Member postings for Gary Wooding

I understand that the physical properties of the new £1 coin are different to the old one. How much is it going to cost the country (ie, all of us) to convert all the affected vending machines etc?

For what its worth, my Centec 2B was dismantled as far as practical (vertical head and table removed, and column removed from base) and was manhandled, piece by piece, into my cellar workshop by 2 strong guys. It wasn't easy, but it was done. YMMV

I think you might get frustrated with a round column mill after using one with a knee. If the Fritz Werner mill you had was one of the big ones, a Centec or Tom Senior might very well be a suitable smaller replacement.

I got 4 copies of the plans with my subscription.

Hi Trevor,

Hopefully these photos show the cable runs from the cross-slide and the bed.

My Chester 12x36 GH is very similar to the GH 1224. I fitted a 2-axis DRO with the cross-slide scale on the RH of the saddle because on the LH it's very vulnerable to damage and prohibits use of the steady. There are still problems on the RHS though - it blocks the cross-slide locking screw, and compromises use of the saddle lock. The following pictures shows how I solved the problems.

I've used 123DCatch and Meshmixer with good results. They are both by Autodesk and are free to download and use.

123DCatch will create a 3D model from a series of digital photos, and Meshmixer allows you to edit 3D models. The STLs can be processed in Fusion.

When you click the link you should get a screen like the one in the screenshot. Click the Download button and choose the Open with option to view the the PDF in your normal PDF viewer (probably Acrobat Reader). You can then save and/or print it with that.

The A and B views are not isometric, they are views perpendicular to the faces.The dotted red squares show the horizontal/vertical limits of the faces and pass through the corners of the faces.

The dotted grey lines show what you could see if the block was transparent.

After breaking several #76 drills I used a high power loupe to examine the one remaining and was appalled to see how badly it had been sharpened. Since the broken drills had come from the same supplier, in the same packet, it was no wonder they had broken.

A friend had made D.A.G.Brown's small 4-facet sharpening jig which I borrowed. The newly sharpened drill bored all the remaining 35 holes perfectly, so perfectly that I read the original article, and the subsequent one for medium sized drills, and decided to design a combined jig for both the sizes described by DAGB. This PDF contains the drawings I created for both jigs in one. The basic design is DAGB's, I just combined both sizes into one unit. I also designed a special jig to help saw the small drill holders with a piercing saw instead of using the special tool used by DAGB. I hope you find it useful.

I use this technique a lot for hand-made jewellery, and use TurboCad for the drawing, print on standard A4 copier paper and use Pritt Power as the adhesive. I totally concur with the advice about checking dimensions by including a known sized rectangle in the drawing. If you use a piercing saw to cut intricate shapes then make sure the adhesive is totally dry before sawing.

Sean, I agree with everything that's been said about your 'find'. If you feel like starting a project then go for it, you'll end up with a very useful mill.

Does the swing of a Foucault pendulum at the Equator appear to rotate?

You're right. I should have said power is proportional to torque x rpm.

I modified my Centec 2B mill and Chester 10x36 gearhead lathe to VFDs some years ago. For nearly all my work I leave both machines in the mid-range gear and vary the speed with the VFDs, the range of which can be varied from 0 to 120Hz. The rpm of a motor is directly proportional to the frequency - double the frequency is double the rpm.

The motor in the mill is 1hp and the lathe is 2hp. Occasionally I've used the mill in the highest gear and cranked the VFD to 120Hz so as to boost the standard top speed from 1400 to 3360rpm.

Power is torque x rpm. As a general rule-of-thumb, at frequencies below 50Hz (standard UK main frequency), motors have constant torque with reduced power, and above 50Hz they have constant power with reduced torque.

A friend has a VMC mill that he decided, before purchase, to convert to VFD drive. He specified he wanted a 3ph motor fitted which I converted from star to delta wind, and fitted a VFD. He also specified R8 spindle fitting.

In the photo you can see the control pad for speed and direction control, and the 5" raising block we made. With The mill works really well with the VFD.

Graeme,

I find Warco's dimensions of this vice somewhat confusing, could you tell me what dimensions A, B, and C are in the photo please?

Hi Paul,

A very good friend of mine, a fellow ME-er, has recently moved house from Coventry to Launceston. He can't find a track for his 5" loco, can you help?

Here's mine

If you intend to modify or replace the table motor you will, of course, have to remove the existing motor. This is fairly straightforward and involves unbolting the gearbox from the table. Unfortunately, to remove the gearbox you have to remove the lead-screw from the driven gear, and this involves undoing the two lock-nuts shown in the new photos in my Centec album. As you undo these lock-nuts, the lead-screw is gradually pushed out of the gearbox BUT there is a rather well hidden Woodruff key that keys the lead-screw to the main gear, and this must be aligned with the slot in the bearing (shown in the album) otherwise the lock-nuts jam the key against the bearing and the whole thing locks up tight. The lead-screw is not attached to the worm-wheel, it simply acts as an axle.

I can't remember if the lead-screw has to be completely removed from the table (I did it in 2005), but that's the easy part: getting the lead-screw out of the gearbox is the tricky bit. Once the lead-screw is out of the gearbox it's a simple matter to remove the worm-wheel which then allows access to the screws attaching the motor.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 15/01/2017 11:26:32

Edited By Gary Wooding on 15/01/2017 11:27:48