Member postings for MadMike

Ausee who advertise on the RH side of this page sell Seig machines and are based in Australia. I am sure that Ketan at Arc Euro would recommend them.

Reaming allowance is dependent upon several factors, hole diameter, material and method of reaming (hand, in a drill with hand feed, or auto feed in drill or lathe or similar). As a principle you should try to remove as little material as possible to avoid chatter and reaming an oversize hole.

A rule of thumb for decades has been to remove approximately .005 inch after drilling. Remember to keep the reamer well lubricated with coolant, and to slow the cutting speed tp between 50 and 60% of the drilling speed in Feet per minute. Feed rate should be higher than when drilling by around 1.5x or 2x faster in fact. Of course the condition of the reamer is also a very important factor in all this. HTH.

NDIY, the original post started by referring to components that had not turned out well/accuately. The subsequent discussions followed as the poster remarked upon the tight thread fitting of the chuck. The chuck may not have been removed for months, who knows?

My views about turning a test piece are suggested as the condition of any of the component parts of a chuck are not necessarily the issue. The test piece will tell whether the machine is producing round, concentric, tapered or inaccurate product. The key in all of this is to determine what the machine actually does. I have seen people complain about chucks running out of true, after putting a DTI on the outer of a chuck body. Three jaw chucks are simply a convenient holding device and are not by definition a super accurate piece of tooling. Testing the output from the lathe will help to firstly identify if there is an accuracy issue, and then help to establish the cause and any subsequent corrective action. Everything else is just guesswork.

If any of my "engineers" had put this problem to me without a full test of machine capability I would have sacked them. Diagnosis remotely without detailed analysis is not a good idea. If we purport to be engineers then we should act like one. If the original poster is a newbie then we must help and guide him in the correct process in situations like this.

I haven't been here for a long time and have just come across this debate. As usual lots of theories and lots of great advice. However despite the original statement that some work did not turn out well, we have not, as far as I can see, actually established exactly what was wrong, and the scale of the problem.

The fact that the chuck is "running out" may or may not be the result of a scuff mark in the back plate or some swarf in the register.

The only true test in this situation is to machine some metal in the offending chuck. How about turning the classic Myford Dumb Bell test piece and then measuring that for run out before it is removed from the chuck. Then we will all know what we are looking for. Machining back plates, polishing registers may or may not be the answer. Let's look at the problem from an engineering perspective, after all if this occurred in a manufacturing environment you would not try maching bits off of the machine or its tooling until you had established the problem. We have so far, IMHO, simply been focussing on the symptom rather than the cause.

I sold my Myford ML7, a great machine but showing its age, and bought a Myford refurbed 254S that had never been used. A truly great machine. Better than the old style machines and it has a 10 inch capacity, hence the 254 reference. When I wanted a milling machine however I decided that all of the older traditional machines were far too large for my garage so I bought a brand new Seig from ArcEuro. Another great machine from a great company. Oh yes most of my work involves machining stainless and both machine perform magnificently.

Just buy a new ratchet from your preferred manufacturer. I have the swivelling ratchet ring spanners and they are great when you have a particularly difficult access proble, but for your use a new ratchet is the easiest and most cost effective solution frankly.

That is cheap indeed. Normally a piece of 12 x 2.25 inch bar I reckon would cost around £50. So don't be shy Mark tell us who, and where, this cheap aluminum come from.

The real reason that an R8/MT4 adaptor is not available is probably because in the manufacturing world there is no demand for such a thing. They would simply pick collets to suit. If you want to use. R8 spindle is designed for milling machines. Your options then are (1) Buy a set of ERxx collets and collet chuck for your lathe. This has a cost but frankly it is not really that expensive.: (2) If you are determined to use the R8 collets in your lathe simply turn up the requisite adaptor to suit.

What Hopper said. This is quite normal practise for ebay stores. I am always amazed that people who read the ebay ads do not realise this, it is certainly not a new or dodgy practise. It is all about not deleting and subsequently setting up their web page again. Apart from the time involved I believe that traders would have to pay to relist the goods. Some put a silly price on as a "flag", and some, Chronos for example, just label things as Out Of Stock.

I have only just come across this thread. All that money and you get a pile of junk. Did either of the complainants raise the issues with the suppliers and seek a refund? If so how did they react. When buying a machine even at this end of the market perhaps a recommendation rather than perceived belief in country of manufacture is the best way. On the RH side of this page is an advert for ArcEuro Trade. They import and sell Seig machines as most on here know, but they also have a policy of not selling them until they have sorted out any manufacturing problems and agreed the quality standard required with the manufacturers. I can only speak for their milling machines as I bought one a couple of years ago. It is a great piece of kit and I am more convinced each day that I made the right decision to buy it. I machine mostly stainless steel and it copes admirably, and I "do not spare the horses" when cutting. if their lathes are half as good as my mill then they are definitely worth buying. I have no connections with ArcEuro except as a very happy and satisfied customer.

Charles I have seen your reply to me about the piece of brass you turned. However at what point did you observe the "wobble"? Was it before you made the cut? Did you measure the diameters you produced and measure the run-out on the turned piece as I suggested? If you did then what readings did you get?

