Member postings for Gary Wooding

Yes, I noticed that too. I also noticed that although he credited Edison for the electric generator, he didn't even mention Faraday who discovered electro-magnetism and made Edison's invention possible.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 28/06/2013 07:22:43

I was a rather surprised at his comment that adding copper/zinc/acid layers to the early battery increases the current. It doesn't; it increases the voltage.

The second surprise was his comment that Farenheit chose zero on his thermometer as the freezing point of water, whereas zero is actually the freezing point of an equal mixture of water, ice, and salt. The freezing point of clean water is 32F.

Far too much much attention to flashy graphics and not enough to precise facts.

Makes you wonder at how many other errors got lost in translation

I don't take ME, so could you make details available on this forum, or maybe email to interested parties?

Interestingly, I've just checked my rather old (1976) version of ZEUS, and calculated that its recommended tapping drill sizes are based on an approx 80% thread engagement.

Make of it what you will.

Gary

If your primary objective is to securely hold tube without damage, and you have some ER collets, then have you considered these **LINK**?

Just get the hex version and hold it in your 3-jaw - its much cheaper than a 6-jaw.

I've got a cordless phone in my workshop - but I can't hear it ring if I'm using the mill or lathe

I don't take ME and haven't read the article, so my comments may well be irrelevant.

Anyway, as I see it, the sticky pin requires absolutely no expensive, accurate. grinding at all: any pointed needle in a blob of Bluetack (sp?) will do the job. The whole point (no pun intended) about a sticky pin is that it is easily centred each time it is used. It takes all of 10 seconds. Another comment is that the point of a needle is much smaller than a laser blob.

Am I missing something?

Edited By Gary Wooding on 22/04/2013 13:50:06

I've just made one, but I used ordinary mild steel and case hardened the business end, which is now glass hard. Cheaper than silver steel too.

Gary

If you can mark the hole centre positions on a piece of paper held against the metal, the PCD centre is simply the intersection of the perpendicular bisectors of the lines connecting the centres.

The lines connecting the hole centres are chords of the PCD circle. The bisectors of these lines must pass through the PCD centre. This is trivial geometry.

The diagram shows that it works even for non-equilateral triangles.

Gary

It's difficult to accurately measure the centre-to-centre distance of holes. A simple way is to use a digital or vernier callliper to measure the "outside" and "inside" distances, add them together, and divide by 2.

Gary

Don't worry about using washing up liquid as a degreaser - it's common practise to add a drop or two of it when mixing the flux powder with water; it improves the "wetability" of the paste.

Gary

Hmm, b*mmer.

Is there a reason why spinning it in the 4-jaw and drilling from the tailstock won't work?

The basic rule-of-thumb for motors running from VFDs is that they give constant torque at speeds less than the standard main frequency, and constant power above.

Since power is a product of torque and RPM, power is proportional to RPM below standard frequency, and torque is inversly proportional to RPM above.

I've purchased VFDs from a well known online auction to convert my lathe, mill, and drill, and seven other machines of friends - in all cases it worked out far cheaper than the commercial offerings mentioned.

Until youv'e used a VFD powered machine you can't really appreciate the advantages.

Hi Bazyle,

Here are pictures of both sides of my, rather old, Shetack. It's not identical to Bob's, but it does have Metric data as well as Imperial.

Sorry about that, I thought I'd set public sharing, but apparently it wasn't accepted. It should be OK now.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 25/03/2013 14:33:44

If anybody is interested, some years ago I constructed a conversion chart for members of my ME club. It's in the form of a 2-page PDF that can be downloaded from...

http://kvisit.com/S4IvyAg

The tapping drill sizes were calculated with a 65% engagement for diameters up to about 3/8" or 9.5mm, and 75% for larger.

You can print it any size you like - I keep laminated A6 double sided versions near my computer desk and in the workshop.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 25/03/2013 11:29:52

I also was rather disappointed with the 200th issue. It seemed somewhat lack-lustre.

I can't help thinking there was a section missing from the Sheet Metal Forming article. It mentions a "main roller" in the text, and specifies to note that the ends are of reduced diameter, but there is no drawing for it. A "main roller" is not shown anywhere.

Not knowing how the complete device is supposed to work, I confess that I don't see how the parts in the drawings are related. A total GA with part names or numbers would be a useful addition. As it stands, I don't understand it sufficiently well to start making one, even though it seems like a useful tool.

In the "Special Interest Books" section of "On the Editor's Bench" is the sentence that starts with "You can find an advert...". It doesn't exist in my copy.

I apologise for any confusion - I had a really senior moment when I wrote this - I meant MItsubishi, NOT Mitutoyo. By the way, the Mitsubishi S500 units have the parameter pad built in. I've added some photos that show the two S500s mounted under the lip of the swarf tray of my Centec mill, tilted upwards so they can be easily read by glancing down. The remote controls are attached to the end of the table.

I agree with John about the quality of the manuals though. I wired my first S500 up on the bench - it was the first time I'd ever seen an inverter. I could easily control the direction and speed of the motor from the built-in pad, but when I added a remote external switch and potentiometer as shown in the User Manual it was totally inoperative.

Several calls to Mitsubishi agents resulted in advising me to check the parameters again, although one said to send them my settings and they would sort it, which I did - I heard nothing more.

I downloaded another (thicker) manual from the net and read it carefully. It turned out that the 55 page "Basic" manual supplied in the box was written for the American and Asian market, and the unit was wired accordingly. The 181 page "Detailed" manual showed that a little jumper plug controlled the wiring - one way was for America, the other way for Europe. I swapped the jumper over and the external controls worked.

Although the manual included in the box went into such details as specifying the size of the screwdriver needed for the terminals, it said nothing about the significance of jumper plug.

Despite this, they are good inverters.

Gary

Edited By Gary Wooding on 23/09/2012 09:28:13

Hi Andrew,

I've fitted Mitutoyo S500 inverters to my mill, bench drill, and the lathes and mills of various friends. They have all proved very reliable and I can recommend them. I've fitted the E500 unit to my lathe 'cos its 2HP motor was too big for an S500.

Regards, Gary