Member postings for MadMike

Guy Martin is in his twenties and of course has been brought up with metric dimensions in the lorries he works on and on his Japanese race bikes. To see him going through the mental gymnastics of using imperial micrometers was a joy to behold. Lesser so called "expert presenters" would simply have imported a set of metric measuring equipment. I loved it when he measured to wheel spindle, visibly worked his way through the mic readings and pronounced the size as "four inches and four hundred and seven thous". What a gem.

He was also extremely praiseworthy of the efforts and skills of the 17 year old apprentice when casting, and fitting the white metal bearing. Similarly he heaped praise on the 20 uyear old who as I recall bored out the bearing. Other presenters would have tried to suggest that they had carried out the work.

Really looking forward to the next episode as well as seeing him in action in next seasons racing.

Guy Martin? What an inspiration. Enthusiasm for everything mechanical and related to hard work, endeavour and achievement and better still everything to do with British engineers. In his case he is obviously proud of the common workers as well as the famous names such as Brunel etc. He is a man who works long hours maintaining and repairing lorries, making documentaries as shown tonight and even finding time to race VERY FAST motorcycles.

What we need in this fine country of ours is more of his kind. Roll on the second episode. Hail to the new Fred Dibnah.

Neil, I know exactly what you mean. Some of my bikes are up for up and down for down, some are up for down and down for up. Added to that I have both left foot and right foot gear changes, plus 4, 5 and 6 speed gear boxes!!!!!!!!!!!! Then some have indicators and some do not.

These are just my current bikes. I recently sold 2 Harley Davidsons and they had rocking heel and toe gear pedals.

Life is full of little irritations I find.

However i generally manage to forget these minor irritations by manufacturing parts for my bikes using my "machines" in the garage. Cutting metal is just so therapeutic.

Blimey, I had never noticed any convention as described above, and Robin you find the change, if there is one, irritating. Please do not be offended but you need to spend more time at your lathe, not being irritated by drawing orientation in a magazine. Did you know some of my motorbikes have the kick start on the right, some have it on the left, some have kick start and electric, and some do not have one at all. It is not an irritant believe me, it is simply how things are. I shall now remove my tongue from its firmly inserted position in my cheek.

You are mostly correct guys about chuck mounting. Threaded mounting is simply not accurate and definitely does not have repeatability.

A "register" is the best compromise if you read the explanation by Jeff Dayman (very well put Jeff incidentally).

many manufacturers have used parallel registers with again some possible limitations in accuracy end repeatability. Jeffs final solution whilst the most accurate etc has some serious cost and manufacturing implications for OEM suppliers.

IMHO a great compromise is a tapered register, concentricity and repeatability become very good in practise. How to secure the thing? Well many simply fit bolts and tighten onto the register. What an absolute nightmare when changing chuck/faceplate etc etc. Our dear friends at Myford did offer an alternative solution on the 254 range and that of course was a Camlock chuck. These variously known as D1, D2, D3 etc, dependent on size, have a tapered register and the chuck can be simply released or tightened using a "chuck key" type tool which gives accurate and rapid chuck changes in seconds. I have at various times checked mine by turning sample bars, removing the chuck, spinning the spindle and then refitting the chuck, and finally clocking the test piece. Invariable I get repeatable concentricity of 0.0001 to 0.0002 inches.

Despite this manufacturers, evn today, tend to go for the cheapest possible solution leaving we, their customers, to suffer as a result.

Thank Heaven for my Camlock D3 mounting.

Rant over.

Try clicking onto the Myford link on the right hand sioze of this page, that will take you direct to Myford. Why do you think a Colchester Student is too big? You can always do small work on a large lathe but the reverse is not the case. As Ian says above.....where are you located? There may be somebody local who can help.

I had the same problem on my ML7 but on my Myford 254S there is more adjustment so. However as I recall RDG also sell a 12mm tipped tool with reduced shank.

It must be me....but as the reel appears to be relatively small in diameter, why not simply put it in a lathe and turn it?

That's not fair David........I don't like football.

In simple terms imagine that your lathe is no more or less that a vertical mill lying on its side. The same techniques are used, only the macine position has changed. Of course this presupposes that you can set the angle on a milling machine table I guess. HTH.

Ray I have a Myford 254S, one of the last refurb models they sold at the end of 2010 before they sold to RDG. Mine has the Camlock chuck fitting.

If you are clocking a test piece, of known size, held in the 3 jaw chuck the .001 seems OK to me. Did you turn the test piece and then clock it, or is it a test piece of known size etc. You should be able to turn a piece with 1" diameter OD more accurately than the result you have given.

When I set my 254S up I spent a long time levelling it etc (some will argue the need for this but it works for me) and turning the recommended Myford dumb bell test piece. This results in a degree of accurace much better than .001.

Clocking the faces of the chuck will prove nothing as they have been ground and will thus be more accurate.

