Suggestions for lathe-only projects?

Probably easier to use 6mm rod or turn 1/4" down to 6mm then you don't need to worry about enlarging the bore of the tube which would be best reamed..

'Tubal Cain' was the pen name of Tom Walshaw, that he used to write articles under in Model Engineer - long before YouTube was even dreamed of.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 30/11/2020 11:49:12

So there are two 'Tubal Cain's? Ah... I didn't realise it was a biblical name - makes so much more sense.

JasonB - so definitely going from 6.35 to 6mm better than 6.35 to 8mm bore?

William,

if you look in the description box below the video there is a link to the build log for the engine. This should answer some questions for you.

Before building your first toy steam engine it is very easy to overthink things. It is important to remember these are simple mechanisms that are easy to construct.

Vertical boilers are easier to make than horizontal ones and take up less shelf space - an important consideration once the collection starts growing. However, horizontal boilers are more efficient (or rather, less inefficient).

I have seen many toy steam engines successfully made using K&S brass tube for the cylinder.

Hmmmm, I've got my vertical slide and vice but I've just seen it's the single-bolt type and I'm having a bit of a mare keeping it square to the ways. Fiddling around with a micrometer it looks like I'm about 5 thou out over an inch - is this reasonable or am I going to need to sort a double-bolt type? I'm using a 3/8" HSS milling cutter in the 3-jaw. I set the face of the vice jaws parallel with a faceplate in the lathe chuck and tightened up there.

Materials ordered for the Elizabeth, so I guess that's what I'm building!

I'd be looking some something like half a thou over 4" or better when setting up an angle plate, vice etc

What vertical slide did you get, I thought that even the swivel type Myford ones had two fixings

Edited By JasonB on 01/12/2020 20:19:05

It was a myford double-swivel with a single bolt through onto the cross slide. It's a bit weird because there's an angle indicator for the horizontal swivel, but to swivel like that you have to loosen the bolt, which means the whole slide slops around in the t-slot.

This design (not this vice): https://www.nielsmachines.com/en/myford-accessories.html

Hi William. Here's something I was savaged for recently on this site (but it worked!).

And my grippy "thing" for the tailstock (bought the blank arbour, made the chunk of aluminium, maybe too deep)

Have fun and take care.

Edited By Terry Kirkup on 03/12/2020 14:51:45

Does yours not have the dowel pins that fit into the T slot to stop the base rotating?

It does but there's a lot of slop. I wonder if they need bushing or something? What's the diameter of the lugs please?

The same diameter as the width of the slots

That photo was from your link to show the slide, so I'm not sure about those.

On the one I recently acquired (Chinese / Indian / WHY copy) the dowels are 3/8" diameter. (But I don't have T slots for them to fit into!).

.

... Hopefully just a little less than that

MichaelG.

MichaelG   You knew what I meant and surely it should be obvious

Roy

Edited By roy entwistle on 03/12/2020 21:42:07

.

Of course I did, Roy ... but you were being a Smart Alec when William was asking a reasonable question, so I thought you deserved a taste of your own medicine.

MichaelG.

Maybe some more useful advice would help.

Within reason size does not matter, just keep the two pins pushed against the rear of the slot you have it in.

Your method of holding a faceplate in the 3-jaw to set it true does not sound ideal. You would be better removing the chuck and fitting the faceplate for basic setting. However if it were me I would push the pegs back against the tee slot and nip up the nut then put a DTI against the face of the slide and run the cross slide in and out and gently tap the slide until there is no movement on the needle then tighten the nut fully.

I'm not a myford man but from some other posts on here I see that the single bolt type may have a hollow nut that secures the body to the base and then the tee bolt passes through that to secure the slide to the table. Can I suggest you remove the nut and large tapered washer to see if there is a second nut below. If so this would be used to lock the base and body true across the lathe and only need touching if you wanted to alter the angle, the rest of the time it won't swivel when the stud nut is undone.

If I'm reading you right, I think it's easier to run the saddle up to the chuck with the fasteners loose, so that the vertical slide face - or vice if one is mounted - touches the chuck jaw faces, which should be pretty truly square to the spindle axis. Then carefully tighten the the vertical slide in position on the crossslide. I do this every time I mount the vertical, and I'm generally parallel to crossslide travel within a thou or two over the width of the vice. But I may be misunderstanding the requirement.

Yes should be OK for a lot of things though William seems to be getting 5thou runout. As I said a few days ago I would be looking for more like 1/2thou over the width of the slide so would use the DTI on that much the same as I would setting a vice, angle plate or work directly to the mill table

Hello gents,

Just an update - I got an RDG fixed vertical slide and butted it up against a faceplate (threaded on the spindle, not the jaws) for a rough estimate and then trammed the (?) it in with a DTI across the face and surface of the jaws for horizontal and vertical alignment. I guess I should probably have a known-square parallel or something for this job? Also, my DTI is terrible, any recommendations?

Anyway, with that, I managed to get about 2.5 thou across the width of the vice jaws - but I am basically just learning everything simultaneously so I'm fairly happy with that for now.

I will do the same with the double-swivel slide (that is, using a DTI and faceplate) to validate, but I think this thread is starting to drift quite a distance from where we started!

Thank you all!

.

O.K. __ Back to your opening question:

I suggest making a Gyroscope

MichaelG.

.

http://www.gyroscopes.org/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/12/2020 17:47:31

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/12/2020 17:56:33