Member postings for colin hawes

If a machine catches even a thin glove it can drag your hand in long before the glove has had enough time to tear even if it is rotating at only 100 rpm. Don't do it ! .It is easier to clean your hand than to replace it. Colin

I store my heavy chucks on a shelf behind the lathe with a short ramp so that I can roll them into place at the right level to fit them . I have done the same with a heavy dividing head by the horizontal miill .I'm no' so young as I used to be! Colin

ER collets have a wide clamping range for each nominal size but you should use one that is the correct size for strongest grip. Colin

My lathe and horizontal mill both have three step flat belt pulleys that I made many years ago from sheet metal discs with welded on sheet metal bands for the belt to run on. Tube is welded though through the centre. Perhaps I was lucky as they both ran very close to true. These pulleys have a largest diameter of about 9". Colin

Hand reamers are only useful for opening holes such as little end bushes in situ where it can't be done on a machine. Colin

I would always prefer a gap bed lathe for its versatility. Colin

When you have acquired the skill after frequent use you will find the "second" knurled knob gives a better feel on precision work and also that feel lets you know if a bit of debris is causing a false reading. Colin

BSP 28 tpi threads come close. Colin

Edited By colin hawes on 27/08/2019 15:42:11

I have a cheap 3 jaw chuck that is quite accurate on some diameters of stock and much less on others, the accuracy varying between 0.001" and 0.005" T.I.R. Having checked the parallelism between register, back plate and chuck faces I come to the conclusion that the scroll is likely to be the cause of the variation so it seems that for one-offs I might as well use an independent four jaw chuck as attempt to adjust the self centering one...……I am hoping to improve things now that I have discovered small burrs on the scroll Colin.

The scroll needs to be checked for radial slackness.

Edited By colin hawes on 06/08/2019 10:33:04

Be wary of the description HSS. It's been used as a suppliers name in the past. Colin

Estimation followed by adjustment if necessary. Colin

If I am doing intricate work I tidy all around that area first otherwise something is certain to disappear but I do keep the machine surfaces wiped clean. I do the floor if I think it needs it. Colin

A company where I worked had frequent trouble with a radial drill motor randomly blowing one or more of it's three fuses. Electrical maintenance people were called in several times to solve the problem, checking everything with their test equipment and finding no fault as the motor would always run again with replacement fuses and their conclusion was that a rewind was required. I took the motor apart myself ( with some difficulty) and found the stator and rotor almost seized with accumulated sticky debris from years of use. It ran faultlessly after that was cleaned off.

Excellent training film. Colin

Yes....and make sure you keep the tools sharp. Colin

I don't know the exact design of this machine but the sort of things I would examine are : can the half nuts move? are there missing teeth in the gears? Has the shear pin partly failed? I would not expect end float on the leadscrew to be the cause of your problem. Colin

I have machined 24 notches on my backplate for dividing purposes. Colin

Thank you Ketan for that information. Colin

Does the control board have no overcurrent / overload protection then? Just a question . Colin

I have always reckoned that gears should be unbreakable not fail safe and that plastic of any sort for this job is used because it is far cheaper to injection mould a plastic gear than to machine a steel one. A sheer pin device would be used if protection was considered necessary but I have known a Tufnol gear to be used in a gear train to reduce noise. If my minimill gears ever strip I shall replace them with steel/cast iron ones and grease them well. Colin.