Member postings for Lathejack

Hello Bazyle.

I think the drill you might be thinking of is the Kerry Super 8 back geared pillar drill. I used to own one of these and it had the features you mention, I wish I had never sold it.

John.

 I have an Elliot Progress 2G back geared pillar drill now. This has thick heavy castings with a solid round steel column, a quill lock and a quill that is a precise fit in the bore of the head casting and with a speed range of 45 - 2500 RPM. But even this protests when used for milling although it is just about possible with small cutters, but is still a bit dodgy.

Edited By Lathejack on 22/07/2014 00:55:40

Hello Thomas.

I remember those Astra geared head mills, they used to be sold by Scott Urquart. They were made in the Far East, either Taiwan or China and have no real connection to the original Astra mills on the lathes website.

Warco still sell a Chinese made version of it called the Warco Major GH. With more or less the same six speed geared head on a round column with a similar speed range.

Regards.

Hello Graeme.

I have made a gear blank ready for cutting the teeth, but have since seen one listed in the catalogue of a gear cutting company, I am sure it was HPC Gears, I will try and find the catalogue and check.

Hello Geoff.

The Warco BH 600 does have a rather corse longitudinal fine feed rate, from memory I think it is just under 5 thou, or to be exact about 0.0047 inches / spindle revolution on the finest setting. This is about twice as fast as the norm for a general purpose workshop lathe.

I have a Warco 1330 lathe and with the standard screw cutting change wheels fitted the finest feed rate possible is also around 5 thou. To get round this these lathes come supplied and fitted with an extra set of change wheels which give 0.0026 inches / spindle revolution. But when these are fitted screw cutting cannot be done which is just daft.

Because of this and problems with a poor finish in the form of banding on the work piece I also planned to fit a motor to power the apron feeds. I have a couple of Swedish made Electrolux motors with geared reduction from mig welder wire feed drives. These are variable speed 24 volts and have plenty of torque. They are fitted to the industrial mig welders we use at work and last many years without trouble.

The plan was to fit them directly to the apron with a short feed rod made to replace the original, or bolt them to the end of the bed casting and drive the original feed rod from there with it disengaged from the gearbox but still supported there.

In the end I fixed the cause of the banding problem, as detailed in one of my photo albums, and worked out a way of generating fine feed rates while retaining screw cutting using a 96 tooth gear on the gearbox input shaft. This replaces the 100 tooth gear used for fine feeds, and the 48 tooth gear used for most of the imperial threads. I still might fit the motor one day though.

Hope this is of some use.

Hello Marc mc

I visited the Harrogate show on Friday and Saturday and spotted a set of Quorn castings for sale at £195, the dealer selling them was Quillstar, I think also known as Trade Sales Direct.

Edited By Lathejack on 11/05/2014 13:36:01

Hello Steve

A nice lump of new mill you've got yourself there, and what looks like a nice big classic Suzuki at the side of it.

All the 280 type lathes with power cross feed offered by suppliers such as Toolco, Amadeal and Warco are good solid usable machines. Chesters version, the DB11 still does not, I think, have power feeds, including cross feed, built into the apron driven by a separate feed shaft as the others do. So if this matters to you now, or possibly in the future, then maybe avoid that one.

Edited By Lathejack on 30/01/2014 21:07:15

Edited By Lathejack on 30/01/2014 21:25:19

Edited By Lathejack on 30/01/2014 21:25:49

Well said Rick, and I look forward to any article or review of it that may appear. Hopefully with both the good and the bad points included in a published version.

Edited By Lathejack on 22/01/2014 22:40:13

Edited By Lathejack on 22/01/2014 22:41:48

Hi Paul.

What year is your machine, my VMC dates from 1997 and was made in Taiwan and has table feed screws that measure around 22.2mm. The current slightly heavier built Chinese made versions may have something different.

Regarding the dovetails, certainly on the Taiwanese version they can be a bit of a mess, as well as other mating faces on the head and turret which I have corrected. While the ground finish of the guideways on the column, the underside of the table and the top of the knee of my machine are excellent, its the 'hand finished' surface of those on the vertical face of the knee and the underside of the saddle where the massacre has taken place.

It's clear that the tools used for this brutal butchery on mine range from rough files, angle grinders and a big scraper of some sort. They have dug out a concave surface on the saddle and knee leaving four raised areas and then concentrated on these to get the alignment. It is possible to insert a 20 thou feeler gauge between the slides in places. The poor contact area left by this has led to scuffing and early signs of wear on the nicely ground surface that they mate with.

Despite this, and using much better quality machinery over the years, I have always liked them and it does perform very well in a home workshop. Years ago I visited the Myford works and was shown into one of the back rooms. In here was a new Warco VMC they had been looking over, and they hated it, amongst other things making much of being able to stick the feeler gauges in between the slideways.

Myfords own version of the VMC was a different machine, Warco used to offer an identical type in the 1980's. I think the Myford VMC had just been discontinued, and Malcolm Townsend of Myford recalled to me one of the few problems they once had with it was the manufacturers habit of using a bit of emery tape on a stick of wood that they would ram up the spindle to 'finish' the taper. They quickly put a stop to that.

