If its broken, post in here. Even little stuff such as a little squeaky bearing, or a funny noise coming from a tool, throw it in here, it all helps keep the place running smoothly.
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Manual milling machine is having some difficulties.
The thread on the end of the draw bar is possibly borked, I couldn’t get the collet chuck on without running the risk of excessive force. Spoke with, Sven Hanska, who took a look and suspects the draw bar thread.
Draw bar is also proving difficult to remove so we can’t even take a look at it to assess. There’s a pin in the top of the draw bar we removed, but it still didn’t budge with a few whacks.
Current situation:
Manual mill is not usable as no chuck is connected.
Possibly damaged chuck thread prevents installing a new chuck.
Possibly damaged draw bar prevents assessing chuck thread damage.
Oh please I hope some one didnt try to force one of the differant thread collets up there…
Any ideas how one would figure out what’s going on in there?
The mill will only accept a metric chuck. Once upon a time it had an imperial chuck, but we only had 2 of those and the machine shop would eventually need more. All the cheap stuff I could find was in metric only, so I remade the drawbar 18months or so ago to use metric and bought 3 chucks for it one for the drill, a collet chuck and a #3 Morse taper. I segregated all the Imperial chucks and taped them up with blue tape drew, “do not use” on them, then stuck them in the bottom of the grey filing cabinet, where they stayed up until I last looked, like 9 months ago.
That draw bar is a real pain to take out, Its got a pin and a thread on the top. Its a poorly designed and very frustrating puzzle, which Im not sure is even original to the machine. Its been broken and I’ve fixed it a number of times. Most of the time, people just forget which way they were supposed to turn it to remove a chuck.
I’m pretty keen to fully remake the drawbar and do an “automatic” thing like Adam Savage has. Looks pretty boss.
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Hmm, there wasn’t any tape on it but I got it out of one of the drawers of that roll-y cabinet. Glad I didn’t actually break anything.
Yeah I noticed that, even with the pin out Sven and I couldn’t get anything to move.
Hello,
In discussing the vertical metalworking band saw, another member mentioned that its blade is pretty dulled. I’m not sure what to do about this but thought to post and can help if need.
Kind regards,
Scott
Small angle grinders:
NB: The red one is not functional. I plugged it in and nothing, so I’ll tag it out on Wednesday morning if I can find it again.
Dave bought at least three, maybe four a few months back, second hand from cash converters.
There is only one small angle grinder that I could find today., the green one . The others I could not locate looking around the shop, nor were they hanging in the wooden holders made for them, at least not today. They are a heavy use item and don’t last long. That’s just the nature of the beast, they’re not being abused, they simply get heavy use.
We need another three for the metal shop plus a heap of matching cutting disks.
One of them let the smoke out when I was using it on the weekend. I reckon we get three of these - https://www.bunnings.com.au/makita-710w-125mm-angle-grinder_p6240080
$99 each. Not exactly cheap but makita is decent and then they’re all the same and won’t be the wrong size for cutting discs etc.
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Supported.
Looks like we are in fact down to one left. They were second hand to start with and have had a lot of use.
OK, so we have a sound proposal here. Three identical units taking the same consumables is a sound idea and as such, we can use economy of scale to buy a carton of consumables. I also propose purchase of a carton of of 100 disks, the workshop manager can put out say 20 at a time and restock when asked so they don’t get used for drink coasters.
So the proposal is three Makita P624080 @$99 each plus a carton of 100 disks.
So lets get it done, surely we don’t need a meeting, motion, drawn out discussion of the merits of cheaper ones etc etc.
Can we have the funding please.
Due to our rules that either has to go to a cause vote or a general membership meeting. The cause leader can only approve up to $100/mo without a vote.
OK, thanks for the update Beau. I thought we could get this done quickly since it’s a straight replacement of existing equipment but it’s become sandbagged by bureaucracy so I guess that’s that.
For anyone else who wants to pursue this, the current situation is:
Red angle grinder gone, presumably pulled from service due to an electrical fault mentioned earlier.
Drew advised today that the 2nd one smoked up terminally on the weekend.
The one remaining angle grinder has a worn mandrill locking pin so, when attempting to lock the mandrel while fitting a new disk into position using the correct mandrel key, it’ll slip over the locking pin, allow the disk and mandrel to spin and it’s gonna slice someones fingers clean off because the cutting disk has been in contact with the protector guard and has made the edge of the guard as sharp as a razor blade.
So, I’ve reported this and I’m now handing this over to the workshop manager.
Over and out.
Respectfully, this is not so much bureaucracy but the documented procedure for how HSBNE and causes manage things financially to get the most out of all members dues equitably and responsibly. These items just need to be added to either the cause agenda or general agenda (they may have already) depending on the scope of the items use and it gets voted on. Some causes also have ‘standing orders’ for replacing some consumables and other less durable items without ongoing votes within a defined budget.
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Hi,
In case anyone is wondering where the cross slide on the grey lathe is, after discussing the excessive sloppiness in the slide with some of the other guys in the shop my Dad (Rick) took it home to see if we could get a new nut for the lead screw from Hare & Forbes. Unfortunately they don’t have one, so we ordered a TR12x2 tap from China to make a new one. We’ll be bringing the slide back on Tuesday. Sorry about any inconvenience 
Hey Amy,
As great as it is we have members taking initiative to help out, we can’t have members taking machinery or bits of machinery home without either a cause leader or exec knowing. At the very least three is a borked ticket which can be put on things which have been taken out of commission, it also allows us to track who is looking after repairs. It’s no problem now, but just for future reference. We’ve already been in contact with Hare and Forbes to find the nut, so we could have saved you a trip.
I’m always contactable via Slack/FB/phone number if you have any questions or anything. If you guys are back on Tuesday I’ll be about to help out putting it back together as there is another method to reducing the backlash.
Beau and I found some serious issues with the mill.
Before it destroyed itself, we have taken it out of commission. Good news, we’re doing a complete overhaul and when it’s back together again it should be like new
I got the polarity wrong on the TIG welder and fused the tunsten to the copper centre core. I have bought more of each and will bring in on Tuesday. I was unsure if there was a supply onsite.
Most supplies are in the black cabinet. But thanks for doing a shop!