Member postings for Dennis D

Henry

I bought one of the quill clamping arms NDIY mentioned from Machine DRO via Amazon. It is rated

Quill Clamp Range - 40mm (1 10/16" to 52mm (2" so should go round your quill OK.

Use Universal Indicator Quill Clamp for DTI, in the Amazon search box I've only used it once for checking the chuck was central on a rotary table but it made the job easier

Edited By Dennis D on 01/04/2020 13:50:37

Had the same one a few weeks ago problems with processing DD. Couple of days ago licence came in the post. Must remember to go online and tick paperless.

Make sure there is no foreign object in the paper feed. Took a printer to the repair shop for while you wait repair only for him to find a playing card one of the ankle biters had posted.

Thanks for the info Ron. I cant remember seeing a 5" one in any of the suppliers I looked at so might need to do a search again.

Dennis

Thanks John & Jason H/V it is then

Edited By Dennis D on 24/10/2019 17:32:11

My next tooling purchase will be a rotary table, but I am undecided as to which type to get. Mill is an SX2P from ARC so it will be a 4”/100mm to fit on the table. My question is what uses does the rotary table have over the standard H/V? bearing in mind that I already have a tilting vise.

Dennis

I went on Saturday with my 11-year-old grandson and there were a lot more families around. Maybe if the show was at the end of the school summer holidays there might be a larger young attendance. What was pleasing were the number of people exhibiting on club and individuals displays who took the time to talk to him and explain how things were made. As for lack of traders I rarely buy anything from shows as I prefer someone else to carry the heavy weight items around and drop them at my doorstep. In fact, my only purchase was a pack of M2 screws to repair my wife’s FitBit bracelet.

Shame about the ground conditions reducing the number of traction engines hope none of the campers got bogged down but they would have plenty of pulling power if they did.

Dennis

Had been making Airfix kits ( 60 odd years ago) and then later on Tamiya and Historex (detailed model figures) modifying and detailing them following articles in magazines. One of the magazines must have had details of the London shows as I then started going to the Seymour Hall swimming baths and later on Wembley when every aspect of modeling was on display. It was there that I then decided to move on to metal but it was another 50 years until I had enough disposable income to buy machines.

Try these people looks like they may be on holiday at present but have had fast delivery when ordered **LINK**

I have a Warco 180 in an upstairs bedroom which looks to be about the same size as the SC2 . It was a 2 person lift but by removing as much as possible from the machine i.e. chuck, tailstock and tool holder it drops the weight a bit. Also wind the slide towards the tailstock end to help balance the weight slightly . I also used a thick strap under the headstock end so that we could keep it as level as we could

Check out this video **LINK**

Dennis

If you have the space go for the bigger machine. It has been said on here many times you can make small parts on a big machine but not big parts on a smaller one. There are plenty of article on the internet for poor mans DRO using digital tyre depth gauges

Thanks for that. I was deleting the dimension to avoid cluttering up the sketch as I progress I will have another go leaving them in place to see the difference.

I am a first time user of any cad package and am enjoying at 70 learning something new.

While waiting for the next tutorial in MEW I came across the exercise manual that comes with the package. Drawing circles is easy as a box comes up allowing you to input the required diameter (manual written for the US so dims are imperial but AA3D converts to metric) but not with a rectangle you need to watch the dimension coordinates to get the size you want.

Way I do it is to draw a rectangle then click on DIMENSION then click the cursor on the side I want to adjust I then move to one side and click again and now a box appears with the length drawn I can overtype it to get the size needed. I then have to select the dims line and right click to get a delete option. Is this the way to do it or have I missed something in a drop down menu.

Dennis

I have one of these as well and from new to get the heads to run after changing I have found that by pulling the drive spindle out as far as it will come and then carefully pushing the driven end over the square gets it running 9 times out of 10. As Simon says it need that bit of extra length to engage.

Edited By Dennis D on 28/09/2018 17:31:07

I would agree with JohnF get a piece of metal of known type from one of the many suppliers who advertise on here. Then you can experiment with different speeds and feeds ,tool types (Carbide / HSS ), coolant to see what finishes you can get. With an unknown piece from the leftover box it can be discouraging when you can’t get a decent finish . I now use a bit of masking tape around any decent lengths of stub bar and write on it the material type. Telling the difference between Silver Steel and Stainless when it’s got a bit grubby in the box under the bench is one example where I have come unstuck.

When I was an apprentice the very coarse files were known as "bast**d files" . Mind you this was nearly 60 years ago when we were allowed to call them that. Don't know what the PC name would be now.

Looks like someone had the same idea as Alan **LINK**

I had one years ago when I had a petrol mower.

Rik

The MAP plans were taken over recently by this company**LINK**

Dennis

**LINK**

Thomas the Tank Rover (affectionately christened 'Mildred' by its creator, Frank Rothwell) has had its 2.25-litre petrol engine replaced with a custom-built steam engine. The vehicle is now fully coal-powered, makes all the required chuffing noises and is capable of 15mph.

Rothwell, a 67-year-old traction engine enthusiast, said he was looking for a project to keep him out of the pub in the evenings. "We all need a hobby and I like doing things that are difficult," he said.

"I'm always looking for challenges, something that hasn't been done before. And there's not many things that have not been done before!"

Rothwell thinks the project took him around 400 hours – split between building the engine from scratch, and converting and restoring the Land Rover. The 50-year-old machine looks remarkably close to stock, but the tall funnel protruding from the bonnet marks it out as rather special.

'Mildred' gets through coal at the rate of around 45kg an hour, with the firebox accessible from the driver's seat. Currently, top speed is only around 15mph, but Rothwell reckons with some fettling higher speeds could be achieved.

"We've just increased the pressure to 200psi," he said. "I'm expecting it then to do about 12 or 15mph max. And, if I'm going from here to work, I don't do much more than that anyway. There might be a couple of bits where I might hit 25mph but that's it, so... I'll be able to go to work in it in summer."