Member postings for Oily Rag

A good point is raised by Dave there, the ability to accurately put on a cut towards the headstock. What is the accuracy (in terms of resolution) of the carriage handwheel?

For a toolpost Mild steel would be acceptable, but cast iron would probably be better from a vibration damping ability.

Regards,

Martin

Could it possibly be a Capstan 'stroke setting gauge'? Just a thought with it being a Capstan No. 7??

Or it could be a length gauge, are the threaded rods of nominal lengths?

Nice piece of kit which as you say Martin has hardly been used by the look of it.

Regards,

Martin

Depends how many you have to do. If a lot I would go for a pneumatic rivet gun, they give consistent riveting and don't tire you out (big advantage as the years progress) the downside is the cost. But just think of the pleasure it will give someone else when you've gone!

Seems to be a lot of people on here with 'bad Karma'!

Martin

I just looked on tinterweb as I have a unmarked, 4" width, never used, Record Vice which does not have a number on it to see if it is what you are looking for. Lo and behold Machinery Mart are having an end of line sale of Record No. 3 vices at £70 odd each. Only problem is I cannot tell whether the advert is current or one which has regurgitated!

My vice was bought about 15 years ago from MSC - just never got around to building the bench it was going to be fitted to. If you are interested drop me a PM

Martin

Do you think they could help my mate? They want to do the same thing with HS2 through his!

Martin

Robin,

Best of luck trying to straighten a lathe bed out via the sheet metal cabinet mountings. Good for a levelling of the whole assembly but then you need to 'tweek' the bed by its mounting on the cabinet. A well engineered lathe will have a 3 point fixing, two under the headstock and a single central mounting bolt at the tailstock end, then adjusters either side of the tailstock end mount (rear and front) in the cabinet coolant tray (given that it is strengthened in this area ? The reason why a cabinet stand needs to weigh at least half the weight of the lathe itself) , will allow the twist to be taken out. Shimming is the alternate route.

Martin

I use it as a marking out medium. Paint it on and magically watch steel turn to copper! a scribed line shows up really well and is not washed off by oil/coolant. I still use marking blue for aluminium though. Got about half a pint left from an original two pint stock about 20 years ago.

Probably have to be transported by licenced courier though as it is dangerous for the 'elfins.

Martin

Gun blueing compound from a local gunsmith. In a paste form and you just wipe it on, leave for 4 hours and then rinse off. One of the best is an American bluer (whose name escapes me ) but I believe it is banned from the postal services so you have to collect in person.

Martin

Made in China?

When I was working in Shanghai China one of the first purchases was a kettle to make a decent, proper cup of tea. I located an electric kettle in a French owned supermarket. One week later the kettle failed so I took it back and was met by incredulity that I was expecting them to give me a new kettle to replace the failed one. Eventually the French liaison manager appeared and authorised that I should be given a new kettle in exchange. The next day I was telling my Chinese colleagues about my experience and they looked at me dumbfounded - apparently in Chinese culture the kettle failed because I was 'bad Karma' - the kettle was not to blame it was all my fault!

How a society will ever take 'Kwality' seriously with that background is the question to answer.

Martin

Sounds like either:-

1. Twist in the bed

2 Tailstock out of centreline with headstock, or

3. A combination of both!

Remedies:-

1. Turn a scrap length of aluminium bar with a relieved centre section (dumbell like) make the ends at least 6" (150mm apart) then without the tailstock supporting the far end take a VERY light cut of around 0.002" depth (0.05mm ) off the far end and continue to the chuck end (fast traverse between obviously! ) then measure the diameters with a micrometer. If the tailstock end is bigger then the bed is twisted 'away' - correct by shimming under the rear foot at the tailstock end (unless the lathe has some adjustment provision). If t'other way of twist shim under the front foot.

2. Turn a soft centre in the mandrel to a sharp point. Fit a hard centre in the tailstock barrel and bring the tailstock up to the mandrel centre. Put a razor blade between the two and see whether its up/down, canted left/right. Adjust tailstock accordingly.

3. Do both again after testing.

Martin

Now that made me smile Howard .... and that is the spirit of 'make do and mend' exemplified.

In other news we have the thread about 'upcycling' (which I thought was about up hill cycle riding! ) and the lament about a perfectly good (apparently ) Wolf drill and its stand now becoming a light bulb holder. On that thread I was going to post a picture of Farmer Hedley's reading light and drinks table made from a tractor flywheel, 2 half shafts, and atop the lot a 1940's anglepoise machinery light - I reckon Drew 'whatsisname' would bid at least 70 quid for it and sell it to some Hampstead Heath London elitist for £750!

There is nostalgia for anything over 50 years old but to mend things nowadays is becoming a lost art. The only proponents of mending things are 'uz lot' and rural folk who know the cost and the value of items. Throw away society has not yet percolated into the 'shires.

Martin

Not quite as rare as some would have you believe - when I was working in India (Tamil Nadu state) there were huge stocks of Whitworth and BSF bolts and screws of all descriptions available in the engineering suppliers shops. I brought some back with me, mainly BSF as they are the difficult to find ones. There is an Indian 'Unbrako' subsidiary factory still operating in pretty much the same way as the Royal Enfield motorcycle offshoot got overlooked by the administrators when the UK parent factory went bust.

