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Hi Guys, I haven't posted in ages, doesn't mean I wasn't machining apart from some time I had to be away. It still takes me a long time to make anything so my progress is still slow. My interest in the meantime has turned away from engines, ( I am working on tooling again ) but I have...

Hi Guys, I did not believe this but Issues 1 through to 160 of Model Engineer's Workshop Magazine are available for download. I wonder how they got around copyright issues. Somehow I think Internet Archive would not be in violation of copyright, but there they are. The scan quality is not...

Trying to crank my homemade rotab, I completely distorted the key in the keyway. I'm using a lathe change wheel and a mod1 worm I made. Most of the backlash was in the key. The gear fits closely with the shaft. Please give some advise about material for a 4mm keyway and how best to make and fit...

To my not so experienced eye it seems that the majority of manual lathes have a similar arrangement for the lathe bed. I think this is called a double prismatic bed where the carriage rides on a prism and a flat surface and the tailstock fits on a second prism and flat surface. What goes on...

I don’t really s’pose that anyone would take me seriously (as a machinist), so two things: A is a one liner that I think I should be paid for (although it uses quite big words and is a bit too true to be philosophical) and B is that I want a big bad milling machine. Now South African...

Hi Guys, Having transfered a cylinder from the lathe to my mill-drill is there an easy way to pick up the diameter to cross drill through the diameter? Is there a precise method? Thanx again, Ant PS: I hope you guys in NYC and NJ are OK

Hi Guys, I've been using a commercial collet type tap holder in a sliding arrangement for tapping from the tailstock and in the mill, but have not been too impressed by its holding power and the range of sizes it can hold. Also the type of tap holder with the 2 V-blocks, but these cannot be...

I have this problem boring in the lathe in mild steel. The swarf builds up ahead of the tool and pushes out at the end of the bore like a small concertinad cylinder. I don't think it's the tool angles as the swarf curls out behind the tool (as I think it should) in the first 1 or 2 mm, only...

Just come on the market in sunny South Africa, a Colchester Chipmaster and an Aciera F3 for around 3Grand in US$. For the price and availability of machines in SA this seems like too good to be true. I really want bigger machines. My house was owned by the previous Town Electrician and he...

On a recent trip to the Big City by the Sea, I picked up a cheap 25-50mm mike. I have a M&W 25mm setting ring so ok no box, no 25mm standard. I adjusted the barrel for a consistent 25mm. I find it very trying to use the thing. The difficulty lies in judging when you have the anvils over the...

Having a lathe where changing speeds involves messing around with pulleys, changing feeds and threads requires dissassembling the gearbox and reconfiguring it, and having to screwcut with a spindle crank is starting to get old. And my Rong Fu mill is quite tired. So I've been looking at the...

Hi Guys, Another one of my infernal questions, this is quite basic lathe technique again. I'm hoping to reach a level where I don't have to ask so much. I really do appreciate all the help from HMEM members and I wouldn't have made half the progress without you guys. Say you want to turn...

I needed to go to a real machine shop in the next little town and while there I was taking a look at their machines. Their smallest lathe is a 1 metre BC. I noticed all the lathes have coarse leadscrews, mine has only a 2mm pitch. I forgot about what I should have really taken note of, the...

I found 2 sets of blade type screw gauges, that I have been wanting for ever, a NNB metric with some insanely fine pitches and a an old L. S. Starrett imperial one. The smallest size I can read is marked 24 - .072 which is useful for me, and there are 4 sizes smaller, stamped quite poorly over...

I used to correspond with some people via PM (I’m glad I never said PMs:wall:) on this forum including 1 or 2 guys that never post. Also I don’t see a Members list. Are thes features available on the new format? Ant

Sorry to bring back memories of your local house-of-pain, but I was wondering if anyone remembers the type of dentist drill that worked off a system of pivoted arms with pulleys at the joints giving the handpiece almost total degrees of freedom. I would want to make a simpler, heavier system...

Hi guys, I’ve had a bit of experience with thread lock type anaerobic adhesives now I want to try a bearing retainer type, made locally in Sarf Efrica by Pratley. Pratley products are pretty good, over here we believe that Pratley epoxy is the only SA product to have gone to the Moon. How...

Hi Guys, I’ve read a couple of places about floating toolholders and tried to make sense of some diagrams but it may as well be Ewoki to me. Can someone please explain to me what a floating reamer holder looks like and how does it work? Is it something you can make yourself? Cheers, Ant

Here in RSA you only get what you pay for, when you buy something. I mean on a 200km trip to the Little Big City of Bloem(fontein) I usally stop at some of 3 “engineering shops.” I bought 2 little offcuts of round stainless last Friday. About 23cm, both, substantially under 10mm and 12mm...

Hi Guys, I know this must be really basic and second nature to most of you, but my slow progress has hit the wall with my present workpiece. I’m trying to make a 5mm diameter cotter pin about 25mm long, using 8mm mild steel stock (The manager at the agri co-op told me it is EN2B), lathe...