building a releasing power tapping machine from a Sturmey Archer three speed hub

[mike allen 3Participant @mikeallen3]

Not sure this is the right place to ask this question so moderator please move if needed . A member in one of the groups that I subscribe to posted about a article that he was looking for from  a very old issue of Model Engineer . it was on “building a releasing power tapping machine from a Sturmey Archer three speed hub gear . Does anyone here know about this article ? Any idea on how to find a copy . I checked the back issues but they said they  only went back to 1990 .

thanks

animal

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Google to the rescue !!

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/old-volumes/

MichaelG.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

According to this handy but out of date index https://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/

Year 1962
Volume 126
Issue 3175
Page 613

Author Martin Cleeve
Topic A Tapping Machine
Based on Sturmey-Archer three-speed gear

If someone has a copy of this magazine, could they post a copy of the article? I would be most interested to see how he did it. Although, these days I suppose it might be cheaper and easier to buy a tapping head than an old Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub!

I am intrigued to see if he incorporated a torque clutch and reversing mechanism or is it just used as a speed reducer for tapping?

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

It was Martin Cleeve who designed this device. A late friend of mine was a correspondent of his and Cleeve gave him a copy of the drawings. My friend gave them to me shortly before he died. At least 20 years ago I passed them on to the late Chris Deith, then of EiM and TEE, in the hope that the device would be constructed by a much more capable person than I and the design published. AFAIK the drawings were passed to a regular (now late) contributor to EiM but nothing was ever published, sadly. The drawings may well still be in existence somewhere but I don’t know how anyone could get hold of them.

Addendum: Until I read the above post I was not aware that the design had already been published in ME. This may be the reason it was never pursued by EiM. I will search for it in my Club’s archive.

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Try this link for ME #3175: https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/mediapress/members/79865/689522/me-3175.pdf

Thor

 

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Well done, Thor … duly downloaded !

As an aside: It would be good to see modern incarnations of the magazine[s] having that much useful content.

MichaelG.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

That looks an interesting project and as Michael says be nice to see things like that in todays mags.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Thanks Thor.

A quick scan of the article and accompanying drawing and it looks like the planetary reduction gearbox from a discarded cordless drill could be used as a substitute. I don’t remember the last time I saw a Sturmey Archer hub kicking around cheap.

I will have to print it out and have a closer look. I recently passed on a small drill press that looked like a larger version of a sensitive drill press because is was a bit large, but it could be repurposed for tapping with a bit of inspiration from Mr Cleeve.

I think there are not so many articles like that today because people buy cheap Chinese tapping heads or other tooling on the internet instead of making it. In Cleeve’s day, such things were for industry only and prohibitively expensive for hobbyists for the most part. So making your own was the only way to get one. Today, I frequently find tools etc that are cheaper to buy from Aliexpress etc than I could buy the materials to make one. (Admittedly materials are expensive where I live in Oodnawoopwoop, Australia )

[mike TParticipant @miket56243]

Thanks Thor,

Thank you for the link to the tapping head build article. Now I know what to do with my collection of old Sturmey Archer 3-speed hubs. I have several spare SA 3-speed hubs available, if you (or another member) wants one, send me a PM.

Mike

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

As an aside, one incarnation of the Rollo Elf lathe used a SA 3 speed hub to provide a geared headstock.

Rod

[Hopper]

On Hopper Said:

Although, these days I suppose it might be cheaper and easier to buy a tapping head than an old Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub!?

Or just use the tapping feature on a modern benchtop mill, does the reversing too

[Chris Crew]

On Chris Crew Said:

It was Martin Cleeve who designed this device. A late friend of mine was a correspondent of his and Cleeve gave him a copy of the drawings. My friend gave them to me shortly before he died. At least 20 years ago I passed them on to the late Chris Deith, then of EiM and TEE, in the hope that the device would be constructed by a much more capable person than I and the design published. AFAIK the drawings were passed to a regular (now late) contributor to EiM but nothing was ever published, sadly. The drawings may well still be in existence somewhere but I don’t know how anyone could get hold of them.

Addendum: Until I read the above post I was not aware that the design had already been published in ME. This may be the reason it was never pursued by EiM. I will search for it in my Club’s archive.

Hi Chris,

You are correct as regards Chris Deith sending out the drawings for someone to build the unit. I was one of the recipients. Given the complexity of the design and the high cost of Sturmey Archer hubs at that time, I eventually declined the offer. This was done for several other reasons. One was I had no real need for such a device, and did not really want to waste time making something I would rarely use. I had also just been forced into early retirement due to my illness and finally I did not really want to put my name to a design that essentially was not mine.

I had no idea the design was by Martin Cleeve, there was nothing on the drawing to say so.

Eventually given my concerns we decided not to proceed with the project as we also thought there would not be much of a take-up on such a design.

For the life of me I cannot remember what happened to the drawings as it is now over 12 years ago, I think I may have returned them. I can say they are not here.

Regards

Gray,

[mike allen 3Participant @mikeallen3]

Gentlemen thank you all very much . I must have been asking mr Google the wrong question cause all my searches came up blank . & I also had some issue trying to navigate the back issue pace . I live in the USA so I get my magazine electronically & I could not find my acct# anywhere to be able to login to the back issue dept . Thank you all again for such a quick response .

animal

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

Reversing tapping attachment, oh that brings back some memories.

Way back in 1957 when I started work as an apprentice, one of the first jobs I was given was drilling some gearbox castings for hand driven fans on portable forges used by the army ‘in the field’

Some of the holes were blind and had to be tapped using a reversing attachment.

Trouble was the drill speed was far too high resulting in many broken taps, I was terrified after the first three breakages.

The machine shop foreman wandered up asking me what the problem was, he ushered me to one side saying’ never be afraid of your machine son’ showing me how to do it he had exactly the same result.

Sucking on his pipe he said, ‘You’ll soon get the hang of it son’ and walked off!!

 

Bill D.

[mike allen 3Participant @mikeallen3]

I was on that page last nite 

https://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/

& no matter what I inputed I keep getting 0 records returned .  But we got the result we were after .

There was a pair of small lathes that Craftsman sold that used that 3 planetary gear setup for the backgear  setup , I hear that they worked ok . I have 2 of those lathes but their real far from getting into action , if I even get to them . I remember taking apart one of those Sturmey Archer hubs @ 50 something years ago & parts flew everywhere .

thanks

again folks .

animal

[mike allen 3]

On mike allen 3 Said:

I was on that page last nite

https://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/

& no matter what I inputed I keep getting 0 records returned .  But we got the result we were after

On mike allen 3 Said:

I was on that page last nite

https://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/

& no matter what I inputed I keep getting 0 records returned .

The fewer search words you put in , the better it works. EG, entering only the word Sturmey gives this https://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/me_response.php

 

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

Gray,

Thank you for confirming what I had said about the original drawings and the reason the design was not published in EiM.

As I stated earlier, until I learned from this thread that the design had already been published in ME I thought I had passed on something exclusive to EiM.

Anyway, it is nice to know that the potential project was taken seriously, if not pursued. Thank you.

 

Chris c.

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