What Did you do Today 2022

Aligned my mill head a bit better: Vertical for X-axis movement to bed
So busy with facemill experiments, I decided to revisit my mill head tramming(Swivel part to zero mark) to seeif I can get it horizontally more precise so cutters cut front and rear as it moves.
-I did this by using a marked bit(No 1) on the facemill. I facemill a length long enough on aliminium.
-After the cut I measure the difference with feeler guages......Forward direction=.002".....After cut same tip turned by hand=.009". I got it to that by using by big square from bed and indicator moving quil up/down, the problem was fine movements of the head with a hammer was not something I liked..

-So today I got another idea:
-I used a shash clamp clamped to top of gearbox/head horizontally, now I have long leverage. It ends up very easy and light force to move head very controlable.
-I used a dial test indicator just to see movement, so the head must move clockwise a bit.

It was rather quik I end up with an easy adjust using the long end of clamp, after slacking the 3x retaing nuts of the head to column. This got me to within .001" according to feeler guages(Go no go). To get it more precise I think I would need one of those cylindrical indicators. I ordered a Walter 40mm shoulder mill/MT4 with 4x insert-type for aliminium & steel/cast iron. Receiving that I will relook at this and see how that design plays out, and how the finish may look.

Edited By Chris Mate on 17/04/2022 21:45:02

Edited By Chris Mate on 17/04/2022 21:46:52

Edited By Chris Mate on 17/04/2022 21:48:06

Finished off a couple of jobs today. Made these knobs for locking the x and y axis and belt tension on my mill drill.

Also made new hubs for my sack truck to replace the rubbish pressed steel items, with integrated bearings, one of which had collapsed.

Those knobs are nicer to use and look so much better than knurled ones

On Thursday, Rod finished the wiring for the Atlas 12 x 24 lathe. When it was switched on, there was vibration and the motor tended to jump up and down. We think that the pulley driven by the motor pulley is the cause of the rough running. It can be seen running as if it has been bent. What it is is the fit on the 3/4" shaft is not very good and when the grub screw which clamps onto the key is tightened the pulley cants slightly. When the pulley pair was removed, there was no sign of it being bent, but the hole was in need of bushing. At 9" diameter, it would just fit the Smart & Brown faceplate, and Rod lined it up with a lever indicator running at the bottom of the belt groove to about 0.002" tir. I bored the pulley from 3/4" to 1.210" to suit a piece of 31mm gunmetal that had a 14mm hole in it and turned the gunmetal to just thinking of going in fit. The gunmetal was parted off at 1.3" long to match the boss, and degreased before using the press and Loctite 620 to fit. It needed the press to fit which was done still on the faceplate which will be screwed back on the lathe for final boring to fit the 3/4" shaft. I may drill and tap the rear of the boss for a couple of 6mm screws to ensure the bush never moves in the pulley.

On Saturday, I will be thinking of a key slot together with a new locking grub screw hole in the pulley.

What didn’t I do today? Turn anything! I pressed the “go” button on the remote for the lathe and nowt happened. Fortunately the supplier led me by the hand, via email, to reset the inverter. Some more troubleshooting pointed to the remote. Fortunately I have a spare, so swapped them over and all is well again.

Bother resulted from having a few tools and a 'can-do' attitude, I was called out to fix a leaking toilet. Not the clean cistern end, either. No, the nasty outlet was incontinent.

Went OK until I had to get up off the floor afterwards; discovered I'm not as fit as I thought I was! I like to oblige family and friends with domestic fixes, but must remember next time I'm not a boy of 60...

Dave

Hardly something I've done today, but an ongoing project, recently completed.

A Hemingway floating reamer holder!

And if you're interested, the parts explode as below...

Iain

And on a more light-hearted note, I've been sidetracked (somehow) into watch repair and have made this rotating screwdriver holder for my (cheap and not very good) watchmakers screwdrivers. When I grow up I will buy some Bergeon tools. If I win the lottery.

Iain

I drilled and tapped a 1/2" steel plate with a 5/8" acme thread.The tap was from Tracy tools and I was just able to use it on the SX3 with the use of two angle plates bolted at right angles with the horizontal angle plate having a 3/4" hole in it so that the tap could go through the plate and piece I was tapping.My friend who was going to add pressure to the tap with a centre in the quill while I turned the tap,but he was out and I had to do it myself.This was a brutal exercise and I was knackered when finished.Until I had finished I didn't know if I was tapping or reaming the hole .What a great relief when I had got through to find that I had a thred and even better when I tried the lead screw that I had cut previously fitted .The next one has to go through 1" cast iron and I definately will need help,but I am happy with todays work.The cast Came from M-Machine tools orderd at 1am and delivered next day at 12am and the same with Tracy tools .I am not associated with these companies ,but what service.

Frank

Assembled the last of three racks for a zinc electroplating setup I'm working on. Just need to insulate the fiddly bits.

