A further collection of ideas, hints and get you out of trouble wheezes for which we must thank Dennis Berry, a fellow model engineer and top man from across the pond. Thanks Dennis.
click on each image for a larger view
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- After scribing lines and mounting the part on the mill, I learned to eyeball a centre drill bit (with magnifier) over the intersecting scribes then lightly tap the drill bit to the surface, observe the tiny dot then tweak the table to zero in.
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- I used to wish for thin parallels. Those thick ones get in the way when drilling holes close to the edge. Now I use a cut up hacksaw blade or pieces of metal packing straps. An angle grinder cuts them to length.
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- There is such a thing as too much compound on the buffing machine. Put just a dab on the wheel while its turning and put it on frequently.
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- Having a sink next to the work bench was the best addition to my shop ever, for many reasons.
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- Sharp edges on newly-milled parts can easily split your skin open in between the finger print creases. This really sucks as compared to a cross-grain skin cut. Now I deburr all edges straight away.
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- Red Loctite sets up faster than you might think.
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- Miniature end mills work just as well for most jobs in a drill chuck. Saves having to swap out the chuck with an end mill holder every time.
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- Hammering and flattening round pieces of 45% silver solder into flat pieces makes it melt faster.
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- A shop with music makes better engines. Classical and jazz make the best engines. Followed by Country, New Age, and Rock, in that order. Rap and bagpipes is not music, I don’t care what anyone says, but accordion is.
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- It’s hard to mill out the inside corners of a rectangular opening on something like a steam chest without getting the corner bulges from overshooting the table movement. I offset the corner holes then on the last pass mill to the actual corner locations.
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- Its too easy to run a tap crooked especially through thin metal. I resorted to using a tapping block or mill/drill spindle or the tailstock on my lathe as a guide.
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- It’s really handy to have at least two pairs of digital callipers. One 4″ and one 6″. Three would be even nicer.
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- Rough cutting on your metal chop saw for model engine parts isn’t practical. It’s like measuring with a micrometer, marking with chalk and cutting with an axe. If you don’t have a horizontal band saw, even an angle grinder with a thin cutting disk is better for roughing parts.
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- Fly cutters give you big bang for the buck. They don’t cost much but are worth their weight in gold when it comes to reducing the thickness of a good sized piece of metal.
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- Converting the X2 mill to belt drive is well worth the money.
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- A C-o-C drawing from maestro Bogsie illustrates how to grind up a cutting tool for the flycutter.
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- Buffing wheels can throw your part faster than a speeding bullet. If I dare the buffing wheel to grab the part and hold it extra tight I can usually win the contest, but not always. It’s when I don’t dare the machine and think about something else that it wins.
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- Extended centre drill Loctited into extension tube prior to threading grub screw hole on flywheel hub.
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- Drill bit, centre drill and tap mounted in extension pieces for producing threaded holes in tight situations.
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- Sometimes touch is more sensitive than sight when positioning this hole centre finder.
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- Turn down a piece of round stock to a point and use as a guide for locating cutter centre height.
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- Sometimes it’s more convenient to mill parts before parting off from your bar stock.
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- When it comes to finding out which part is making the mechanism stick, Occam’s Razor principle (the simplest solution is usually the correct one) almost never applies to model engine making. In other words the hole you open up to relieve stress is not what was causing the stress.
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- Putting a DI (dial indicator) on my mini-lathe tailstock was worth the $11 at Harbour Freight and worth the 15 minutes it took to install.
Hi John, I recently found your website and have to compliment you on your no nonsense approach, I like the fact that you realise we are not all experts and too clued up on model engineering. I have been scratchbuilding large scale model tanks for most of my life but have always loved the time,patience and skills that model engineers put into creating works of art in metal. Workshop wise I have a Myford ml7 lathe which works well, recently I acquired a milling attachment but havent yet tried it out. I Also recently acquired a metal bandsaw/cuttoff machine which seems to be quire handy for other jobs as well. Just out of interest I am the senior restorer at the South African Museum of Military History and do know my way around a lathe but somehow lack the confidence to attach a working engine.
All the best
Steve
Hi Steve,
Great to hear from you. Clearly you are very skilled in the work you are doing and I can’t imagine that building model engines will present any real problems for you. There’s nothing lost in giving it a go and taking on one of Elmer’s oscillating engines could be the place to start. You avoid the complication of having to make slide valves and have the satisfaction of having a working model in very short time. Your Myford is an excellent lathe though I have had no experience of milling attachments. When you give the mill a trial do ensure that you don’t make the error of climb milling – it can be an extremely alarming and even dangerous activity ! Hopefully you will find some help by browsing around my site but should you have any specific queries please do not hesitate to contact me and I will help if I can.
best wishes
John
I have just looked quickly arround this site as I was particularly interested in better methods to get my tool hight right on my mini lathe.
I have not found any advise on setting cutting tool height aside from Tip 51.
I have looked at the 45 min video, in that Video on all the tools shown. I can not see any shim or advice on setting the tool cutting height. How is the tool height set?
I thought brass Shim was put under the tool in the tool holder, none of the pictures on this site show any sign of shim under a cutting tool. So how is the tool hight adjusted to be on center?
Hi Dave
Sorry you couldn’t find the info you require for setting the cutter height on your mini-lathe. Did you have a look at. Quite often the first thing mini-lathe owners buy is a quick change tool post with tool holders that are adjustable for setting cutter height. These are not essential but they do save the chore of using shims each time you change a cutter. Shims don’t have to be brass, you can use strips cut from beer cans and even a set of disassembled feeler gauges gives you a useful selection of varying thicknesses.
John
Thank you..
The lathe is a Sieg C0 Baby Lathe, I’ve not seen a quick change post for it.
Great idea using feeler gauge for shimming; feeler gauges available in pound shops.
This feeler gauge idea is another Helpful Hint.
Think I will buy a few more tool holders to save re-shimming a tool each time.
If you have a tool holder for left cut, right cut and parting tool you will probably be covered for 99% of your machining requirements on the lathe.
John
Hi John.
Interesting hints, I have used picture 51 for setting tool height for most of my working life with very accurate results.
Also picture 31, I have centre finders, edge finder, both laser and bleeper type, but I always go back to what I call my centre pin.
I use it on my drill press and on the mill, nice thing about the mill is that if you have a long piece of metal marked out both end for a hole on the X axis then it’s easy to centre on the cross hair, lock the Y axis then move the X axis from one end to the other, this for me checks my Vice has not moved or crept, you should be able to drop the centre pin which I hold in a collet right on both cross hairs, so with the Y axis locked all you have to do is move your X axis from one mark to the other locking the beds at both stages. When you are on the cross hair a little dink with down feed will produce a little mark, it’s better than a centre punch mark, when your happy go for it, drill or mill.
Hello George
I think I follow your explanation. I’m just wondering if you would feel like sending me one or two pics to illustrate the procedure ? I wouldn’t be surprised if you have one or two other tips that would be appreciated by my visitors!
I am currently compiling a further page of helpful hints so any contributions would be most welcome.
John
I was interested in your drill extensions in ‘helpful hint 49′.
How are these made, do they need to be hardened, are the tools soldered in place?
Hello Chris
No special materials required. If I remember correctly it was just a length of steel rod chucked up in the lathe and centre drilled until the tools (centre drill, drill bit and tap) were a good ‘interference’ fit. A touch of Loctite might also be a good precaution. No advantage in hardening the steel apart from which I would be wary about subjecting the tools to any unnecessary heat. For this reason I would avoid soldering the tools in place.
John