Member postings for Martin Whittle

+1

I also have a WM250VF and WM16, and am happy with them.

Martin

I have used a kit from Gateros Plating with excellent results. They sell directly or on ebay.

The basic Watts bath gives a very matt grey finish; by adding the 'brightener' to the bath a fully bright shiny surface is achieved.

Polish and clean the work scrupulously before plating. It may be helpful to use solvents, then electrolytic cleaning - anodic cleaning is the most vigorous but not suitable for all metals as it can cause oxidisation of the surface (e.g. 'anodised aluminium' in the extreme case). Otherwise cathodic cleaning is good but slower.

Titanium wire (or mesh) is used to suspend the anodes; it does not matter too much what you suspend the work with as it will quickly get nickel plated!

Martin

There is still the odd zyto around.

My Zyto is still in frequent use. It does play second fiddle to the Warco WM250, but is very useful if I want to machine smaller items, or not to alter setup on the '250, or want better runout.

Martin

No offence taken at all Michael

Perhaps I did not read the comments closely enough. I have always found your input to be among the most knowledgable and interesting on this site.

With best regards

Martin

Michael

I was telling him why.  And specifically, that it is not necessary for a radiator to be magnetised in order to distort the local magnetic field.

Martin

(sorry - another spelling error!)

Edited By Martin Whittle on 24/03/2018 20:17:24

Micheal

I was telling him why

Martin

Even if the radiator is not itself magnetised, its magnetic permiability will create a local distortion in the earth's magnetic field, which will depend on the angle of the radiator to the earth's field.

I suggest that for a true reading, you take your compass a significant distance from the radiator (say > 5 radiator lengths?) in order to minimise the field distortion caused by the radiator.

Martin

(edited for spelling)

Edited By Martin Whittle on 24/03/2018 20:01:23

It will also depend on the grade of alloy used for the pulley in the first place - so the properties of this are unknown, but might be an appropriately econonical type for casting, without necessarily a great concern about welding qualities.

however, I would suggest that a pulley in normal use is not a highly stressed item, and it may not matter if the tensile strength is somewhat (even substantially) down.

I would be concerned if the item was in heavy use in an industrial environment, in which case the recommended replacement should be purchased from the original manufacturer. For the amateur workshop in light use, one not be too worried - if a welded inserted piece seems to be fully and evenly bonded, that is good enough.

Martin

On a related matter (but maybe wrong forum), I am currently trying some 'artist's blue mask' from Hobbycraft, which is another latex mask: I don't know whether this would be suitable as a solder mask. It is intended as a temporary mask in watercolour painting.

But my application involves using it as a mask over what I believe to be a bone inlay on an 1900 (approx) musical box, for the purpose of French polishing the wood background. It will be interesting to see what happens when I unpick the mask, with its thin layer of shellac over it .

Martin

If you search for 'peelable solder mask' on Ebay / Farnell / Amazon / RS etc, you will get find products that are painted on as a liquid, but dry to a latex - like material. This is resistant to soft soldering temperatures, and then can be peeled off.

On ebay if you search for 'solder mask' you will get lots of responses for cheaper syringes of UV-curable material; I take it that these are permanent solder masks and cannot easily be removed.

Martin

OK, a bit of an exaggeration in normal work, although it is not unusual to have blue swarf when turning ferrous material at speed, implying temperatures in the region of 300C

But in the case of turning very tough or hardened material (in which I have as yet no experience), I believe it is fairly usual for the local work temperature at the cutting edge to be near red heat - that is how it becomes soft enough to be turned!

I have a couple of boron nitride tipped inserts - I must try one on somthing hard some time

Martin

Thanks also Neil.

A while ago I bought a set of nearly 40 TCT brazed 12mm shank tools, at package price close to £1 per piece. Good price, but I was not very impressed by turning results. Then on closer examination, i found out that the front and side faces variably and in many cases not at all finished, often completetey rough and unground with the cutting 'edge' unble to contact the work before the rough carbide body below.

After grinding the tool on a green grit wheel (quite a tough process!) the tools did cut well, but they did seem generally somewhat more fragile than expected - I was turning some stainless 304 at the time, and if the tool height was not fully correct, the tool tip frequently broke nearing the centre of the facing cut.

