Member postings for Chris machin

Hi , Hope everyones well ?

Having completed my first project succesfully (elmers Tiny in Brass) I'm looking at making elmers #24 beam engine. As i'm wanting my engines to look attractive and the beam engine has some parts in steel , i'm looking at blueing or blacking some of the compnents.

Can someone tell me how to blue or black steel , i assume its a chemical process ? The parts will be small common mild steel parts that are either milled or turned.

Any help appreciated

Chris.

Hi , I've got a few bits of aluminium which i was thinking of substituting for certain components made of brass such as flywheels e.t.c. to save buying the brass. After having a go turning it i'm after some tips.

What speeds . what tools are best i.e hss,tipped tools. Do i have to use a coolant (whats best) ?

When i tried cutting it seemed to stick to the tool....

Any help appreciated

Chris.

Hi , Yeh was a little worried about the wear as the column is brass as well as the cylinder. Also unless you dissasemble it every time you run it you can't really oil the piston can you. To be honest i've not even drilled the oiling hole in the column/crankshaft bush as i was so eager to run it ! However its run for about 1/2 hour after just a spot of oil and doesn't get warm at all so can't be too much wear going on...........can there ?

Will post a picture very soon. Just gonna give it a bit of polish and perhaps a small base of wood

Added the flywheel , a little grease on the crankshaft bearing , a bit more air and it runs sweetly - My first project so quite chuffed !

Just a thought , when i tried it it didn't have the flywheel on the shaft , wondering if it needs this on for the momentum to carry the piston back up ?

Chris

Hi All , just completed my Elmers Tiny , tried it and it won't work ! It is nice and free when wound round by hand but when i apply air (tried from 14 - 35 p.s.i.) the piston goes down but wont go back up. I thought it must be the air holes so i enlarged the cylinder hole to about 1.5mm and also the exhaust port to 1.5mm but it still wont work

Is there anything i can do or is it beyond help !

Chris.

Thanks to all that have offered advice - much appreciated. Interesting comment about the tilting column , one thing i didn't want to have to do was keep tramming it.Other than the table difference , is the Clarke machine comparable in usability and quality ? - looking at the Arc catologue , it looks like the Long table set up would be about £ 60.00

Is there any advantage to having the tilting column and whats it used for ? Would the conversion to the larger table be straightforward if the Arc parts were purchased ?

Thanks again all

Hi All , I'm looking for advice on a budget small mill. I've looked at Clarke , Arc Euro , Proxxon , and the offerings from Amadeal.

The Proxxon MF70 Seems a little small , I can get a ex-demo Clarke CMD10 for about £260.00 inc vat but the table looks a little small on this model.

It seems to me that the Sieg Super X1L Mill which has 400mm long table looks the best bet , according to the catologue the cost is £ 321.00 inc v.a.t.

Obviously i'm aware that it depends upon the type of work / size you want to make but at the moment i'm interested in Elmers engines and would be interested in trying models such as the 'Popcorn Engine.

I'd appreciate any comments or experiences on any of the above machines or any that i've missed. Any help / advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Chris.

Hi All , Just tried drilling the port holes in my Elmers Tiny column using 1mm drill in a Small Clarke pedestal drill and i've snapped the drill , leaving a part in the hole. How do i drill such a small hole without breaking the drill ? I think the column is now scrap as i can't get the broken piece out ! I only have the pedestal drill and small lathe.Any help appreciated.

Chris.

As a relative beginner i read with interest the series in ME about the American Popcorn engine. Having almost completed my first engine (Elmers tiny) and also Tubal Cains 'Polly engine' i was considerig this for my next project as i find it easier to follow the step by step build rather than just a set of plans at the moment. I will be getting a mill at some point but my question is regarding the lathe work - I have a Chester Conquest lathe and as i wont be changing this for some time was wondering if this has the capacity to produce all the neccesary parts for the popcorn engine ?

Also any advice or recomendations on plans e.t.c. for any other suitable projects in order to advance my skills / knowledge would be of great help.

Kind regards

Chris.

Hi , Just a message to say thanks to everyone who contributed on here and especially to Ketan from Arc Euro Trade who called me personally. I have now solved the problem with all the help.

After trying all the different cutting tools i decided to strip the headstock and found some play in the front ball race bearing , the rear one seemed ok. I purchased a set of new taper bearings from Arc and fitted these.

As has been already mentioned the difference is amazing , the lathe runs far quieter , no vibration and the finish using the tipped tools is now superb on the brass or steel.

Would definitley reccomend the upgrade.

Thanks again everyone

I have been back in the workshop and decided to fit the internal jaws and try again on a smaller diameter piece of brass secured with just about 10mm hanging out the chuck. I set the machine mart tools dead on centre , locked the saddle and took very small cuts of around 0.1mm. This agve slightly better results and at least cuts the brass in both a facing direction and also when cutting towards the chuck. I tried again with the brand new insert tool and this gave the same result , although now cutting better the surface finish is still torn and rough. After fitting the external jaws back again i tried the larger diameter again after clocking the bar. There is now less vibration ,less 'digging in' but still poor finish !

Is it possible to buy a ready ground hss tool specially angled for brass ? At least if i did this and it gave good finish i would then know this is the problem.

Chris.

I will go back to the workshop and try to post up some pics of the set-up , tools i'm using e.t.c.

Thanks

Hi , Thanks for replys .

David , at the moment i have not got a parting tool so can't try that.

I am sure the material is brass , i have also tried another piece of brand new bar stock 10mm diameter and the effect is the same ! The swarf is small chips. I have machined brass on bigger lathes in the past and know what you mean by 'it gets everywhere'

I have tried all speeds on the high setting from around 1400 to 2800 the vibration is the same , i am only using small cuts of less than 0.5mm (even tried 0.1mm) and feeding by hand. With the smaller cut the vibration is less.

I cannot see it is anything other than the cutting tools as there is no play in the lathe that i can see and the spindle runs very sweet when unloaded , just can't see whats wrong with the tooling im using though , as mentioned i've tried silver steel , the machine mart tools and also now a brand new sumitomo indexable tool. I will try and cut a bit of steel later and report back.

Thanks again for taking your time to help.

Chris.

Tried again today but getting nowhere !

I have adjusted all the gib strips on the lathe as there was a tiny bit of play , now it is very smooth with no play at all.

I have tried different tools including some i ground from silver steel with zero top rake and also some other brand new tipped tools i have but the result is the same , lots of noise transmitted through the lathe and some vibration and resistance is felt on the crosslide handle as it fails to cut. The result on the material is just rough and torn.

I have tried a different brass but but its the same ! I tried all the cutting tools exactly on centre and in desperation below and above centre but no good.

I'm holding the work (which is about 1 1/2 " diameter tightly in the external jaws of a three jaw chuck.

Anyone any other ideas before i 'skip' this lathe ......!!!