Recent content by nick61

A little research on alternative material suggests that PET machines almost as well as Acetal. PET is the stuff of fizzy drinks bottles, so should be available in clear. The UK suppliers I've found only seem to keep it in white form, but there is a US listing of clear, so it must be around...

If it doesn't need to be acrylic, the easiest plastic to machine is acetal. Tricky to get nylon to size with a good finished. On a metal lathe it is low speed, deep cut and high feed for best finish.

According to William Lincoln's book 'World Woods in Colour', The wood is difficult to work with both hand and machine tools due to the presence of gum pockets and the interlocked grain requires a reduced cutting angle to avoid tear out. It is described as very durable, dries well, but liable to...

An old thread, so I presume you either have an answer or have given up. If not a picture would be helpful. BSA made a milling collet chuck that took two part collets, but the collet is not anything like the Acramil in my view. So when you say 'like Acramil', in what respect? A short body with a...

I use bootlace ferrules all the time. If you ever need to change components they save a lot of hassle - wire that has been under a screw will be so distorted that getting it back in a connector is all but impossible. Mostly I use the insulated variety, but on the rare occasions there is...

Expensive? I checked the price on the link given and found the price was £25, possibly plus VAT. I know the component, since I have a DW110, and I wouldn't make it at that price for a commercial customer and would think twice about making it for myself. The problem is that all setup time has to...

The readily available grades in the UK are 303, 304 and 316. 303 is the cheapest, but least rust resistant and not weldable, 304 is similar but weldable, 316 is expensive, and toughest to work (because of the high level of Chrome), but is regarded as the food and marine grade since it is the...

I once had a small modern cheap drill and found that simply replacing the chuck and drive belt were transformative. This was followed by a bigger capacity Meddings, undoubtedly very good, but I like to use taper shank drills so I now use a Denbigh which I got from a scrap merchant I know. What a...

The unidentified things are: two small bore gauges (they don't measure directly, but adjusted to fit the bore are then measured with a micrometer) and what I think is micrometer for measuring the wall thickness of tubing. The bore micrometer and the depth micrometer are incomplete, in that they...

Off topic, to some extent, but engine cranes don't really work for lathe chucks: the jib doesn't usually extend beyond the legs so if the lathe has any base within the width of the crane legs it won't be able to reach the centre line. An overhead crane is ideal; I made one out of racking and an...

Did you find a good home for it? From a photo you posted in another thread it looks likes a model G. The model G was made alongside the model T; the former with a gap bed, the latter without. G did not last in production as long as the T. They were made in 3 sizes: 13, 15 and 17, which indicate...