Member postings for Phil P

I am looking for a 3/64" Myford collet if anyone has a spare, once I obtain that elusive one I have a full set.

I will probably never use it, but it annoys the hell out of me that I dont have one !!

Phil

I have a 69 Traveller and have to say it handles perfectly, but has radials all round.

I remember in my youth having lots of fun in my mini van when it had cross ply on the front and radials on the back, I nearly got rid of it, but it became a different car with radials all round, it was almost impossible to lose control even at silly speeds. I even came third in a "12 car rally" in it once, the only thing that let it down was the drum brakes.

My Traveller has discs on the front, and it drives much like any normal modern car now. In fact it is a bit of a revelation after running a cable braked Austin Seven for twenty odd years.

Phil

If you have managed to get a Hofmann for only £50 more than an unknown imported one then you really have got a bargain. Well done that man.

Mine has the indexing plate attachment rather than the hand-wheel.

Phil

As per what Simon said above, but you will find that a standard Allen key will not fit behind the hand wheel.

Get yourself a spare Allen key and shorten it so it fits in the space and then leave it there all the time.

That is what I do on my Hoffmann 8" table. They are a superbly made bit of kit and you will not be dissapointed.

Phil

Depends what you are aiming for but H7 would be a good starting point imho.

Phil

I am fairly sure the " PG/1.M.20.P.A " refers to the change gears for the feed. ie 1 MOD x 20° pressure angle.

I have the same machine myself by the way, you will not be disappointed, I have yet to find a job that I cannot do on mine.

Phil

I use both types of tailstock on my S7.

The normal one is used for general work and stays on the lathe most of the time, but the ML7 one is fitted with a Cowells capstan rack attachment, and I use that for threading with a Coventry die head.

Phil

I use a totally different method which completely removes the risk of breaking a tap in the main casting.

I machine some short brass bushes with a tapped hole in the centre to suit the screws used, in my case they were Metric 1.2mm ones, and made in a batch on my watchmaking lathe.

Then simply drill a hole for the bush to fit where you need the screws to go in the casting, and either press fit or loctite them in position.

Worst that can happen is you break a drill or a tap in one of the bushes, but just throw that one away and make another.

From memory I think it might have been Graham Meek who put me onto this method.

Phil

I hate split dies, and have now gone over to using a die head for the smaller sizes that I need.

I do use the 33/34 changewheel trick when screwcutting metrics though. And having a Meek screwcutting clutch is the icing on the cake.

Phil

It would depend on the position of the lever you use with it.

Torque is force x radius, so if the lever were at 90° to the C spanner it wont be far off.

Phil

Just to put the subject back on track.

If you make a hob with circular grooves which conform to the rack tooth dimensions, that is a hob with NO helix angle.

You can take one pass through the blank mounted on a dividing head and with the hob centred, then index one tooth and take another pass until you have gone all the way round.

You will get a good approximation of an involute tooth form, the difference being that it will be made up of a lot of tiny flats as opposed to being a generated curve, for a lot of slow rpm jobs they will perform adequately.

Phil

Yes

The machine is fully tooled up with all the goodies, the only one I dont have is a spiral milling attachment.

Phil

Dad did not really need all those change wheels, his Myford S7 (now mine) has a screw cutting gearbox as well.

He just did it because he could, he was a very clever fella.

He also designed a spiral bevel gear cutting attachment for the Myford, but that's another story.

Phil

Yeah, it looks a bit wonky though because it's about five photo's stitched together.

Phil

This might interest anyone who likes studying gear cutting principles.

It is my Alexander Master Toolmaker milling machine set up as a sort of Sunderland gear shaper.

The indexing head has been geared to the table traverse so it rotates the gear blank as the table moves, the Sunderland cutter is going up and down on the slotting head with a clapper box similar to a shaping machine.

A few teeth are generated at one go, then the table is returned to its start point ready for the next pass, but crucially the gear blank is manually rotated so as to overlap the previous teeth with the next new ones.

I cannot claim this idea as mine, it was my late father who designed it, he cut a full set of Myford changewheels on it going up in one tooth increments so there is quite a large stack of them.

Phil

The Eclipse 180 is a nice bit of kit, it took me ages to find an affordable one. They often sell for £100 plus on ebay.

The thin piece vice is another of those tools that are handy for some sheet metal parts, I have one of those as well but to be honest I dont use it anywhere nearly as much as the Eclipse.

It is very rare I need to adjust any of the angular settings on my Eclipse, why not make your own copy of the Eclipse vice head and just hold that in your normal vice.

Phil

I have an L5A and when I bought it many years ago it was turning strange pitch but uniform patterned lines on the work.

It took a bit of fathoming out as to what was causing it, in the end it turned out to be the main spindle bearing behind the chuck had a faulty cage, and every revolution of the cage caused the strange lines to appear on the work.

Because the bearing cage rotates at a slower speed than the inner race/spindle it took a bit of finding.

At the time a new flanged taper roller bearing from Harrisons stores was £250, so I went to a bearing supplier in Leeds and they supplied one for around £40. I mentioned to them how much Harrisons were charging and was told that they actually supplied Harrisons with bearings. !!!

Once new bearings were fitted and adjusted all was well on my machine.

In an earlier post you mentioned hearing a "very faint dull repetitive thud" I would certainly be looking to see where that was coming from before you do anything else.

Phil

I was wondering about the merits of nickel plating the bright metal work on my model corliss engine, has anyone tried the DIY kits that are available with any success, and consistency of results ?

Phil

I am planning on using this product on the vulnerable areas of my Morris Traveller.

https://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-protection-and-rust-treatments/dynax-s50

Phil

I just had to google it ..............

http://kilchoan.blogspot.com/2015/07/rusty-sheep.html

Phil