Background Some years ago, a work colleague acquired a fire damaged ‘Startrite’ drilling machine from his local garage, which he found to be oversize for his intended use. I was fortunate in that he agreed to swap it for my smaller budget imported drill, leaving me with the task of replacing smoke damaged label plates…
As model engineers, most of us at some point will buy a second hand machine tool, or will want to check specifications to see if one is suitable for our needs. In this “live” article we hope to provide a repository of out of print, or hard to find machine tool manuals. If…
One of the disadvantages of the rubber drive belts fitted to the Unimat 3 and some other lathes is their ability to break, usually during a fine finish operation just as the finish is almost complete, or at some other inconvenient time, so it seems to me. From my own experience, it seemed to be…
Background There are occasions when it is necessary to stamp numbers on newly created index dials etc. and although giving a punch a clout with a hammer isnt rocket science, it is worth considering that the end result will be accurate and aesthetically pleasing. Having used the following system to good effect, I thought I…
It would seem to be the general consensus that some form of ‘Electric Emery Cloth’ is a useful addition to the workshop and to this end, I considered buying a combination disc and belt sander. I found just the item at the Ascot exhibition at a reasonable price, but was informed that I could not…
Background When I ordered the kit for the Versatile Dividing Head, I went the whole hog and also ordered the milling kit and the swivel base; designed by Mr. L. Downs. As I had mounted the Dividing Head on an adaptor plate to attain the centre height and Tee slot spacing of my lathes cross…
Sometime in the early eighties, I built a tool holder to a design published in Model Engineer, intended to assist in tool retraction during screw cutting and boring operations, photo 1. The article was by ‘Martin Cleeve’, although I cannot verify this. It is odd, as he filed the patent for his retracting swing tool…
Background There are many occasions when it becomes necessary to graduate various scales on pieces of workshop equipment and projects. There have been various ways of achieving this described in the past, which have been effective and produced successful results. Although there are usually no time constraints in the hobby workshop, anything, which produces the…
A milling and drilling attachment is a very useful addition for the smaller lathe. The Unimat 3 attachment can be set into the ‘V’ block at the back of the lathe bed casting, or mounted on the cross-slide using the special ‘T’ bolt. Another useful accessory is a compound milling table, which turns the milling…
Background I have been the proud owner of a Worden Tool and Cutter Grinder, Ref.1 for some time now and, as with most tools we use, various things are done over time to make for easier use or to provide added facility. What follows is by no means meant as a criticism of the…
