What Did You Do Today 2025

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Looks good, Bernard, what material is it?

..is that held in (essentially) a pair of ‘dog-bones’ set at the flank radii, or is it more complex.?

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Its done in the standard westbury jig, I have another in a jig for the Wallaby( another stalled project). The material is a freebie I get from a friend who makes punches and dies from small batch materials. I am going to use it unhardened as its bl***y tough to start with coupled with how much running will it really see(if it gets finished)

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Another ‘tuit job.  After fitting a DRO to my Myford S7, access is to the oil nipple to the rear of the carriage is impaired so I have just made a right angle adapter which sits below the cross slide and allows a Press Parts gun to pump oil onto the rear way:

 

 

Rod

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

EDIT: I have no idea what I did, but making a slight change to the text I struck some arcane key-combination I had no idea exists. It made an American woman start reading it to me, highlighting the entire line in pale blue and each word in turn, in yellow. I could turn her off only by submitting the post then opening it to complete the editing! No doubt another Microsoft “up-date” gimmick… 

 

Ummmm…..

Completed re-assembling the front of Myford ML7 after an accident….

… part-way through making special brass gub-screws.

I held the material in a proper Myford collet, so close to the mandrel that the saddle and top-slide are nearing the ends of their travel. Concentrating on the self-acting feed not ramming the tool into the collet, I forgot the discreet little lead-screw shroud on the leading face of the apron.

Until everything screeched to a halt with a lot of horrible noise.

 

The shroud had run against the screw-cutting gearbox, jamming everything so tightly I had to dismantle the apron and leadscrew.

This is the early-type gear-box with the shortened lead-screw; and had bought it separately from the lathe. I made a special lead-screw from stock Acme thread “studding”, preserving the original. Just in case. The final drive to the screw is a small pinion with a grooved boss and a keyway; on a section of the lead-screw turned down to slightly over root diameter to run in the journal in the gearbox. By slacking its 2BA grub-screw I can slide the pinion along its key, to disengage the leadscrew for operation from the hand-wheel. (I have never used this option. Lifting the gear-selector sufficiently releases the lead-screw for manual operation.)

So to the examination…

– Final-drive pinion jammed so hard against the wall of its pit in the lead-screw I had to drill it out. (Allen grub screws are tough little things.)

– Half-nuts stuck – fortunately these die-cast components had not stripped.

– Banjo pushed round very slightly, jamming the gears linking the spindle to the gearbox.

– Gear-change jammed.

– Worst, three chipped teeth on one of the internal gears; luckily not full-width and not sequentially, oddly.

On re-assembly, I found the ‘Mazak’ lead-screw shroud was bent just enough to rub on the screw. Rather than try to straighten this brittle component I used a washer to tilt it clear.

Much more seriously, the lead-screw looks slightly curved, but I am not sure if it already was. I may well have made it worse.

.

Perhaps I should fit a block that will trip the half-nuts open at full travel….

.

As for the brass grub-screws…. They are anti-rotation pins engaging holes in the half-brasses in the steam-wagon’s rear-axle journals.

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

started on the whippet crankcase today

[DurhambuilderParticipant @durhambuilder]

Having recently purchased a secondhand Warco vmc mill I found it frustrating to find anywhere flat to stick the magnetic dial gauge that didn’t get in the way. A simple bit of 5mm steel plate fixed to the side of the column casting makes things so much easier. The idea for the grub screws in the corners was copied from the adjacent DRO display mounting bracket and ensures the plate is true and doesn’t rock on the rough casting.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Pleased with my installation of the ELECTRONICLEADSCREW.eu  and made these 4 x 3/16″ x 40 tpi studs in 316 ss.  Used the auto threading feature which is far better than having to diss-engage the half nuts at the end of the thread, just back off the cross slide at the end of the thread before the auto return, backlash eliminate and timed pause to put the cut back on for the next cut. Threading speed was 860 Rpm – wouldn’t like to diss-engage half nuts at that speed!

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said

Ummmm…..

Completed re-assembling the front of Myford ML7 after an accident….

… part-way through making special brass gub-screws.

I held the material in a proper Myford collet, so close to the mandrel that the saddle and top-slide are nearing the ends of their travel. Concentrating on the self-acting feed not ramming the tool into the collet, I forgot the discreet little lead-screw shroud on the leading face of the apron.

Until everything screeched to a halt with a lot of horrible noise.

 

The shroud had run against the screw-cutting gearbox, jamming everything so tightly I had to dismantle the apron and leadscrew.

The family ML7 (dad said it was my 8th birthday present in ’66 🙂 ) suffered that fate within months of delivery. It’s still got the shortened shroud, which hasn’t got in the way since that date!

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Today has been a screwcutting day doind M10 x 26mm and M10 x 45mm times 80!! so set up the Mr. Meek screwcutting dog clutch and it then showed what a good bit of kit it is. The threads wetre all in 304 2mm wall tubing and turned out really well. Actual cutting time for the 26mm threads was a shade over 4 mins. Its been a long day have just got in time for a beer!

