Member postings for mechman48

Hi Neil

If it's any use to you I have a spare 3" draughtsmans divider set it opens to give you a 2" radius so you can get 4" dia max, send me a pm with your address if you're interested, maybe you could return favour in the future

Always willing to help when /where I can

Cheers

George

Edited By mechman48 on 20/04/2013 13:51:06

I have one of those as well & have found that the steps are non too concentric & a sloppy fit within ea.other & do move when slitting even with the collar tightened up as far as poss' plus the inherent runout of the blades has caused the blade to bite in & stall my mill (only tried it once). Will now be making a new arbours to fit ea blade ID, or one only & get blades with one size ID.

As for the runout of the blades I suppose those with Stent / Quorn / toolpost grinders would be able to true up any eccentricity, will have to stick that on my toduit list (H.Hall grinder toolrest?) .

George

George

Edited By mechman48 on 20/04/2013 11:36:36

I have one of the tangential tools set up in my lathe which I bought from 'Eccentric Engineering' last year & this has turned out to be the most used tool so far,over 90% of the time, although not having done a vast amount of machining..yet..I am in the process of completing my 'Hemmingway' kit rear toolpost so have used it for cast iron,mild steel & it works just fine,have used it on 'ally' & brass too & just as good,simple to grind as well. I also bought a set of those HSS tools in a set from Warco as a Xmas prezzie to mesel' & so far have only used 2..! the knife tool & the 45* tool both have worked just fine with nice clean cutting action, the other 6 are still in the box..for now so from my perspective I would tend to take any disparaging views of these 'sets; with a pinch 'o' salt...... as an aside (I realise it's not the right forum but..) I have just had to replace my defunct pc with a new one running Windows 8 & can't get my 'enter' key to create a new paragraph break,hence the continuation.. any solutions would be most helpfull .. ' pretty pleeeeease! TIA George.

Michaels suggestion is the way to go,keep your table flat at 'zero *' at all times, preferably use a tilting vice(or other methods mentioned) for any angular drilling.

George

Finally fitted replacement bearing to bandsaw, reset blade angle & tested on 1x2 wood, looks good, will test on metal later. Removed shield from old bearing to see, with magnifier, what made it 'rough' found that a sliver of chrome plate had come off the ball cage & was on edge of track, washed out with white spirits, renewed grease(high pressure/temp lithium base) wrapped up & put away for another use.

George

Did have the intention of having a easter weekend with the grandkids & family, plus replace a rumbling bearing on my 4"x6" bandsaw blade guide; this all went to pot as ma in law (94) took ill with the Norovirus on Fri. To cut a long story short my better half & myself ended catching it too, so kaput went the weekend,obviously the grandkids were upset as they were looking to have plenty of choccies from nanna & great nanna, Should be ok in a couple of days though, Cest la Vie as the adage goes.

Cheers

George

Terryd

I have the WM16 with the digi readout like yours,& have been have a bit of a prob' correctly using the up / down arrows to set measurement ref. maybe I need to clean mine as there seems to be spurious readings when I try to put a d.o.c. on, would appreciate your tip on how to utilise this reading facility correctly as the manual mentions nothing about its setting?

TIA

George

Update:

Have seen the machine on e-bay, with it being on auction it may well end up near the 'new' price at close of play ?

Have taken a couple of pics of my machine for clarification re measurements, in pic 1 I have set up the table at the farthest end of travel to left, then set up squares from spindle centre to end of tee slot, this gives me a workable distance of 530 mm, as I thought the other day .

another shot of the set up:

this pic shows tape showing approx 530 mm from end of tee slot to spindle centre:

pic 4 shows that from one end of tee slott to other gives me approx 620 mm of work area / length

As for the cable trapping if the head is swung I too recall seeing a write up on this but IIRC it was on another make of machine (could be wrong!). I have trammed my machine head & fixed locking plates to prevent any lateral movement, when I have needed to cut any angular work I used my tilting vice so have had no need to tilt machine head, can't show pic as my desktop has gone t***s up & am having to use laptop which doesn't have all my pics on it ( can show when get desktop back if anyone is curious ).

So Petro1head if this doesn't answer your question then I am at a loss what will! all I can suggest ( advise only!) is you stick with the WM 14 option or find a smaller machine ..X2? maybe (usual disclaimer..not promoting any in particular).

Cheers, have a nice day

George.

ps it seem as though some words are hyperlinked in final post ..can't seem to get rid of them..anyone have solution?

