Flexispeed - Round Up

Further to my postings asking for hep with setting up my Flexispeed lathe, I thought that I would post a bit of an update, for anyone vaguely interested.

Three Jaw Chuck Run-out. I am really pleased with this: testing the shank of a centre drill, without cleaning either the drill or the jaws, I measured a 1.5 thou run out.

Tailstock Alignment. I turned a 1" od length of aluminium bar between centres and, over a length of about 4 inches, measured a 5 thou difference at each end, the tailstock end being the smaller of the two. Again, I am happy with this. I imagine that with a better headstock centre (I used a piece of soft aluminium held in the chuck and turned to a blunt taper) and some careful adjustment, this could be reduced.

Ease of Use. I had a Peatol lathe several years back and I am already finding this machine far nicer to use. With the addition of half-nuts and, if I can fit it, a carriage return wheel, it will be really nice to use.

Spindle Speed. The top speed on this thing is about the same as the slowest on the Peatol and is far less scary to use.

Allen Keys. Whoever thought that it was a good idea to use these to hold down tool posts when the caps just fill up with swarf?

Drive Belts.The V belt that I finally fitted works nicely, just needing a tidier tensioner to make it easier to change sppeds.

Tool Bits. I tried a carbide tipped tool from Chronos out of curiosity. It seemed to work well enough, with no apparent problems. Certainly, until I get a new bench grinder (my ancient one has finally died), it will have to do.

Regards,

James.

Allen Keys.Whoever thought that it was a good idea to use these to hold down tool posts when the caps just fill up with swarf?

A magnet stuck onto a convenient place can be retrieved and used to clear swarf from any hex bolts

.

Glad to hear it's all going well, James

I'm afraid the answer to that one is probably "the Bean Counter"

... It's difficult to persuade them of the advantage of a nice square head and a special key, when the Hex Socket and Allen Key appears to be a cheap COTS [Commercial Off The Shelf] equivalent.

MichaelG.

.

Well ... the magnetic swarf anyway

Brass is a little trickier.

MichaelG.

Square head high tensile screws used to be used on most tool posts along with a special key for them. Also hex at times - longer head than usual but not as long as the usual qctp holder locking screw.

You could always make some out of key steel.

John

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