What did you do Today 2024

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Not quite today, I finished the (2nd edition of) my  washing machine.

Not for mundane things such as shirts, but instead for watch parts.

The first edition was semi-manual – a knob to control speed and a switch to set direction.  As one needs the direction to be changed fairly often (every few seconds), you can immediately see why version two was embarked on after only one attempted use!

Above is beast in idle or drying mode.  The basket contains the parts (and indeed the basket contains baskets which  contain smaller parts, but thankfully the containment stops there).

Here is what it looks like immersed in the cleaning fluid

The jar is empty for photographic purposes.

And below is the rather unprofessionally laid out electronics.

Iain

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Hoisted a Welsh dragon up our new flagpole on the church. Yesterday walked the old pole a mile home on my shoulder; makes crossing main roads interesting. If we can’t get permission to have it at the Men’s Shed I will have 6m of gradually tapering ali tube.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

iain – how does it work?

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I unearthed my EW lathe from accumulated rammel.

It is on a purpose-made trolley and lives in the middle room*, so I can use it when the workshop’s all horrible and cold and the dark, wet night is not conducive to an expedition down the garden.

Hence thinking it’s about time I used what was my 18th Birthday Present from my parents, and second-hand then! Joy of joy years later when I found from Tony Griffith’s site that it has all its accessories bar the change-wheel guard that seems a rarity anyway. It still has its maker’s plate and most of the black crackle paint in intact too.

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The thing has had a hard life though, and its spindle and headstock journals are worn. The bearing surfaces of the spindle are down to 0.747″ diameter, the plain holes in the two headstock castings are loose. They are of clamp type but tightening them to remove the shake risks over-straining them.

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So I dismantled it to investigate more closely and try to work out a solution. There is not much leeway for boring the castings out for bushes, nor for skimming the spindle below diameter without creating assembly problems.

Make a new spindle a few “thou” oversize and lap the headstocks? Hmmm. The spindle is just over 7″ long so that’s a long way to drill straight even from both ends, and I can’t go much larger without having to bore out the cone pulley and thin back-gear pinion too. I could investigate this further by making plug and ring gauges, and have already used some spare Harrison lathe parts as on-size gauges.

I might find 0.005″ over will still take the pulley and pinion, between the journals, thanks to their own wear.

A new spindle to size +/- 0.001″ (really needs a toolpost grinder, does this) and very thin-wall bushes are the ideal solution but I am not sure of the best material. The existing one does not seem hardened and plain mild-steel might be fine.

I have worked out how to mount the castings on the lathe or mill, via a plate made to fit the dovetail grooves.

”’

*Old family habits die hard. Others might call it the “dining-room”.

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

Good job I fitted the riser block, the knee is fully down and I just have enough room to get the indicator in and will be able to mount a cutter directly in the spindle

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

….

I might find 0.005″ over will still take the pulley and pinion, between the journals, thanks to their own wear.

A new spindle to size +/- 0.001″ (really needs a toolpost grinder, does this)…..

If you can get the cast iron bearings anything like round how about hard chrome plating the spindle and regrinding? Sounds like too much work to me, but if it has sentimental value….

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Diogenes – In outline,  the motor swishes the basket clockwise then anticlockwise and repeats.  the knobs control the swish speed, the time in each direction and the overall time.  All controlled by an Arduino.

There are three phases.  The wash in which the washing fluid is lighter fluid and then one or more rinses which are in isopropyl alcohol.  The final phases is a drying in which the basket is raised and a tiny fan heater pointed at it (with the basket rotating).  The switch for the fan heater is on the right of the panel, but the fan heater not shown.

In each phase the basket can be lifted a little to be inside the jar but above the fluid and is run as a ‘spin dry’ cycle.

The main advantage of mine is that it is made almost entirely out of bits I had lying around which makes it several thousand pounds cheaper than a pro version!

 

Iain

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Iain – really loved the application and use of ‘recycled’ bits and pieces + saving you a boat load of cash into the bargain by the sound of it.

Just what this hobby is all about.

regards Mike

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

🙂

Thanks Mike.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Iain –

Fine piece of work! Is the jar a Kilner jar?

…

Duncan –

I doubt I could justify the cost of a plated and reground spindle though I don’t know what it would cost, nor who would carry out a small, non-trade task like that.

The lathe is basically in pretty good condition apart from the loose spindle, and that it having sentimental value is one but not the only reason for refurbishing it.

The lead-screw nut is probably quite worn as it is the only way to move the saddle for turning as well as screw-cutting, but would be moderately easy to replace. It is cast-iron, keyhole-shape in section (cylinder with a lug along its length), so could be sculpted from a rectangular block, or a steel strip secured to a cylinder by several small screws.

