Member postings for Richard Shute

It strikes me that this is extremely short sighted on the part of the publishers. Those people who want to subscribe will do so, but there are many others who have some specific interests and would buy a 'series' if it were easily accessible. 

I bought one issue for an article the continuation of which I have not yet found, but I may have missed it. There's not even something as simple as an article index available on the web-site. The publication is all electronic so it would be little more than a CtrlF9 in Word or something similar to generate the index.

Life's too short and there's no way I'm buying every issue on the off chance I might get Part 2 or it might be Part 4 if I've missed some. They've lost my custom before it started.

Richard

Material wise I used some 'tough stuff' I had in the box. It came from some scrap MT5 dead centres I reclaimed and tempered in the woodburner overnight, but you don't need to go overboard. It depends a bit on your use, but you can make pretty servicable collets from mild steel, but something hardenable would be nice. A chunk of En8 would be a fairly cheap and easy option and as a simple carbon steel is pretty straight forward to heat treat at home if you want. Some En19 if you are feeling a bit extravagant. En24 would certainly do well, but is a bit OTT for home use. The 'usual suspects' really.

Richard

You can get MT4 collets via J&L in the US, but with the current Sterling Rouble they will be very expensive, especially as J&L charge a surcharge on them as they are not standard UK stock.

You can also get them via ebay.de note DOT DE that's the German version of the site

Search for "spannzangen mk4", mK4 = Morse Konus 

eg item 350308785084 is a set of 3~25mm, a snip at Eur239 :-|

Good hunting

Richard

PS I gave up and made mine, but then, although my pockets are deep, my arms are very short

Hello Tony, 

I have not heard of EC collets, I suspect you mean ER collets in which case the number is the notional maximum diameter in mm at the intersection of the two outer tapers. There is actually a groove there so it is not a dimension you can measure.

Richard

 Brian,
The tricky part of adjusting the gibbs is the rather irritating locking rings. You need a mildly special tool to deal with them easily - essentially a hollow screw driver. I made tool from a 1/2" long piece of 5/16 silver steel. Drill an instrument screwdriver diameter hole up the middle and mill the end to leave a 1/32nd wide ridge (inverted groove, but I can't think of a good word) to engage with the slots in the locking rings. I also put a hex on the other end so I could tighten them. You can then use the tool described to nip up the locking rings whilst holding the adjusting screw with a small screwdriver up the middle.

The way I adjust the gibbs is to set the cross slide to an unworn area of the saddle and tighten all the screws reasonably tight, by hand. Tight finger-tight if you like. This will lock the slide, but will ensure the gibb strip is fully seated as it needs to be pulled down the dowels at the ends. Then successively release each screw and re-tighten it until you just feel it seat and no more. That as such will probably be OK, but if you use the locking rings, you will have to back off the adjusters slightly as the locking rings will take up any clearance in the locking screw threads and tighten the adjustment further. If the saddle is badly worn, you may want to slightly tighten the gibbs some more and accept that it tightens up a little in the unworn area.
Richard

Good evening all,

I'm new here, but a regular on various other fora. I was prompted to respond as I have, some Smart & Brown lathes and a fairly intimate experience of messing about with them. Firstly you may like to consider the Yahoo Smart & Brown group dedicated to these lathes. It is friendly and active and an Operators Manual and Parts Lists are available for free download once you have subscribed, although the details of the feedscrew nut are not very explicit. 

You might also consider talking to Bracehand Ltd near Hitchin (Google it), Chris, the proprietor, was an employee of S&B's and he bought the S&B name and remaining spares and all their old drawings when they went under. It is not inconceivable he may have a new or 'good used' nut and/or feedscrew.

Brian, you have correctly deduced the backlash adjustment on the Mdl A, the taper tipped screw opens the split to reduce the clearance. Make sure that you adjust the nut on an unworn part of the screw or it will bind when you do move to an unworn area. It is probable that most of the backlash can be adjusted out, but any remaining will be due to wear in the scew, not the nut. This will manifest itself as a variation in the backlash over the range of movement. If this is unacceptable, it is the screw more than the nut that needs replacement.

You are pretty much committed to the 8 TPI when you consider the 0~125 graduations on the handwheel. It has caught me out and my chum who's Mdl A I serviced last year, but unless you change the handwheel as well you are in for some major confusion!

The two part nut that Steve described is used in the top compound slide of both the Mdl A and 1024 as well as some of their other machines. I agree that I prefer either of the two part nut arrangements to the tortured nut on the MdlA, but the original has lasted 60 odd years so it can't be too bad.

Backlash would not normally give rise to the carriage floating about in use, have you checked the gibb strips for correct adjustment? It might be worth a look.

Rgds

Richard