Member postings for Alan Jackson

I have a friend who has a mini mill which has stripped its plastic gears. He is looking for a replacement 37 tooth helical gear. I have seen in the past magazines a belt drive conversion, but cannot remember where the article came from in the MEW. Can anybody point me to the article or better still are there conversion kits available?

Cheers

Alan

Lots of engines on the scrap heap

... and that's before Annie and Clarabel start selling their stories to the paparazzi...

I do hope your are not referring to the alleged steamy incident when Gordon shunted Clarabel up the sidings one dark night. That was years ago and I thought long forgotten.

Politically corrected, the Fat Controller has been renamed Mr Topman

Well done Adam, I am quite sure you will be very happy with this lathe

Alan

I always drill first with a small pilot drill then a drill just smaller than the finished size, finally open the hole up with the required size, this avoids any drill point grinding coming into play and avoids oversize holes. I think it is an accepted fact that drills usually cut oversize if the drill point is dictating the cut.

Alan

I have found that painting the file surface with white spirit helps to reduce the file clogging. I use a wire brush to clear most of the file grooves but I still have to pick out the stubborn bits with a pointed object.

Alan

I did the same as Chris and added slots to my cross slide that can fit a rear toolpost etc.

Years ago I tried to sharpen my Dad's cylinder lawnmower. Well it took me all day to dismantle it then place it on my old lathe to skim the cylinder and reassemble it. Eventually I devised a thin sheet of metal the width of the cylinder clamped to one of the cross bars that space out the bearing end plates. On the other end of the metal sheet I clamped a parallel, oval shaped sharpening stone that was used for sharpening scythes etc. The plate assembly was pushed up to the cylinder so that the sheet metal acted as a spring. Then by dragging the lawnmower backwards it sharpened the cylinder. This worked very well and I sharpened quite a few lawnmowers. I even thought about making and selling them but rotary blade mowers were becoming the thing. This way saved dismantling and reassembling the whole mower.

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 16/07/2018 18:11:29

Here is my home made surface grinder made from the bottom half of a Dore Westbury mill and a large lathe toolpost grinder. It is very useful for many small uses and finishing after machining.

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 06/07/2018 10:08:10

Hi James,

If you look at my photos you will see a simple design I made years ago and its still working very well.

Alan

Hi All,

I would just like to convey my appreciation of M-Machine. I ordered some metals on Friday evening and it was delivered on Tuesday morning. How's that for fast efficient service.

Alan

That looks a fine piece of engineering Neil, congratulations

Alan

You could make your own centre

Alan

What about references to earlier articles to make and recycle your own spark plugs.

Alan

No Problem Neil, I would not like Peter to take the blame for my doings

Mike,

If I had helped direct Lord of the Rings I would have made cost cuts by cutting it down to Lord of the Ring, using only one ring.

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 26/11/2017 10:02:55

Neil my name is Alan not Peter

Alan

I have a rubber car mat on one half of the bench and the other half covered with a piece of carpet. The carpet is useful for dismantling parts as they stay where they are, it also is a good soft surface for filing small parts etc.

Alan

I hope you will soon be up and running John and looking forward to a pie and a pint or two.

Best wishes

Alan

Looks like a handy tool for safe breaking

I would like to congratulate Stephen Wessel on his Modern flute making articles. It is most informative and Stephen details many clever techniques.

Alan