Member postings for Bazyle

Correct! it was a trick question hence the devil smiley as I'm sure you realised. I like the semaphore sentiment.

When fitting a cylinder cover on a model engne should the screw slots be aligned radially or circumferentially?

Posidrive/Phillips doubt if even 10% of the population know. There are some other variants too - we had a problem with some aircraft quality ones at £6 each

Adjusting head length is normal on clock screws - see many an article in ME.

Didn't Whitworth specify the handles on spanners (short) when he defined his thread system to make them monkey proof?

Steel rusts like crazy, aluminium corrodes around the steel screws, brass is ok but wears though still plenty of Mamods around, bronze is perfect but expensive so that leaves cast iron which used to be dead cheap when every town had a foundry. Strangely cast iron does not rust anything like as quick as mild steel.

If you make your own patterns there is still some chance of getting them cast.

Quick clamps are often used for holding items for engraving.

By the end of this century any survivors will only be allowed 12v DC and need a certificate to make water luke warm, boiling not allowed since 2050, while crawling around on all fours lest they trip on an uneven floorboard.

Yes, John is right it is based on the Hobbymat MD65 chassis. I think I have read that the original company went on to specialise in CNC but probably not common in UK as it was an eastern European company.

An exposed motor is amzingly common. On my hobbymat I just put a cardboard half tube over the end with the away side open. No problem then but 400W will get too hot is unventillated.

You haven't said if it is still working and what the voltage is. Is there a separate power supply? If it is all working but the control voltage is not isolated it might be easier to just connect an RC servo motor up to the control knob. You can't change the speed in miliseconds anyway so this would be plenty fast enough.

Probably quite capable of giving you years of service. Nothing wrong with pastic jaws I have wooden blocks attached to mine to avoid the nasty rough metal jaws marking the work. There are some idiots who are unable to distinguish the difference between a vice - for holding things to saw and file - and a 3 ton press.

John,

You need to get along to your local Model Engineering Society for a face to face chat with someone who can advise you. You won't have to join to get advice as model engineers are an irrepressively friendly bunch. It is likely that the seller if local is a member of one of the local clubs. Manchester being a big place has more than one in the vicinity. You will need to join one anyway to get a serious running track and a boiler certificate. If it doesn't have a current cert walk away.

2-8-0 on 16ft curves - only if you know how to make some new wheels next week. Even if the mid 4 have no flanges the rest will be damaged fairly quickly. Tempting though it is it would be far far more sensible to start off with an 0-6-0 for <3k to learn on.

If you can find a model engineering exhibition to go to locally, say THIS WEEKEND hint hint, it would probably give you a chance to meet some club members and get more advice.

While you are about it add in a big holey disc for indexing.

Not sure of the space on a Myford but I made mine using a boss clamped on the outside of the mandrel leaving the bore clear and the handle just engages the boss with pins like a dog clutch. Instant attachment.

If you look at the place doing the myford spare parts they have exploded parts diagrams for several of the lathes which should allow you to see how it works.

At that size for DC motors look around the robots and robot wars type stuff. Also wheelchairs. There is a place something like 4QD that does DC drive speed controls as used on electric locos. And the electric loco motors from Compass or Maxitrack might fit your bill.

I saw some horrible plastic linkbelt at a recent show which seemed rather rigid and hard. I was tempted for a few seconds as the proper stuff is horribly expensive but have since seen a post saying it slips. Newcomers to the hobby might not be aware of the proper fibrous stuff.

Wait five more minutes and Queeny ' queen of the spam' Lin will start a factory making the stuff.

The bearing metal material has very specific amounts of antimony and copper in with the lead and tin to give it the wear resistant properties. Related to printers' type metal. It is quite amazing that they managed to find the formula with the technology of 400 years ago. Ordinary white metal starts with around equal parts lead and tin so is a form of solder but probably with more unknown 'crud' but it has a low melting point like solder and is therefore easy to cast. Very high levels of tin make it Pewter as in tankards.

It may be that there is a lot of bearing grade around so it gets used for general casting but if you just get the solder version it will be a really crap bearing.

In model engineering bronze is more likely to be used for a bearing but white metal is commonly used for casting axle box/spring assemblies for G1 down to smaller gauges. I'd say G1 is counted as a model engineering rather than a model railway size.

