The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Those cones look very nice. How did you make them?

I made the pointer that hangs on the swan neck.

I still need to make a shaft to mount it properly.

Very interesting... I take it you made the cutting head yourself?

Was in the shop today. Made the 2 screws to hold the scale to the side of the way body. I have some black plastic backed aluminium that'll do for the scale. Not sure how to apply the lettering to it... Still need to drill holes in it. I don't have a shear so I needed to cut the thin aluminium by han...

Hi All, I've been making embossing needles for a while and selling them on Ebay (some of you may have already bought these). I came across an abandoned experiment from 3 years ago to make cutting needles with a 73 degree face and 51 degree heel angle. I had been told that these are optimal angles fo...

Oooh... that's an interesting idea. I have a load of kevlar offcuts from when I worked with some ballistic armour people (https://sarkartactical.com/)

You can pull threads off the edge quite easily before its embedded in resin or whatever.

Hmmm... anyone for a kevlar torque tube ?

Diamond engraving bits are frequently not actual cones but are in fact multi-faceted when you look at them closer. Bits without a cutting face can be used for embossing rather than cutting. You definitely can make cutting needles from steel. Here is one I prepared earlier with a geometry for 78s. IM...

Having a fixed reference really helps. One other thing to watch is that the cutting head needs to travel at an exact right angle to the spindle axis, otherwise the depth of cut changes with diameter. Regards, Dan. Good point. Fortunately years of hoarding seemingly useless items has paid off. This ...

A bit of lead screw porn...



You can see the buttress thread form in this pic:


It was single point cut with a VNMG insert reground to a 45 degree buttress thread form.

Thanks for the tips on setup. My microscope has a levelling bubble which is hard to use. Setting the bubble correctly means levelling to the floor, which may not be level with the table surface(!). But for recording lathes you're setting the platter with reference to the cutting head so that's a gre...

Interesting... and you can use the 3 bolts to level the top platter? Man... I know that theoretically 3 point levelling systems are better than 4 point levelling systems ( 3 point cannot rock ) but actually using them is a total nightmare. My tool makers microscope has a 3 point levelling system (it...

You will need a way to adjust the platter as it need to be ultra flat. You mean with reference to the cutting head? Yes. I was going to just make the spindle a good fit but now that you mention it... some adjustment capability would not hurt I suppose. What adjustment facility did the VMS have? Tha...

Here I am machining the turntable:

https://youtu.be/NQrHJ5IwV-o

This is a short video of my friend grinding the main dovetail ways. My grinder is a bit small and moreover it is not automatic like his. The Neumann VMS would have had it ways ground in a very similar manner on this sort of machine. In keeping with the project this grinder also dates from the 70's :...

d wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:41 am

hey! very nice machining!
did you do the Vtale linear slide yourself?

Yes ! Actually that was quite easy. The leadscrew for the vertical slide was actually the hardest part and machining the leadscrew nut.

Hi All, I wanted a VMS 70 but my budget does not stretch that far so I decided to make one. I was thinking about it & all my machining equipment dates from the 50s to the 70s... which is VMS territory. I think I'm about 75% of the way there. Its half scale because my crucible isn't big enough to cas...

Your latest motor design is looking great. I was a bit dubious about the early prototype but this latest one... just Wow! Consider using ground round rod for the shaft & an oilite bush for the bore. Saves any machining & they come in all sorts of tolerances at a very reasonable price. Cheers, Wilson.

Hi All, I'm experimenting with regrinding sapphire stylii and I was doing really well with my first stylus when I knocked the table it was on for six and it went flying into the archaeological backscatter that is my workshop. It is in there, but the chances of me ever seeing it again are slim. There...

The SX74 & 68 have a 1 in 20 taper.

HTH,

Wilson.

Hi Mark, Good points... thanks! In a similar vain, do you know what (typically) is the distance from the back of the cutter head to the centre line of the needle? For cutter heads that mount in this manner (see attached image). I realize that this will vary with the make of cutter head but... roughl...