Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

I've bought IPA in half-litre cans from CPC.

I believe the video cassette recorder head cleaner fluid that Tandy used to sell in 60 ml plastic bottles was also IPA.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, CuP,

(I ought to be able to remember your name, sorry!)

Your post is very interesting but tantalisingly brief! Please could you elaborate a bit?

Thanks and best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Alex and Peter,

Peter, the rear view of the switch is shown in Alex' second photo. It looks to me like an ex-USA WW2 surplus component - a four pole change-over toggle switch with centre off. I have one on my bench drill control box.

The wiring shown in photo #2 looks to me as though the mains input should connect to the two strapped pairs of the centre contacts, the running winding of the motor to the outer contacts and the motor start winding (& series capacitor) to the inner contacts (strapped as X).

The switch contacts are probably OK for the motor running current (1/3 HP) but I'd advise against using that switch for on-off control, fit a single phase direct on-line starter with built-in no-volt release up-stream of the toggle switch. (See various threads on this forum concerning the Dupar drum reversing switch.)

The motor frame and mounting bracket and the switch enclosure case must be bonded together and earthed via an adequate size cable.

If the toggle switch has a light coloured plasic insert in the outer end of the toggle, take care - they are filled with a radium-based luminous paint. The phosphor (zinc sulphide or similar) 'wears out' but the radium-based exciter ingredient of the paint has a sufficiently long half life to still warrant care, even this long after WW2! It's OK as long as it's contained but DON'T take it to pieces!!! There was extensive discussion of WW2 instrument luminous dials in the Amateur Radio literature a few years ago.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, AJC,

This looks like the start of an interesting thread.

I'd better declare my interest - my ML7 has the early headstock but I have acquired one of the more recent headstock castings (the type with the cast-in lug for the lever-operated collet chuck) plus enough parts to complete it.

The thing that has, so far, deterred me from building up that headstock and fitting it is the fear of difficulties in aligning the mandrel to the bed. Is it sufficient to simply push the headstock casting back against the rear shear with the two push-screws?

I recently fitted a quick-change gearbox and that would have to be removed to gain access to those push-screws.

(I hope this thread won't be distracted by Myford vs Asian lathes controversy. Those arguments have been sufficiently exercised elsewhere!)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I thought the traditional place for the Abacus was in a case on the computer room wall with a sign saying 'In Emergency, Break Glass'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Malcolm,

There's a Yahoo Group for Synchronome & other electric master clocks.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

This key-cutting problem crops up often with the wooden boxes in which microscopes are stored.

So far, I have always bought my key blanks because I can't think of a method of making them that is sufficiently economical in either labour or material!

I'd very much welcome folks' suggestions for making a key blank (in mild steel) with no welder.

There are blank keys listed on eBay but they're usually brass-plated zinc alloy, ugh, nasty!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Paul,

If you're going to sell these jaws on eBay or elsewhere, I suggest that you do the following:

Press the threaded side of one of the jaws onto one of the old-fashioned ink pads or anoint it using a free-flowing felt-tip pen or even using engineers' blue and then press it on to a sheet of plain white paper. Add a few principal dimensions using pencil and ruler and then scan or photograph the result. Include the scan or photo with whatever other description/depiction you list.

This will complement the dimensions of the jaw thickness and groove width & depth and will give any prospective buyers a better idea whether your jaws will match their chuck or not.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Bill,

Welcome to the forum.

The easy way to tell the difference is to look at the vee-belt that connects the counter-shaft to the lathe mandrel - if it's an ML7, the pulleys are triples, if it's a Super Seven they are quadruples.

Regarding dismantling, I'd recommend that you postpone that! Get it going and make some swarf first, you may discover you can leave well alone.

And have a browse on lathes.co.uk.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 01/05/2015 23:10:16

Hi there, Jason,

Yes, sorry, a slight attack of brain-fade on my part there!

I should have written 'option 4, conventional back-plate'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, NaughtyBoy and Jason,

Have you actually set eyes on the 4-jaw chuck yet?

The Burnerd 4-jaw chuck with the Myford ML7 thread is fairly slim (I guess that's its raison d'etre) but because it's threaded to fit the mandrel nose directly it doesn't need or have a register in its rear face.

It might be argued that there is a register, i.e. the one to fit the Myford mandrel nose BUT that's probably smaller than the mandrel nose of the 9" SouthBend. So making the centre hole of a 9" SouthBend fitting back-plate will remove the material that would have made the male register for the chuck! (If that's confusing tell me and I'll try again .)

So I agree, it's option 3.