Incidentally how do you get on with your 254. I have to say that I looked at anumber of machines of far easter origin before I came across the 254. It is certainly much more robust than the current crop of new machines.

Martin I was an apprenticed toolmaker, about a thousand years ago I might add, then spent some time with a special purpose machine manufacturer, George Kingsbury, and then moved to a career of management positions in some major companies. I retired when I was 60 after concluding that work is truly the curse of the drinking classes. I am not into Model Engineering, as a model is for me anyway no sustitute for the real thing. I say this because my main passion is motorcycling and apart from riding I restore classic motorcycles, and for that reason I have my lathe etc, and soon a new milling machine.

I can fully understand why somebody with an interest in steam trains or similar mechanical "devices" would become interested in model engineering, and that is why I mostly lurk on here. I find the efforts of some in making truly wonderful modela absolutely fascinating.

It will be interesting to read other replies about peoples background and their reasons for becoming "Model Engineers". Hmmmmmmm Model Engineers?? Does that mean that everybody on here is only about 1/12 scale??? LOL.

Hi Boiler Bri, I have been looking at the RDG boring heads with both 2 and 3 MT. They are threaded for a drawbar, and their on line catalogue tells you the thread so that you can select the correct one. I haven't checked Chronos or anybody else but like an ER collet chuck you will neeed to secure the boring bar if it running vertically to avoid the risk of it falling out. The reasons given by some others on here are spot on.

Ian you have done a great looking job of cleaning the chuck.

However you say you have used "Brick Cleaner". What have you used precisel? As I recall the majority of proprietary brick cleaners contain 10% to 30% Hydrochloric Acid! This is not only dangerous stuff but is highly corrosive. How have you neutralised the acid after cleaning? You need to check that you do not develop a case of "high speed rusting". HTH.

Wolfie, what width is the bar? What form is the bend to take, what angle, what inner radius etc? What is distance between the bends? What is the finished item to be used for?

Remember that you will be stretching the outer skin of the bend and compressing the inner. If the internal rad is too small, and the angle is acute then you may simply cause the aluminium to fail.

A bit more info will help in giving advice on how to do the bending. HTH.

Gordon, you say you have a mini-lathe already and yet you have highlighted 4 more mini lathes. Coal Burners advice is spot on. Before ever attempting to identify the machine choice, you absolutely must decide what you want to do with your machine. A good large machine is more than capable of producing small work, BUT a mini lathe is strictly limited in the size of work you will be able to produce.

Before making any decisions you should visit www.lathes.co.uk and read up on most machines available past and present. Look at the machines they have for sale as well. Whatever machine you initially pick I can assure you that in a very short space of time you will wish you had bought a larger one.

HTH rather than confuses.

Ady the test piece refered to has nothing to do with good custom and prctice when using the lathe. It is Myfords test procedure to test the level condition of the lathe. In normal use I am sure that none of us would consider machining a 4" or 6" long dumb bell shaped part without a centre and/or a steady. However if the machine is not set up correctly then a taper may still result.

Your observation about using a clock to check the movement in the test piece is correct but in this instance is not really relevant. It may be useful to use a clock to establish the amount of movement in the slides, and also to run it with the cutting tool to see if it is in fact the tool being "repositioned" during its travel along the work piece.

Nothing, unfortunately, is simple when setting up an old lathe, there are just so many variables to come along and bite you in the bum (can I say that on here?) at the same time.

David levelling a lathe is one of lifes great challenges as you have found out. A couple of thoughts on the subject: -

(1) Have you had the level calibrated? This is important.........don't ask how I know but it was a long time ago.

(2) What is the base mounted on? A wooden floor is fraught with problems.

(3) Did you turn a "dumb bell" shaped test piece, and then apply a .002 - ,oo4 uninterrupted cut along its entire legth including the relived central section?

(4) Your realisation and others notes about not levelling the stand but levelling the machine itself are also key to success.

(5) As somebody else has observed.......what condition is the lathe in? Is there, for instance movement in the slides that will allow the tool to move out during the cutting process?

(6) How accurate are you expecting it to cut along a 6 inch length, bearing in mind its age and condition?

(7) On a positive note your cutting a test piece without using the tailstock is absolutely correct at this stage.

Sorry no simple answers even at this late stage of the postings but you will have to work methodically through each element to get it absolutely spot on.

Be careful if you are melting aluminium, as the alloys are different for the many uses to which it is put. Best to melt extrusion or plate if you can.

As for car wheels there are few magnesium wheels in general circulation. The majority, possibly 99%, will be aluminium. Mixing the alloys will give you a chunk of aluminium of more than dubious quality. However that may not be an issue to some people.

In particular beware of drinks cans. Carefully check the can walls. these are often plastic these days rather than aluminium. The end caps are still generally aluminium.

HTH rather than confuses.