums Jon Holmes was referring to. I frequent only this and MECH. Could it be that model builders just get on with it, whereas many, especially here on ME Forum, are primarily machinery enthusiasts, who like to “hot up” their machines for its own sake?
Two members, long deceased, had a three phase supply to the house for ex-industrial machines.

I see many posts and articles where people have fitted 3 phase/VFD to their machines. Yet I know of nobody here in Australia who has done this. It’s unheard of. There is a current post where the conversion has even been done to a drilling machine. Why the big difference when both countries have the same power supply? Is it fashion, marketing, or what?

Thanks for your detailed reply Paul. I’m sure Sabine Hoffenfelder would be happy to be corrected, like any good scientist.

Which bits are biased opinion?

I have the highest regard for Sabine and watch all her videos. Her whole purpose is to do the literature review and arrive at the facts, whatever the topic. Further, she certainly is not a climate change skeptic, but correctly does say that the climate predictive models are not good enough, and more money needs to be spent to improve them.

Someone built a model of Red Fred in Australia. It featured in AME magazine.

I hate drilling. Something that helps with difficult materials like brass on my SX3 mill drill is to lock the quill and wind the head down. It can’t grab and pull in. It can bind and spin in the chuck! But not likely with brass.

I watched it live at the very convenient time of about 6 pm. Very thrilling but night launch was not as good to watch as a daytime one. And is it just nostalgia or didn’t it quite have the slightly malevolent presence of the Saturn Vs?