Member postings for David Taylor

My dad was a draftsman who decided to retire rather than learn CAD; he may have lost a few years earnings from that. I liked tech drawing at school but never had to use it afterwards.

I had to learn 2D CAD when people started asking me to draw parts they wanted laser cut. I'm a 'computer person' so surely it would be easy for me :-\ I don't enjoy 2D CAD.

With enforced workshop downtime I have decided to use it to learn Fusion360. As Neil said 3D modelling is really about extruding 2D profiles to get some initial shapes and then adding/subtracting other solids to get what you want. Completely different to 2D drawing. I'm getting used to it having spent at least an hour most days since Easter mucking around with it. I haven't learned how to turn my models into workshop drawings yet but I know the product can do it and that will be useful.

The product is so complex I have very little chance of working it out on my own but searching for YouTube videos will usually find an explanation.

To give my learning some focus I am trying to design a 1/32 scale model of an 0-6-0 tank engine, and the next few parts I need to make for my 5" gauge project. The 3D model gives a lot of immediate and obvious highlighting of problems such as interference, and the 'parametric' part means you can often change one of the 2D profiles you've used to define a part and switch back the model and see the impact immediately. I cannot imagine a drawing board or 2D CAD program giving the same amount of help - you'd need years of experience visualising things in your head to get anywhere near it.

My dad was a diesel mechanic, then a fitter and turner before he decided he wanted to work in a clean office and got an engineering certificate and started drafting. He told me the guys who didn't have the background of actually building things were often sending drawings to the workshop for parts that either couldn't be built or didn't fit where they needed to go.

Congratulations! A new toy to play with

That is very interesting. My naive thought was that launch links with direct drive would have given the largest range of adjustment and best running.

Now I don't feel so bad my loco has loco links with direct drive

I opened the gate so someone else could do something. The first piece of real work was done on my workshop today, cutting one end off the existing slab to move it away from the fence line a bit and hopefully this afternoon will see the other side of the slab excavated to extend it in that direction.

I also started reading Tormach manuals in anticipation of getting an 1100, 4ths axis, and Rapid Turn in about 3 months. Can't wait! That's the justification for the new workshop - I'm not paying that much for a machine and sticking it in a steel shed. Pretty shocked at the price actually, for what is really a hobby machine. Also a bit scared by the comments on CNC Zone about the lack of quality of some units - oil holes not drilled through etc. I hope I don't get a dog. I'm an old assembly language programmer so the primitiveness of G code shouldn't be too much of a shock.

I use phosphoric acid. It works well and I can buy it from a hardware store in Australia. Not sure what it's intended use is but I think it is used for rust prevention too.

The new starting capacitor for my lathe motor finally arrived. I put it on and it seems to have fixed it so I'm glad!

Got a running capacitor for the milling machine too but I thought I'd quit while I was ahead.

The steel garage is scheduled to disappear over the next two days. A new electricity meter is meant to go in on Friday so the solar panels can be hooked up. New workshop building to be started next week. That's the most excitement there has been around here since we moved in.

The IT business is big on getting rid of over 40s these days. Most of my North American teammates have been pushed and I expect it will happen to me soon enough. I guess I was still cheaper than them, being Australian. But I'm still a bit more expensive than a recent uni graduate so my time will come, especially since I don't have a local team. The Australian company is basically sales and marketing - so inspiring!

The problem is I never wanted to leave programming. I tried 'management' for a while because that's what we're meant to do as we get older but spreadsheets and meetings and contracts aren't my thing. It was horrible.

The scarves are lifting slings, 1000kg capacity. Good ideas re stopping the lathe tipping over in the slings. One reason I posted the photos was to get advice on what I should have done.

I thought I had followed the advice from the lathe manual. But it was two days since I'd looked at it. Here is what I was supposed to do. This may help address the rollover problem.

As for the garage, I am not a handyman. I tried to frame it so it could be lined but only got 3/4 of the way around before I got sick of it. That was about 7 years ago! And the roof leaks badly in a few places. I just want a nice cool/warm place to work, that doesn't look like a steel shed. And I want someone else to build it. I think the new building will look much better both inside and outside. My mother left us enough money when she went to build one so with the wife's agreement that's what is happening. It will be a brick building with many more windows, only one set of garage doors rather than two, to keep more weather out The workshop will also serve as my 'office' as I work from home and am working at the kitchen table after giving up the previous office to oldest son for his bedroom!