Edited By AndrewD on 03/05/2022 12:16:30

More on Watch tools. the watch holder I had in my cheap 'toolkit' was unworkable (got in the way of the tweezers) so I made my own. Double sided and will cope with between around 12mm diameter mechanisms and 40 or so (asserted, not tested, yet!).

Iain

Made a spindle nose gauge for my Boxford. The thread is about a thou under measured over wires and the original faceplate and catch plate go on lovely. The register is a couple of tenths under 1.5". The actual thread on the nose of the lathe is a bit looser and the register is about half a thou under 1.5" so anything gauged with this should fit on the lathe nicely

That's a nice bit of toolmaking Craig

I gotta make some gauge frame bits for the railway's S160s. There's a bunch of parts, but I decided to start on the one that I think'll be the most difficult.

It's just a nut 7/8" thick, threaded 7/8" x 14 BSP, but here's the thing: there's a central recess to thread O/D, and on one side of the recess it's RH thread and on t'other it's LH. Think I'll scewcut it with manual rotation - can't see how I'd dare do it under power.

But I'm not there yet. 1.67" hexagon LG2 is - as far as I know - effectively unobtainable, so I've had to turn 2 1/4" round bar down to the across-corners size of ~1.928", then mill the hex flats.

That's when I found out the divvy head tailstock on the Bridgy clone (a) didn't belong originally to that divvy head, (b) can have its barrel nodded up and down, and (c) was 17 thou off the right CH at the end of my bar, set by persons unknown for reasons unknown.

So I had to faff about for about an hour and a half to fiddle it right and parallel within about 5 thou end-to-end.

So I've now cut the hexagon and sliced it for the nuts.

Next week face to length and chamfer, drill, bore to root diameter, recess to thread OD and screwcut.

I'm just glad I'm not doing this for pay.

Oh, the vice ain't doin' nuffin' - I just didn't wanna shift it.

Used my newly completed slotting attachment for the Boxford shaper on its first job.
I found a replacement larger motor for my ratty old linisher, so needed to fit a new pulley to it.

Slotting the spacer.


Setup for slotting the pulley itself


Completed spacer, which will be sawn to length and used fix the offset for the pulley.



Bill

Finally finished installing the signals up at the ME club, only to be told that a tree has to come down before it falls down, which involves taking several sections of track out, which means dismantling some of the cabling. CURSES

Adding Belleville springs to my anti-backlash nuts, but were the numbers right?

I rigged my press to apply 235kgf with a 2.5kg dumbbell weight on the handle and got 0.23mm compression on the DTI.

Spring data sheet says 2217N (226kg) for 0.24mm.

I was amazed. l don't usually expect these things to work

Acquired an old oil gun last week. Bit of a state both iside and out-

Required desoldering to reduce it to constituent parts to clean and repair. Found it to be another Lucas Oiler like the other one I have, but this is a Nbr 36 syringe type-

Had to replace the pitted/worn steel ball for a new bronze one. Also needed to hard solder some internal joints to ensure all remained joined and sealed when 'closing up' the last 5 joints. Cut new leather seals/washers.

Finished it this am with making new nozzle and cap. The nozzle fits into the grease type nipple holes on my machines. All now functoning perfectly without leaking at any angle. Not bad for a nearly 98 year old oil can-

Not the whole project today, just the latest episode.

I've been having a belated spring clean in the workshop. I figured that a good way to tidy up would be to complete some projects that have been hanging about in pieces.

One project that's been hanging around for ages is a lever-operated tailstock for the ML7. Unlike Hopper, I took the easy way out (so I thought! ) and bought the lever & linkages mechanism. I didn't want to do away with the standard tailstock so I bought a spare via Ebay.

When it arrived, it was non-standard! I seem to remember that Myford made a batch of ML7s with raising blocks under headstock, tailstock and tool-post. These, I believe, were for a national motor car brake company to use for skimming brake drums. I think my purchase was from one of those machines.

Here's the standard exploded diagram:

On my purchase, the eye bolt, #11, is too long and won't permit the clamp-plate, #16, to enter the end of the bed. In preparation for swapping the eye bolt for a standard one I bought from Myfords, I attempted to separate it and the eccentric lever, #1, from the tailstock body.

Now, I am well aware that with some jobs of this type, you do 'have to hold your mouth right'! However, despite an hour or three ( it seemed like ) those parts are still captive in the body!!! Those parts retain each other, there's no third component to lock them in.

Not only that, I have been completely unable to find the standard eye bolt that I'm certain I bought from Myfords!!!!

The tailstock barrel lock thumb lever, #18, on my purchase is shedding its chrome plating. Myfords show that part on the diagram but omit it from the accompanying parts list.

Maybe I'd have more success if I tried mowing the grass - oh, no, it's just started raining.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Have you removed the retaining grubscrew marked 10?