Member postings for I.M. OUTAHERE

I keep mine updated all the time and have had no trouble - same for ipad and andriod units i own . You will find the computer will automatically create a restore point with any major updates so if you do have an issue you just roll back to the previous restore point . I had to do this once with W10 just after they released the updates when some blabbermouth told everyone about the backdoor hack in the cpu , this ws only because my old verion of turbocad didn’t agree with it so uninstalled turbocad then did a rollback followd by all updates then re install turbocad and all is good in the world no . One thing i have noticed as i use norton is to go back and update it after any windows updateds , i have updated norton before checking for windows updates and found no updates but after checking for windows updates and installing them i re checked norton and found updates and patches available so I guess it checks what updates are on windows first . Today i fired up the old HP with XP on it to be confronted with messages about the rtc is not correct , i had a play with MACH 3 and went to shut it down , the mongrel re starte itself ! I had just installed the Mach 3 that came with my engraver ( after scanning for viruses ) so i thought something had got into it but the clock message made me think about the rtc/ bios battery which as it turned out was dead flet so for some reason it kept re booting windows . New battery fixed that ! I must say i like the design of that pc - push two buttons on the case and the top comes off , flip up the power supply and the motherboard is there to work on without the need for any tools - everything flips up or clips in -brilliant !

It is easier for manufacturers to make the tailstock adjustable as any maching faults can be adjusted out easily .

The reason that the scale is no good is it cannot give a true indication of taper or angle , think of a right angle triangle where the base is say 4 inches long and the opposite say 1 inch high , using trigonometry you can work out the angle of the hypotenuse from the base but if you make the base longer the angle will be less . Easy way to visualise this is to draw it out on some paper .

I seem to recall a toolmaker telling me a taper was 0.0175 inch in diameter per inch of length per degree of taper or something like that - it was a long tome ago and I don’t think i was really listening to him at the time anyhow !

If your lucky the drawing will give you a diameter at each end of the taper and a length so it is just a matter of subtracting the minor from the major then divide by 2 and this gives a figure that can be used to set the offset with a dti over the required length , not precice i know but plenty good enough for thing like conrods or anything that doesn’t lock into another taper .

Resetting the tailstock is made easier with a dti mounted in the chuck or a coaxial indicator if you have one .

I will have to take a look at that ! I will have to send a search party into the spare room to find my printer first! It is in there somewhere buried under a pile of other projects !

Edited By XD 351 on 29/10/2018 21:55:30

+1 for the boring head to set the offset , i had to turn the taper on a conrod a few weeks back and i though no hassle just offset the tailstock and have at it . The issue was that the cheese grade grub screws that locate the tailstock on its base stripped the hex out so i end up getting it as close as i could then finished off with a file , the grub screws are about an inch long or so and i didn’t have replacements at hand . I now have a boring head set up specifically for this and the bonus is I don’t have to fiddle around resetting the tailstock afterwards.

Depends on what sort of kit the OP has for his mill , he may or may not have the collet holder for the spindle .

If the OP is limited to using the overarm and arbour he may have to do the job with the workpiece in the vertical position - depending on how long the piece is of course !

Another thing to consider is the amount of Y axis travel especially if using a collet chuck ( ER type ) in the spindle regardless of what he is using to hold the workpiece he may run out of Y axis travel and the only way to find out is to set it up and see . A cutter held directly in a collet that fits in the spindle ( mt collet ) will shorten things up though .

Strange that it is in Perth , those poor buggers over in WA are usually the last to get anything ! We just got the ( so called ) high speed broadband run up to the house and i thought i had seen it all until the guy used a chainsaw to dig the trench for the couduit ! Front lawn still looks a mess after 4 months !

Must be zany German humour again !

Funny thing is if i were trying to sell bikes the last thing i would refer to is something that bolts on to the bike so you can make spare parts ! Does this infer that this bike is going to break down a lot ?

It is a bit like Selling a British made bike that comes with a life time supply of gasket sealer and fold up drip tray .

And if you really want slick set up you could use a toolpost grinder or external hone ! When i made the crank for the current engine I’m making i left it a thou or two oversize and finished with emery on the important surfaces like bearing journals , this gave a very smooth finish to within a couple of ten thousandths and the rest of the crank wasn’t critical so i just cleaned it up so it looks nice . All this took maybe 15 min or so and was much less stressful than trying to machine it dead nuts on .

It could emit hydrogen gas that can explode in the presence of a spark

On a more serious not that is why when jump starting a car you hook the negative to the chassis not the battery because the final connection usually causes a spark whick you don’t want right on top of the battery ( that is for neg earth cars so if pos earth the positive goes to the chassis ) .

I don’t think you will have any problems with this set up , you could get away with a small sealed lead acid battery but i would make up a small contactor unit out of some sheet brass so you can tap on it like a morse code key or you could use a momentary push button swtch to do the same .

