Nookys Nuts online shop stock BSF/ cycle nuts, I use them on my motorcycle rebuilds, good quality. They are zinc plated.

Colin

Edited By colin brannigan on 17/05/2019 21:09:03

Are these chaps any good ? Accupro, **LINK**

I used B&Q brick cleaner (Hydrochloric acid) to remove zinc plating when I wanted to blacken some nuts. You also end up with zinc chloride solution (killed spirits). Useful for soft soldering.

Correct, I bought it locally from a two man band that were retiring.The lathe is a Britan, made in Cambridge, probably in the mid 1960s. Here's a picture with the key components annotated:

It's quite a small machine, about the same footprint as a Myford ML7, but weighs about 1500lbs. It's similar to a capstan lathe, but is more versatile and is intended for mass production of small parts. Note that the tools are behind the work but the right way up. In normal operation the main spindle rotates clockwise. There are no dials or DROs, everything is done using adjustable stops. In industry the lathe would have been set up by a skilled man and then run by operators on piece rate.

The lathe has a two speed reversing motor; speed and direction changes can be made on the fly, no need to stop and start the motor. There is also an auxiliary motor that drives a coolant pump, a hydraulic pump that provides auto traverse and an air compressor for the bar feeder.

The lathe is collet only, I have the larger 1-1/4" version. The collets are dead length meaning the material doesn't move axially when the collet is closed. The collets are similar to the DIN6343 but are not standard, by coincidence this is a 0.820" hex collet for BSW:

Like all lathes of this type they are pretty much useless without tooling. Fortunately my example came with a significant number of collets and accessories. And I've managed to buy more tooling via Ebay. More collets are always useful, although I've got nearly a full set of imperial rounds. Here are some accessories:

I haven't used the lathe to anywhere near it's full potential but I've made most of my own nuts, bolts, washers, studs and threaded "rivets" for my traction engines:

I'm currently using the Britan to shorten steel rivets before using them on the rear wheel strakes.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 18/05/2019 10:47:44

Andrew, have you made any collets for this lathe yourself?

Andrew,

Thank you for your very full response to my suggestion.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I haven't, although some of the odder size collets I have look they have been locally made rather than purchased. It wouldn't be too difficult to make a collet if required. The main issue would be forming the hole if not round.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 19/05/2019 20:55:34