Member postings for Paul Kennedy

OK Guys, Sorry for the title. Just a little humor. SO I'm looking for a Zyto Owner that has an intact Counter-shaft. If i cant find a second hand counter-shaft I intend on making one ! I would prefer to replicate the original but before I do I would like some feedback ! Is it any good for a start ? I don't wish to copy a poor design. Have you or has yours been modded in any way to improve it for instance ? I have a ML7 and its counter-shaft is sorta integral to the lathe so I'm open to other ideas from other manufacturers as well but think the easiest route is to copy the original. That being said I would need some sizes. A sketch perhaps with some dimensions. If your feeling particularly pedantic a parts drawing with accurate dimensions but even approximations will be useful so i can 'sorta' keep it to similar dimensions as the original. I'm intending on using steel plate and flat bar welded together with some round bar welded in to hold the bushes/bearings and then through hole bore on the ML7 to ensure accurate alignment. The frame will be entirely welded so .. Not the best but I don't have the capability to cast iron. :/ The best picture i have to work from so far is below.

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 13/01/2019 11:35:55

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 13/01/2019 11:38:19

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 13/01/2019 11:43:30

I'll order one beginning of the week to see. Thanks for the link. Sorry if I came across as insolent.

Hi Nic, Thanks for the link but that looks suspiciously like an exact match to the HBM gear I'm returning. The Zyto Gear tooth are much more elongated and pointy in comparison.

Brian my gears are 20 DP or so i have been told but the HBM are, or i thought were, for the Myford and are also 20 DP its the Pressure Angle I think thats the issue. I've raised a return and will post it back tomorrow. I need to find another supplier of the right gear for the Zyto now but its likely i will have to make it myself as I doubt they are manufactured by anyone. I will talk with a few of the engineering suppliers like Myford/RDG, Chronos, Arc etc next week to see if anyone can supply them. I had hoped the ML4 gears would be suitable but it seems not. Almost but not quite.Also I know im being fussy bit id like a gear, if possiable, without the recess in the face just so it matches my existing gears.

Right now though I cant really attempt to make them myself. Ive no dividing head or plates and lack a lot of the equipment to do so. I have an ML7 in the garage but its not fully kitted out yet and the yto dosn't even have a countershaft or motor so is currently inoperable. Im hoping someone will sort the countershaft issue for me at some point in time, preferabally by the end of the month but Im loosing faith slowly. Ive found a really clear photo of the Zyto countershaft last night so am now considering what it will take to replicate it. IE Fabricate it myself. I have most of the tools i need for fabrication just need to collect the materials.

Im sure you understand the amount of work involved in that though. The frame, Buses, pins,pulleys,collars,cone pulley,grub screws, taps, welding> it would be fun but also given my present circumstances money and time i could use elsewhere. I still need to buy a motor for instance but i might just rig something up with some Plumbers Bearings. Im lacking pulleys as well and how to do keyways etc . Ive a few ideas but again tools!

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 12/01/2019 22:18:32

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 12/01/2019 22:25:09

Thanks for the advice Michael,

The scan is sharper and the tooth profile is far clearer. Hope this helps.

Regards.

Hey guys, Would like to hear your thoughts on this comparrison. We have here the 40 tooth Zyto gear on the left and a 45 tooth replacement for one of the gears I'm missing. The bore seems accurate and the thickness too. Both are a match. The keyway also is fine. However the tooth profile, sorry if that's not the correct term, differ somewhat. The new gear is slightly broader and thicker at the tip and has a slight chamfer. I'm ok with the chamfer as I know its to prevent teeth from chipping however while the new gear does have curvature on the tooth face its very slight and much more flat in comparrison to the Zyto gear. I fear the pressure point will be different and that will lead to premature wear on one or both gears. Advice on my best course of action is appreciated.

Thanks

Paul

Hey guys, I'm contemplating buying a quick change tool post for my Zyto but cant afford a Dixon so am looking for a reasonable fascimile, maybe a Chineese clone, that's both affordable and robust. Accuracy is something i can manage without but off course id like that too but then i expect if have to pay more.

Thanks Brian, Im sorry but i must decline although I may in the future. I'm not currently employed and owe the electricity board £630 on a 'catch up' bill. These wind turbines sure are costing plenty. Some people are becoming multi millionaires on these projects while i cant afford my bills ! 0_0 Whats that beach resort in Tiawan called ? Phuket !

Not Darby Brian. A smaller facility up north named after a famous aircraft but dealing with things under the water rather than above it However I've not worked there in over 20 years. I cant say i enjoyed my time there however It wern't all bad either. I enjoyed the work on the whole and felt i was part of something worth doing. Well to begin with anyway. I enjoyed the training. Although my 2nd year was a disapointment. Left us in a shed for a year ! I dunno, I was young and fairly bright and wanted to do too much maybe and when i got overlooked for a position in the drawing office i just felt let down by them. Now I guess I just want back on the tools making parts. Its what im best at I guess :/ I left shortly after. I had a few problems at the time. GF was a handfull, mother had a cancer scare and I lost the driving license for speeding all about the same time as I left RR&A. It was hard times for a young lad and nobody stepped in to help. Life took a turn after that. Been contracting ever since really. Theres a lot ive not mentioned but.. yea. Life eh ! After 20 Years contracting my back is like a pincussion. I dont know. Some seem to have it so darn easy and have the whole of life sorted and the next guy is used and abused and gets not a lot for his time and efforts. End of the day its not what you know but who you know i guess. Sorry for rant. Im tired.

