Member postings for Lathejack

The 918 and 920 are definitely copies of the belt drive Emco Compact 8. Apart from minor details they have the same looking headstocks, bed castings, tailstocks, saddles, cross slides and topslides. They also have the same long lever behind the headstock for slackening and tensioning the drive belt. The Far Eastern machines also have the addition of the screw cutting gearbox and a longitudinal power feed built into the apron. 

Andrew mentioned the Emco Compact 8e does have Acme feedscrews. The Compact 8e is made in the Far East and is a little different to the original Austrian Compact 8 and the 918 & 920's.

Edited By Lathejack on 03/12/2017 21:26:06

Edited By Lathejack on 03/12/2017 21:27:49

The Chinese 920 & 918 lathes are copies of the Austrian made Emco Compact 8 lathe, so it would be interesting to know what thread form was used on the Emco original.

I don't think the Chinese made machines are particularly at fault for using a standard type thread form on some models. Some years ago I was examining a new Warco WM280 lathe, these are based on the much more expensive Wabeco D6000 lathe. Looking under the Chinese made 280 machines topslide I noticed it did not use an Acme or square type thread, just a normal thread form. So I immediately walked over to the Wabeco D6000 and saw that it also used a normal thread form, the same as that used on the Chinese copy.

Well I have had one of the vices in ChrisB's link for several years, this one is badged as a Clarke. They are well made and also have vee and pipe jaws, but the anvils are not hardened steel as suggested in the link, just part of the cast iron body.

They are certainly larger than 3 inches, they have a 5 inch opening with 5 inch wide hardened jaws. The 75mm throat refered to in the link is the measurement from the top of the jaws to the top of the circular ram. The link does mention a 100mm version.

But as already said, they are really light to medium duty, but we do have one at work that has taken a bit of a battering and hasn't broken yet. Certainly for medium to heavy work and metal bashing you can't beat the standard fixed type bench vices refered to by others. Mine is backed up by a larger Record vice for when the going gets tough.

Edited By Lathejack on 09/09/2017 22:10:34

That's a nice sweet running little Wilesco engine you've built Levent, the boiler is an attractive looking unit as well. Did you get the little Dynamo from Forest Classics as well? I think it won't be too long before you have built a bit of a collection of them. Any idea which engine your next one might be?

The modified engine by Henry also looks good. I like the little pressure guage and displaced lubricator, I wish I had thought of fitting them to this Wilesco D409 Showmans engine I modified a couple of years ago, also from the excellent Forest Classics.

Some of the main modifications I made to it were fitting the more realistic and heavier Mamod wheels. I then made the bronze wheel rims, brass twist canopy supports, facia boards, smoke box with door and front axle assembly. After buying it and then modifying it I then gave it away as a gift for someone's 60 th birthday.

The gap down the side of the gib strip bearing against the gib adjusting screws shouldn't cause any problems, as long as the bearing surface of the gib strip fits snuggly against the cross slide dovetail.

But on your first photo, gib bottom left hand corner, the bottom edge of the gib strip appears to be fouling the root of the crosslide dovetail. The relief groove in the bottom of your crosslide dovetail seems a bit shallow, this together with the sharp bottom edge of the gib strip maybe preventing the gib from seating correctly on the bearing surface of the dovetail.

If you remove the sharp edge from along the gib and leave a slight flat there to give some clearence between it and the root of the dovetail it might improve things.

Edited By Lathejack on 29/07/2017 23:36:05

Edited By Lathejack on 29/07/2017 23:38:48

Yes before bending I checked that, then double checked and finally triple checked. Still worried it was correct while bending it, and was then convinced it was the wrong way round when completed.

I have been working on repairing and restoring this Burrell Showmans Engine at our works. It was originally just a working engine, and was converted to a Showmans many years ago. .

......One job was to make a new steering drum, with a spiral design to locate the steering chains as they wrapped around it. The one on the engine was just a plain fabricated tube with flanges at each end. I wanted to try and produce one similar to the genuine original cast iron spiral design found on some of these engines..

......So in two stages a total of almost 4 metres of 30mm diameter solid black bar was heated up with the Oxy/Acetylene torch, and steadily wound around a 125mm diameter thick walled steel tube.

