Member postings for Ajohnw

The best "home made" one I have seen was my Dad's but it will have been made at work to use.

A square, slightly oblong made up of 2 parts with the usual V in them where they join. Opened / closes just like a toolmaker's clamp. The threads having long handles rather than the usual clamp type shown in the shot. The handles were tapered too widening towards the parts that grip. Compact and able to hold a pretty large tap or reamer. I'd say it would probably hold a 3/16" tap and upwards very firmly. Sort of sizes a toolmaker would be interested in.

The handles were maybe 1 1/2" out of line so it could adjusted just like a toolmaker's clamp is.

John

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I have one too Alan. Came with a hobbymat and like this one if it is the square part of the bars is too long really,

But only one handle? I can't see anyone using it as a carrier. Why the small V's?

Maybe it's multi purpose. The screws are suitable length for a toolmakers clamp.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 18:09:40

Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 18:10:03

Thanks Keith. Be interesting to see if there are any other views.

I was surprised just how many alloys are around when I looked. One aspect concerning choice might be max service temperature as this seems to vary. 20 bar, much higher than I would be interested in need water to be at well over 200C and then there is super heating the steam. The info I found seem to be more concerned about the minimum for refrigeration people.

John

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I think I would ask myself just why they would use BSC on a part like that as there is no gain. On cars I have seen finer pitches used on larger than 1/4 diameter high tensile bolts - big ends and mustn't be reused. I couldn't get replacements, no longer available so had to refit. The engine blew up rather suddenly on the M6. Visibility none existent as oil all over the screen and locked rear wheels at a speed I shouldn't have been travelling at. It put a good 1/2" or more kink in a massive crankshaft.

The nuts were also longer than usual.

Might help identify when and why they might be used.

John

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Maybe and odd design of tap wrench where one of the handles that should be on the top bar is missing. Or on some the other one would be on the lower half.

Probably not - but it can be surprising what people do at times when making things like that.

John

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In case I ever do make a steam engine this is an area I wonder about. Boilers. Silver solder is usually used and I read that others can't be used due to sulphurous smoke off coal. There are numerous brazing alloys about that contain various mixes of silver, usually a lower % in in these, copper and phosphorous. Other things too at times

I wonder how this fits in with propane fired boilers - no sulphur so why not?

John

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Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 15:57:03

I've been gathering bits for some years to make one. The speed reduction is always a problem and big pulleys seem to be hard to find cheap in the UK so I recently added a motor with a gearbox on it to the collection. They do crop up pretty cheaply on ebay at times. In my case it ended up as being 3 phase 240/440 but I do have an inverter about that I could use left over from something else.

My reason for going that way is that I need it to be rather compact. I don't think much use can really be made of the inverter drive to change the speed but from use on a lathe I'm pretty confident it could be run from 40 to 60 hz without any problem and if the motor did get too hot and let any of it's smoke out it would be because it just wasn't big enough.

The catch with just using belts and pulleys is that as the speed goes down and the torque goes up the smaller pulleys need to get bigger and bigger so that the belt doesn't slip. Things are a bit suck it and see in that area including what power of motor to use. There will be information about on the web about pulley sizes and the torque they can provide without slipping. Not an area to worry about too much but does need some accounting for.

Worrying too much though is a good way of finishing up doing nothing.

John

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I agree with Neil. No chance even with just part of an MT1 going in. There isn't enough meat there.

About all you could put in the end is an ER8 collet taper and make a nut probably forgetting the self extract feature and tapping them out with a drift down the hole in the spindle.

The spindle nose would probably take up to ER16 but the collet chuck would have to be made, both threads and ends cut in one setting and the collet cone taper added when it's mounted on the spindle.. As there is no register on the spindle nose the thread fit would need to be pretty precise. Really one setting is essential anyway.Threads do tend to self centre under load but it wouldn't be wise to allow too much clearance. The thread angles would need to match. Maybe screw cutting and just cleaning up with a tap and die using a tap that is actually on size and a split adjustable quality die.

At least it's bsw so there may be some old accurate stuff around. New modern taps tend to be oversize. Die's a bit mixed and holder usually bang on size rather than being a bit over so that the die can be opened up a bit.

If you do make one I would be inclined to use leaded free cutting mild steel. Things are less likely to bind together. Cast iron is better in that respect though. Best to buy the nut if you do this.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 15:09:25

Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 15:13:56

Wabeco use a separate housing for the shaft that carries the rack gear and that's with an apron that 19mm round the edges thinning to about 12mm in from the edges and in cast iron. The hand wheel is mounted the same way - separate housing that fastens to the apron. If you do it that way and leave a bit of clearance you could adjust the mesh by moving them around a bit. One turn of the feed wheel on that moves the saddle by 30mm. The hand wheel is only 80mms dia though so for hand feeding it pretty hopeless. I'm going to change it to 110mm, still not great but a lot better. I'd have to change the gears to alter the feed on this one so it makes more sense to rough out with a hand feed. That's often the best way of finishing odd little bits anyway.