The flat bed seems to have been surfaced by fly-cutter, and though there is a patch where the arcs have worn off, much of it is still visible.

The tailstock screw is rattly but the barrel is still a reasonable fit in the casting. Its graduations are worn but recoverable – e.g. use a larger lathe to hold it and hand-swing the barrel against a thread-cutting tool as a graver.

My thought for holding the two separate headstock castings is to make a short version of the bed to which they can be clamped, and the assembly either fitted vertically to an angle-plate on the mill for the boring-head, or to a larger lathe for boring-bar access. The tailstock is in sufficiently good condition to use as the centering jig.

The advantage there, especially if made for horizontal boring, is creating a jig that could be useful for making further accessories such as steadies for the EW.

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The lathe has its full suite of change-wheels, chucks, faceplate, boring-table and vertical slide so is a versatile little thing that would appreciate a little fettling! I may experiment with making a new spindle before going much further with the lathe itself. That’s a task for the Harrison lathe for which I have a collet-chuck, and which gives extremely fine self-acting feed rates.

Finishing the register, nose-thread and taper-reaming of course is done on its own lathe.

 

It’s clear from this site that there are quite a number of we EW Lathe owners about, some Doing Things that enhance their lathes though I prefer to make clamp-on accessories fitting what exists, to modifying the machine itself.

‘

Sentimental?

And restoring long-case clocks, Holtzappfel lathes, vintage cars and steam-locomotives isn’t? 🙂

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Nigel

If you are not already aware of it … You may find this site of interest:

http://modelengineeringnorge.weebly.com/updating-the-ew-lathe.html

Note: I have intentionally set that particular page as your landing-page, because the comments towards the bottom need reading.

MichaelG.

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Edit: __ sorry, that was presumably superfluous

… I have just located the old Stringer EW thread Topic and it appears that you were the most recent participant:

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/stringer-ew-lathe/page/14/#post-637815

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Nigel.  I had terrible trouble finding a jar with straight enough sides (or rather where the mouth was nearly the same width as the insides).  These came from Lakeland, actually.  My motivation for straight sides was to minimise the amount of fluid used as zippo is not cheap.  In hindsight I would probably have taken a hit on the zippo as it took a while to find these.

The size of course was gated by the ‘jewellery cleaning basket’ into which the items are put.

Iain

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

“.. ..I doubt I could justify the cost of a plated and reground spindle though I don’t know what it would cost, nor who would carry out a small, non-trade task like that.. ..”

..Philpotts..

..they’ve done two or three pairs of m/c forks for me over the years, send them off and they mail them back.. ..most definitely worth talking to, it used to be ‘cheaper than expected’..

https://www.amphardchrome.co.uk/

or HCP in Nottingham?

https://www.hardchromeplating.co.uk/hard-chrome-plating

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Iain –

Lakeland eh? Well, your watch parts deserve only the best! Could you not use a solvent like white-spirit then a rinse in the more exotic solvent?

Perhaps make a vapour-rinse bath for the second process?

”””’

Diogenes –

Thankyou for those leads. HCP starts off by saying they are open during this “lock-down crisis” then goes on to imply it is a trade-account business, as I would expect, really.

I’d still need rebore and bush the castings as they are worn too. The problem with altering the spindle diameter is that of accommodating the cone pulley and back-gear pinion, and a fine thread of the same diameter on the tail end of the spindle.

””’

Me –

Today…. Freezing my hands very badly on surface duty on a cave “dig” on the Mendip Hills, mainly in bitterly cold drizzle.

‘

Thawed over the caving-club teapot, then back home and wrapped around fish-and-chips, I had a go at drawing a slightly modified “Main Feed Screw” for a ‘Stent’ Tool-&-Cutter Grinder I was given incomplete years ago.

Its builder, a fellow club-member, reckoned he no longer needed finish it as he was going to all-insert milling cutters. Must be made of money, as our Mam would have said.

My modification is to compensate for an arithmetical error I’d made in machining the Main Feed Screw Guide, mainly a tube. I had mis-read the original, Blackgates-published drawings and made the tube 5/16″ too short!

Then found I’d made a big arithmetical error in my calculations for this new drawing (I was never right good at sums), so had to start the bloomin’ thing all over again.

Then small numerical errors showed in the dimensions in Attempt Two, needing a Corrigendum on this second drawing.

This was my first attempt at this ‘ere Alibre this year. Eeh, what a battle with sums and software, but it’s done now and shown on my printer-killing thread.

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

EW Lathe Matters…

Michael, Diogenes –

I’ve just read that article you cite. I’ve certainly no need nor wish to give mine all those additions, nor to modify the original machine’s own design and components more than necessary.

I have used it for screw-cutting by fitting a temporary handle to one of the holes in the countershaft’s driven pulley, but for some reason did not twig that slipping the motor belt off would make the task much less hard work.

