Universal Grinding machine construction series?

My experiments with insert machining of hardened steel on the lathe went well, but I'm still going to hang onto my cylindrical grinder.

Blimey the MG7 must have been before the Ark, my cylindrical grinder is late 1960s and even that is a MG12.

Andrew

Hello John,

I don't think this has been been suggested as a decent option but it makes sense to me. I guess if it doesn't make sense someone will surely let me know...

Publish in a single article a good overview of the machine. Or just post a thread. Or both. Included would be details of the full article, which you could sell as a pdf to anyone who's prepared to pay whatever you think is reasonable.

The cost of production would be next to nothing - it sounds like all the hard work has been done already. Delivery would be by email with the attachment.
If somebody really wanted it delivered as a hard copy you could offer that option but would cost more.

Sell it for a tenner for the download and I'll make the order just to read the article even though I'm probably never going to build it!

Steve

Crikey, built in the late 60's. that's positively modern, my cylindrical grinder is a Studer type OB, built in 1948 and still able to turn out extremely accurate work, abeit much modified from original due to damage sustained to its original pedestal and motor assembly. The main grinding wheel shaft still runs in its original bronze taper bearings as does the primary workhead. The significant modifications are to the drive system using a dedicated 3 phase motor to run the grinding wheels as opposed to the original belt drive from a common motor which ran the wheel head, table motion and workhead via a series of belts and gearboxes from s single motor in the pedestal.

To add to SteveM suggestion I think that might be the way for John to go, I for one would buy a copy for the interest value and what may be applicable to further enhance my grinder.

Graeme

Sounds fine in the context of this forum. But imagine it from the point of view of someone who hasn't been party to this discussion. He sees a constructional magazine promising him details of how to build this machine, buys the magazine and then finds that if he actually wants details he has to send money.

Some magazines in the past have taken a similar approach and people have felt a little cheated.

Frankly, I think this discussion simply highlights that it's a bad fit for either magazine. I think a lot more people - both subscribers and non-subscribers - would buy it if it were published separately in book format for a reasonable price (there's the rub). And after the initial rush, book sales might continue for years. Look at the "Workshop Practice" series or (perhaps a better example) the GHT books (like gold dust when they are out of print).

Book format would be better but comparable to something like building the Bentley aero engine as it all about one subject.

GHT's work is about many subjects and each reader will be attracted by different articles in the book.

Because the book would be a one subject book it would not be as popular and therefore sales would be a lot slower.

Thanks for the list of tooling John, I don't take MEW so would have missed all the other articles. Presumably quite a few would need to be built first to allow a potential maker of the grinder to have the tooling needed

SteveM I did suggest a build thread earlier on. But a 2-3 part overview in one of the mags would be another option with full details elsewhere. Easy enough to upload it all to Dropbox and sell or give people the link and/or upload it here to a subscriber only section here.

Bandersnatch, if the mag had just the 2-3part overview it would obviously be written and promoted differently so would not be "promising him details of how to build this machine" Lets face it most builds in ME people also buy the drawings for be it Loco, Traction Engine, IC, Steam, etc

I for one would be unlikely to buy 31 editions of any magazine for a project. I have mixed feelings about more than one really.

In this case I suspect that the design and build will eventually finish up in a book so often think that it would be better if things started that way but this isn't good for a magazine which needs designs in order to continue to exist. Magazines could also shorten the number of issues needed rather than often containing a lot of bits of some particular projects. I suppose this is needed in order to broaden the range of interests covered in a single issue but maybe some rationalisation would be possible.

Maybe the answer in this case which would allow a lot more detail to be included is people like these who will publish subjects that come down into the fringe interest category. I found them via a couple of detailed books on some aspects of microscopy. They aren't available from any other source. Conventionally published works on the subjects they cover are very expensive due to the limited audience they are aimed at.

**LINK**

They appear to publish to order even one at a time but the books arrive pretty quickly and they have been around for some time now. A blog on the web would be sufficient to give an over view of the machine etc. I'd guess the author also gets some payment for their efforts without prices going over the top.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 03/10/2015 14:27:50

It has always seemed to me that one of the major advantages in having a design published in Model Engineer is that drawings are usually added to the MyHobbyStore library and continue to be available long after the author has expired or a book has gone out of print. I recently bought the drawings for one ETW's engines that were first published in the 1930s.

If the grinder drawings were added to the library and available for purchase, an article or 2 could provide an overview and perhaps some details of any particularly tricky machining procedures. It has hardly likely to be made by a beginner needing step by step instructions.

Rod

I don't think anything has been added to the Model Engineer plans for over 20 years.

Not obvious to me. Most mags put the front cover "spin" on the contents that they think will sell the mag. Certainly other mags have in the past. Hopefully MEW / ME is above that but ....

The Nemett that you aquired was added more recently but as you say nothing really added since the days of MAP