Well yes of course. I have four metal lathes and one wood and I often use one to repair another!
HELP please (NOT Covid-19!)
- Thread starter AES
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AES
Established Member
Yup, simply a case of "Physician, heal thyself".
Unfortunately I don't think that SWMBO will be very impressed with that argument.
Re "buy one" MM, without checking, I'm pretty sure that they the ones you linked will all be ISO metric Coarse (of which I definitely have some in 10mm). Whether or not I have some in Fine I don't know (yet) but easy enough to make (once I buy a Fine tap)! No big deal.
Unfortunately I don't think that SWMBO will be very impressed with that argument.
Re "buy one" MM, without checking, I'm pretty sure that they the ones you linked will all be ISO metric Coarse (of which I definitely have some in 10mm). Whether or not I have some in Fine I don't know (yet) but easy enough to make (once I buy a Fine tap)! No big deal.
No they are fine, 10 x 1mm. I'm not that dumb 
. They are standard fittings for chandelier suspensions. I was going to make them too, then found they were cheaper than a tap!
. They are standard fittings for chandelier suspensions. I was going to make them too, then found they were cheaper than a tap!
AES
Established Member
OK, thanks for that MM. I must confess I only looked at the pix in your link, didn't read the specs - I DO realise that you're not that dumb. Honest, I'd gathered that.
It's just that here, most "normal/standard" threads, especially in the "bigger" sizes of, say, 6 mm & up, tend to be "always" ISO Coarse. But I MAY have some local light fittings in my "that'll come in useful box" so I'll look there first.
But thanks anyway, I certainly didn't realise that they would be cheaper than buying a tap (which usually means 2 taps anyway, a "first"/"taper" & a "finish" - for such general stuff I don't usually bother with a 2nd).
It's just that here, most "normal/standard" threads, especially in the "bigger" sizes of, say, 6 mm & up, tend to be "always" ISO Coarse. But I MAY have some local light fittings in my "that'll come in useful box" so I'll look there first.
But thanks anyway, I certainly didn't realise that they would be cheaper than buying a tap (which usually means 2 taps anyway, a "first"/"taper" & a "finish" - for such general stuff I don't usually bother with a 2nd).
Lons
Established Member
Don't tell her. :wink: I've got away with that for years.AES":x0fxjnud said:
AES":m8w3x7nd said:
Hehe you're forgiven. But it is worth looking for chandelier fittings out there. I was looking for one for a quite old chandelier (40+ years?) that I got in Prague, so I suspect this was a standard fitting in those parts first.
AES
Established Member
Update time. "Limited" success to report.
@MM, you're dead right, bits of light fitting here are indeed 10mm ISO Fine. So is my lead screw, BUT my lead screw is a LH thread (light fittings are "normal" RH thread)!
I must say that right from the start when I looked at my lead screw something was trying to "click" in what passes for my brain, but I didn't twig until I tried to screw a bit of light fitting on - I'll be collecting my "D" hat on the way out of this thread! (hammer)
Anyway, no big deal, it just meant removing the "nut" from underneath the cross slide to ensure the thread was protected in the chuck:
As you'll no doubt notice, the nut is not quite square but a bit rectangular in cross section, so it was on with the 4 Jaw independent chuck before straightening could start.
I tried with the hardest piece of hard wood I could find and bored a hole just a bit bigger than the required 8 mm, but being such a short length to straighten, no go at all - the wood gave before the bent part did. So I found a piece of MS strip about 10 mm thick x about 25 mm wide, long enough to give decent leverage and got stuck in.
This did produce some results and I got the bent part fairly straight - enough to slip the ali mounting block off and away anyway.
I then rigged up a pair of vee blocks and used my new "tool" plus a dead blow hammer (hard nylon faced) to get it back to a run out of about 10-11 thou (inches) as per my DTI. The set up was exactly as shown in the 2nd link provided by MM, except that everything I used was metal, not wood as shown in the link.
The reason I stopped at the roughly 10 thou run out was A) my metal "tool" was beginning to "bruise" the handle mount part, and B) the handle mount part had a bit of a banana bend in the middle, which I guess I produced when doing the straightening in the lathe - having such a short length to work with (only 11.5 mm) really made the job more difficult than shown in the links, where in both cases, quite long lengths were involved.
