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Making clock parts and fixtures my main materials are brass and aluminum. The wife has educated me to clean the swarf from the shopfloor, from myself and from the dog after each job or at least daily. Around Christmas however there is some respite concerning the dog. Because I myself at least consider it a very festive sight to see the candlelight reflected by the brass and aluminum swarf on my beautiful brown German Longhair Pointer.
View attachment 122612
Beautiful dog!
 
Yes a very nice dog. which is why is use the Avitar of our favourite Rottweiler. She was as I think the picture illustrates a big silly puppy all her life. It was a shame to loose her to Cancer.
We also lost the next Rottie to cancer as well. Now we just have rescue dogs as the thought of loosing another Rottie would not be good for us. Many view them as vicious dogs yet they are not, but their looks make them appear so menacing. The one in the picture, was impossible to see in the dark, even her eye did not reflect back any light. That was very scary at night as she would be onto of you and you would have no warning at all. She was also very quiet on her feet. Even in the house if we kept her nails trimmed there was no click click as she walked on a hard wood floor. Every dog has their differences. BothRottweilers were totally ruled by our long haired Chihuahua, she ruled the house. That is a whole other story.
 
Yes is a good looking dog, we got a rescue Jack Russell and she now runs the house, I tell you they are a lot smarter than a lot of people that I know, something I have learned, my wife told me this, "Its hard to get a good dog but you can a man anywhere" that hurt but she is right, we had to have one put down it was like loosing a family member, Joe
 
Hi,Ive built a few of Harolds designs and they have all worked well and most are now well used. His lathe backstop works very well and with the added bonus you can adjust for a different operation then go back to the original set position
Most of my tooling has to be home made as often its not available commercially or at least a price Im willing to pay
I also keep fine brass swarf and use it in a blueing tray . Recently made the offcenter chuck just a Keats on a key way and it makes making eccentrics and simple cranks a doddle
A simple screw polisher will next up once I get some materials
Keep well and safe
Hi,

I wholeheartedly agree with your evaluation of Harold's useful designs and their operation. I first made his milling cutter holder and it was excellent, but an unfortunate loss in the fire.

Everything is looking a little better now that February is here, Stay safe,

TerryD
 
terryd: I have the Acute Tool Sharpening System Kit, so my grinding platform will be this at least for the foreseeable future. I have many jigs for my Tormek. I can tell you for a fact the lathe tools bits sharpened in the Tormek are extremely sharp and cut very well. I am thinking toward developing a Fly Cutter which employs a tangential cutter. Since adopting the Diamond Tool Holder and learning how to use it, I have learned how to sharpen it. Minor adjustments in how it is sharpened makes a real difference in how it cuts. From there I have been thinking it would be an interesting to have a mill tool with a similar cutter. Hence the Fly Cutter. As the Mini-Mill like what I have employs the R8 Arbor, my initial thoughts are to design tools which employ the R8 Arbour as the means to hold the tool and cutter in the Mill. As many use a QCTP and have several Tool Holders which drop onto the QCTP and I have seen some professional Mill setups where every tool cutter is mounted on its own arbor. Well I am sorry that becomes a little expensive for the Amateur Machinist however using some thing like an R8 FMB22 would be a compromise where the cutter is unscrewed from the arbor. Yes it does take time however when starting out our actual tool requirements are less and we have to learn how to do more with less as it were. The amateur Machinist hobby has an extremely wide range of activities where virtually interest can find a niche where a person can fit in an join in the fun.
 
Here we have bell collars for the dogs. Our first Rottweiler loved hers and would prance around the house and make them ring. The new rescues did not like them the first year but this years as soon as the box came out of storage and they heard the sounds were sitting in front of us as if to say well when do we get our bells on. Dogs can and do add a dimension to an empty nest family. My dogs do not come into the shop, just like the Vacuum they want nothing to do with it. The Rottweiler would come down to the shop investigate what was happening then leave. The current dogs do not even do that.
Another project is an adaption of the cyclone dust collector for wood working to grinding and perhaps the lathe and mill SWARF. The concept works well for the bench grinder, the main difference is to remove the plastic parts and replace with metal. The version works fine but getting something to do the same for the Lathe and the Mill is more of a challenge.
Each machine presents unique challenges. The prime consideration is Safety.
I also have been reading on the restoration of the older belt driven lathes like the South Bend.
This is the style of Lathe that I remember from my childhood. The ingenuity that went into the speed changes and screw cutting was elegant to say the least. When these Lathes are restored to their full glory and simplistic beauty they become in and of themselves works of art. When done correctly they run so smooth and quietly they become a pleasure to use that many people coming into the profession or the hobby will never experience.
In the days when these machines were built we had 25 Cycle motors which were twice the size of the 50/60 hz motors they were replaced with. In some builds the Motor was used as the counter weight for the belt tensioning and on still others the same motor was also used to provide the spindle drive through the jack shaft. Even the stitching on the leather flat belts was what we would now consider an art form
If you have opportunity to see one of these Lathes in person even in a museum let alone a working machine, take time and give respect to those who considered the restoration a debt to our society instead of just throwing it out as so many have done.
 
