Member postings for GaryM

Hi Bill,

As a beginner I did quite a bit of research when I decided to buy a mill a year ago. It seemed obvious to me from reading lots of threads on here that for my use the R8 was the sensible choice. I bought a Sieg SX3, but if you are looking at smaller mills then R8 might not be an option. A lot of people suggest that they chose MT so that tooling can be transferred between lathe and mill but this didn't apply to me. In fact, I've got ER25 collets for the lathe and ER32 collets for the mill. I also got four R8 collets included with the mill but I've not needed to use them yet. Plenty of room above the table for what I'm doing at the moment.

HTH

Gary

Drilled and tapped the base casting of the S50 for the slidebars. Only a simple job to most of you but it took me all afternoon, most of which was lining it up on the mill.

Gary

That's not a garden Graham, that's an estate.

Gary

Hi,

For the last few weeks I've been going through the MEW archive and printing any articles that look interesting as a preparation for renewing my subs next month with the "Print only" option (thus losing access to the archive). However, yesterday after a Flash upgrade I could not get the popup to work in Chrome (browser of choice). It still worked in Firefox though so obviously my pc was the problem. What seemed to be causing the problem was that Chrome has its own Flash player built-in, called Pepper Flash. Firefox uses a plug-in which was OK. I disabled the Pepper Flash player and all is well again. Instructions here:

**LINK**

Easily reversible if it doesn't work for you.

Just thought I'd let others know in case they have the same problem.

Gary

Neil - your link has a typo.

Manual here

**LINK**

Gary

Hi Paul,

Chrome and Win 7 here and no popups or scan offers. In fact, since the site re-design I don't think I've had any problems with it.

Gary

Edited By GaryM on 11/01/2014 00:47:28

Ah, sorry Graham. I did think your comment a bit odd, just didn't make the connection with the high speed threading unit.

Gary

Hi Graham

Price here.

**LINK**

About £30.

Gary

Not today but over the Christmas break had poor or non-existent internet connection due to faulty phone line (now replaced by BT).

However, I did manage to do my first bit of heat treatment, case-hardening the eccentric sheave for the S50 engine, which seemed to go well apart from one surprising moment when a flame appeared from the joint between the neck tube and the handle of the brand new Sievert torch. I'd checked the connection to the cylinder that I made but assumed the hose, handle, neck tube and burner were assembled tightly by the factory.

Also, my first use of a slitting saw to cut the eccentric strap. Why they put teeth all the way round when only one or two seemed to do the cutting though, is anybody's guess.

Sorry no photos at present.

Gary

Hi Richard,

For a grinding rest you could have a go at Harold Hall's design, **LINK**

I haven't built one, but might in the future.

Gary

Hi John,

Topic has been covered in lots of threads. See here

**LINK**

Ignore first result as that is this thread.

Gary

Hi Michael,

I like the Vallorbe ones sold by Axminster but they are expensive (~£8). Also they are plastic which some people might not like.

**LINK**

The sizing is a bit arbitrary as it says in the description.

Gary

Hi HomeUse,

It's an R8 taper, I think they all have 7/16" UNF drawbar threads.

Gary

Hi Danny,

I don't think headroom will be a problem, there's about 400mm.

Gary

Thanks for the replies. I'm more at the bottom end of the market but even so ~£70 is still significant so I didn't want to regret buying the wrong one if there was a crucial difference.

Gary

Julian & Jason,

Thanks from me as well for the "flat" tip. I've been following Allan's build log as some of it is similar to the S50 I'm making and I'd not come across this suggestion.

Gary

Thanks for the replies, guys. That's what I was concerned about, that the 50mm head wouldn't take 1/2" tools. I can work quite happily in both units. My lathe and mill are metric but the S50 I'm making is all imperial, so I frequently convert between the two. I just thought that imperial tooling might become less available eventually, so it seemed logical to opt for the metric one.

Gary

Hi,

I'm going to buy a boring head for my SX3 mill. Does it matter whether it is metric or imperial? This may sound like a dumb question but what I'm really asking is if I buy a 50mm head it takes 12mm boring tools. Presumably then 1/2" ones won't fit, or will they? Most of the boring bars from the usual suppliers seem to be in imperial sizes.

Thanks

Gary

Hi Steve,

If you type "silver solder" into the search box at the top right of this page you will get at least 50 threads on the forum discussing problems and techniques related to silver soldering.

Gary

Jim,

As you live near Leamington Spa it's a shame you just missed the Midlands Show in October. Warco had a stall there with most of their machines on display.

As far as stripping the machine down is concerned, I partially did this with mine following the guide on ARCs site (didn't remove the headstock), but I don't think it was really necessary for a beginner. I learnt a lot about how the lathe was put together though. You can always do it later when feeling more confident.

If you intend to visit ARC I would give them a ring first.

Gary