Member postings for I.M. OUTAHERE

Why does this web page add smiley faces to my post and then log you out so you can't edit them out ?

please ignore the little yellow mongrel winky thing as I didn't put it there and surely there has to be a way of turning these off permanently?

it would make a good target for sighting in my .303 though !

Ian

Hi Steve ,

I'm curious as to how you are going to hold the piece ?

If you are going to clamp it in a vice then be mind full that as you remove material it will weaken it and it may flex and if you are going to clamp it down to the table check it is not twisted by giving it a rub on some emery cloth or the like on a flat plate - something that has been machined or ground will do like a drill press table , mill table or surface plate , if it is twisted and you clamp it down it will twist again when you release it .

if you can leave it a little long say 20mm each end and clamp it down to the table with 4 clamps and against a fence I would do it this way and trim it to size last .

I would blue it up, mark it out ( height gauge and surface plate if you have  rough it out to full depth with the biggest slot drill or centre cutting end mill( if you have one ) that you feel comfortable working with leaving .5mm on all inside surfaces except the bottom as it is cut to full depth . Clean up the rest with the 6mm cutter.

I find wd40 not too bad as a cutting fluid on aluminium and tap magic is good as well .

If you don't have a DRO on the mill a couple of cheapie long travel dial indicators could be a good investment as they allow you to move the table around irrespective of how much backlash your machine has , just set one on the y axis and the other on the x axis and you have a poor mans DRO good to a thou or so at least !

That's my slant on things anyhow !

Ian

Edited By XD 351 on 14/11/2014 03:41:22

Hi Murray,

Just out of curiosity did that scale still work when you put it back together ?

I have often wondered just how fragile they are and what is likely to damage them when installing ?

Ian

There looks like quite a few interesting articles in this , a quiz , a three in one tool that I may have or I may not , a quick release for the mill , one hell of a nice looking vice for the mill [ if I made something that nice I would be scared of getting it dirty ] and something about old workshops and much more - looking forward to it !

Ian

I use one of those Edge technology units and it works well, they supply a small magnet that is placed on the table and you zero the gauges off the top of it then lower the spindle until one [ or hopefully both] gauges read zero. if they don't then adjust the tram until they do . The only thing that irritates me is that the magnet will pick up any chips or fine iron dust and getting it off the damned magnet is near impossible !

I found also because of the crud sticking to the magnet it was best to slide the magnet into position to ensure any junk caught under it will get wiped off then wipe the top surface as well , I then sweep the indicator nib across the top of the magnet to make sure nothing is caught between the two before setting zero , I also sweep the indicator nibs around on the table surface when I lower the unit down to take a reading - sounds like a hassle but once you have done it a few times it becomes second nature and the readings will be consistent .
Now I just need to get the fine metal dust off that magnet and I will be happy , may try compressed air .

Ian

Hi Terry,

Before making any decision on brand ,size , new or used there are a few things i usually sit down and have a good think about and usually make up a list of pro's and con's that i feel keep me on the straight and narrow.

How much do i wish to spend

How much space do i have to fit it in - no use buying a big heavy lathe that is 6 feet between centres if your using a space under a stair well for a workshop !

Do i want to be able to cut metric or imperial threads or both

What do i want to make with it - ie small IC engines or large traction engines this is what i use to set the parameters for Centre height and between centres dimension.

Do i really want to fiddle around fixing an old lathe and do i have the skills or knowledge to recognise or fix the problems that a used machine may have -replacing spindle bearings or regrinding the bed can be expensive on some machines.

Not knowing where you are from makes recommending suppliers difficult but if you are in the UK i would recommend you give ARC EUROTRADE a call and i'm sure Ketan will guide you along the right path if you are interested in buying new chinese made equipement.

Ian

oddly enough I ordered one very similar earlier this week !

unfortunately I'm on the other side of the rock to you so my supplier is useless to you unless you like paying for freight ! but I would expect any half decent M.E supplier to have one or maybe EBAY ?

I am looking forward to using this unit as it looks like it very versatile.

If I remember correctly there an article in MEW for making one ?

Ian.

Is it possible that the bore of the barrel may be damadged ? Maybe the female taper has some scoring and is not letting the male taper seat properly ? The last flatbed lathe i used had a bit of wear and we used to push the tail stock hard against the back way and clamp it as that was where we set the tailstock alignment up on . Maybe the clamp is not sitting right and is walking the tailstock around as you clamp it down ?

If it is a vee bed then as stated earlier maybe there is something stopping the tailstock from seating properly on its vee way . It may be a bit out there but i would run the barrel out say 1/2 of its travel and clamp the lock on then lock the tailstock down then grab the barrel end and give it a good wiggle and see if anything moves .

Ian

AKA Can't twist clamps there are a few on Ebay from the U.S .