Edited By mechman48 on 26/03/2013 18:02:20

Edited By mechman48 on 26/03/2013 18:07:36

PS

Before anyone comments on where the grinder is situated, it is on a stand & is moved when I need to grind anything it's convenient to store it there just now, I am looking at permanently fixing it elsewhere, we all know what storage is! keep changing our minds eh!

bfn

George

Hi all

Seems like I've opened a can of worms to answer a simple question here are the sizes I have measured for the mill table & sizes for my layout for Petro1head info' .. by the way the photo of my mill was taken as I opened the packing case last year so it is not at an angle in my garage, it is parallel to the wall.

As for the table travel I wound the table fully to one side & read 520mm..from the spindle to the end of table, it didn't allow from dead center of spindle.. if you discount the casting thickness, the coolant trough width (both ends) then you will end up with approx' 480 mm of 'workable' table. I will double check later (& take pic) to clarify, won't be tomorrow

See above description

G

See link for specs on WM16

**LINK**

I can get comfortably full table travel of 520mm, specs say max table travel 280mm ..this is from spindle centre line either way..gives you available aprox 560mm full working length, if you need it. Max height with head wound fully up ..910mm from base to top of motor, I'm a short a***e ..5'7" & can comfortably wind the head fully up (mine is on stand) so your 8' x 8' shed will have more than enough headroom plus enough front to back space from looking at your drawing. With 4" vice fitted there is approx 220 mm available to work in, again this depends on what tools you have fitted in the spindle, collet holder + cutter, drill chuck  etc.  'Y' axis travel states 175mm..I have a 8" /200 mm DRO fitted & I can get full travel on it but bear in mind the read head will knock about an 1" of ea.end so the specs are correct..approx 6.8" /175mm useable travel.

Cheers

George

Edited By mechman48 on 24/03/2013 11:58:00

Looks like you have enough room next to your Myford to put another bench (you can never have enough work / storage area) that would take a WM16..or similar, or you could put it on the bench next to the door (move the vice?). Take a look at my album, pic #6, you'll see my basic set up during the conversion, If you like I could play around & rearrange your drawing with a few ideas & send a couple of sketches via message member /e-mail?

George

Hi Petro1head

I have the WM16 which I bought at last years Harrogate exhib' along with a WM250V-F lathe. My workspace is a converted single garage 8' X 17' & I have placed the lathe at one end & the mill down one side with benches/worktop down t'other. If I put the two machines alongside ea.other I would be looking at .. 1.43 mtrs (56.3 " working space (inc. allowing for mill table travel distance). In your set up even if you put an extra 12" (300mm) between machines you could still get both along one 8' wall, there again depends on what lathe you have..Myford/Boxford/Harrison/Atlas/Colchester? .. have you tried a scale drawing with cardboard cut outs to move around to see how to best fit your equip't..?

My WM16 is the equiv' of Amadeals 25, Chester Champion 20v .. (usual disclaimers) all have virtually same specs, the only difference is in price. Chesters are showing a reasonable 'sale' price (£ 816 as at today, inc VAT) but you have to add del on top, I got delivery inc' plus stands, you will need the basics..milling vice, clamping system(unless you can make your own), some milling cutters, collet set ( I have a ER25 set) basic measuring equip't (inside/outside mic's, rules, protractor etc).

I have built up my bits 'n' bobs over the past year (rot' table, digital height gauge, digital depth gauge, digi vernier etc) as luckily I could manage to do so but am now retired so I am looking at.. 'do I really need it now' .. can I make it? I am still looking at a couple of items that I would 'like to have' but it's going to take that bit longer to get them . I hope to be going to Harrogate this year so maybe the 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' will allow some 'budgetary easing' .

As for customer service, I have found that the main dealers are much of a muchness, mind you I do get most of my stuff from Arc Euro/ Chronos, but have bought items from Warco/Chester/Clarke (usual disclaimer ), although in the same context I have returned a couple of items to ArcEuro for exchange without any hassle, (thanks Ketan) same applied to Chronos.

So there you have my experiences & point of view, you can only work within your budget & what space you have.

Happy hunting

George

Edited By mechman48 on 23/03/2013 16:15:04

Have a look at the following;

**LINK**

To some it may come across as patronising (?) in some of its content but it has all the necessaries for use in home ME, & its good for beginners to skilled Engineers

I tried the ShopCalc programme & it screwed my pc up, had to reboot!

