What comes First?

-

OK - chicken and egg, and a universe out of nowt sort of stuff today. A while ago, I mentioned that I needed to sort out a replacement for the missing change-wheel stud on my ancient Myford lathe, so that turning down stuff could be semi-automated and less of a ball-ache. I've resisted getting started on this for a while, due both to my extremely rusty lathe skills, and to a lack of faith in the old beast itself.

Armed with a new tungsten carbide insert tool, I fooled around some and finished a small piece for the dial test indicator stand in steel and tried some high-speed finishing on a small piece of aluminium, both of which turned(!) out OK. When I tried to rough out the 3/4" steel stock to the required diameter for the change wheels, I realized that the 10 mm tool was really too small for the job. Fortunately, amongst the HSS tools that I inherited with the lathe, was a monster (for this size of lathe), ideal for the job.

I'd forgotten that using a small hobby lathe involves a great deal of patience and circumspection, but once I'd knuckled down to it, all actually went very well. I've now got the spindle down to size and the shoulder cut square (pictured). What now follows (hopefully) is to turn down the spigot to be threaded for its clamping nut, and to part the whole thing off. The thing about taking this down to size - slowly, given the size/age of the lathe - is that I could have done with the fine power feed to the tool post that this very piece will eventually afford me: but there you go...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more