Edited By Lathejack on 22/01/2014 22:12:37

I have been making a new stairway for a 1946 A.E.C. Bus for a customer at work, copying the rotten original.

And at last got a bit of spare time from working to do a bit more to the Red Wing engine.e.

John.

I just thought for a moment that you thought I was referring to needle roller thrust bearings on the worm shaft of the HV6, it is a shame there aren't any.

I have been considering buying a new eight inch horizontal only rotary table, but they don't seem to be available from the usual suppliers, only H/V tables. Amadeal did list one a couple of years ago, but not any more, it looked a bit like the ones that used to be badged Criterion.

The thrust bearing referred to is the one that sits on the underside of the table axis to stop it lifting, which can be seen in Brian Wood's photo, and not the worm shaft which just has a plain shoulder.

Hello.

I also bought a Vertex HV 6 around ten years ago from Chronos i think, at Harrogte. Mine is also one fitted with a needle roller radial bearing and thrust bearing, a very nice bit of kit.

I didn't use it much, but when I dismantled it a few years ago I found the factory applied grease had turned solid and jammed the German made radial roller bearing, causing its outer race to rotate in the iron housing of the base casting when the table was rotated. I bought a new bearing which was easy to find.

They are a well made table, but I find if I lubricate the gears with oil it just leaks out between the eccentric worm shaft sleeve and its bore in the base casting due to a bit too much clearance.

Chester Machine Tools used to offer their own brand of rotary table and dividing head which I think we're called Homge. These were externally just about the same as the Vertex items but were claimed to retain the needle roller bearings inside. I am not sure if these are still available.

Edited By Lathejack on 06/01/2014 19:21:36

Edited By Lathejack on 06/01/2014 19:25:51

Hello Russell

If it appears to be one machined from castings it could be one of the casting kits supplied by Ivan Law of Model Engineering Services in Eckington Derbyshire, just a few miles down the road from me. These were available, i think, in four inch and six inch sizes and came with cast in tee slots.

Hello

I just checked and it all seems to be working ok. When you click on the album the list of photos appear, you then have to click again on a photo which gives a larger image with the main text below the photo, arrows at the bottom of the image allow you to scroll through the album. Hope this helps.

Edited By Lathejack on 01/01/2014 01:15:28

Finished off making a set of new oil control and compression piston rings for a full size Norman T300 flat twin stationary engine. Diameter is 56.5mm.

Edited By Lathejack on 28/12/2013 00:25:51

Edited By Lathejack on 28/12/2013 00:32:07

Hello Oompa Lumpa

The toolpost you have seems to be a copy of the Dickson type quick change toolpost, if not a genuine Dickson. These are sold by, amongst others, Chronos, RDG and Myford. These come in different sizes, as well as the tool holders. the one you have might be the same size used on Myford lathes if your lathe is a Chester DB7 or 8, but measure before ordering.

The hole in the corner is for fitting a long plunger that locates in a hole drilled in the topslide so that the toolpost can be locked square to the topslide if required. Some of them have a hole in each corner. The plunger has a threaded hole in the top, or similar, so it can be pulled out to allow the toolpost to be swivelled round if needed.

 The price as well as the quality varies between suppliers.

Regards.

Edited By Lathejack on 27/11/2013 21:53:06

Hello Geoff.

The SIEG C4 seems to be overall a fine machine. It has cross and longitudinal power feeds built into the apron, so you only need to engage the lead screw thread for thread cutting. It even has a tee slotted top slide as well as the cross slide.

The headstock spindle is not driven directly by the motor drive belt, it is gear driven from a shaft at the side of it, and this can sometimes be a little noisy on the odd example. This gear can be disengaged, so if the lathe has a milling head fitted I think it allows you to still use power feeds when milling without the headstock spindle rotating, which could be a little dangerous.

SIEG also do a version with a quick change screw cutting gearbox, however while doing so it looks like they saw fit to remove the power feeds from the apron, which reduces its usefulness. I think this model is called the C4 Basic.

I have often wondered myself why ARC have never offered this machine and have spoken to Ketan about it on a couple of occasions at the Harrogate show, but his post answers this. To me ARC machines always seem a bit neater and tidier than the same supplied by some others.

Most owners of the C4 seem well impressed and happy with them.

All the best.

daveb.

We could be twins!

Stub Mandrel.

Yes it would be interesting to meet up with some forum members.

I just hope the rain eases off a bit. I think it is about a 180 mile round trip for me, but it was well worth it last year. I am sure there are others that travel a lot further.

Well I am all set to visit the show on Thursday and Friday, I visited this show for the first time last year on the spur of the moment and thoroughly enjoyed it. Am I right in thinking this show replaced the one I used to visit every year at Donnington?

I noticed that Axminster Tools are attending this year. I haven't seen them at M.E. shows for years, or have I just not noticed them? Glad to see them there anyway.

Now I must nip to the cash point for a wedge of notes to buy tooling I need desperately, and then store them away for years until one day they may actually be needed, what a hobby!

Hello.

I could be wrong, but i am sure that a short while ago i saw Terryd selling his 280 lathe in the adds section.

If so, does anyone know if he is packing up for good or just upgrading. I always think it's a shame when people decide to pack it in and sell all their gear, so i hope this isn't the case.