Cheers

George

The measurement question is open to conjecture with all machines; how slack/tight are the gib strips, how much backlash on the leadscrews, how good is your eyesight when looking at the dials, do you look at them directly from above/off to one side, account for parallax error, which side of the line are you looking at, are the X axis stops utilised etc.etc.. I have since fitted DRO's (albeit economy priced) to my X & Y axis so I can virtually forget about most of the previous, & having used them to modify the vice jaws on my bandsaw last week I found the measuring to be spot on.

My machines are metric but if I need to use imperial, as when constructing my rear toolpost recently (Hemingway kit,usual disclaimer) the plans of which are Imp, & prior to fitting my DRO's, I simply converted by multiplying by 25.4, or dividing by same as the case may be,so working in either imp or metric should pose no probs' plus there are a plethora of conversion charts available... (Zeus booklet !).. in all cases I check with micrometer/vernier/depth/ internal mic' /anyway, as on occasion the 'Z' axis fitted DRO has sometimes gives spurious readings. (probably due to me not setting it up correctly, or maybe the battery is low/cold?) anyhow I am getting used to its foibles(ea.mach' WILL have its own) & so far I am content with both machines, touch wood, fingers x'd.

Happy hunting

George

Because it's part of their DNA helix,...mmmmmm, I wonder?.. if we can genetically modify vegetable DNA....... ??? .. Naaahh dream on guys!

Steve

I have the WM 16, see my write up in.. **LINK**

George

For my ref needs I have:

Machiner'ys Handbook 15th edition-1956

Newnes Mechanical Engineers pocketbook 1990 ed.

Zeus databook metric edition.

Workshop Practice editions # 2-3-15-20-22-35-49

The Compact Lathe by stan Bray

Model Egineers Handbook (2nd ed.) by Tubal Cain, a superb ref. book I might add,

Assortment of manufacturers freebies e.g. Presto/Dormer(usual disclaimer) drilling & milling ref pocketbook etc,etc.

Various ref notes from my days as a Mech.Eng. Instructor in a training establishment, so I reckon I am pretty well covered for information, & yet I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge shown by members of MEW forums, a lot of it had me thinking back many many years & saying to myself 'I'd forgotton about that, many times I have thought 'why didn't I think of that! when I have usually 'overthought & overengineered 'simple stuff, to the point of not doing productive stuff.

I must offer my thanks to all members for reminding /refreshing my old grey matter now that I am retired & have a little more time to concentrate on Model Eng. long may it continue.

Regards

George.

Takeaway

I bought both a lathe & a mill from Warco at last years Harrogate exhib', both are performing more than adequately for my needs so far! there are a few tweaks that I do as I am going along to improve capability & performance in general terms but basically am using them 'straight out of the box'. you must remember that you gets what you pays for, don't expect a 'Rolls for a Mini price'. all the dealers at H'gate (Warco,Chester,Amadeal, Arc Euro etc, usual disclaimer) were selling Chinese machines & equipment ,with very few, if any, Brit bits. I too was on the lookout for a Myford Super 7B but there were only 2 for sale, & second hand at that! ..& priced at stupid money! so I ended up with both machines plus stands for less than the price of one of the Myfords

If you are set on looking & getting 'British then I suggest you look in the MEW mag, go to the last two pages & browse the 'Home & workshop' machinery section (Usual disclaimer other than interested browser) where you'll find 'Brit 'stuff, Myfords,Harrison, Denford, Boxford etc, with a selection of Myfords S7B's..starting around £3000, again overpriced.

As with other members comments, you can't blame the Chinese for filling a niche market when our successive governments have failed to invest & maintain in Britiish manufacturing base & prefer to go chasing the almighty dollar & larger & larger profit margins for shareholders tied in with, as a once female Prime Minister instigated & stated, 'the need for privatisation & open market competitiveness', hence bringing about the decline & in many cases the cessation of our manufacturing base, & sell off of all our utilities, nationalised industries(for all their shortfalls) car manufacturers, steel industry etc,etc, what hasn't been swallowed by the Chinese has/is being swallowed by Asia, go try looking for something labelled 'Made in England' you might be lucky & get a Morgan +2.. if you have the dosh! even Roll Royce are no longer 'British' so I think you should reconsider making comments on burgeoning economies that are seizing the opportunities that 'British investment ' has / is failing to do..all in the name of 'profit!!' or a 'quick buck'

Cheers, Have a nice day!

George.