Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

I have a Rabone Chesterman engineer's level with a broken vial.

Thanks to this thread, I am now aware of a potential source for a new vial.

However, I can't see how to get the old broken vial out! The inner metal tube (that houses the vial) has end caps (or plugs) with flat extensions that are secured to the cast iron base by a screw one end and a stud and a pair of nuts at the other end.

My first thought was that the end caps (or plugs) are screwed into the metal tube but trying to unscrew them gave only an ominous creaking from the glass vial.

I'd prefer to get the old glass vial out in sufficiently large pieces to enable me to correctly specify the replacement!

If anyone here has trod this path before me, please, please, lighten my darkness?!?!

Just to clarify - I do mean Rabone Chesterman, not the one pictured up-thread one page.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 07/02/2015 19:41:00

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 07/02/2015 19:47:00

Hi there, Luigi,

Was it a proper WorkMate (by Black & Decker) or one of the look-alikes?

If the former, was it the type with aluminium alloy frame members or one of the later 'value-engineered' models with the folded steel square tube frame?

Was it the frame that broke or the wooden top?

I have two of the original aluminium frame types and find them very satisfactory. However, the pivots and slliding joints DO need regular lubrication. If neglected, the pivots can seize which can cause the frame to break elsewhere when excessive force is applied in an effort to unfold or fold the WorkMate. That hasn't happened to mine (so far) but it does happen to others often enough for me to have 'harvested' a good assortment of spare parts from our local tip (Oops, sorry, 'Household Waste Re-Cycling Centre'!!!).

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there,

For some reason (which I can't justify after all these years) I included a forward-off-reverse facility in the control box for my Tauco bench drill. This was achieved using a four-pole toggle switch with a centre off position. These toggle switches were common on the government surplus market back in the 70s and can be recognised by the luminous tip to the operating dolly.

(The control box also includes a MEMDOL single phase direct on-line starter.)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Michael and Captainahab,

Thank you for your most gracious and informative replies to my post.

I had one of those 'seconds after hitting the post button' fears - what if they think I'm taking the mickey when, in fact, my reference to 'lido cafe' windows' was just a bit of whimsy!!!

I now understand how that pattern of tool-post works, it looks effective but it must be costly to manufacture?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi,

Please forgive me for posting off-topic.

I have seen lots of pictures of this type of tool-post but they always have the tool-holder mounted. I've never had the opportunity to examine one, 'in the flesh', so I still don't understand how the tool-holder is attached to the tool-post.

Please could someone lighten my darkness?

The vertical corrugations on the front of the tool-post are reminiscent of a 1930s sea-side lido cafe's windows - are they decorative or functional?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Steve and John,

The Copper Development Association (used to ?? ) publish a very comprehensive book describing aluminium bronze(s) properies, casting and machining.

Last time I mentioned it on a forum, another poster told us that that book, with many other CDA publications, is now available on-line.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Neil,

If the operator at your 'dip & strip' joint is over-zealous, the process will not only remove the paint, it'll also loosen the glue in the mortice & tenon joints and/or any dowels as well as removing any filler!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 11/01/2015 20:38:18

Hi there,

This page & the following give a good ready reference to the different sizes of quick change tool-post.

http://dirxion.mscdirect.com/ukbigbook/2014/WebProject.asp?CodeId=7.7.1.4&pagelabel=659#

Print it out and pin it to your workshop wall.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

Some time ago I bought a level (clinometer ?) like the one Clive shows in his post. Unfortunately, the bubble is longer than the scaled part of the tube - I suspect it has invited a few relatives in for Christmas!

I'd replace the tube if I could obtain a suitable one - what is members' experience regarding availability of spare tubes? I dimly remember a link to Cromwell's web-site but can't retrieve it now.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Pip,

Another book you may find useful is called 'Lathe & Shaping Machine Tools', by (I think) 'Duplex' and originally a Percival Marshall publication. I believe it is now part of the 'Workshop Practice' series.

An associated topic to which you should give some thought is the tool-holder or tool-post. It's very important that your lathe tool is mounted at centre height and quite important that you can change tools without spending excessive time setting the new tool to centre height. Maybe a Quick Change Tool Post (aka 'QCTP' ) or maybe a single or four-way tool post and a library of packing pieces (an old-timer from my early days used to refer to shims as 'The Devil's visiting cards'!!). You'll need to get this aspect organised.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Graham,

I hope that your problems and those of your close ones are now past.

If not, I hope your & their circumstances improve in 2015.

If all is now well, please could we have a progress report on the free plastic goodie bundles? (I haven't seen anything of My Hermes here.)

Are you now able to access your PMs?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Michael,

A fellow microscopist I often encounter at club events simply carries a plastic Vernier caliper in his top pocket!

With every respect to earlier posters, I think they haven't appreciated that you definitely need the device (whatever you eventually adopt) to be capable of one-hand use.

Separate balls and/or rods wouldn't hack it in the fevered flea-market environment, where you actually need third and fourth hands (and elbows) to fend off rivals while you make your assessment!

Incidentally, I understand that with Ernst Leitz (of Wetzlar) microscopes, the dovetail calibre denotes the tube-length. However, I can't from memory quote which diameter goes with which tube-length.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Diane, Neil and colleagues,

Thank you for your Christmas and New Year greetings - I wish you the same.

As for lots of workshop goodies, if it's all the same to you I'd actually like less 'stuff' in my workshop in 2015 so that I actually have enough clear bench space to work properly! In that sense, less will be more! I hope I'm not 'looking a gift horse in the mouth'!!!!

A Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy & prosperous 2015 to all.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Chris and Dave,

Chris: is yours the one that mounts on the lathe bed or the one that bolts to the cross-slide?

Does that impressive-looking lever actually turn the turret or simply release the detent?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, again, Russ and all,

Dang oi!!!!!!!!! I know always to insert a space between a quote and a closing bracket so as to avoid that unwanted smiley but today I forgot!!!!!

And my apologies for the typo earlier!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Russ,

One thing to check is that the bed of your Super 7 has the two 1/4" BSF (or M6 on later models) tapped holes in the front of the bed, between the two head-stock 'push-screw' holes. The gearbox mounts to those and one of the holes for the left-hand lead-screw bearing.

Some Super 7s require a spacer between the gearbox and the lathe bed, though I believe this might not be necessary with later Super 7s.

Does your lead-screw have a coupling to a thinner left-hand end or is it all-in-one?

I suggest that you visit the Mytholmroyd Myford web-site and browse for Gearbox, then scroll right toi the bottom of the page and click on 'larger diagram' (or words to that effect). You should find a down-loadable copy of the illustrated parts list (aka 'exploded diagram'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, George,

I'd screw-cut it as a roughing process to get rid of most of the un-required material, and then finish with a die.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Sorry, that was intended to be a clickable link!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Bob,

You've cropped your third photo. What's on the lower end of the leader line whose upper end is at the bottom left-hand corner of the front of the gearbox?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I think this illustrates the point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJynp3M74aY

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!