I also found that with a 9-piece set of TCT boring tools: again although the tools appeared to be ready ground, the front face was ground in many cases at such an angle that the body of the carbide fouled the work before the cutting edge could make contact, however one oriented the tool. Again, regrinding the tools made them usable.

I am inclined now more to use insert tooling. However I did find on using a holder with CCMT insert from one of respected suppliers on this site, that it was completely unsuitable for any sort of light cut, having a remakably round surface where I expected to find a cutting edge, such that there was no sharp edge to cut the work before the insert body contacted it! I assume it is intended for very high speed heavy work, such that the tool forces its way through semi-molten work surface - is that correct, and the alleged reason for not using insert tooling on small lathes? Certainly not suited to any light finishing cut.

The CCGT tips work well, and can be used on mild ferrous material (including interrupted cuts), but don't necessarily expect a very long tip life, but a useful one.

Martin

Refering to Sam's message above, I have also tried a Dickson style toolpost, of the 73 x 73 x 51 approximate size, on my Warco WM250VF. I agree that the arrangement is insufficiently rigid, due to flex in the top slide and clamp arrangement, and certainly aggravated by any extended overhang of the tool.

I have been through a similar exercise to that shown on **LINK** , but still using the Dickson style toolpost. I first built a 'Rock of Gibraltar' inspired post using a machined lump of 100mm diameter cast iron mounted on a cross slide base plate sold by Warco to replace the top slide. This is about as solid as possible on this machine! I am very happy with the performance of this, and have been using it when the functionality of a top slide is not needed.

I very recently built a variation of the 4-bolt clamp unit on **LINK** but again using another cross slide base plate from Warco, to replace the supplied 2-bolt clamp to hold the top slide. This appears to work satisfactorily but I have not done much with the lathe since: I think I might however stick with the 'Gibraltar' for most work.

Martin

I see that 'The Journeyman' has posted since I started writing this message.  Thanks for your inspiration, John!

Edited By Martin Whittle on 10/01/2018 10:49:04

Thank you for this Bill

I was very saddened to hear this. Entirely coincidentally, having taken down the Christmas lights and decorations today, I was listening to the the Moody Blues 'December' album when I read your post.

The Moody Blues were a major influence in my early life - I shall never forget 'Nights in White Satin' booming in the student's coffee bar - the jukebox loudspeaker had a resonance giving a bit of a rattle to the bass notes that actually enhanced the atmosphere of the song.

Ray will be sadly missed.

Martin

Good choice Paul:

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'

If it works well, there is plenty of oil, and it is not not too old and worn, and there is not an obvious problem, it probably ain't broke.

So don't fix it! - unless you feel an educational need tofind out how it works.

Martin

Edited By Martin Whittle on 26/11/2017 20:46:20

Despite (or is it indeed because of?) being a southpaw, I find that screwing clockwise is the natural way to drive a screw.

I was still surprised yesterday, replacing our oven fan motor. I saw and fully understood from the interweb that the fan retaining nut was left-handed, but which way did I "REALLY WANT TO" and still try to turn it to no avail? But successful repair job in the end .

Martin

A priest, a lawyer and an engineer are about to be guillotined.

The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens -- he declares that he's been saved by divine intervention -- so he's let go.

The lawyer is put on the block, and again the rope doesn't release the blade, he claims he can't be executed twice for the same crime he is set free too.

They grab the engineer and shove his head into the guillotine, he looks up at the release mechanism and says "Wait a minute, I see your problem......"

Just noticed the picture of the WM250 currently on the Warco site (with the 1100W motor, possibly 3-phase) does not have the fuse in this position.

My lathe is the older WM250V-F which I think has a 600W DC motor. Sorry to confuse you!

Martin

The fuse holder is the round black thermoplastic thing on the front panel between the start/stop switch and the forward/reverse switch. Unscrew the centre using the screwdriver slot, and this cap will come out with the fuse.

You should be able to see clearly if the wire has blown.

The fuse is rated 10A quick-blow in a 5mm x 20mm case. Plenty of suppliers on ebay for around £2 for a pack of 10.

I have blown the fuses at the front and the rear of my WM250V-F, each at least once (but not both at same time)

Martin

Edited By Martin Whittle on 10/09/2017 18:05:26