The essential weakness with plain sprung-cylindrical bearings of that design is very little latitude for taking up wear. However, making or fitting tapered journals on this lathe would necessitate a new spindle as well as very delicate machine setting on a larger lathe, to modify the headstocks while keeping their concentricity and centre-heights.

“Just” having the spindle plated and ground may remove the worst shake, making reboring the journals not necessary. The diameter is constant along the length, simplifying it. If ground to or very slightly oversize the journals and the drive parts may need only light attention with an aluminium lap; between-centres on a larger lathe. It’s certainly worth re-considering though my initial fear was of considerable cost. The right approach would be to send a drawing and photo with the enquiry to the metal-finishers.

I want to bring this lathe back to near-original condition, so I can use it, not make it into some sort of new lathe incorporating EW bits!

 

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

EW Lathe Matters…

Michael, Diogenes –

I’ve just read that article you cite. I’ve certainly no need nor wish to give mine all those additions, nor to modify the original machine’s own design and components more than necessary.

[…]

Then please forgive me for intruding

… I had already noted that the link I provided was probably superfluous, but given your response, perhaps it would have been been better to simply delete my post.

 

MichaelG.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Superfluous? Why? It was interesting article – just because it describes modifications whereas I simply want to repair my lathe, does not detract from that. (Those modifications are primarily to fit features my other lathes came manufactured with.)

There are many aspects of model-engineering that are outside my own, but that does not mean I can’t take at least some interest in them.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Superfluous because you were obviously already aware of the Author, and had contributed to the previous discussion on the old forum.

MichaelG.

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.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines superfluous as

“exceeding what is sufficient or necessary”

 

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

Today I played for the first time with a working milling machine!

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

85mm long straight knurls on 316, No Thanks but the shaper comes into it own once again!!!

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Michael –

Sorry, obviously I had totally missed or misread something there! Ah well, that doesn’t surprise me.

 

++++

Apart from which I set to, making (with a struggle) new drawings of some of the parts I still need make to complete a ‘Stent’ Tool-&-cutter grinder. It was a bit of CAD practice too.

A walk by the sea in the sunshine (what a contrast to yesterday’s weather) led to me realising a better way to work round a mistake I made in making one component quite a while ago.

Then the more I studied my now-fragile, yellowing copies of the published drawings the more puzzled I became.

Quite a lot of these machines have been built, and I have a copy of Model Engineer’s Workshop that shows a basic but major improvement, but parts of the General Arrangement drawings are vague and there seems some peculiar things about the design!

I’ll put a query on the Manual Machine-tools section, but meanwhile can make some physical progress with it.

 

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Diogenes.

I confess I’m simply following what appears to be ‘industry norms’  You can get specialist cleaning and rinsing fluids (at some expense), but these two are the traditionally used substances.  You also have to take care as shellac, which is used to fix tiny jewels onto balance staffs and escapement forks gets dissolved in IPA and probably other things.

 

Iain

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Thanks, Iain – I’m always interested in how others do things, especially if it’s something that I’ve never seen before – there’s nearly always something that can be taken away – I was half-expecting to find it required electronics skills far beyond my reach, so it’s doubly useful to me!

👍

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

NG2

IMO hard chroming and grinding the spindle journals back to size has to be a step in the right direction.

The wear in the headstock bores MIGHT be curable by very slight boring, and fitting a precision sleeve.

(There used to be a company that supplied stainless steel sleeves to repair worn the journals where lip seals ran. Their sleeves were of minimal thickness, so might just do the job.

BODGE, fit  the sleeve(s) with a smear of JB weld on the back to fill the gap between the sleeve and the worn bore, and then wipe away any surplus. Afterwards, you would ned to reinstate any oilways.

Howard

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thankyou!

I have indeed looked for thin-wall sleeves and wondered about using shim brass, with a folded lip on the end to enter the casting’s adjustment slot to prevent it rotating. Or very bravely turning very thin-walled bushes.

The thinnest bushes I could find are steel with PTFE linings, which would still need the journals enlarging.

I am not sure about JB Weld but some types of powder-reinforced resin filler are used to rebuild rubbing surfaces. The difficulty is whether the filler would be abrasive, depending on the make and type. Also it may not be suitable on a bearing adjusted by flexing its wall.

The use you suggest is less of a bodge then you say because the filler is not the running surface.

Before going too far I will experiment with trial plugs of differing diameters.  A built-up and ground repair may well be sufficient.

‘

[I have a somewhat similar problem with the over-arm on my Denbigh milling-machine. The clamp parts of the head casting will not tighten onto the bar, via cast-iron sleeves, without undue strain, but I have a suspicion these parts might not be original. Especially when I remember the remarkably home-made drive-machinery that it came to me with!]

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