There isn't much in making making them yourself mostly basic metal work with a bit of turning and threading thrown in - a good beginners project maybe?

Ian

I had a quick look at the one i bought a few months back and luckily i seem to have the genuine item but what was throwing me off was the battery cover as it is the same as the fake unit shown in the link . After a good long search through my local suppliers websites that are Mitutoyo dealers it seems that the 500-196-20 has the same type as shown on the fake item and the 500-196-30 has the one shown as genuine so maybe a modification for the newer model.

Now i'm worried about the Starrett unit i have !

Ian.

Edited By XD 351 on 29/09/2014 08:56:58

Another quick way if the diameter of the item you are drilling is small enough to fit into the drill chuck is to mount up a piece of it in the chuck and then clamp the vise onto the other end of it then clamp the vise down to the table . The centre of the spindle is now on the centre line of the piece you want to drill, if your vise has those vee grooves (usually one horizontal and one vertical) in the fixed jaw and you are going to use it to hold the job make sure you use the vertical one to do the set up otherwise the piece will end up being indexed to one side by the same depth of the vee groove , if the vise only has the grooves in the moving jaw then it won't matter . I have seen somewhere a tool that goes in the chuck and has a vee piece in the end that is meant to locate on the piece of bar you are drilling but it would be useless for very small diameters as the vee had a radius in the guts of it .

Ian

I was always led to believe that soba were from india and vertex from asia .

I could be wrong though .

the only real way to tell is to sit them side by side and examine them , i would expect the vertex to be more expensive but finished off better .

i have a few items by both manufacturers and have no complaints with either .

Ian

Hi Chris,

please bear in mind that the bar you are using may not be round or parallel so .05mm may not be achievable which ever way you do it.

Ifi were making this item and needed to get it as accurate as possible i would do it as follows and yes it is a bit long winded but ...

start of with the material a little oversize 2-3 mm or so would suffice.

Set up in a four jaw chuck and get it running as true as you can

centre drill then drill through to 17mm and bore to size or even better is to bore to a size a little under and ream.

for the best accuracy i would make up a mandrel and mount the piece on it so i can finish turn the OD concentric with the bore.

Another difficulty would be measuring the bore at the chuck end and this is why i would allow a few spring cuts or ream so the bore is parallel and round.

thats my version anyhow

Ian

Hi John ,

sounds interesting and considering the price of a new set of bellows that my local supplier sells ( a price that is bordering on cruelty ) i think is definately worth trying.

The bellows on my X2 perished very quickly and i ended up using some rubber sheet i had laying around but this is a real PIA !

Maybe the rear one could be mounted under the head and have a guide rail at the base of the colmn that the roller blind material would run under to keep it parrallel to the base so the material could run from the table up through the wire guide rail then up the column to keep the swarf off the column as well ?

on the front it would be simple tp install as long as the diameter is kept as small as possible

Ian

Maybe all that Hoovering is burning a hole in the Ozone layer !

It seems that Australia is not the only country heading for the dark ages !

Microwaves and frypans will be next followed by power tools and maybe lathes and mills !

At least you don't have a mayor that wants to ban ALL motor vehicles from the streets of Sydney so she can set up bicycle tracks and cafe's

Ian

Now what if we take into account that the device used to measure along that taper has a small radius like the nib on a dial indicator ?

Ian.

The elephants foot on the indicator will fix the problem as the standard nib has a ball end and you essentially have one radius against another .

John ,

my comment was aimed at the layman or novice as they read about how this guy set up an old morse taper in the lathe ran a DTI along it and set his compound so he got a zero reading along the length of the taper then machined the new taper that was perfect .

in reality this rarely happens and they wonder why they can't get the set up right and the indicator set up is one of the reasons they fail .

How many machinist double check their setup after tightening down the compound slide nuts ? This can make the slide walk around a little on some lathes and all of a sudden without knowing it you're out of kilter !

I have seen some use a 123 block clamped to the side of the compound slide and the whole lot jiggled into position against the side of a morse taper held between centres to set the compound angle you would be surprised how close it got to spot on but i suppose it depends on how accurately the side of the compound slide is machined to the dovetails .

there's more than one way to skin a cat. The hard bit is catching the buggers !

There is one small problem with using a dial indicator to set the cross slide to an angle like a morse taper and that is the plunger or stylus on the indicator must be precisely on the centre line of the taper you are using as a set up piece.

even a couple of thou off centre will give an incorrect reading and the sharper the taper the worse it will get.

i never payed much attention to this until i watched Tom Lipton on youtube explain the issues , you can check it out at OXTOOLS on youtube and they were only a few weeks back .

Ian.

p.s no connection to Tom just a happy viewer .

I'm looking forward to this show especially the tractor pull !

Brian I sent you a P.M

Ian.