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Re the dreaded Swarf. I use the house hold central vac. which is mounted in my basement shop. I use an old 30 ft. hose which goes directly into the cannister (no filter bag) and have put low voltage switches at my lathe and mill for convenience .I vac up everything, long short or oily and have no problem with clogging up. Once or twice a year I power wash through the hose outside in the backyard. No problem with swarf in the "other halfs" part of the house Colin
 
Hi,

I wholeheartedly agree with your evaluation of Harold's useful designs and their operation. I first made his milling cutter holder and it was excellent, but an unfortunate loss in the fire.



TerryD
Yes I agree but he but he is sound but not as elegant as George Thomas.
terryd: I have the Acute Tool Sharpening System Kit, so my grinding platform will be this at least for the foreseeable future. I have many jigs for my Tormek. I can tell you for a fact the lathe tools bits sharpened in the Tormek are extremely sharp and cut very well. I am thinking toward developing a Fly Cutter which employs a tangential cutter. Since adopting the Diamond Tool Holder and learning how to use it, I have learned how to sharpen it. Minor adjustments in how it is sharpened makes a real difference in how it cuts. From there I have been thinking it would be an interesting to have a mill tool with a similar cutter. Hence the Fly Cutter. As the Mini-Mill like what I have employs the R8 Arbor, my initial thoughts are to design tools which employ the R8 Arbour as the means to hold the tool and cutter in the Mill. As many use a QCTP and have several Tool Holders which drop onto the QCTP and I have seen some professional Mill setups where every tool cutter is mounted on its own arbor. Well I am sorry that becomes a little expensive for the Amateur Machinist however using some thing like an R8 FMB22 would be a compromise where the cutter is unscrewed from the arbor. Yes it does take time however when starting out our actual tool requirements are less and we have to learn how to do more with less as it were. The amateur Machinist hobby has an extremely wide range of activities where virtually interest can find a niche where a person can fit in an join in the fun.
terryd: I have the Acute Tool Sharpening System Kit, so my grinding platform will be this at least for the foreseeable future. I have many jigs for my Tormek. I can tell you for a fact the lathe tools bits sharpened in the Tormek are extremely sharp and cut very well. I am thinking toward developing a Fly Cutter which employs a tangential cutter. Since adopting the Diamond Tool Holder and learning how to use it, I have learned how to sharpen it. Minor adjustments in how it is sharpened makes a real difference in how it cuts. From there I have been thinking it would be an interesting to have a mill tool with a similar cutter. Hence the Fly Cutter.

I'm rather narked about the wrong information that the Tormek system was only suitable for 'wood butchers'. Such is my local supplier! So I bought coarser grit abrasive wheels rather than the finer grot ones suitable for the Tormech system and I note that your earlier system is better than the one that I'm using to run my Acute system tooling.
It does work but it could obviously be improved.

If the damned wet snow was to go away, I could be making things

Regards

Norman
 
terryd: I have the Acute Tool Sharpening System Kit, so my grinding platform will be this at least for the foreseeable future. I have many jigs for my Tormek. I can tell you for a fact the lathe tools bits sharpened in the Tormek are extremely sharp and cut very well. I am thinking toward developing a Fly Cutter which employs a tangential cutter. Since adopting the Diamond Tool Holder and learning how to use it, I have learned how to sharpen it. Minor adjustments in how it is sharpened makes a real difference in how it cuts. From there I have been thinking it would be an interesting to have a mill tool with a similar cutter. Hence the Fly Cutter. As the Mini-Mill like what I have employs the R8 Arbor, my initial thoughts are to design tools which employ the R8 Arbour as the means to hold the tool and cutter in the Mill. As many use a QCTP and have several Tool Holders which drop onto the QCTP and I have seen some professional Mill setups where every tool cutter is mounted on its own arbor. Well I am sorry that becomes a little expensive for the Amateur Machinist however using some thing like an R8 FMB22 would be a compromise where the cutter is unscrewed from the arbor. Yes it does take time however when starting out our actual tool requirements are less and we have to learn how to do more with less as it were. The amateur Machinist hobby has an extremely wide range of activities where virtually interest can find a niche where a person can fit in an join in the fun.