.......The 30mm bar has a pitch of 31/4 inches, about the same as the genuine item.

.......The bar ends have been trimmed and blended in flat, it is quite a weight already, and there is still plenty more to do to it. The spiral bar will be fully welded all the way round.

I think the EBay sellers comments are quite fair. He isn't just slagging off cheap Chinese machinery, he is just describing it like it is, so where it is made and how much it cost are irrelevant.

But I do think he has overlooked the drills possible real potential. In some of his photos the drill is sat on the ground close to a door, and appears to be preventing the door from closing fully. So if he had given it some thought, and moved it a little further to the right, I am sure that the drill would be at least good enough to make an excellent door stop.

Edited By Lathejack on 11/06/2017 23:51:40

Edited By Lathejack on 11/06/2017 23:53:12

I visited the show today, and had a very enjoyable day there. I fiddled with some of the machinery I fancy buying, and spent about £100 on some new tooling and a boring table. So I went home with a much heavier bag.

Had a nice lunch upstairs, on a cardboard plate with a wooden knife and fork.

Chester had a larger display of machinery there than they have had in recent previous shows I have visited.

It's still a good show, and well worth a visit. I would like to go again on Saturday or Sunday but just can't get away.

Ah, the Hobbymat BFE, I had one around 20 years ago, really nice machines and very well made.

I had the head on mine apart, and cannot recall why only the left side cover should be removed for greasing, but I think it does give adequate access for greasing the internals.

I took the whole thing apart, including both side covers, to carry out internal repairs on a couple of areas that can give a bit of trouble if someone has been a bit rough and heavy handed when using the machine or changing the speeds.

The rather elaborate looking four speed constant mesh helical gearbox uses steel gears meshing with Tufnol gears, but I think later ones may have used Delrin or a similar material in place of the Tufnol gears. The verticle shafts in the gearbox have ball race bearings at each end.

Mine had Tufnol gears, and this laminated material seems fine for the gear teeth, but the small shallow drive dogs are also machined onto the side of these gears. So the layers that form them are inline with the shearing loads applied to them when cutting metal.

On the machine I bought I found a few of the drive dogs had sheared off, I think there are six on each gear so they will still keep running if you loose a few. It may have been a result of a previous owner over doing it a bit. So it is probably not a good idea to use a large diameter single point cutter, on a slightly heavy interrupted cut.

The Tufnol gears have a metal centre bush, and the other problem that can occur, as on mine, is these gears being pushed slightly off their bushes. This is caused if someone is impatient and heavy handed when using the levers to change gear, without carefully rotating the spindle back and forth to allow things to line up and click into place.

The column sits tightly in the split base casting, with three cap head screws. Only the two outer screws clamp the casting to the column, the centre screw opens up the casting to allow the column to be withdrawn. If you ever need to remove the column from the base, first slacken and back off the two outer screws, then screw in the middle one until it tightens and slightly opens up the casting to release the grip on the column. When the column is replaced, slacken and back off the centre screw before tightening the two outer screws.

I mention this because I have seen quite a few old Hobbymats with badly battered and bruised base casting, caused by wedges or big screw drivers being forced into the split casting in an attempt to force it apart to get the column out. It just isn't obvious what the centre screw is really for.

The original milling table for these is also very well made. A thick iron casting with three tee slots, plus a tee slot on the front face for the travel stops. Essel Engineering did offer some Taiwanese made milling tables for the Hobbymat mill head. These had just two larger tee slots on top, but were much thinner castings which left no room for the front tee slot and table stops. They are not a patch on the genuine table.

The mill head is a thick alluminium casting, but in the bottom they have an elaborately made thick walled cast iron liner. This liner is bored and honed to fine limits to take the very close fitting sliding quill.

I seem to remember later Hobbymats lost the geared head and resorted to belt and pulleys instead, to reduce noise I think it was suggested. But really to reduce costs on what must have been a relatively expensive to produce geared head.

So all in all a fine machine, which usually only gives trouble if abused.

Edited By Lathejack on 09/05/2017 03:50:17

Edited By Lathejack on 09/05/2017 04:01:29

Edited By Lathejack on 09/05/2017 04:07:37

But it was directed at someone wasn't it? I think your response in your previous post may still be valid, at least on someone else's behalf.

