Member postings for John MC

The new Amal carburettors made by Burlen's are made from decent material and the slides are anodised/plated. Something Amal should have done!

It should be remembered that Amal had to give their customers (the motorcycle manufactures) what they wanted. When BSA wanted carburettor costs reduced Amal needed to react. What we got was the "concentric" replacing the "monobloc". A inferior device but much cheaper to manufacture.

As for "blipping" the throttle, worn carb., incorrectly set, poor maintenance, habit, macho?

John

Two slots positioned at 180 degrees would be better for balance? I suppose it depends on what sort of (high) speeds the lathe is run at.

Good advice not to lock the spindle with the back gear, there is often a cast iron gear in the train to quite things down.

How about some ideas about locking the spindle without straining some part of the drive train.

John

Just read a newspaper article regarding the ranges achievable with ICE cars, seems 800 - 1000+ miles is becoming easily attainable. EV's have a long way to go to get anywhere near that. Isn't going to help getting the motoring masses to accept EV's.

Totally agree. The small ends really need to be bored parallel to the big ends. While a good (sharp) reamer will produce a size/plus hole with good repeatability it may not be the right size for the pin or a good enough finish. My preferred method is to bore a small end bush to within a couple of thou and then on to the (Delapena) hone to finish.

Velocette made some of their small ends neither metric or imperial in diameter to discourage the use of a reamer to finish the bore of the bush. Problem was that it was easy enough to get a reamer ground to the size required......

I good attempt to encourage getting the job done properly.

John

This is one of those jobs that really needs to be done properly. That is to say most likely a sump off job. What engine is it?

I too have seen what "sump suckers" leave behind. Nothing beats a sump plug in the right place with a magnet in the plug and a hot engine for a proper drain.

John

Wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if posted in the "Vehicle Restoration" or "Related Hobbies" sections. Dave, post a photo so some of us can reminicse. I would love to own a Supermax.

John

(Have I spelt "reminicse" correctly?)

I fear not. Surely there are more important things to get concerned about. We seem to be living in an easily offended society now.

John

My "pet peeve" with rules are rounded ends, happens when they are carried around in a pocket. Not sure what it is about it that peeves me but it does.

This rule I find very useful around machinery, particularly the lathe. Wish I could find a metric version.

John

My dentist tells me that a good electric toothbrush will not damage the gum, it actually does them some good, toughens them up and makes them lees liable to infection apparently.

So, as I always thought no need to calculate, did the late GHT write an article about knurling?

Next point for discussion, should the face of the knurl be parallel to the work or at an angle, either leading or trailing?

John

I was going to start this post suggesting that knurling doesn't produce swarf, coolant would help the metal "move" under the influence of the knurls. In reality I find that debris is created and needs washing away.

Could this be due to not bothering to calculate the diameter of the work piece to suit the pitch of the knurl?

I've never bothered to calculate the diameter and always get an entirely satisfactory knurl.....

As for speed, on a small lathe I would reduce speed quite a lot to make sure there is sufficient torque, the forces in knurling seem quite high.

I have a larger lathe, plenty of power, I always reduce the speed to knurl because it seems kinder to the knurls.

John

I once ran out of hand cleaner. Needing to wash my hands after fixing something oily on the car I thought a splash of dish washer fluid would do the trick. Soon found out that was a mistake......

John

I bought a Ferm scroll saw from Screwfix 15 years ago, cost about £40 , for occasional use. I've been delighted with it. For me occasional use has been a few time a year, cutting various woods for casting patterns, name plates mainly. Tilting table, essential for pattern making, single speed. The only failure was the squash ball thing that was supposed to blow the sawdust out of the way, the rubber failed, old age? A small brush works just as well. Ferm seemed to be Screwfix's low cost brand at that time, based on my experience with Screwfix in general I think I would try one from there current low cost range again.

John

Exactly that, I spent some time working in an engineering laboratory testing various structures. These structures would be festooned in these large DTI's, easy to read. Could get a bit tedious with 30 - 40 of them to read and record. We were delighted when electronics made them, for us, largely obsolete. I remember boxes of them going in to a skip when electronics became cheap and easy!

Many thanks for the replies. I have tried the magnet in both orientations, both work but positioning is far more critical with the magnet on the periphery of a disc rather than the side.

The device is quite slow to respond to speed changes, I guess thats reflected in the price! Also seems accurate compared with a hand held "Smiths" type tacho.

One final question, does the "strength" of the magnet effect the performance of the device?

John

I have recently been given a couple of electronic tacho's, cheap things that you will see for sale on Ebay. I want to use them on my milling machines.

The question I have concerns the mounting of the magnet. Initially I wanted to mount it on the side of an aluminium disc, this being fixed to the driven pulley. Problem is that it would put the (Hall) sensor in a position that could vunerable to damage.

I now want to mount the magnet on the periphery of the aluminium disc, this will move the sensor to a better position.

My question is does it matte how the magnet is presented to the sensor?

Thanks,

John

Really? Not familiar with Tormach machine tools but Bridgeports I am, I'm assuming the turret type, M and J type heads. These will not be shimmed to correct errors that have been described in this thread and the other now closed thread. The heads tilt and nod so the errors can be eliminated.

I wonder if, in this case, that shimming the gib strips has caused confusion. A well known trick to extend the life of a Bridgeport before commiting to the expense of re-chromed and ground slide ways.

John

It's a fiducial indicator. Fitted to (engineering) inspection equipment to ensure consistency of measurement.

John

A few years ago i was given most of a horizontal mill, I have the space for it so rather than see it go to the scrappy I gave it a home. The intention was to convert it in to a surface grinder, but after some thought a second mill would be far more useful, particularly a another vertical.

Eventually I acquired a suitable head to adapt to fit the machine, specifically one from a Chinese lathe/mill. This had a 3MT taper, I need 4MT so the tooling is interchangeable with the other mill, so made a new spindle with a 4MT.

But how to get the taper running absolutely true? I've done this in the past by finishing the taper on the mill by angling the head over at the right angle with a boring bar clamped vertical on the table , that is to say finishing the spindle off its own bearings.

Problem is that the head does not have the tilting facility. The attached photos show how I did the job. I borrowed a second fixed stead so I could "clamp" the quill to the lathe bed and used a cranked carrier to drive the spindle, (from a chuck jaw). I was pleasantly surprised at the rigidity of the setup.

John