Member postings for Philip Powell

Posted by Jon on 24/10/2016 18:49:33:

Went in 17 yrs ago to buy a Cub no stock, no stock of Crusader imminent and nearly bought a Craftman toget me out of the proverbial. Looked at one again in 2004.
What turned me off was the unsociable gear box selection though similar to older Harrisons which worked. Trying to get the lever in to an hole and engage was daunting. They may well have improved in this time but all Chinese gearboxes are a pain at budget end.

The other turning point was figuring there was a common metric pitch unavailable and the necessity to faff around with change wheels, gear box is limited.

Other than that good value for money but at todays pricing I would cough up the extra and go for Crusader with D style chuck fixing, you wont regret. Its only a bit longer around 400mm make room. There again if spending that sort of dosh could have the real thing s/h from Colchester or Harrison that will last and a joy to use.

Posted by Howard Lewis on 23/10/2016 18:27:55:

Chester used to sell backplates, which is where i found the details of the thread for my Engineers ToolRoom BL12/24. The same lathe. with minor alterations is/was came to UK via three importers.

The Chester Craftsman, as far as I know, is available only in Metric form, whereas the Warco BH600 (and the long bed version BH900) were available in Imperial or Metric form. My Engineers Tool Room BL12/24 is basically Metric but fitted with dual dials. (mostly, I work in Imperial units)

Chucks are retained by two clamps, retained by M8 Allen screws) behind the chuck, so it can be run safely, in reverse. The first set of Tumbler gears were noisy, but replaced under warranty. The Faceplate fouled the Acrylic Chuck guard, but a little work on the plastic provided clearance.

The Screwcutting dial will be positioned on the Headstock or the Tailstock side of the Saddle, depending upon the Importer. I slightly modified mine, to move it from the Headstock side to the Tailstock side.

The 5MT spindle is useful since bar upto 38mm dia can be accomodated. With reducing sleeves, even a 2MT arbor can be used and then transferred to the Rotary Table for gear cutting on the Mill.

I thought that the finest feed, of 0.0047"/rev was a bit too coarse, so made a 80T gear to replace the 40T on the input to the Norton box. This meant moving the closure for the Gear Cover, (and destroying the Knob in the process), but am happy with the result.

So far, (after 13 years) as far as I am concerned, the machine does all that is required of it. I have screwcut at least three backplates to fit the Iathe. It has taken cuts of 0.100" a side without protest.

A while ago, there seemed to be a problem of belt slip, but this was actually caused by a lever in the belt tensioner under the Headstock cover slipping on the shaft. A deeper dimple in the shaft was the cure.

The worst problem was entirely due to my carelessness. (I ran the Saddle into the Headstock and damaged the shaft and pinion that meshes with the rack). Warco could supply spare parts from stock. So this seems to be a fairly regular failing on the part of users.

Another poster on this Forum kindly sent me instructions on removing the saddle.

In fact, I chose to make up my own parts for repair, without power feed, using the Cross Slide manually, and the Topslide. The biggest problem was afterwards, accessing the capscrews that clamp the Worm Housing to the Saddle. This is because the space between the saddle an the bed prevents a normal Allen key being used, and even a modified one is misaligned by ones fingers. However, the problem is not insuperable.

As part of this work, I fitted a nylon plug to a hole in the back of the Saddle, to raise the oil level and improve lubrication in the upper parts of the Saddle.

Hope that this is some help.

Howard

Posted by Ajohnw on 23/10/2016 16:46:17:

I've come across a few owners on stargazersloungs - of all places. They seem happy and it does come with screw cutting gearbox. Not much about like that.

Some might think I'm a warco agent. Costs more but with coolant and dro I'd wonder about this one if I was going to that size. 1800rpm is high for a 5mt spindle but I'd guess it wouldn't be used at that speed too often.

**LINK**

The reason I tend to mention them is the test reports. Frankly I feel that is a good idea.

