Author Topic: Greetings from Cape Town  (Read 7360 times)

Offline Radio Head

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Greetings from Cape Town
« on: September 06, 2016, 01:12:48 PM »
Hello everyone, my name is John and I live in the mother city of South Africa, Cape Town. I stumbled upon your community after doing some or other workshop-related search and was really impressed by the quality of your work and forum exchanges.

I'm a lathe and mill novice, having bought a Myford Super 7 last year after much research, umming and aahing. Turns out it was quite a lucky find, what with having the full power feed gearbox and various accessories. The previous owner was the only one, and his box of "junk" is testimony to his decades of dedication. It's in pretty good condition for its age, and if I learn half of what he seems to have known I'll be happy.

I'm primarily an amateur radio operator, with an appreciation for equipment from the nineteen-seventies and eighties. This has taken me into servicing a certain amount of vacuum-tube rigs and I've built a high-power vacuum tube amplifier. The very "mechanical" style of this technology has fascinated me (compared to the all-digital software-based kit nowadays). Have a look inside a vacuum tube and you'll see what I mean... :)

Anyway, I've built a fair amount of antennas and masts, as well as an antenna rotator (some pics here https://flic.kr/s/aHsjvAMC5h and here https://flic.kr/s/aHsjvpSaWV). Coupled with servicing of old rigs, I've always had a need to up my game on the mechanical front. One of these days I'll get around to a Morse code paddle key since it presents a nice challenge. As it is I have work colleagues bringing me their motorcycle bits and pieces to replicate, which I relish as "school fees" in machining.

I recently got a vertical mill slide for the lathe and that's opened a whole new area for me in terms of what can be done in metal.

Looking forward to lots of learning... :NotWorthy:

Regards,
John.

Online Jo

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2016, 01:19:56 PM »
:hi: John,

Hopefully to encourage you to make some more swarf with your Myford  ;) Do you have any pics of your workshop?

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2016, 03:45:43 PM »
Welcome to MEM  John!

Dave

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2016, 04:05:35 PM »
Welcome John. Happy you found us and decided to join in the fun here :)

Bill

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2016, 04:23:33 PM »
Welcome to MEM John. This is a great place to hang out. I'm fairly new to machining myself and have learned a lot here.

As Jo said........it would be great to see some pictures of your workshop.

Are you thinking of building an engine of some sort?

Jim

PS: I got my Ham license in 1962, while in High School.  Enjoyed the hobby for several years. Then several more years in the later 80's. Nothing since.
Sherline 4400 Lathe
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"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2016, 05:47:27 PM »
Well, here's the ol' workshop:



As they say, it ain't much but it's home  :D . The workshop is a self-constructed timberframe lean-to on the side of the house (sadly, only 50 square feet). I use a table outside for bigger work and welding. So we have the lathe with vertical miling slide, drill press, grinding wheels (mainly for sharpening drill bits) and other assorted power tools.

Speaking of swarf, here's the old girl in situ:



As you can see, not in bad condition, issues are mainly cosmetic. The ways are still good (you can feel they're slightly worn towards the spindle because the gibs need a little tightening there). The spindle bearings are fine and backlash on the leadscrews is acceptable (as far as I know from what I've read). From what I recall of my measurements it's less than 30 thou on the main leadscrew, same on the cross slide and around 5 thou on the topslide - sound reasonable?

And here's a little part I just did for a colleague, part of his motorbike handlebar. The blue anodized part is the original, the silver is my effort:



I know - "Everyone's a hero in aluminum". So it's early days in the craft... the nice thing is having to create a new tool for new jobs - this required a copy of Steve Bedair's ball turning toolpost to get the curve in the side of the part - see http://www.bedair.org/Ball/ball.html (hell, who am I telling?). That in turn required getting my milling skills up from a standing start (already had to get a carbide end mill reground  :-[). The base is allie but the main rotating platform is steel; the handle shaft is an M10 threaded rod stripped on the lathe except for the ends, they go into the platform and the handle ball.



You can see a couple of symptoms in these pictures. The brass ball on the radius tool has vibration marks on it from the lathe. The motor has a gentle "vrum-vrum-vrum" rhythm to it when running free and I'm wondering if that isn't translating into the synchronised pattern. Doesn't always happen, as you can see from the bike part, so I'm guessing it's also to do with the RPM/diameter relationship. And then the steel post has milling marks from trial and error - but, hey - it works!

