Member postings for JDEng

The blue grey item in the last couple of photographs is the main part of a Jones & Shipman X9 radius grinding attachment. This is designed to fit the J&S 310 or 310T tool and cutter grinder and is used to grind radii onto milling cutters. As supplied it comes with numerous fittings to allow the cutters to be mounted and set-up, these are not present in the photographs.

Andrew,

The coarse feed on mine locks in three places, each at 120 degrees. The detent appears to be at the bottom and the ball in this position is spring loaded, with the other two balls being loose when the key has been removed.

Regards,

John.

Andrew,

I had a quick look at mine when I got to work this morning. The coarse feed is graduated into three parts, each putting 0.080" on the diameter; total of 0.240" for one complete revolution of the dial. The fine feed puts 0.016" on the diameter in 0.0005" increments.

Inside the hexagon socket of the coarse feed there are three balls, about half way down. They are retained but loose, if that makes sense, and they are located at 120 degrees to each other in the vees between the flats. The two at the top (10 and 2 o'clock when the head is vertical) are loose but the bottom one is tight so I assume this is the one that does the locking; it locks up whenever one of the graduations is opposite the fixed line.

When the coarse feed is used it can be easily turned with the key in all the way but, when the key is pulled out half way the ball takes over and locks the dial once the next graduation is opposite the line. The fine feed dial then operates. The operation of either dial does not cause the other dial to turn although there is obviously a 15:1 ratio between them.

John.

Andrew,

I have a UPA4 and have never experienced any major problems.

I am not too sure whether exactly what you mean in your post. Are you having problems with the auto feed for facing cuts, or does your problem lie with getting the fine feed screw to work when you attempt to put a cut on for boring or turning? If the latter, do you find the problem manifests itself after using the coarse feed screw? The reason I ask is because it is necessary, when withdrawing the Allen key from the coarse feed socket, to pull it out about half way - you can feel where because of a spring detent inside - and then to turn the coarse feed screw until it re-engages. I suspect failure to do this might cause the symptoms you are experiencing.

Apologies if I'm teaching grandmother to suck eggs.

John

I have only just seen this post. I advertise in Model Engineer and, amongst other engineering services, I offer a tool, cutter and drill grinding service. I might be able to help you out. Telephone number is 01430 - 424957.

Regards,

John.

Korby,

Keith's link says it all really.

For what it's worth, one of my customers bought me one in the mistaken belief he'd found a bargain at a boot sale. There seems to be a flood of them on the market and they're all the same plate; they seem a bit too thin to my way of thinking and cast iron doesn't seem to be the correct material. There are a lot of fake plates about at the moment, railway related and otherwise.

Most loco's seem to have brass worksplates although the later 1950's Barclays had aluminium - I have two of these, one on either side of a loco! The Railway Executive/BTC registration plates were usually cast iron as far as I am aware.

Kind regards,

John.

As far a

Alan,

Have sent you a PM.

John.

Have a look at Jim's website.

www.northernsteam.com

Very interesting and informative.

John.

Roger,

Have sent you a pm.

Regards,

John.

Martin,

Have sent you a PM.

Regards,

John.

I'm not being funny Norman when I say that I've never had a job that's worth losing an eye for either; or anything else come to that!

Safety has to come first.

John.

Bri,

I'd make sure first of all that the gasket material you have is correct for steam. Check with a company such as Heritage Steam Supplies; they specialise in this field and will advise you what is the best material for the job. Personally I can't see any harm in a soft gasket in this application but I would ask and be guided by the experts. They use soft gaskets around the top and bottom of Sentinel boilers and they operate at a far higher pressure than you will be concerned with.

I would use a graphite jointing compound such as Foliac (made by Rocol); smear it on both sides of the gasket. Personally I'd stear clear of Stag or Manganese paste, it sets like concrete whereas Foliac is fairly easily removed if you ever have to remake the joint.

Knock out the bolt/stud holes in the gasket before you knock or cut the edges to size; if you do it the other way round you may break the gasket.

Hope this helps.

John.

Imperial taper pins are tapered at 1 in 48; metric are 1 in 50.

John.

Wolfie,

Just thought I'd stick my two pennorth in.

What speeds and feeds are you using? From memory Presto recommend a feed of about 0.003" per tooth when end milling; this equates to 0.012" per rev. For mild steel using a 1/2" cutter this means running at about 750 rpm with a feed rate of 9" per minute. If you reduce the feed rate there is a tendency for the cutter to "rub" which results in poor finish and premature failure of the cutting edge. Coolant is useful if you have it; helps chip flow over the cutting edge and flushes swarf away. If you reduce your rpm you still need to keep the feed at 0.003" per tooth.

Make sure all slides except the one you are actually moving are locked.

What type of steel is it? Some mild steel is extremely difficult to get a good finish on due to poor or indifferent quality control.

If you want to check for play in bearings etc use a clock gauge if possible. It will give a reliable reading from a known point which makes it easier to assess what is (or isn't!) going on.

Regards,

John.

These might be bridge reamers as stated above. If that is the case they are used to put a "sized" hole through two (or more) separate, smaller holes in components that require bolting or rivetting together. The idea is to "bridge" any misalignment.

They might also be taper pin drills; these are used, as the name suggests, for opening out a parallel hole to accept a taper pin. They will have a constant taper (1:48 or 1:50 depending on imperial or metric) whereas, as far as I know, a bridge reamer is tapered for a certain length and then becomes parallel.

John.

Edited By JDEng on 09/07/2012 17:30:30

Edited By JDEng on 29/05/2011 19:12:38