John

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Posted by Weary on 23/10/2016 13:03:01:

I have a Chester Craftsman, bought second-hand.

Can't really say much about it except it does everything I want = small model-engineering parts, variety of parts for motorcycles. Seems rigid and accurate for my uses.

Unfortunately appears to have an unusual spindle nose thread (2 1/4" x 8tpi) which severely limits sources of back-plates. Unless someone knows differently!

Regards,

Phil

Hi Phil,

At the price, the ARC one is a good clone vs the original Kurt vice. It is in line with the Vertex clone.

However, if you are expecting the same level of quality/finish/accuracy as the Kurt with which you are used to, then my honest opinion is that you may be disappointed. My personal feeling after about six months of good sales for this product is that they are overall 70% in comparison to a Kurt, and probably similar in comparison to a better clone such as Vertex.

These comments are based on observation of the products we have recieved, combined with feedback we have received till date, which have mostly been positive. Out of the 100+ sold so far, about five customers have chosen to modify them further to meet their requirements, and three have been returned becasue they failed to meet the users expectations.

All I would say is please do not expect a Kurt for the price. In any case, it is not like a chocolate teapot...In any case, a chocolate tea pot of the same weight will probably cost more...

Ketan at ARC.

Ketan

I'm not expecting Kurt quality at the ARC price but at the end of the day I need a vice that will work. I'm willing to pay more but I still like a bargain so will give the Arc vice a try.

Phil.

It might be worth looking for a Yahoo Group for whatever machine manual you are looking for. I'm a member of the Smart & Brown and Boxford user groups. Both are a mine of information and have a libary of manuals, also the groups are subscribed by people who also use these machine.

 

Phil.

Kwil, Nicholas and Jeff

 

Thank you for your input, I do intend to replace the motor but my question was is it worth paying a bit more for a 3ph motor and inverter rather than repairing/replacing the existing 1ph motor. I have heard that 3ph can be much smoother and quiter, is this true? How much difference will it make?

 

Thanks

 

Phil.

Hi Sam

 

Ah, I'm not the only one who's had a popping motor then! It's ineteresting that yours was caused by swarf as I suspect mine is has some oiley woody swarf inside that I disturbed when moving the lathe to it's new home and then given a good clean.

 

I like your story about your Myfords previous owner spin-starting the motor sounds a bit hairy to say the least!

 

Thanks

 

Phil.

I have a Smart and Brown Sabel lathe with a motor that keeps making popping noises. The motor is a 1/2HP Crompton and Parkinson 240V single phase. The "pop" normaly happens on startup and is acompanied by a blue flash from the motor and and it makes me jump every time!

 

The previous owner had the lathe in a wood workshop and the first thing I did when I got the lathe home was to clean out all the oily sawdust sludge out of everywhere. There was sludge in the motor grills and I put the pops down to sawdust in the motor, but I've had the lathe a few weeks now and it still pops. Also the motor bearing are bit noisey and sound quite loud when spun over by hand. Another thing I've noticed is the lathe shakes when on 1200rpm the highest speed. Could this be motor related?

 

I'm thinking of replacing the motor with a 3PH motor and an invererter drive, would this be a worthwhile option? I hear good thing about 3PH motors and I thought the variable speed would be handy.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

Phil.

Ah, I thought there must be a better way. Thanks for your replies, I did not realise that a scrapy would buy or swap the stuff! Not having a frienly scrap yard around here I will save my swarf and take it to the local council run recyling depot. Makes more sense than throwing it in the bin.

 

Cheers

 

Phil.

 

 

How do dispose of all that swarf? At present mine goes in with the rubish but there must be a way to recycle? Can I bag it up a put in the scrap metal bin a the local tidy tip?

 

It seems such a waste that just throw away all that metal.

 

What do you do?

 

Phil.

Hi Ady

 

Quite a story there. I would never have thaought of making a gear from aluminium as I thought it would be too soft, you have proved otherwise.