Article Suggestion “White Elephant & Why”

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

And after spending several years laboriously making my fabricated version of GHT's Versatile Dividing Head, including the index plates and secondary "micro adjustment" mechanism that lets you index to within one thousandth of a degree, I am yet to use the indexing mechanism for anything other than making its own index plates and drilling the 814 holes therein. Every other job so far has been using the 60-tooth gear and a plunger for direct indexing. One day I'll need to make that 127 tooth gear… Meanwhile, the VDH spends most of its life on my dining table as a piece of art.

Make that two. I bought mine ready built from an obviously accomplished engineer (one of the nicest pieces of "home made" workmanship I've ever seen). It came with the book too. The VDH and micro attachment with it's tailstock will get used but I also got the Myford Headstock dividing attachment by the same author and built by the same gentleman that will ultimately get fitted to the lathe but not until a job warrants it. Meanwhile, speed and ease usually wins the day with a gear mounted on the rear of the spindle and a plunger.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Well, I for one use my GHT dividing head regularly. It fits on the mill easily because I went to the trouble of making the raising blocks which are keyed into the T slots. It's a fixed distance fron the rear vertical face of the table so with the DRO and a wobbler can be mounted and referenced in a couple of minutes. It takes a similar amount of time to mount on the lathe boring table. The indexing plates and micro adjust are common to my headstock dividing arrangement and the Myford Nose adapter allows mounting of all my chucks or ER collet adaptors.

regards Martin

[Philip RoweParticipant @philiprowe13116]

Well this thread has proved to be quite enlightening to me, every time I am doing frequent changes of tooling in the tailstock for example when making fittings, I curse the fact that I have never made the tailstock turret kit that is sitting under the bench. Reading this thread makes me feel much better now knowing other people's experiences.

Another thing that I have always hankered after is one of the 3 in 1 sheet metal machines, I now know that I don't need one of those either! In fact the longer this thread continues may mean that I never have to buy anything for the workshop ever again.

Phil

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Tim Stevens on 17/11/2017 14:44:38:

Queen Elizabeth was following a long tradition of imposing herself on her Lords. The monarch did not have a reliable income, and the only way to feed the entourage was to park it on someone whose power derived from the monarch.

My god ! ….. taken out of context ……

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

At least, for once, I seem to be in plenty of good company with my Tailstock Turret. Fitted it once, realised that the Die Holder was going to fall off every time, and it hasn't seen the light of day since. Should have been ideal for speeding up drilling and tapping.

Definitely qualifies me for the Tombstone engraving of "Seemed a Good Idea at the Time"

QCTP is in the same class, currently, having no space to store spare toolholders.

IF I had a 3D printer, am sure that once programming it had been mastered, (Very difficult in my case) it would be an invaluable bit of kit. Should save all manner of complicated machining, fabrication and welding, subject to strength of the material used.

Howard

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

A 3D printer could solve your QCTP problem…

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

…. or put up a shelf.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 17/11/2017 21:29:07:

A 3D printer could solve your QCTP problem…

And so does a bit of junior carpentry

Michael W

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

I have about 20minutes and less than a fiver in this:

It's several short pieces of 25x1mm steel strap bent and welded to a longer piece. No measurements were made when making this as each piece was marked out and bent to match the first one which looked about right. They were spaced apart by using the same piece. The rack is bolted to a cupboard door next to the lathe. I must make another, as I now have more holders.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

White elephant…

My 50g per shot max injection moulding machine. Got from the skip at work. It works, but the moq for plastic granules is around a tonne, so quite a bit more than I need at home. I have about 500g left, and after that the thing will be useless.

The Boxford shaper is used, just not often, and I use it so rarely that I tend to forget something and the first couple of hours work from it tends to be 'close, but not close enough' and thereby scrap.

Regards

Richard.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by richardandtracy on 18/11/2017 07:09:58:

White elephant…

My 50g per shot max injection moulding machine. Got from the skip at work. It works, but the moq for plastic granules is around a tonne, so quite a bit more than I need at home. I have about 500g left, and after that the thing will be useless.

.

If you are serious, Richard; please let me have some details of the machine

… I may be interested in re-homing your little elephantette.

MichaelG.

[Steve PaveyParticipant @stevepavey65865]

Given the price I paid for two of these, plus the fact that they were bought on the recommendation of one Stefan Gotteswinter, this wretched thing shouldn’t really be white elephant. As with any edge tool they (I bought two of them) work fine on brass and aluminium of course, but show them a bit of 316, EN3 or EN24t (which is what I was using this evening) and they have a mind of their own – sometimes producing a reasonable curl of shiny scarf and at other times chewing the metal off as if it had never been sharpened in its life. And occasionally there’s an almighty bang and this happens.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If there were room for more shelves, I'd fit some more!

As it is, my small shop is an animated Rubiks cube, (the shelves are 1" ex bargeborading and visibly bend). With two people in there, it gets crowded.

Soon will have to move everything off the plastic matting and sweep up the swarf that is coming up through the holes!

If it gets used, it can't be a white elephant, (Those sit on the shelf or in a cupboard while we wonder why we ever got the thing in the first place). Possibly, some of the "Come in handy one day" things qualify?

Howard

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