Edited By Lathejack on 07/05/2017 21:12:56

Edited By Lathejack on 07/05/2017 21:13:26

The Runmaster lathe from Axminster is loosely based on the Harison M300, just a little simpler. So if you fancy a new M300 but can't stretch to one, then the Runmaster is not a bad choice.

The Birmingham company Rotagrip also offer lathes in the Machines section of their website. They list a lot of Chester machines, but amongst these is one lathe called the C300 which appears to be identical to the M300.

I seem to remember a few years ago the C300 was priced around £8000, Rotagrip still list it now but there is no price shown. Capacity is 330x1000mm.

Edited By Lathejack on 27/04/2017 20:22:06

Edited By Lathejack on 27/04/2017 20:27:27

Oh dear, a real shame. Despite having not the best of experiences with Warco in the past, I was always glad to see them at engineering shows.

As far back as I can remember they always made a huge effort with an impressive display of machinery. With lathes from the smallest upto the 1330 and 1440 sizes, and taking a full range of mills including the Bridgeport type machines.

For me it is the trade stands that interest me most at Model Engineering Shows, especially the ones with machine tools. Although I bought all the machines I really need years ago. On top of all the other costs mentioned by Neil, I wonder if Doncaster is just too far North for them.

So if it is true that they won't be attending, then for me the unthinkable has happened, no more Warco at the show I visit. Together with the absence of Arc, Chronos and Proops, plus a much reduced display by Chester I might begin to find future shows a bit lacking.

I have had a Warco VMC for almost twenty years now. Mine is a Taiwanese made version that was made in 1997, the new price way back then was £2400.

The current Chinese made versions are slightly heavier built with thicker castings, and I think the quality is certainly good enough for the price tag. £1800 for a new knee type turret mill of this size with a swivelling quill feed head is still a bit of a bargain.

This is my latest adventure with my VMC, skimming the rear wheel brake drum of my recently aquired 1971 500cc BSA B50. The 18 inch wheel was too big for my lathe, but just fitted in the trusty VMC. Thankfully the riser block I made and fitted a few years ago made the job a little easier.

Today I took another look at the Boxford lathe that turned up at our works a couple of weeks ago. The front of the lathe is up against a wall, and with other machinery and parts around the lathe it is difficult to get to,

But after clearing some of the clutter piled up on it I could then see it is in fact a VSL model, serial number is VSL 28024. So not a million miles away from the number on the lathe belonging to Thaiguzzi.

The small label on top of the headstock near the backgear lever is an original Boxford item that warns " STOP THE MACHINE BEFORE CHANGING GEAR"

Although it's not very clear on the hazy photo of the Boxford I posted, the as cast front face of the headstock has also been machined flat in the area that the plunger block is bolted, just the same as Thaiguzzis lathe.

Also on the Boxford photo I posted, just above the spindle lock label can be seen two small rivet holes, these may have secured the same Post Office label as the one on the lathe of Thaiguzzi.

Edited By Lathejack on 17/02/2017 16:40:08

Edited By Lathejack on 17/02/2017 16:45:23

Can you believe it? I, as well as others, cannot recall ever seeing a headstock dividing attachment on a Boxford lathe like the one in the photo of the Boxford belonging to Thaiguzzi, and then two turn up.

This is a Model A Boxford with an identical attachment, it arrived at our works today on one of two low loaders amongst other machine tools. The load also included a Steam Traction Engine and a Steam Roller in need of rebuilding.

Warco themselves introduced some heavy duty single phase 6 & 8 inch bench grinders a few years ago, I'm not sure if they still list them though, These grinders looked quite substantial, and they made of point of the solid work rests fitted to them.

I took a look at them at one of the Harrogate shows, they did look larger and more robust than the usual grinders of the same size. The work rests were indeed strong and solid items, if a little rough and untidy on the examples on show.

Edited By Lathejack on 05/02/2017 01:35:07

That's odd, I've never come across that happening before, I wonder if the bar isn't annealed evenly along its length.

When twisting square bar for gates and railings in the past we just used black mild steel bar, mostly 10 & 12mm, and the twisting was always done cold. It made no difference which end was held stationary and which end was driven, the pitch came out even from end to end.

Thinking back, I'm sure it was usually just two to three turns of the bar.