Member postings for AdrianR

Bill,

I have plenty more csks to do, I will give the quill a go.

Yes the SX3 has a tapered gib. I thought I had adjusted it right but I am unsure. The X/Y are easy as you can use a DTI to measure the 'wiggle'. With the Z, having the weight hanging makes it hard for me to tell if the gib is adjusted correctly.

I have a Sieg SX3 and recently bought a set of single flute countersinks from ArcEuroTrade.

Today I tried to use them for the first time and I am unsure if the problem I had is me, the mill or the countersink.

I was making a 14mm diameter 90-degree countersink on a 6mm hole in BMS. I selected a 16.5mm countersink, mounted it in an R8 collet and lowered the head till the cuter was just starting to shave the hole corner.

From here I calculated that I need to cut 4mm deep to achieve a 14mm countersink.

I ran the cutter at 150RPM and with plenty of cutting oil started to lower the head. It cut easily till about 2mm deep ( measured 10mm dia) It then started to get a little more difficult so I raised the speed to 300RPM. It then was cutting better to 3mm deep (measured 12mm dia) After this it did not want to go deeper, I had to give more feed to get it to start cutting again. Like I was having to drive the head down, not just lower it.

Then cut quickly to 4mm deep. But the hole diameter was only 13.5mm dia. I had to give it another 0.5mm feed and it again suddenly started cutting with a thick swarf curl. This time it took the countersink to 14.5mm dia and the finish was very rough.

I have looked at the cutter, it appears as good as new, with no sign of wear. So I am wondering is it me? Have I approached it the wrong way?

I was trying to feed it down not too slowly, probably about 0.5mm/second. But I did lift it to check the cut and re-oil.

In the end, I was defiantly getting the impression the mill was not rigid enough, the head was visibly moving side to side, and I suspect was lifting relative to the feed screw. Could it be the Z dovetail is too loose? Just how do I check the play on the Z axis?

Is single flute the wrong sort of cutter?

Any ideas?

There is a marine taplin on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194101736538?hash=item2d315d745a:g:jkgAAOSwcINgkrZZ

Thanks for the replies guys, the John Stevenson design looks interesting too.

I know the merits of plunger vs wedge have been gone over before, but I found this QCTP on ebay.

It seems such a simple design, and easy to make but I can't decide if would lose too much rigidity?

Does anyone have experience of this type?

In the advert it is described as a Tes Toolpost, what does TES mean?

Edited By AdrianR on 09/05/2021 12:00:35

Depending on where you live, you may just be able to take them to the local recycling center.

https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with/gas-bottles-1

I always think the issue is that dropped items always drop and then move to a different unexpected location. Now if we could persuade them to move to where we are looking we could find them easily.

My suggestion is to mount your floor above an array of subwoofers. The subwoofers will induce large vibrations in the floor and cause the dropped items to jiggle. By controlling the amplitude and phase of the vibrations across the floor it would be possible to cause the items to migrate to where you wish to look.

Some background reading on how it works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni

Today I finally got round to putting an old glass cutter back together. It has been sitting in meths for the last two weeks trying to get what looks like varnish off the little wheels.

On cleaning the second wheel, scratching it with my nail made it shoot off like a tiddlywink. I hunted around the bench to no avail. Resigned to only having 5 wheels I continued. When on the last wheel I noticed sitting next to my hand the errant wheel.

What gets me is how those pesky little elves/gremlins/gnomes etc manage to put it there without me seeing them do it.

You could make two narrow strips (5mm) that go round the table. At the ends silver solder small blocks that are drilled and/or tapped to allow the bands to be clamped tight.

Add a post close to the table that the blocks will hit then adjust the bands to act as end stops.

You could add fine adjustment screws too.

I always use my browser to view PDFs, I Use Chrome but FF and Edge will also work. Just drag and drop the files to the browser.

It is also possible to set the default application for files, In file explorer right click a pdf then select Open With/ Choose another app. Select the app you want to use and check the box Allways use this app.

Depending on your workshop construction, tieing to a wall can work wonders for rigidity.

My mill is 160Kg. I made my stand from 12mm ply sides and 50x50 mm timber for the corners, with the top 2 layers of 18mm ply. I left the front open for draws and shelves, so it did need the wall tie to stop rotation.

I am very glad to hear 1) You have heard of Shazam 2) You used Shazam as a verb 3) It did not match

I am afraid my grubby fingerprints are all over the Shazam recognition system.

The Google system and the Soundhound system are both prone to odd matches, I would blame one of them.

Absolutely amazing car, I am not a car nut, but I defiantly would love one of those. Pootling down the Lincolnshire country roads to the shops would be a pleasure.

It could be useful. There is no scale to the 3d model so you would either need to know one of the original dimensions or add something to the scene of known size before photographing. Also, the accuracy is only as good at the image resolution and number of photos. So I would not expect to be able to measure high accuracy. I could see it being great for castings. building the 3D model then printing it as a lost PLA form.

Wow that is impressive stuff, I don't think mine will be half as impressive. Hopefully, today will be a good day for the lighting. So far it is a nice light overcast day, so far I have had shadows or varying light levels due to clouds.

I have just started playing with photogrammetry which is where you can build 3D models from multiple 2D images. I have known about this method for years, but I had not realised quite how advanced (easy) it had got. I thought it might be of interest to others here.

I don't have a CNC or 3d printer, but my neighbour has a large CNC for wood, and my objective is to copy a small bass relief in brass to a larger wooden version.

I am using the open-source project Meshroom which I am quite impressed with.

I find I tend to feed too slowly or vary during the cut, what I did was download a metronome app. I set it to tick at twice the speed I need to rotate the feed. Then just follow the ticks top, bottom, top ... when turning the feed.

If i want to dry something quickly I rinse it in meths or acetone. This absorbs the water and then the solvent evaporates much quicker.

Adrian

I have the SX3 and could not justify spending even more on the bellows. I have a roll of 100mm DPC leftover from building the workshop and I have made similar covers for my lathe.

They do not help with the floor but does keep it out of all the working parts of the mill. The ply is from the packing crate. For the floor I made a duck board so at least I am not standing in swarf.

The Z-Axis is held on with self-adhesive magnetic tape.

The table front and rear covers are screwed on.

Note: I also made stops for the Y axis which were sadly missing from the original spec.

To keep the adjacent benches clean I am planning on buying the clear plastic strips used for freezer curtains and making a semicircular curtain attached to the bottom of the head.

Edited By AdrianR on 10/03/2021 09:55:29