Member postings for mick

Thanks to all, knew I could count on the collective grey matter as usual.

Mick

I've been looking on-line for over half an hour for an "O" ring supplier, I only need one 3/8th. or 9.50mm O/D "O" ring, I'm quite happy to buy the minium quantity of 20 but not too happy about the minium order of £10 + VAT + £3.75 p&p Any body know of a friendly supplier?

I would like to be associated with the comments above, you've always been on the ball with the orders I've placed with you.

Going off subject a bit, one time in my chequered career I worked for a blacksmith who always case hardened using oxyacetylene. Once the part was red hot he turned off the oxygen and coated the job with the acetylene smoke, which is pure carbon, he then induced it into the metal by reintroducing the oxygen. It seemed to work and as I've never heard of using sugar before, just goes to prove that there's more than one way to skin a cat besides pulling out lumps of fur.

I agree with blowlamp, but I would suggest using a slot drill as you can use a larger diameter without worrying about the 90 degree teeth touching the top or bottom of the bore.

I tend to mill most things, especialy thin plate, held in aluminium soft jaws, where you machine the registers directly into the ali, so the plate must be laying completely flat and square in both the X & Y axis. To overcome moving jaw lift, clamp the jaws apart with a suitable piece of material, so the register cut will be exactly the width of the plate.

Hi. John.

I wouldn't think most beginners would know what a spot drill is, let alone possess one. The idea of a centre drill is that the body is larger than the pilot making it much more stable and able to fully establish the centre dot than using a flexing small drill bit. The resulting cone is then a positive location for the following drill.

Matt.

I think your talking about toolmaker's buttons, these are set using slip blocks aka machinist's blocks using an anglle plate for verticial refference and the surface plate for horizontial ref.

To make sure that the drill follows your centre dotting, fully establish the location by using a suitable centre drill.

The one way of reducing error is to introduce a slight degree of twist into the bedway, this is not scientific as you need to jack up one of the tailstock leveling screws, take a test cut and occording to the direction of any taper, slacken or tighten either or both of the clamping screws untill the reading is papallel. That's the only real way of adjusting an older machine and is a proven method in industrial workshops. Good luck

You can engage on any whole number, the half divisions are for threads with say sixteen and a half TPI

you were using a parallel thread tap and not a BSPT

Its a tapping head, the knurled ring is the torque setting

Horizontal borer?

I can't say what the current problem with Macc is, but usually I get next day delivery on most things, screws, stock etc. On the whole very good service.

Hi. All.

Thanks for the feed back, sitting at the key board can be a lonely place sometimes. A single tool is used for the double undercut, its a bit fiddley to grind but it has two cutting faces at right angles, so you plunge cut the first cut into the diameter to depth, then use the compound slide to advance the tool into the shoulder face, once done retract the compound slide and withdraw the cross slide. Makes a nice neat job. You can of course make the widths bigger to assist grinding and to take out larger tool rads.

Regards.

Mick

I used the same sysyem to produce the male and female halves of an egg cup mould back in the 70's Calls for a high degree hand/eye coordination I seem to remember!!!

Have you balanced the grinding wheel and are you dressing the wheel with a diamond? Other causes could be the wrong grade wheel for the material being ground, or play in the head bearings

I think you've got a piece of another machine, did you buy it at factory clearance? It does look very much like a shaper table support.

In the early days of my chequred engineering experiences when making tea and sweeping the floor were just about the only practicial skills I was usually asked to demonstrate, one of the tradesmen said he was very busy and would I face off a piece of metal for him, the lathe was set with a tool already to go. Of course I was very happy to oblige and positioned the tool to take the first cut only to see it bend back on itself as soon as it made contact with the bar, mild panic followed untill I realised the whole workshop were enjoying a joke. Of course the tool bit was made of lead!!

Try Milton Keynes Metal they advertise in MEW & ME In my experience they've never been beaten on price and its all good quality stuff, you might have to wait a couple of weeks on delivery though