Hi Cdog,
Interesting and informative post, thanks. Just for information, The concept of the Diamond tool holder by eccentric engineering is a very old one. I have an engineering book on machine tools from the 1850s where a very similar, if not exactly the same is described as being in common use. Here is a scan, not too good but it is from a reprinted copy, note the vertical adjustment on the Smith's Holder simple but effective. So if this was published in the 1850s the systems must have been around for many years before that, "Little is new under the sun" as my dad used to say.

Tangential tool holders.jpg


I reserve my tormek system for sharpening woodworking edge tools exclusively and I agree that they do a great job. The beauty of Harolds system is that he shows how to turn his simple grinding guides into a tool and cutter grinding system and with a modified bench grinder and simple shop made accessories allowing not just lathe tools but also a wide range of milling cutters from slot drills and end mills, dovetail cutters, tee slot cutters to simple slitting saws, a very versatile system at very low cost when compared to the Quorn or Kennet etc. He also shows the sharpening of woodworking edge tool using his system which gives excellent results with fine diamond grit tools - I use diamond cup wheels, 600 grit for final sharpening before honing.

So many changes from when I last worked in the Jig and Tooroom for a few years nearly 50 years ago, memories of that are as fresh as ever- "(Who Knows Where The Time Goes" - Sandy Denny 1967:



Stay safe and well in these difficult times

TerryD
 
Yes I agree but he but he is sound but not as elegant as George Thomas.

Hi norman,

I would agree with the elegance of GT's work (I would describe it as sophisticated), I have both of his books and have made quite a few of his projects but Harolds are mostly less demanding, and use basic stock materials which are easily obtained at a good, price.for the less experienced tyro. A step up on the Journey. That's why I tend to recommend Harold initially. As for Functional vs Elegance I can have a choice

Brown Betty.jpg
Brown Betty at less than £20 :) or,

Teapot by Marrianne Brandt scaled.jpg
By Mariann Brandt at over £7000 😵,

Both do exactly the same job, but I bet I know which one is easer to pour and keeps the tea warmer for longer ;);) .

Sorry about the off topic bit👿

Stay safe and well in these difficult times, (I caught Asian 'Flu when a child, it developed into pneumonia and I spent a month in bed, I don't want to go through that again:(.)

TerryD
 
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Terry, I don't drink 'Indian' Tea preferring the wonders of the much further East.
Actually, I'm following the discussion using bert H Smith's Advanced Machine tools book.
It answers lots of problems and introduces us into the mysteries of calculating angles for tool and cutter griding. I DID publish it years ago but it sank without trace:(

Fowing a year now in lockdown, I'm literally playing in the little workshop.
So my best wishes to you at these seemingly never ending times.
Norman

I must have a go at taking photos and posting them. Trouble is lack of ability now and nigh impossible vision
 
My wife is watching a TV show where they are recommending cutting back on Coffee, absolute Sacrilege, The re people out there who also state people should stop drink tea. Some people just do not have their heads cross threaded for sure.
We have people tha insist coal should never be used for any reason, This from people who drive their luxury car. I would like to know how they made the steel for their cars without coal.
Like the environmentalists who want all plastic eliminated. So are they going back to wearing only cotton, wool and linen. These same people do not, they claim use any animal products either.
I have to laugh at the extremists, regardless of which side they live on. Life is far to short and there is too much to do to spend time arguing with people with delusional fixations.
So I will take my cup of coffee and down to the shop in the basement, where the floor is below our frost line, which is a nominal 8-10 feet below grade.
Today at -21C we also get to see the sun, which is always nice in the cold days of winter.
The latest Vaccine they are talking about to combat the COVID-19 virus which according to some research stems from Bat feces and urine, is a vaccine grown in moths and harvested and processed. My son-in-law works in the field in microbiology and is involve with the Oxford team on the vaccine. It is all beyond me. My field for expertise was in RF engineering. They are now publishing almost in comic book fashion the hard won knowledge we struggled to develop. Which explains how the world has progressed so far and so fast. yet as has been pointed out we come full circle in the tools we use to shape metal.
Regardless, I do find using the Diamond Tool holder does about 90% of my work on the lathe and I find the sharpening of the tool bit a very simple exercise. Based solely on this experience is why I would like to develop a similar tool holder to use on the mill.
It is funny how the COVID-19 lock down has allowed many of us to get back to our more simple lives.
Yet we now have the internet, which allows us to communicate and stay in touch virtually yet I am finding so few people are really taking full advantage of the technology we have sitting right in front of us.
We have friends who insist on having a smartphone yet refuse to click on a link to allow them to communicate with their family on zoom right from their phone.
Like my elder aunt who is afraid of technology, yet insists on her iPhone, yet refuses to use what is right there in front of her.
We are very complicated beings.
 

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