Edited By MadMike on 28/08/2017 23:26:49

Steve it is interesting that you have used ArcEuro to show the type of spanner you want.

If you refer to their on line catalogue you will find that they do sell ER20 Collets etc. They are classified as Mini-collets and have their own spanner to use when tightening. I would suggest a call to Arc Euro will hopefully solve your problem

If not then try a Google search for a C Spanner, or if all else fails simply make one.

Well I have never read a thread (pun intended) which does not address the real issue. Charles as a newbie you are probably convincing your self that your machine is inaccurate or faulty. What matters is not any reading that you get from the outer diameter of any spindle mounted accessory like a 3 or 4jaw chuck, or faceplate. The only thing that matters is the accuracy of the work that you produce. So put your bit of silver steel, or a mild steel bar or a piece of aluminium and reduce it from its nominal diameter with a clean cut all round. Then measure the diameter you have created. Then apply attest cut of say .020 inch (0.5mm in the Napoleonic measure) and then re-measure. That will show you how accurate your machine is when removing metal Before taking the first cut, put your DTI on the bar and rotate it by hand and note the readings on the dial. Repeat after the first cleaning cut, and again after the test cut. By noting the diameter and the clock readings you will find out whether your machine cuts correctly. Remember write down the readings do not try and remember them. Do not run the test bar as shown in the video's. At the speed shown you may get bounce in the DTI and thus create apparently higher readings. Hope this helps, as you can practice cutting, measuring and establishing run out all in one exercise.. Please let us know how you get on.

I would certainly use countersunk screws and glue. Increase the diameter of the CSH to allow the heads to be flush or if they protrude carefully grind the tops flush. I would be more concerned with the use of 15mm chipboard for the tops frankly. I don't know what type of work you do, but I would not consider a top thinner that 1 inch. Indeed on my bench tops I have 2 inch thick timber tops. I just cover mine with heavy duty vinyl floor covering. Easy to keep clean and mostly non-staining. If it wears then it is very simple to recover. HTH.

Well lot's of advice here but really chaps. The answer is so easy, and I know because I have been doing something similar this weekend.I was producing a 6mm diameter with a length of 70mm on one end of a piece of 10mm stainless steel. The length of the stock I was using was 1250mm overall. I simply put it in a 3 jaw chuck and fitted 3 very roughly carved wedges in the tail end of the spindle, just to assist in stopping too much flex in the exposed bar. Then I just turned the end to size at a reasonable speed. In this instance 400RPM. The wedges didn't stay in place but it made no difference to the process. I also do the same on 0.445, 0.525, 0.600 and 0.710 A/F hexagon stainless steel bar when making stainless bolts etc for my motorcycle restorations. Of course I do then part off the bolt length including the head, at the same speed, but until that point the process is the same. Again I buy 1000mm and 1250mm lengths. In reality it would only be necessary to fit the kinds of supports that you guys have been talking about if the length was over 1800mm on a small lathe. HTH

I had an ML7 for many years, and due to a bereavement I was able to buy a 254S which had been totally reconditioned by Myford. The 254S is a far superior machine in every respect, and it even cuts 26tpi threads without any need to mess about with change wheels. Mine has a D1-3 Camlock chuck and so a chuck change takes less that 30 seconds and no worries about the chuck unscrewing when running in reverse. The 254S will cope with small work with no problems at all. I have recently made jets and needles for a friends old motorbike carburettor. It is IMHO much more rigid than the ML7 and so parting off is a very straight forward affair even with stainless, which is a boon if you are of a nervous disposition, and many are apparently. Got a chance to buy one.....GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS.

Mark Metal Mania in Hinckley sell stainless in the Whitworth hex sizes which are the same as BSCY. If you want bolts, nuts etc made to a high quality try ACME stainless. For your Triumph try Andy Molnar for stainless parts and bolts. All can be tracked down using Google. HTH.

RivNuts are brilliant. BUT they must be inserted and clenched correctly. Using pop rivet and those scissor type tools should be last resort only.

If you have a compressor get an air clenching tool, it's fast and makes then totally secure. If you cannot find an air tool there is a hand tool which screws into the RivNut and which then has a long side lever to do the clenching.

The thread in the nut itself is malformed and only assumes the correct form when the nut is clenched. Have used these by the thousand to fabricate steel and aluminium assemblies, and even as the threaded fixing for hinges on full size metal doors.

Like I said tooling up properly is the way to make them work properly.

Zero carbon steel? A lot of tosh and "green speak". In very simple terms steel is made by adding CARBON, normally between 0.002% and 2.1%, in the blast furnace. Other materials are added to produce specific grades of steel of course.

Lots of talk about zero carbon during the production process, but Zero, Carbon and Steel in the same sentence is nonsense.

Roger M-Machine in Darlington advertise 80mm bright steel bar for around £4.00 per inch or, if you want to turn the OD to size, 90mm for around £4.50 per inch depending upon the metal spec. Full price list is on line. Hope this helps.

Edited By MadMike on 04/04/2017 16:07:07