Unmitigated Woe

Edited By David Littlewood on 20/11/2011 18:39:01

Stub Have a look at scrapping all the electronic ‘allamagoosa’ and think about a good old fashioned countershafts, belt tensioners and multiple ‘Vee’ pulleys. They have been around since before the ‘Ark’s’ keel was laid. I have seen and read too much about electronics failing and prefer the old fashioned ‘rude mechanicals’. I can always ‘fix’ them.

One of the problems is that the accountants (who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing) insist on the cheapest of the cheap components. These have a very high risk of failure but so long as they do not fail under the 5 minute in house test they are acceptable. The customer does not matter. He has bought the thing and is stuck with it. We have his money.-Ha Ha Ha! The retailer is stuck with the irate customer and any bills. Beside we can sell him a new bit of electronics costing 10 times the ex works costs.

Ok I have a 60 year old motor on the Myford (I bought it second hand, reconditioned 35 years ago.). Two years ago it went ‘pop’. I trotted it down town where the little man rewound it and put in new bearings (which I asked him not to do as I had a pair of brand new (top of the range) SKFs ). He charged me 4,000 HUFs (about £12 in ‘London money’. I was back ‘on-air’ two days later.

There is a solution to all these problems. Have a look at the transmission on the DAF Daffodil motor car. This was derived from the Zenith ‘Gradeo’ motor bicycle. It is rude mechanicals but it works.

It might be an interesting idea to get the clutch and pulley from an old twist and go 50cc scooter. You might be able to fit your lathe with a (limited range) variable speed and a clutch.

I suppose the Electronic ‘gubbins’ can be put together by a ‘bot’ for a few micro dollars with the chips etc costing about 5-6 Dollars (wholesale). This would be about 1/10^th of the cost of a 4 cone pulley.