You may have misunderstood what I meant about the position of the rack gear. It ideally needs to be within the width of the saddle, not overhung at one end.

Oil - since I found it better than any other I use slideway oil off ebay. Some people drown the lathe in it. I find a bit a month or so is fine. It seems to hang around longer than others. I have heard from several people who have switched to using this sort of oil and all find it better. Some did use motor oil or the right grade of hydraulic oil to get a pure mineral oil. If the gibs aren't set correctly on all of the slides though results will be mixed. Some like the top and compound rather loose. Up to them really.

I'd seriously look at turning the rack over if I were you. I did have a Taig / Peatol once and swarf getting on the upward facing teeth was a right pain. These use a fine rack and small gear so the feed rate is usable even with the tiny handle. It's another thing you could play with - how much one turn of it moves the saddle. Even 15 or 20mm would be a lot quicker than the lead screw. There will be more friction from a dovetail bed but Taig get away with it by setting the gibs on the saddle as I suggested.

Silly me saying the rack gear needs gearing up. In a rush. From taking other lathes apart I would try for something like 20 teeth, maybe more, not too small, there and gears to provide what ever is needed for the feed rate.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 14:12:49

Edited By John W1 on 21/11/2015 14:19:57

People don't generally run the table on castors. If you google mirrormatic mirror grinding and just telescope mirror grinding machine you will see photo's of various arrangements that are used. Personally I wouldn't pay for the mirrormatic design unless you want to actually make the same thing. You'll find designs on youtube too.

Most use pillow blocks. They are cheap on ebay in the UK. Some designs have used oil light bearings pressed into a hole. These are cheaper but if you have a shaft running in 2 of them it can be tricky to get them lined up. A lot easier using pillow blocks as 2 just need mounting on a flat surface. Pillow blocks will take some angular miss alignment but it's important the the final output shaft runs dead true as any rise and fall in the table the mirror is mounted on will be transferred to the surface of the mirror to some extent. There are 2 types of pillow block, The usual with mountings at right angles to the axis of the bearings and the other that can be fastened to a flat surface with the shaft passing through. The advantage both offer is that they can be moved around a bit to get the shaft they carry running true. That will also help get a V belt running on a flat pulley. You might be better off using a flat washing machine belt and another flat pulley with a rim on the smaller one that you could make yourself.

If you want a 22" table I would suggest a 35mm shaft for that. Precision ground mild steel or the stuff used in cnc machines would be fine for that. Cast iron pillow blocks, the first that came up on ebay were £7.69 each. You could probably use the pressed steel ones elsewhere but 19mm shafts is a bit if a problem. The few thou away from 3/4" ones shouldn't be be a problem in real terms.

You will need to make a flange to attach the table to that and another for the ply pulley. For the table I would suggest say 6in dia with the length of the hole for the shaft around twice the diameter of the shaft. The 4 bolts for fixing. A better idea might be to buy an aluminium disc off ebay and attach a smaller flange to that and the disc to the table. Less material to machine away and largish discs 5 or 6mm thick are sometimes cheap on ebay. A square would do as an alternative, say 250mm or more.

I've never made one but have been looking around at them for a long time as I am sorely tempted. Very high quality mirrors are rather expensive. Personally if I was making one I would add more shafts and arrange for more than one speed. That can be done by using say two 3 step pulleys reversed one on a shaft driven by a reduced drive from the motor that is easy to get with cheaper pulleys. At the motor you might get away with a 2" or 2 1/2" driving a 7" with a rather tight belt. It would be worth you watching the Gordon Waites video's on youtube. Search quartz mirror. He gives a lot of detail on that one. There is also one on retouching. I may not have spelled his name correctly.

John

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The lathe has a dovetail bed. I don't think these are generally fitted with a feed rack but at a smaller size Taig get away with it. The pinion gear is usually within the bounds of the saddle guides as well. It wont help moving it outside that.

One problem with the Taig that from the photo's uses the same arrangement is that the rack teeth face upwards so swarf gets on it. As there isn't much clearance it jams.

I'd say your best bet is to set the saddle up the same way as the other slides should be set up with some decent oil on them. Push by hand feeling for slight resistance when the gibs are set. It's way too easy to over tighten if the lead screws are used. Then with a decent sized hand wheel look for gearing that provides around 1" saddle movement per turn, typical for smaller lathes. On the other hand if it's stiff and may well be less than that would be easier - say 1/2" per turn, still a lot quicker than the leadscrew. Your rack has around 1/8" pitch so needs gearing up.

Jason may have a point about the leadscrew - I don't see a lever to disengage it from the saddle ??????

John

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I'm currently heating up some tomato and spinach soup that is 2 days past it's use by date.