But I've learnt something new and if I ever have a straightening need in future I've got a go to method.
So thanks to all the inputs from you Gents I'm now in the clear, and the cross slide handle is now "near enough" that once the lathe is fully reassembled the handle will turn without being too noticeably out of line.
In between all the above, the motor control box has now been safely packed and sent off to the US for repair. It remains to be seen how soon it arrives back.
Stay healthy everyone, and thanks again (applies "D" hat as he leaves).
@MM, you're dead right, bits of light fitting here are indeed 10mm ISO Fine. So is my lead screw, BUT my lead screw is a LH thread (light fittings are "normal" RH thread)!
I must say that right from the start when I looked at my lead screw something was trying to "click" in what passes for my brain, but I didn't twig until I tried to screw a bit of light fitting on - I'll be collecting my "D" hat on the way out of this thread! (hammer)
Anyway, no big deal, it just meant removing the "nut" from underneath the cross slide to ensure the thread was protected in the chuck:
As you'll no doubt notice, the nut is not quite square but a bit rectangular in cross section, so it was on with the 4 Jaw independent chuck before straightening could start.
I tried with the hardest piece of hard wood I could find and bored a hole just a bit bigger than the required 8 mm, but being such a short length to straighten, no go at all - the wood gave before the bent part did. So I found a piece of MS strip about 10 mm thick x about 25 mm wide, long enough to give decent leverage and got stuck in.
This did produce some results and I got the bent part fairly straight - enough to slip the ali mounting block off and away anyway.
I then rigged up a pair of vee blocks and used my new "tool" plus a dead blow hammer (hard nylon faced) to get it back to a run out of about 10-11 thou (inches) as per my DTI. The set up was exactly as shown in the 2nd link provided by MM, except that everything I used was metal, not wood as shown in the link.
The reason I stopped at the roughly 10 thou run out was A) my metal "tool" was beginning to "bruise" the handle mount part, and B) the handle mount part had a bit of a banana bend in the middle, which I guess I produced when doing the straightening in the lathe - having such a short length to work with (only 11.5 mm) really made the job more difficult than shown in the links, where in both cases, quite long lengths were involved.
But I've learnt something new and if I ever have a straightening need in future I've got a go to method.
So thanks to all the inputs from you Gents I'm now in the clear, and the cross slide handle is now "near enough" that once the lathe is fully reassembled the handle will turn without being too noticeably out of line.
In between all the above, the motor control box has now been safely packed and sent off to the US for repair. It remains to be seen how soon it arrives back.
Stay healthy everyone, and thanks again (applies "D" hat as he leaves).
Attachments
AES
Established Member
Thanks mate.
That's very good news. Glad it worked. Sorry I forgot that it would be a LH thread for the lead screw! They all are, if they move the way we want them to move.
AES
Established Member
As said in my last MM, when I first removed the lead screw, and then when I put the thread gauges against the thread, something at the back of my mind said to itself "something's not quite normal here" but I just didn't "think" any further. OF COURSE it's a LH thread, and as already said, "what a dummy I am". Anyway, it's fixed "near enough" to work OK now, that's "der hauptsache"!
Thanks for your help and we'll see what happens "when" I get the motor controller back from the US.
BTW, where I live there are several airways passing over us and although flight traffic is MUCH reduced from normal - not at all unusual to see 6 or more a/c in the air at once before Covid, whereas these days I'll only see perhaps 1 or 2 PER DAY - there is obviously still some commercial flying going on, so I'm hopeful that my box will come back to me one day.
Thanks for your help and we'll see what happens "when" I get the motor controller back from the US.
BTW, where I live there are several airways passing over us and although flight traffic is MUCH reduced from normal - not at all unusual to see 6 or more a/c in the air at once before Covid, whereas these days I'll only see perhaps 1 or 2 PER DAY - there is obviously still some commercial flying going on, so I'm hopeful that my box will come back to me one day.
AES, good job you caught it before buying the taps, then!
I guess the FedeX and other cargo carrier planes are still flying.
cheers
Keith
I guess the FedeX and other cargo carrier planes are still flying.
cheers
Keith