Thats some nice work you have done there Andrew. What do you do about Heat Treat afterwards ?

Hey Guys,

Im just getting to putting the gears of my Zyto back in place but forgot to take any photos of them assembled. I think i will figure it out but a few photos of the general assembly of the change gears, brackets and gear shafts/bolts and keys etc would be helpful and save some head scratching. Chris or any other Zyto Owners reading this This applies to you

Hey Guys,

My little Zyto is near compleation. Well sorta ! I'm still needing a countershft for it. It was my intention to build one but thought I may as well ask about to see if there is one knocking about going spare. One chap has already mentioned he may have one and while he did say he wouldn't be able to look until after the news years ive had no contact from him :/ Its possible hes i'll from the flu bug that was going about or maybe away on holls or well who knows. I hope hes ok and can get back to me but in the meantime i'm hoping, to find another countershaft in case he cant find his. If the well is dry however then Im just going to have to weld up my own from whatever scrap i can find. The pulleys will be the main problem im guessing. I live in a rural area and scrap parts/machenery is relatively rare so theres little choice and Flea Bay is too full of greedy traders trying to make a living at others expense. Hope someone can help. Will be posting some pictures of the zyto restoration soon. If your interested.

Paul

Hey Guys,

As most of you likely realise im busy restoring an old Zyto Lathe. It has numerous oil holes mostly in cast brackets where shafts run ! Backgear shaft brackets, leadscrew mounting brackets, tailstock spindle etc. None of these are bushed, the shafts simply running in the bore of the casting and none of the holes have any guard in place to prevent grit and chips from entering and causing premature wear. Ive stripped, cleaned and repainted every individual part of the lathe now and am wondering what methods there are to reduce the amount of dirt entering these oil holes. Some of them were totally blocked with crud before dissassembly ! I was thinking spall ball oilers like the myford has but without drilling the current oil holes deeper they would likely not fit and i dont wish to modify the castings if possiable. Im thinking maybe some form of plug perhaps ? Your suggestions are welcome.

Search Legacy Drivers ! There are places that will have the driver you need ! Get em while you can so you never face that issue in the future !

Hey guys, I'm on a bit of a tight budget so was considering buying some cheep chineese knurling wheels and building my own knurling tool. I was just wanting to ask if any of the group have any experiance with them and what that experiance was like ? Did they have good cutting capabilty and was the material of the correct hardness for knurling mild steels ?

Thanks

Hey Guys, Just saw a post about wonderfull machinery made back then and it got me thinking. As a young man when i first started out as a machinist before the selfie culture and the SJW nonsense and diversity etc etc The men in the workshop would never have even considered to take a photo of the machine they worked on. Indeed if you did your fellow work collegues would have ripped you a new one and made jokes at your expense. However that would not have prevented me from taking photos if i had had a camera. More that taking a photo of a machine may have been akin to being a little pridefull a little boastful and a little distastefull. The possabilty of being seen as such bothered me so i did not keep a full record of every machine i worked but as the 90's turned into the 2000's and culture seemed to shift to toward the boastful and the braggarts it became necessary to edit one's CV to detail all the wonderful things you could do and how brilliant a mind you were just to even be considered for a job. Simply putting down that you were a Fitter Turner was no longer enough to get past the HR Team in an office somewhere. So now i regret not taking those photos, not recording the machines i worked and not taking photos of the work I produced. Also i am now of the mind that they interesting and nice to look at. Much like a bikini model Lets call it Cast Iron Porn

SO one of the machines I was most proud to have operated, one that, if had a photo i could point to and say look at this. I used to operate this ! Well that machine is a Droop & Rein Gantry Mill. She was an old girl and a bit of a beast. It was in a factory owned and run by Stork Folker in Schipol and before they demolished the factory they sold her to an eastern block country I believe. So she is long gone now. To where i will never know, much like an ex girlfriend Anyway she had 3 spindles and two large beds although I believe that they were maybe added later. They were hydraulicly operated with pneumatically operated vacume for the tables. The mill herself was old school with curved castings but had been retro fitted with CNC controls at some point. There was a spiral staircase to one side going up to a walkway that lead over the top of the machine to allow access to the spindle motors for the purposes of refilling the spindles with oil. She liked her oil i rememeber as she was past her best in some regards. Anyway Ive searched in the past, Ive tryed contacting D & R in germany and trawled the interwebs but to no avail. Id even search the Yellow Pages like J.R.R. Hartley if i thought it would do any good. I doubt i would have his luck though. So for no other reason than I would like to set eyes on her again if anyone has info on large D&R Gantry Mills then give me a shout. Before you say it Ive already looked at lathes.co.uk and shes not on tonys hall of fame.