When looking for white metal don' t be fooled by aluminium now used for eg car door handles and carburettas or cast zinc that used to be used for these things and Dinky toys. Zinc will bubble in vinegar, aluminium in caustic soda, pewter won't react with either but white metal might depending on its impurities but not as readily.

It is almost certain MI would use a mainstream quality engraver like Taylor Hobson. I only have one T-H cutter and it measures very close to what you quote and the notch above the flat is used on their cutters but I don't know if that is exclusive to them.

Reminds me I must check on my engraver friend from the nearby Marconi Defence. Just hope it's not the same guy.

Pehaps it would help if people would use sensible titles for their topics that describe the content. On lots of forums it bugs me no end that people use topics like "Help", "Urgent. Noobie needs help" etc. On moderated forums and groups the admin will sit on one of these for a couple of days and still let it through. Daft. At least on here David will help by improving a title when asked so the search engine will find it one day.

Even the more experienced will still ask for information having not bothered to use google at all or expect people to use telepathy to identify their lathe and what the problem really is from their garbled description.

Exactly. About a third of our club are not active modellers - they just appreciate the like minded company. Most forums have a section for off subject chit chat. The only place I think it is inappropriate is in yahoo groups because of their single section structure.

The inertia during start up is a problem and what burnt out your strimmer.

Is it the machine or its product that is the project? You could improvise something in an hour if it was to be disposed of afterwards. Also what is your budget?

One problem is to attach a ply plate to an axle. If you look in the back of a scrap washing machine you will find many of them have a short axle welded into a 3 branch 'birds foot' to attach to the drum. Another possibility is the base of an office swivle chair. Then just hammer a tube into the ground, insert axle and spin by hand.

If you want to go up market, ie pay money, look for a wood lathe like a Record Coronet on ebay which have a detachable head on a tube base. They have several speeds and tough bearings and a 'faceplate' for the plywood. You know where I'm going next....hammer a bigger tube into the ground....

Edited By Bazyle on 25/02/2012 09:34:45

Hey Brian,

According to the other thread you've started so what is it to be?

Helpfull hints for beginners or how to suck eggs for most of you experienced machinists.

The process is mostly only called levelling because a level is used in the process and it is very occasionally helpfull if it is level though that is mostly on milling machines. It is really "untwisting" the bed. A tilt is ok but it needs to be a consistent tilt. Therefore the level does not need to be calibrated, just repeatable which you can check by lifting and replacing it in the same place a dozen times and observing the variation in result. Then set the bed with the same tilt at each end and if that is also dead level then fine but don't sweat over it. If your lathe bed has Vs or other non flat shapes place parallels or eg tool bits on a flat bit to produce a higher reference points.

Rather than taking cuts use a new bar that you have checked for straightness by rolling on a surface plate or milling table, and checked for roundness at the measuring points only with a micrometer.

Mount it in the 3 jaw fairly straight . Mount a dial indicator for horizontal reading at center height.on the saddle or if on cross/top slide pull up all slack and lock them. Rotate the chuck to find the peak reading and mark position with felt pen. Record reading, rotate 180 and read again. It doesn't matter that the chuck/bar is not true - the difference in the readings tells you where the center is. You can cross check by testing at 90 & 270.

Return to mark, run saddle along to far end of bar, take reading, rotate 180, and again the difference tells you where the center is. I don't think it actually matters if the bar is a bannana or your second set of readings is taken at a different rotation of the chuck. The key is you have found the center each time without taking cuts.

You obviously assume the saddle travells down the bed with a consistent relationship to the center line (though not true if it is worn, or long and stressed into a camel). The two centers measured above are the true line of the mandrel in its hopefully true tight bearings so should be the same unless the head is scewed. Costs nothing to adjust and repeat.

When you have got the horizontal sorted repeat on the vertical line using the indicator above the bar.

The tailstock alignment also does not need a cutting operation. Set up a bar between centers and measure where the centerline is in the same way provided your drilled centers are true. If not you can turn just the ends but bot the body which will relieve stresses and create a banana.

A better way is to take the trouble to drill the centers on a better lathe or set up on the steady so you have an unmachined bar with true centers that can be used for setting the topslide inline.