Recent content by methuselah1

have a look at "Pittler" on "lathes.co.uk". If the helix angle is over about 3-4 degrees, you need to divide the diameter of a corresponding spur gear by the cosine of the helix angle. I wrote a lengthy article for Tony, years ago, detailing the calculations for worms and wheels. The information...

You'll find that Kirk Burwell doesn't show everything on the website. Give him a call, and I'm sure that he'll help you with castings and drawings, if he possibly can! -Andrew UK

Like HMEL wrote, industrial lathes, in my case a Colchester VS2500, have thread indicators with a series of five or six gears which need to be interchanged depending on the pitch to be cut. Metric pitches simply don't lend themselves to a simple indicator. I spent over 30 years in industry. The...

I'll let you in on a dirty trick. When I worked in an auto shop, we used to make concave form tools. Ground as best as we could (pretty damn good) we then used to run a drill, gripped by the flutes, at top speed with fine grinding paste. Lapped our concave tools off the shanks, to a mirror finish.

Best forget CNC shops. As paid jobs, I don't know what shop rates are nowadays, but expect to pay 75- £80 setting time before they pick up another spanner. I dropped off a job once as a "favour" job. I picked the piece up again two years later, still with the busted 10 BA tap in it. Companies...

I don't know why a CNC company would fight shy of tackling those, 'cos the flanks are straight! I would put a keyway in the blanks for alignment, and make a filing fixture with two keyways. Your designer has actually been quite kind. Westbury's method, whilst effective, had cam flanks with an...

Chronos is a reputable firm who I started to use in the mid 80s, when they were working from a shed hidden in a St Albans backstreet. They don't even list complete sets, for some reason! However, what they do stock is posted out for free in the UK.

Hello David, and welcome aboard! There are, indeed some very knowledgeable people here (wish I was one!) and some just like yourself. When looking at replies, do use your own judgement. I was never apprenticed, but had good craftsmen around me. I ended up doing F1 and M.O.D work, then teaching...

You could try contacting G&M Tools or Home and Workshop Machinery - they tend to accumulate engineering flotsam and jetsam, oft time that sort of stuff isn't even listed on their websites, so it's best to ring 'em. You'll have to re-read Lfiero's post for the obvious pitfall here. Andrew UK

In Britain, we know these as clamping sets. In exchange for £157, even Amazon sell them. The straps and blocks are the same, but the studs and nuts can be either M12 or 1/2" Whitworth. Given enough time these do wear out, so I'd go with metric for ease of replacement. I don't know if the case...

Regarding the 1/5 scale, 49cc Chenery monosoupape, Elliot asked me what BA sizes were used in the engine. My drawings have faded to the point of complete illegibility- My Dad tried to send me his, but that didn't work out, but I have my engine parts to look at, so I can say with certainty that...

Another traditional method is the (almost forgotten) rust joint, which is impervious to heat. Prepare a solution of ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) and coat the sealing surfaces. Assemble everything, then wait a couple of days. That might be cheaper than loctite. You should be able to buy a...

Should have been labelled "Sheffield England". That's where our steelmaking tradition really began.

Hello there- I own a copy of that same book, and I have never seen such a caliper for sale. Firm joint calipers actually come in two flavours- cheap (rivetted) and decent, the latter type having a bolt at the joint. They are still inexpensive. They can be dismantled, then reassembled with one of...

He didn't like paying for copyrighted material either. He did that to me. Maybe someone came knocking.