By folks. May not be able to post again until i recover - if I do.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 20/11/2015 13:36:49

There are lots of other things in Machinery's that can be of use. I would suggest a copy from mid/late 60's onwards.

The prices seem to have gone up of late so might pay to look on abbe books as well as ebay.

John

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The 2nd one is pretty rigid Roger. The arms and wheels are thicket than the other on, arms circa 3/4" across but I agree that the first design is fundamentally better. The arms on that one are 1/2" across.

The other problem with the 2nd one is that the max dia doesn't tie in well with the distance from the centre of the knurls to the point where the clamp screw would rub on the work. The slots in the arm are too short too but I lengthened those as much as I dare.

A big gain with this style is that it's possible to apply a lot of pressure without the work bending and compared with the ones that are just pushed in from the side they seem to make the job easier.

John

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As it was difficult to pack a digital height gauge and the buyer wasn't that far away I took it there and asked them to give me a note to say that they had received it, I had 2, the one I sold was way bigger than I need and hard to tuck away.

I do the same if some one collects from me at home as well.

One person defeated me some time ago. Sent me an empty jiffy bag with nothing in it that clearly had never been opened. I did manage to track him down via the web and certain services and did almost drive 150 miles to go and have a chat with him.

I have heard from people who sell microscope objectives that they send it and then get a return request because the buyer isn't very pleased with it and then find they get an identical one back but not the one they sent.

I bought a microscope once of some one that states no returns. It had a number of problems not shown in the photo's plus some others but listed as used. I had been warned to download the photo's in the listing and had so did the usual dispute thing. Obtained a phone number so that I could talk to him and when I did got a "don't you think you should ask if it's convenient to talk first comment" Then got told that it most definitely wasn't. There after the phone was never picked up until I rang from another number and then it was just put down at the other end. Eventually ebay/paypal sorted it out. He had changed the photo's that were shown in the listing, they keep track of changes. I eventually got an address to send it back to, not his registered address. Ebay told me that they were keen to get rid of sellers like this. He then added abuse aimed at me on all of his listings for months, I managed to get a couple of them taken down. Later I had an email off some one that had bought a car off him ................. I helped as much as I could.

Maybe it pays to be wary of listings that have photo's on them not hosted by ebay but for all I know those could be changed anyway after the listing ends.

John

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I have the wicks set and the CK one Neil. Not much difference really but suspect that the CK ends are a bit harder. I mostly use them on microscopes but they get used on all sorts of things. 2 holders is often handy for me.

I also have a set a little like this one

**LINK**

but no what look like nut spinners just a wide variety of ends to allow me to undo those things that they don't want us to undo. Not used much yet but seems ok.

I do have some nut spinners but rather ancient now so they don't always fit the nuts. They have the usual medium screw driver handle that the blades plug into so they can really tighten nuts up when needed.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 18/11/2015 20:17:18

Your ordinary slide setting for turning should be fine Brian, maybe locking the saddle but with the style of bed you have and Hopper's work you probably wont even have to do that.

John

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I use that type of pad saw, they are ok and the ordinary type - blade usually japanese style on that. Also a junior hacksaw. Same type of snips too although I have mislaid a large pair of the type tin smiths use, handles under the work.

A piece of steel held in the tool post with a few holes drilled into it for cross drilling with a hand drill. I have been looking for a sensible drill pad for the tailstock but all are too small really but have found one with a nearly reasonable V in it but will have to add a clamp myself. For flat stuff I have an adapter that allows me to mount a face plate on the tailstock or a chuck. Not much need with a milling machine about but the alignment of a lathe is generally a lot better than a typical cheaper pillar drill, so rounder holes.

John

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I always use plain text and even then often get html back. As I run Linux and a particular email package reading an html email is a 3 stage process. 3 clicks, the last one allows it to show external references so I can pick and choose just who I let know that I have actually read it.

Personally I feel emails should standardise on rich text but the commercial aspects will never allow that. Thanks Yahoo for trying to do that on their own email service.

John

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There is a very easy answer to that John Mc. Only send items by a method that includes proof of delivery. Lots don't and fortunately as there are few people about that will take advantage mostly get away with it. I'm glad of that as I am an honest buyer and it keeps the costs down but increasingly people selling more expensive items insist on it being tracked. Can't say as I blame them. I often buy from the USA.

Personally when buying privately I much prefer paypal and having caught a cold a couple of times wont use bank transfer or paypal gift who ever is selling it. I also have mixed feelings about visiting and paying cash as what ever is bought it might turn out to be not as good as initial impressions suggest. I have bought a few things I don't use and wouldn't sell on for one reason or the other. It's a fact that there are more problematic sellers than buyers.

The difficult area with selling to other countries is insurance. On services that use the domestic mail provider it ceases to exist once the item has left the country. The only way round that is separate insurance or to use a carrier that operates in both countries.

John

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