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Hi DaveNice work on that compound slide!Now about the scraping: I think you are using a little too much bluing compound. That amount works for the beginning of work when you need to see pretty small high points but as you get flatter, you should reduce the amount of color used. The scrapers you use will make the work really painful because they are too short. A good size is in about 50 cm (or 20 inches) long.Besides, the two bent scrapers wont be handy for scraping a flat surface. They are rather designed for scraping work on bearings like conical bushes that are fitted to a shaft (like a lathe main spindle bearing) So if you intend to do some more scraping, i can only recommend to build a longer scraper (you could just solder a piece of carbide on the tip of some flat material and then grind it into shape and sharpen it) Florian
Seems the compound can't be rotated. Any issues with that restriction?
Hello guys, very appreciative of all your comments. John, it was a pleasure to show you the slide in situ, now you're meant to rush home and start making one for yourself! But Christmas is still a way off, if I have the odd hour to spare.... Florian, you are right that I am not well equipped with a good scraper for such a task. At the "Brooklands " Model Engineer Exh a year ago, a chap was demonstrating scraping and letting people have a go, and he had some excellent commercial scrapers of the size you are mentioning, and I could do with a tool more like that. I look out for second hand tools, but such a scraper has not come my way. Could be made at home, as you say. The blue, yes, that sort of thins out as I successively wipe it away from the surfaces and make do with what is remaining on the plate.... Steve, your query is pretty much what Andy was asking about a few comments above, which I did my best to give some ideas about on my Sept 1st comment. I'd still be pleased to have some further remarks from other machinists, hopefully in support!! Apart from anything else, the late Jack Radford, who was an immensely capable machinist and tool designer, was of the opinion that this alternative topslide was perhaps the most useful and satisfactory of all of the many ingenious accessories that he had made for his Myford lathe. In his Model Engineer article he argues the points in favour of being able to use this alternative fixed topslide quite comprehensively. Dave