By the time i remove the vise , set up either a dividing head or spin indexer and set up for the first cut i would have finished the job 3 times over with an ER32 hex collet block even if i left the vise up on the table the collet block would still win the race ! The only set up is a stop on the vise ( same as the type JB described in another thread ) fit the appropriate collet to the holder , stick the materieal in the collet and tighten . I only have to set this in the vise against the stop , touch off then set depth of cut and rip into it . I used to do all of my hexagonal work with a dividing head using the quick index fitted to it but once i saw the hex collet block in action i never went back to the old way , they are worth their weight in gold as far as I’m concerned ! If i had to cut a hex on a piece of bar where the hex is going to be a long one then yes i would use the dividing head and tailstock . One issue is he is using a horizontal mill so getting the arbour to clear the top of a dividing head may be a problem , that is if the OP is using the over arm and bracket - or is he mounting the cutter straight into the hole for the arbour ? If the over arm is being used the lower profile of the collet block would be an advantage , just spin the vise around so the jaws are parallel to the Y axis and set the block up in the vise - too easy !

Or Taxes!

The thing that is going to kill this dead in its tracks is cost, there is the corst of purchasing what ever you think that will pump water through a 3 km long pipe with a 500m head then importing it and transporting all this to the site , there is the cost of installing it and maybe also bringing in a specialist crew to do so . Cost of maintenance and replacement parts that would more than likely have to also be imported and you will have to have a back up plan as parts could be weeks or months away - its not like you can lob down to the local pump supplier and buy parts !

Weigh this up say over a ten year period and compare it with the cost of running the tractor over the same period , i think you will find it to be much more economical . If the cost of fuel is so high maybe be look at alternative fuel sources for the tractor like bio diesel ,maximising rain run off storage , controlling evaporation and water usage etc .

What fuel do they use to cook with ? Some food wastes can be used to make alcohol based fuels so maybe there is an option there ?

FWIW i would splash out on a hexagonal collet holder as it saves stuffing around with dividing heads , i use mine all the time !

If the peice measures smaller at the chuck end this definitely indicates deflection or “push off “ - try the HSS tool .

No amount of cross , compoud or saddle locks will fix it as it is caused by the cutting forces imparted onto the workpiece by the cutting tool and carbide inserts have tiny radii on the cutting edges to help stop chipping which makes matters worse . You could use a following steady or put a centre in the end of the workpiece and support it with the tailsock centre also .

Hi Bob,

By runout do you mean the part is coming out with .02 mm taper ? Runout is when you put a piece in the chuck then set up an indicator to check for runout as you spin the chuck by hand , if you are setting up an indicator on the cross slide or toolpost then indicating the part by moving the saddle along the bed you are reading taper .

If it is tapered it is because of deflection off the cutting tool , 1/2 inch bar deflects easily and .02 is less than a thousandth so over 50 mm not bad and the further you get away from the chuck the worse the deflectoin will be . What tooling are you using ? Carbide insert tooling will cause deflection also and no amount of light cuts will fix it because carbide insert tooling will not take very light cuts so switch over to a nice sharp honed HSS cutting tool and try a very light spring pass . I usually just use some emery cloth and give the piece a polish to get rid of any small amount of taper , .02 mm or a thou doesnt take much work to clean up .

If the cross slide gibs are really loose you will find it will cause the piece to come out with things like steps ,dig ins ,grooves and a poor finish so if the part looks ok for finish the gibs aare probably ok , i don’t have a cross slide lock either .

You could always flog them and use the cash towards the curtains or even better some tooling for the workshop

What Are they made out of silk or something ?

On my VFD it stated quite clearly that the VFD had to be directly wired to the motor because anything in between the motor and VFD could damage the VFD . I can change the ramp up on my vfd so it works like a soft starter but trying to run a motor that is to big for your unit is asking for trouble . As Mark has mentioned it may be a setting issue soma good study of the manual could be in order .

Edited By XD 351 on 19/10/2018 06:12:25

I buy a lot of or most of my materials through ebay but you really need to know what you are looking for , there are many grades and types of steel , aluminium , brass , bronze , and cast iron .

Some machine beautifully others will have you pulling your hair out in clumps !

The only time i buy from a mechant is if i need a specific grade of steel which is pretty rare for me , i scored some lengths of 40mm black steel bar a few years back and even though it is not the nicest to machine it was free so if i have to give a part a bit of a polish with some emery after machining I don’t care as it was free !

If you want steel that machines well look for free machining steel or bright steel .

You could use a vox unit ( voice operated switch ) to activate a simple light flasher made from a 555 timer or an arduino but one problem may be any noise from the audience could activate it . I would use a cheap remote control switch unit that can be activated by someone back stage at the appropriate time this would power up a simple light flasher either made with a 555 timer or an arduino .