Member postings for colin hawes

There is a picture of one I made in my album under Colin's tool designs.

I am thinking about some sort of lifting device to handle a dividing head for my mill as I am not so young as I thought. I have a 7" centre height Drummond as well but I have fixed a shelf behind it for it's heavy chucks and can roll them onto a board placed on the bed at the right height to line up with the spindle thread. Colin

My tool advice for a small lathe using HSS tools is to keep them very sharp and have much more top and front rake than recommended by text books. Tools nearly always take a cut if wound back to the starting point so simply do your measurement after that. Let it cut in both directions. The return cut will often improve the finish as it is a very small cut and the cutting point is trailing. It is also better to approach the cut with tools' cutting edge either square to the work or at a negative angle. Colin

I look after a Freerider mobility scooter which does use one of its pair of 12v series batteries to provide 12v for its pcb and lights. Colin

A taper along the bar's length would make resonance less likely. Colin

Doesn't a hand reamer size the hole on it's parallel section? Colin

It is true that any hard edged tool such as a high speed lathe tool bit can be scraped very firmly along each flute of a reamer to raise a minute burr that will have the effect of sharpening it. This may not work on a badly worn reamer as it can only be expected to increase the diameter a maximum of 0.002" ​at the cutting edge.​ I used this method occasionally during my toolmaking years to make a reamer cut oversize. Colin

Shapers were in general use before low cost carbide tips were available. During my tool room years I used one a lot for getting black tool steel slabs flat and square as a preliminary process to machining press tool dies. This was done with HSS toolbits in a holder and these could easily be sharpened. I have an Elliott 10m shaper and it is very useful for preparing work for the minimill quickly as it is usually set up with it's own homemade vice and can be used instantly. I used it to machine down some old leaf spring steel, which I couldn't anneal satisfactorily, that would almost certainly damage any milling cutter. Colin

You will need to do milling and a shaper is desirable but not essential in a machine shop. The only way you can prefer a shaper is if your patience and the lathe allow the milling. However , the mill needs to be robust to do work at the speed of the shaper. I'm lucky, I have both. Colin

The tool needs to be rigidly supported too, ie not rocking. Colin

L.H.Sparey's "The amateur's lathe" got me started and hooked 60 years ago and I still think it is excellent. Colin

Many years ago I read an article about an electric car called the IRIS (It Runs In Silence) I think this car was made about 1900 ish , I can't remember exactly, but it seems that the battery set was on a railed platform ,was rented and could be quickly exchanged for a recharged one at the renter's "filling station". Colin

I wonder how the authorities will tax electricity used in cars when we buy far less petrol ! Colin

The problem is with machining flat bar along its length ; There is not usually a problem with tuning round bar but there probably would be if you try to mill a flat along its length. Colin

Fifty years ago it was common to use end mills with a taper shank ; I still have some with various shapes such as gear, tee slot and angle cutters with a Browne & Sharpe taper for which I made a No.2 Morse to No.4 B&S sleeve. I seem to recall seeing Morse taper cutters too. Colin

After squirrels repeatedly gnawed holes through the plastic base on a bird feeder I replaced the plastic part with a home made metal one. Pleased with myself, the next morning I looked out of the window to see a squirrel in the final stage of separating the whole thing from the tree by chewing through the rather thin twig the wire suspension was looped over and running off with the whole feeder.. I never did find it. These amusing varmints get most of the nuts from my hazel trees every year too by pinching them well before they finish ripening. They seem to be cleverer than me. Colin

My 1947 1 1/2 litre jag front wheel bearing was ruined by an M.O.T tester's insistence that he would not pass it unless I eliminated the recommended bearing clearance on the front wheel. I had to go about ten miles to get home.The taper roller bearing turned blue. So it's not always correct to pre load this type of bearing. Colin

I have soft soldered copper wire to stainless steel by "tinning" the stainless with silver solder first. Colin

Some People Have Curly Black Hair Through Perpetual Brushing. That's when the opposite was perpendicular. Colin

sounds to me that a wire is adrift or the insulation is faulty on the start circuit. Colin