Unfortunately my luggage allowance was only 45kg! But as the outward trip involved Bacon, sausages, and beef steaks (vacuum packed and deep frozen), plus decent cheddar cheese, Jacobs crackers and piccallili, plus some decent loose leaf tea (M&S Gold No. 3) plus Daddies brown sauce I had plenty of room for assorted tools to return.

Regards,

Martin

Simon,

Thanks for the verification of the SO grinder collets. Now if anyone needs any Thiel collets I have found a box full lurking in my shed!

Martin

Here are the Triumph broaches - made by BSA!

The etching on the broach says "BSA Broaches Co, MCO No. 2359?, ST 3828W, TRIUMPH" (the ? indicates 'unreadable' )

Finally a close up of the 'Ballising' area:-

The Ballising final size is 0.3142" for the final 2, 0.3141" for the 2 preceding 'balls' - the final cutting flute is 0.3140", and the first of the 5 final flutes is 0.3136" - note that these final 5 flutes are not 'rived'. the final 'rived' flute is 0.3135".

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Martin

Andy,

Bearing rings can be blagged from M/c Tool rebuilders where they have replaced a worn bearing - that's how I got mine.

Your production method seems very reasonable - I did mine by gripping in a set of bored soft jaws on a sacrificial 'tail', then using a bed mounted steady on a part which was not crucial. The collet taper was bored off the top slide after setting to the correct taper using a 'slave' ER chuck and clocking. The finish was good enough not to need grinding. The main point, as has been mentioned in other threads concerning ER chucks, is to get the concentricity 'spot on' between the collet taper, the closure nut thread, and in the case of a W20 to ER adaptor the outer locating taper. Yours will need the outer locating taper of the U2 to be substituted for the later.

I'm not so sure the GHA high speed head didn't use a different taper to the 'normal' Deckel taper, or potentially a reduced thread diameter on a 'normal' Deckel long body collet - I have a nagging suspicion that the high speed head only accepted smaller cutters than the standard head, which makes sense as you only need high speed for small cutters! Or because the captive drawbar in the high speed head had a small thread diameter so as to keep spindle size diameter down. The high speed head on the Aciera has a very complex captive drawbar arrangement which can be a PITA as the upper end of the drawbar is only 10mm diameter, but the lower end accommodates the female 19.6mm x 1.66p thread. I'll dig out my SO grinder collets today and check them.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Andy,

A brake disc is not always guaranteed to be perfectly flat and true - remember pads 'float' in their calipers so that they can adapt to out of trueness. From memory discs have a tolerance of 50 micron (0.002" ) with regard to trueness. A bearing ring will have a couple of micron tolerance so are far more accurate.

The vertical back table I refer to as a 'platen table' - the swivel and tilt table bolts to this 'sub table' - the 'quartering table' bolts to the platen after removing the main table and allows swivel on the X axis but will also allow an up to 90 degree tilting action. The Aciera accessory then takes items such as the simple or complex dividing head onto this tilting table to allow die sinking work but also useful for bevel gear generation.

The U2 collets for the GHA SO clone grinder are, from memory at least, 'sagezahn' (sawtooth profile ) similar to the Schaublin W20 collets with a 5/45 flank angles (the Schaublin being that international metric standard of 19.6mm dia x 1.66mm pitch! ). I will check my GHA clone when I get the chance. It is quite possible to make a ER collet adaptor - but it needs to be done in a single setting to get the ER nut thread / collet bore / shank concentric. And best to make a 'plug' gauge for the collet bore prior to commencing the job, ask me how I know that!!!

Martin

Andy,

The Deckel U2 collets are also used in the Deckel FP1 universal miller and in the Deckel / GHA SO series of cutter grinders. I believe they are also available and used by Vertex in one of their offerings. Advertised on Fleabay for around 20 bananas a go.

Alternative to using a brake disc (which may not be truly parallel and flat) look out for a large bearing outer ring - I use a 10" odd diameter scrap bearing outer ring for tramming my swivel and tilt table on an AcieraF3. But then again the Aciera also has taper pins to quickly locate the 'zero' in all axes.

Enjoy your Master Toolmaker - a fine machine. Have you got the 2 axis 'quartering' table to go with it? Very useful for doing Bevel gears!

Martin

I have both T&J and 'Summit' brand adjustable reamers which will cut in increments of between less than a thou to around 3 thou as they have leads on their front edges of their blades. My experience of import adjustable reamers is that these do not have a lead on their blades, at least not on the ones I have seen.

For a definitive valve guide size with excellent wearing properties I have a selection of valve guide broaches. These were 'salvaged' from the Triumph Meriden factory when it closed. These broaches remove around a tenth thou per tooth and finish with a double sphere, giving a 'ballised' finish. For a job like Ian's I would seriously consider making such a broach - ream to -0.001" then finish with the broach.

Valve guides are a critical item in an engine - there are numerous examples of poor understanding of the required sizing and finish required in a guide. One of the latest examples was the McLaren MP4/12c which suffered repeated valve catastrophes (dropped valves!) during development which delayed the release of the car for 15 months whilst the problem was discovered and resolved.

I can post some photo's of the Triumph broaches if you need more information.

Martin

Bricky,

As good as JB Weld is I would recommend Devcon HP Titanium putty. This, I believe, has a far higher temperature rating, I think it is the highest of all the 2 part epoxy glues as well has the highest pressure rating. I have used it to successfully repair blow holes in cylinder heads on air cooled motorcycle engines.

Regards,

Martin