I moved the lathe off its stand onto my bench, to join the milling machine. The garage is disappearing at the end of this week and a new workshop is to be built around the existing concrete slab. The lathe and milling machine are to cumbersome to move into storage, and both have problems that I'm planning to work on while I can't use them.

The lathe motor needs a new capacitor. The milling machine needs a new motor capacitor, a few new gears, new bearings, and new gear change handles (which I need to lathe to make!)

The gears are coming from China, on a slow boat, for AU $122 freight! The company I bought the machine off don't carry them as spares so had to order them from the factory. Feeling a bit ripped off. Fixing this one is about 1/2 the cost of a new one. At least it will have good bearings and I can ensure the gearbox is put together properly this time.

David.

I was catching up on my YouTube subscriptions and AvE just happened to have an (old) issue of Model Engineer on his bench while cleaning up.

There probably a few hundred thousand young people who've never heard of the magazine getting their first glimpse of it

Is the bore just too far away from the port face, but otherwise okay?

If so then I'd mill the port face to get it flat, then set up in the 4 jaw as you have and do as Neil says - use the outside of the cylinder flange as your "reference" checking it is running as true as you're happy to get it and rebore just enough so you stop when the tool just cuts the old bore furthest away from the port face. That way you'll bring the bore closer to the port face but not any closer to the opposite side of the casting.

You could try peening the stay over. Or try some high temperature soft solder with some silver and no lead in it.

Neil, you probably need to be blasting pictures onto Instagram too. Twitter might be passe for the young crowd these days. Better hire a social media manager who's on top of all these platforms and can do the twitting for you.

At least he had the good sense to have the workshop in the house BEFORE getting married. A lot easier than trying to get that arrangement afterwards

I think I saw one in Netflix's The Crown. Princess Margaret's caddish boyfriend lives in an improbable studio/workshop and I think a lathe was lurking in the background of the workshop upstairs.

Wow, who cares if you don't like twitter? I don't either but I'm not about to shoot at Neil when he sticks his head over that parapet to try and stay in contact with the yoof. Who probably think this forum is laughably antiquated.

Lesson learned Neil. If you're going to post something like this again make sure you can lock the topic immediately so you don't get a barrage of harrumphs.

If you want to reach people you have to go where they are.

Neil's point would explain my experience with the only brazed carbide tip tool I ever bought.

I used the grinding jig that comes with the tangential toolholder so I assume the angles are ok.

I just seem to get better results with a normal HSS tool ground to 'about right' shape. I can also easily use a no top rake tool for cast iron and non-ferrous metal.

Re putting the upside down parting tool holder behind the work, yes that will work too but if you've made a rear tool post I assumed you wouldn't need the tool holder.

Another thing I'd recommend is a quick change tool holder. I ignored them years figuring they couldn't be that useful but bought myself one as a birthday present a few years ago and it's great. So easy to adjust the tool height to get it on center so easy to swap between tools. I never even bought more holders because I'm cheap but I'd like more than the 3 or 4 I have.

Boring bars for replacable carbide tips are another thing I've come to love. I got sick of grinding HSS boring tools (which I find much more difficult than a normal outside tool) and the little bars are great.

David S has it right. We're getting solar panels so have to get a single phase or 3-phase meter put on - we have an obsolete 2-phase one at present that must be replaced. So I decided to get 3-phase and will send it up to the new workshop if it ever gets built... a process that is taking forever to get started.

The leads on the lathe caps are soldered on so I'm assuming the connection is okay. The milling machine has eyes on the end of the leads so I can't see how they were ever good connections because they were not screwed into the caps, more like staked on. One of the eyes was burned right through.

The replacement caps will have spades so I need to put the appropriate female connectors on the wires.

I'm worried I've just made the lathe motor problem worse during the pointless disassembly by crimping or squeezing a wire somewhere. The new cap is $60 AUD... perhaps I should get a cheap one, see if the sparking goes away, and replace it with a good one if the sparking is fixed.

Got 3 phase supply hooked up to the house in anticipation of getting it into the new workshop if it ever gets built.

Took the capacitors off the lathe and milling machine motors so I can order some new ones.