Member postings for Brian O'Connor

Try using Loctite, not the very strong stuff but the type that you put on nuts and bolts that allows you to undo them at a later date. In my last house there were several doors that opened or closed themselves due to the frames being out of true. An application of Loctite taught them some manners and lasted for several months before further applications were required.

Brian

I haven't bothered to buy a drill chuck for my R8 mill. Since I only use the mill in drilling mode when drilling accurate holes I use my set of ER25 collets to hold the drills. Slower to use of course compared with a drill chuck but at least the drills are held tightly and accurately.

B

I too am an arachnophobe but I do like to give them a sporting chance when getting rid of them. If they are in the middle of the floor I propose that we have a game of taking turns to jump on each other. They tend to be a bit slow on the uptake so I usually have to demonstrate by having first go. They seem to lose interest after that.

If they are on a wall then the game is that we take it in turn to wallop each other with a weapon of our choice.

If in a position where neither of the first two games is possible then they get treated to an exciting ride up the vacuum cleaner tube.

B

Chris,

Presumably your motor is wired in delta configuration to work on 230/240v, in which case it doesn't need neutral (when connected in star configuration for 440v operation then it is usual to take the neutral to the star centre point).

In your case, connect the live, neutral and earth wires between the mains fuse box, On/Off switch and the Cub, but from the Cub to the motor all you need are the three phases and earth.

I have a Cub on my VMC so may be able to help if you have any more problems/questions.

Brian

Chris,

If you haven't discovered it already, Grizzly in the States produce an excellent downloadable manual for the G3102/G3103 Mill, which is their version of the VMC. It's far better than the thing that Warco produce. The only part of it which is not applicable is the section dealing with the electrics.

**LINK**

Brian

Chris,

The centre of Esher is only a stone's throw along the A307 Portsmouth Road and I am sure that you will be able to find somewhere there. If you can't see one I'm sure that they will be able to tell you in a Newsagents. At that time of the morning parking in the town shouldn't be a problem.

I also plan to be at MEX at opening time but I won't be getting there quite as early as you!

Regards, Brian

While you lot were watching the programme I was recording it and watching Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of the Cell, **LINK** which blew my socks off! I urge anyone who hasn't seen it to do so, it will probably divest you of your socks as well. And if you're wondering what this programme has to do with engineering then just watch the amazing molcular machines moving stuff around inside the cell. All done in CGI of course, but presumably a true representation of what goes on inside every one of our billions of cells.

When I watched the How Britain Worked programme I thought that it was well worth watching but missed a lot of what was said, partly due to the heavy accent and partly to Anno Domini. Next week I shall watch it live and switch on subtitles, something I have to do with many of the American programmes.

Edited By Brian O'Connor on 23/10/2012 09:23:08

Whoops! sorry about that. Of course Andrew is correct, the flats are on the collet holder itself. Should have looked instead of relying on memory.

Brian

Hi Chris,

Your salesman was probably thinking of using the quill movement for the Z axis readout, which can be more cheaply achieved using a small digital readout, easily fitted. I would second Roger's suggestion and go for the 3-axis readout so that you can eventually display the knee movement. As I posted above, I prefer to use the knee for accurate Z axis movement as it is more rigid that the quill.

Brian

Edited By Brian O'Connor on 19/10/2012 08:43:43

Hi Brian,

You can use a 28mm spanner on the spindle flats to tighten the collet holder. I managed to find an old imperial spanner that was almost the right size and ground the jaws to fit.

Hi Chris,

Earlier this year I bought a Warco VMC with and R8 spindle and have been very satisfied with my choice. As others have said, don't even consider the MT spindle, the R8 is far superior.

I decided to have power feed on the knee as well as the X axis, for two reasons: firstly it saves a lot of handle winding when changing table height, and for accurate Z-axis work I prefer to lock the quill and use the knee, which is much more rigid.

As Chris Stephens has said, also go for the 3-axis DRO, for me using one for the first time was a revelation.

Hi Chris,

They are BS numbers, which replaced the old wartime EN numbers back in the 70s. The first one, 230M07, is a free-cutting carbon steel (the 2) having 0.3% sulphur (30) and 0.07% carbon (07). The M denotes that is complies with required mechanical properties. It is the same as the old EN1A, the steel so beloved by model engineers.

The 080A15 is a 'straight' carbon steel (0) having 0.8% manganese (80) and 0.15% carbon (15). The A denotes that it complies with required chemical properties.

Every country seems to have its own set of standards but there are cross-reference lists on the web, often on steel manufacturers' sites. I have such a list but can't remember where it came from. If you are interested I'm sure that Googling 'steel grades' or something similar will bring up something.

Regards, Brian