(But, if the particular chuck concerned does turn out to be the general purpose (i.e. not ML7 specific) version that does have a separable back-plate, then it'll have a register and we're back to option 1.)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 01/05/2015 15:35:20

Hi there, ChrisH,

Back in the 1970s, I enlisted my father's help to make a table top by assembling some teak boards, dowelling and glueing edge to edge. My father was an accomplished worker in wood and used a lot of Cascamite one-shot for his jobs (mostly soft woods but also some oak and mahogany).

Cascamite was, at that time, made by the Borden Chemical Company and, knowing that teak is an oily wood, I wrote to them asking their advice. They replied that the best adhesive for oily woods like teak was resorcinol resin based glues but they didn't make it! However, assembling while the joint faces were freshly planed ought to be OK but, to be sure, wipe them with carbon tetrachloride or washing-up liquid before glueing.

We followed their Plan B and that table top has lasted pretty well, one joint is showing a bit now but that edge has been against a radiator for some seven years. (We should have slotted the screw holes in the cross battens, drawing board style, but didn't!)

Ironically, a few weeks after we'd done the job I happened to be reading a copy of 'The Woodworker' and happened on an advertisement by the Borden Chemical Company announcing that they were now producing a new glue based on resorcinol resin! I never did get to try it!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Rik,

If I remember rightly, 746 watts equal 1 horsepower so your motor is apparently 0.603 HP.

BUT, that's input power and the motor is not 100% efficient. I'd say it's a nominal ½ HP mechanical output power. It might just be ⅓ HP but that would require the efficiency to be so low it'd cook!!!!

The speed is interesting, 930 RPM indicates it's a six-pole machine, fairly rare in low power single phase motors in my (limited) experience.

I shall duck the question of the capacitor and see what others suggest.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

PS: Wow, Ian & Jeff beat me to it, not to mention Andrew!!!!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 29/04/2015 17:02:13

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 29/04/2015 17:03:12

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 29/04/2015 17:03:43

Hi there, Nick,

I would endorse all that Norman has written above and also add this:

Setting up work on a milling machine does not involve fighting gravity whereas when setting up on a lathe milling attachment (i.e. verical slide) gravity does its best to thwart accurate positioning every step of the way!!!!!

Lots of people have done amazing work using the vertical slide (I've even done some myself that I was quite pleased with) but it takes ages and is a pain in the ****!!!

If you can possibly (and safely) squeeze in a milling machine, go for it!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Ian,

I share your amazement and admiration for the manufacturers of small ground thread taps.

BUT, if you think the taps are difficult, how about the dies?!?!?!

I did post a question on here some time ago, probably well off the bottom of the site history by now.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Mike,

With respect, that is very dependent on the date of manufacture.

My good old ML7 (October 1952) has BSF threads above 1/4" and BA below 1/4".

There's a timetable of Beeston Myford 7-series design changes vs serial numbers on the web somewhere.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Nick,

Read your personal messages.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Back in the early 1970s, I bought a semi-derelict Tauco bench drill - it had no table or knee bracket. A friend who also had a Tauco drill lent me the table and knee bracket from his machine (he and his father were still building their workshop).

After some initial negotiation, I took their table & bracket to Phil Gibbons at (if I remember correctly) the Fenny Baston foundry. Phil was, at that time, a regular ME advertiser. He applied pattern-maker's wax to the machined surfaces to replace the machining allowances and cast me replicas using my borrowed castings as patterns. (I wasn't worried about suffering a bit of shrinkage.) He said that the core in the knee bracket had caused him the most trouble - he had no core box and using the bracket as a pattern left him with no core prints. He eventually hand carved cores from a lump of baked oil-sand.

He cast me two tables and two knee brackets (it's always handy to have a spare!!!) for a total charge of £25.00. There was no shipping cost - I was within driving distance of the foundry.

On my first visit, he showed me round the foundry. There was a cupola at one end of the shop and he claimed that he used no scrap.  His 'bread & butter line' was the big cast iron rotors for the centrifugal pumps that drain(ed) the Fens. There were several flasks open with a rotor impression in the centre of the box but he'd also moulded sets of model loco wheels in the corners of the box!

I machined one of each casting at work in the lunch hour and at the West Ham Tech Model Engineering evening course. The borrowed castings were returned to their owner slightly waxy but otherwise unharmed.

Oh, if anyone needs a Tauco table (un-machined) just PM me.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 17/04/2015 13:20:47

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 17/04/2015 13:22:35

Hi there, Ian S C,

Regarding your infection of "Security Defender", if you are able, go to this site: **LINK** . There's a complete description and an uninstaller.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Jesse,

If your boat is short of headroom maybe you should make and fit a scale model of the Norman T300 horizontal twin?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!