So it's all a journey... :-)
« Last Edit: September 06, 2016, 05:50:59 PM by Radio Head »

Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2016, 06:22:57 PM »
Jim - "build an engine"? Not sure to be honest. But from what I've seen here your collective skills are highly transferable whatever the project. It's entirely possible that I might be drawn into doing one, for the challenge and the beauty of them. Right now my interest is moving me towards making one of these:



You can see more at http://www.i1qod.it/ and http://www.i2rtf.com/html/keys_paddles.html. For those unfamiliar with radio, these are "paddles" for Morse code, used with an electronic keyer that provides a "dit" when the left side is pushed or squeezed to the right and a "dah" when the right one is pushed leftwards. It's the modern version of the old "brass pounders" that the wartime telegraphers and before used. The pros achieve speeds where you can't tell the difference between dits and dahs, it just sounds like pebbles falling. There's an entire movement in the radio world back to Morse code and a lot of guys are making their own keys. And then of course you get the real craftsmen like Begali and Frattini.

Offline Don1966

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2016, 07:56:10 PM »
Hi John and welcome to the group. I also have a Myford super 7 and love it.. I have built just about all the attachment for it.

Don









Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2016, 09:01:08 PM »
Hey Don. Yep, that's the kind of expertise I was hoping for here. I saw your comments on some of the posts, the rotary table was very interesting. Then your Benson, of course - beautiful. You got me thinking of getting some brazing gear.

I can see this is one of those situations where the split between making tools and making actual stuff starts heavily towards tools and then shifts slowly towards actual product. Understandable. It forces a kind of strategic planning - you can't build this product before you build that tool, but that tool needs another to get it right.

Believe it or not, it all started with a set of brass balls (literally)!  :Lol: I showed my project team at work the famous Alec Baldwin speech from Glengarry Glen Ross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XW6P0tiVc) where he pulls a set out of his briefcase, shows them to the old boys of the sales team and then cuts to the chase about getting the deal done.



So I was thinking about turning a set as an award of some sort for Project Managers that have done well despite adversity. Hence the ball turner / radius tool. Unfortunately our year-end has passed, but I might do it anyway. "You call yourself a salesman, you sonofabitch?" - classic!  :Lol:

I just looked at your photobucket page - lots of interesting stuff there. Looks like we have the identical Super 7 down to the toolpost and the absent crossfeed. The manual I have refers to the crossfeed but like yours, mine certainly doesn't have the apron layout that they show i.e. item 10. It's a lovely piece of kit, though, that's for sure.



By the way - are my estimates for backlash on the various feeds alright? "From what I recall of my measurements it's less than 30 thou on the main leadscrew, same on the cross slide and around 5 thou on the topslide - sound reasonable?".
« Last Edit: September 06, 2016, 09:47:28 PM by Radio Head »

Offline vcutajar

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2016, 10:22:40 PM »
Hi John and welcome to the group.

What's your callsign?  Even though I dismantled everything, I kept my callsign of 9H1IP.

Vince

Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2016, 07:16:07 AM »
Hi Vince. ZS1ZC. See https://www.qrz.com/db/ZS1ZC.

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2016, 07:33:30 AM »
One of my very first QSL cards when I was a kid was from RSA. Sitting in the dark of my room with just the glow of the tubes providing illumination....listening to these far and foreign stations...... ah yes.

Pete
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SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2016, 07:43:43 AM »
Hi Tim. Unfortunately propagation's not too good at the moment. There's usually a good 20m longpath opening to the West coast around 1500UTC but at this time of year and with the solar cycle going into the dip it's not too good. Then there's a shortpath at around 1900UTC that should get me into Canada and possibly even WA, but that's pretty cold these days too. I guess a lot of us hams get into other things (like metal turning!) when the ionosphere goes south... You guys had it lucky three or more solar cycles ago. I remember in the nineteen-eighties being able to eat breakfast cereal and listen to 20m with wall-to-wall US stations. As you say - ah yes. Good times...  :)

Offline Don1966

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2016, 12:18:34 AM »
Hi R.H.,
I haven't really checked the run out on mine. I guess I need to do that just to see what I have. I will let you know how mine pans out tomorrow. '
If you like brass as much as I do check this engine if you haven't already....http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,5561.15.htm.  it will also take you to the built thread.

Don


Offline Radio Head

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Re: Greetings from Cape Town
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2016, 09:47:49 AM »
Don - wow. That's a magnificent machine. And you're right to showcase it like that in video for posterity. I have a few things I need to do in brass - I hope they look half as good.  :)

 

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