Thanks Brian,

Andrew what CAD Software you use ? For quick work i use sketchup. Mostly for figuring out my design and also for exporting to my prusa mendel i3. Offcourse if i need a more professional model or something a little more complex i use inventor but i find my workflow on it isn't as smooth as with sketchup. Possiabally as i dont use it that often. However I do enjoy the power it provides where sketchup often leaves me wanting more. I am somewhat restricted for space and at times cash so no fancy toys for me yet ! I have used a plethora of CNC equipment over the years with Fanuc,Mazak,Siemans and Heidenhim controls althoug rarely did i do any actual programming. I did use some inhouse software for some parametric modeling which exported the geometry to an interpriter which in turn generated the G Code to run on the machine. Mostly the code side of it is mostly fairly rudimentry as long as you understand your product and cutting order, clam p positions, tool lengths, speed, feeds, material etc. None of it is complicated but there is a lot to consider and evaluate. Offcourse one bug or mistake can mean an expensive crash but when ever i got a new program to run we run it at half duty cycle or even lower depending untill the program is proven. Ive run a 5 axis Droop & Rein Gantry Mill with 3 spindles fitted with twin beds each with 3 fixtures for bulkheads for 747's and 737's and they had some fairly interesting g code but at 4 am your not giving a rats. Ive mostly worked on large aircraft. Did some stuff for Airbus A380's as well. The smallest stuff ive done is some parts for err F16 or F22 fighters for the USAF as well on that job. There was the gears for the Lynx offcourse which was kinda smallish but quite expensive as it was calassed as flight critical components. However the only thing you care about is getting to that handle on the clock to point to 6am so you can go home and crash. However i still have a keen interest when im not dog fucking tired. Id love to hear about what you are producing and your workflow / software and tooling. I try to keep up with advancements but its not easy without adequate shop space. Here in the UK we just have no room left. Too many people on too little a piece of land. Ive mostly been involved at the larger end of manufacturing. Aircraft, Ships and parts for ESA among some of the other less glamourous jobs but i enjoy building the complex mechanisms and quality work. The money is in the big stuff though and when im in steel toes 12 - 15 hours a day I prefer the long run times on the bigger jobs as its easier on the machinist as you can get a rest while hogging out a large part. Well sometimes. Some shops expect you too run 2 or maybe even 3 machines simultaneously which goes against everything i was taught by RR&A but commercial environment is a lot different. Depends where you go offcourse. Aye I know everywhere ive been and ive been a few places after 20 years on the tools. Anyway its getting late over here and i still have some tidying up to do. Heads up everyone by the way . Ive just bought another damn lathe A little Portass this time It needs even more work that the Zyto. Well it can wait to next winter but her indoors wont be happy.

Thanks Guys, I think I managed to work it out. I did make a somewhat haphazard approach to my explanation I guess. Pardon my tardiness. I fully understand that the Addendium and Dedendium extend the same distance from the pitch circle diameter which when comprised together form the working depth of the tooth but the actual depth of cut is stated as the whole depth. I couldn't measure this accurately with my equipment. The depth gauge on the digi vernier was too thick to reach the bottom of the tooth cut and the M&W analoge depth gauge, while better, still bottomed out on the radius at the bottom of the tooth cut so my reading wasnt entirely accurate but i was on the money I think. I'm fairly well schooled for a scot you know Not a qualified engineer or anything but some 20 years on precision machine tools in Aerospace and other industries. Used to make parts for Boeing and Airbus as well as Lynx Helicopters. Was involved in making gears for those bad boys ! Mostly sub contract stuff. All the gubbings the local lads didnt want to do :/ Ie Night shift, crappy machines, dirty jobs etc etc. Looking for my next role for the new Year though so :/ sigh. I don't know where i'm going but i sure know where i've been. Here I go again, Here I go again, Though i keep searching for an answer. Hear i go again on my own on the road again, alone again.... Ahh or something like that. Whitesnake 80's rock. I didnt understand that song when i was a teenager. Oh well.

Anyway Next question. How would you measure the pressure angle or if you were making an involute cutter how would you form the teeth to the correct dimensions and form ? Im guessing they will be ground. Cam following grinder perhaps with a template ?

Thanks Again Brian,

FYI Look what I just found !! What does the good book say. Look and ye shall find.

Or does it say Pie = 3.14

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 30/12/2018 15:05:58

Edited By Paul Kennedy on 30/12/2018 15:06:11

Thanks Brian,

Out of interest Where did you find the formulae ? Also why does it work ! ? ((N = Number of teeth) + 2) divided by (OD=Outside Diameter) WHY 2 ? Does it work for all teeth counts and all size of teeth ? Why does maths work Ahhh i will be ranting about fibonachi and pine cones next LOL. I would be interested in hearing what source you got the formulae from !

Happy New Year

Paul