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

^ this on your S7..? ..Do you have quick-closing or other ‘repetition’ conveniences?

..these days the thought of closing a drawtube collet / winding a key 160 times would be the bit that really made my heart sink..

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

Today has been a screwcutting day doind M10 x 26mm and M10 x 45mm times 80!! so set up the Mr. Meek screwcutting dog clutch and it then showed what a good bit of kit it is. The threads wetre all in 304 2mm wall tubing and turned out really well. Actual cutting time for the 26mm threads was a shade over 4 mins. Its been a long day have just got in time for a beer!

Bernard can you explain these thread sizes as they seem very coarse for the diameter?

Or did you cut M26 x 1.5 and M45 x 1.5. The 1.5 being standard pitch for M10 coarse.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

the 26 and 45 are the length. And yes Diogenes the Meek attachment with the retracting crosslide makes it  semi automatic

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

👍..nice – quite like hearing how people go about the jobs they do..

[Speedy Builder5]

On Speedy Builder5 Said:

Pleased with my installation of the ELECTRONICLEADSCREW.eu  and made these […]

That thing looks more tempting every time I see it mentioned … Do you have any misgivings at all? or is perfect in every way?

MichaelG.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Still far too slow progress but gradually advancing work on completing my steam-wagon’s rear axle.

Made an adaptor to hold a small Stauffer-type grease-cup on the nearside, differential road-wheel hub –  a little bit of screw-cutting. The grease-cup itself, of unknown source, has been waiting patiently to find a new career decades after I found it!

Turned a grease-groove with two holes through to the bore, on that wheel’s cannon-shaft, which runs on the axle’s through-shaft. I used a 6mm dia button-tool for the groove, then a large centre-drill for the ways so they have generous entry countersinks.

The theory / hope is that some of the grease fed from grease-nipples or Stauffer cups on the split main journals will find its way round the groove and through the radial holes, to the inner shaft.

…

Silver lining time. A couple of weeks ago I jammed the lathe by not noticing the leadscrew cover’s approach to the screw-cutting gearbox – I was too busy making sure the tool did not hit the collet. Sorting that accident entailed dismantling and re-erecting the saddle, in which I succeeded in making the half-nut action much smoother and more reliable as a result.

Since treating the lathe (Myford ML7) to a gearbox, and a threading-dial, I have come to quite enjoy screw-cutting!

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

ELECTRONICLEADSCREW.com

See https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/els-for-boxford-aud/

Michael, No.  (No misgivings for the price of the complete setup).

Yes, it takes a little longer using a single button to increment dimensions from zero to the desired value, wether that is thread length, TPI, etc, but once set, you can power off at the end of the day and the settings will be there next time you use it.  Besides threading, turning up to a shoulder etc, it displays spindle speed and speed of the stepper motor which can be handy for fault finding etc. (You may inadvertently be working outside the limits of the stepper).

The unit is compact in comparison to most of the other ELS offerings and if you don’t like the plug/socket connexions being open to dust etc, someone has made a new enclosure for the unit which is freely available to print one at home.

The developers I believe are French but will respond in English should you have enquiries,  The downloadable instructions can be in (good) English if you prefer.

Should I have gone for the 2 axis model – Not for me as I don’t have enough work to warrant that.

Hope that helps Michael

Bob

 

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Excellent, Bob … Many thanks.

The compact size is of particular interest.

MichaelG.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Ps, A broaching option is on the developers to do list, but he is not sure when. That could be really handy for making keyways and if you had a “dividing plate” making small splined shafts.

I don’t see why you couldn’t swap the encoder pulses from the headstock spindle for pulses generated from a microcontroller to give the same result.

Bob

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

It’s definitely interesting, Bob … and the broaching option would be good.

… Just getting my head around the pricing

His €80 for the basic module suddenly looks very good value when posting to the UK is €39

MichaelG.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

..Hello – anyone here?..

..Does anyone know if it’s possible to transfer laser print from paper to a metal surface..

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Is it just a printe dpiece of paper that you have or the file it was printed from?

Also do you just want a “printed” image on the metal or something like etched?

PS I’m always here!

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

I was just wanting to transfer a print of a certain ‘panel window’ onto a piece of brass so I can cut round it – l don’t need the crispness of Dykem and layout lines – the prototype was cast, so what looks right will be right..

I’m sure you know what I mean..

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

why not print it then stick to brass with water sol glue saw out and soak copy off?

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

You could use the iron on method as used for making printed circuit boards. I have used something called ‘press n peel’ . This is a link to someone explains how to use it.

http://clacktronics.co.uk/research/pressnpeel/

You may be able to just print onto shiny printer paper for what you want.

Basically you transfer the laser ink onto the metal surface by ironing it on.

You can either use a laser printer or a photocopier to produce the pattern.

Stuart

If it’s only fairly small and you are using thin brass you could etch it out. I have used this method to etch a pattern onto the end of a brass rod.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If it is only as a template to cut round then as Bernard says just stick it or a copy of it to the metal and cut through both.

[Author]

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