New Myford Topslide to J A Radford's design

[stvy]

Hi Dave

Nice 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

Anderson tube scraper  works wonderfully....you can get them new, but no need as you can find them used, or just make a copy.

I think if any one is interested they should read what Florian has written. It is good advice. Furthermore for me the Anderson is too stiff. You can flatten it with a squeeze in a vise to make it have a bit of spring. Scraping is much much easier on the body with a bit of spring.

If I was in the USA I would recommend folks to consider the DAPRA (BIAX) hand scraper http://dapra.com/tech/dloads/Dapra-BiaxScrapers.pdf Very simple design with a bit of spring in it. I scrape with the handle in to the stomach and both hands at the business end. So I put a bit of plastic screwed in to the end of the handle to spread the point load. You could make a version at home for very little. I would love to find out what grade of carbide BIAX use on their not inexpensive blades. It takes a really fine edge so you can scrape with no chatter.

Anyhow great project and thanks for posting it.

Steve
Steve

[steamer]

Very good point Stvy.

I've used the Anderson, and perhaps because I'm a big guy, and the parts I'm working on are small, that it doesn't bother me.

Then again, I don't do it for a living.

Dave

[Andy]

I do have a soft spot for the special tooling designs he did, very interesting. It would be wonderful to see more examples. Is there any internet resource with colour photographs of any of his other designs known to anyone?

Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve, I have made the QCTP that he designed and also the ball turning tool, modifying it a little to suit me. I made a video of the ball turner and it also shows the tool post. I am tempted to make a modified top slide for more rigidity. Just not sure if it really needs the top slide at all for a lot of work i do with the lathe 

[youtube1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psY1bL9Oaq4[/youtube1]

[Andy]

Hello Andy, thanks for your comment.     I saw it earlier on, and wondered if any other lathe users would care to take up your point about a fixed parallel slide and its utility, but as they have not....
  It is a fair point, because over the years various designs for very rigid fixed toolholders, multi or single tool,  have appeared in the magazines, and I suppose there must be some users of them.  But I can envisage such a cross slide mounted holder being rather difficult to use when doing a lot of routine lathe operations. And in fact, the usual top slide, for all its versatility,  does spend a lot of its existence sitting there set parallel to the lathe axis...

 Without a moveable top slide, putting known increments of axial direction cut on becomes a bit of a game, because you either have to use the engaged leadscrew and not very convenient leadscrew handwheel, or perhaps put a carriage stop on the bedways and set the increment as a gap.     ( Admittedly, a DRO on that axis could help here, but they are not that common on smaller lathes, I have no plans to fit one.)
  If one has to , say, turn a not too long shoulder to a set length, or chamber out a bore to accurate depth, it's so handy to just use the top slide and its index when set accurately parallel, and the same goes for putting a few thou of cut on when facing. Then there are ops like grooving to width between left and right faces, easy to keep track of width and cut on the top slide dial... Although the travel of this new top slide is comparable to the Myford one, getting on for two inches, I wouldn't generally use it for that sort of traverse, but for all the fiddling stuff as mentioned above, I would not be without it.  The rigidity of this slide and its mounting and the support it gives quite close to the tool tip, even with the tailstock support being used, certainly exceeds the Myford arrangement  -  though as said earlier, one needs that top slide for the other functions.
  More write up later!,    Dave
 

I added a very basic dro to my lathe using a 6 inch digital vernier (China £7.00) that can be fitted  in seconds and of course have a bed stop to set a shoulder. I also added a dro to the tail stock as well. All simple stuff to make I add.
The reason I am looking at this style of top slide is because I have made Radfords QCTP so know the slide will happily accept the holders. The Gibraltar tool post wouldnt accept those, so it would be a step backwards.
Of course if I didnt add the top slide I could make a far simpler bolted together unit that would be super rigid. The original top slide could then be retained and swapped when needed.
Lots to ponder 

[Chipswitheverything]

[J A Radford was certainly more knowledgeable than most and certainly me. So I dug out the book and read chapter 19. It was very interesting reading. I do not own a Myford lathe so I had not realised that a great many benefits are to be had with this design. As a boxford owner I was simply not aware.

I do have a soft spot for the special tooling designs he did, very interesting. It would be wonderful to see more examples. Is there any internet resource with colour photographs of any of his other designs known to anyone?

Thanks,
Steve

Thanks for the comments and discussion, and to Steve for referring back to J A Radford's own comments.
 
  I needed to make an adjustable dial to fit the Myford 10 TPI screw.  This feed screw is from a vertical slide rather than a topslide, and the termination and thread for the handle is different from the Super 7 topslide.     I looked up Geo. H Thomas's articles on cross slide dial index collars, and was very happy to find that GHT presented FOUR  designs for improving the fixed, rather crude cast dial on the Myford vertical slide ( as well as the cross slide designs.)  I was able to select one of these designs for my top slide dial, and it saved me a lot of head scratching...
 The locking method is via a thick pressure washer, with a keyway against rotation, the "washer" is tucked away inside the chambered out dial : the smaller knurled ring locks the dial, which is otherwise free to turn when released.
  The lines were engraved using my Radford headstock indexing device, wh. I have shown a few times elsewhere on the forum.    The numbers were stamped using some bits from the Pillar Tool rigged up on the lathe cross slide to assist.   The sprung loaded guide for the number stamps ( another GHT design ) makes the numbering much easier.
  I needed to bore out the taper inside the Myford ball handle, and adapt it with a Loctited plug threaded for the 1/4" BSF thread on the feedscrew end.

Dave
 
PS, Just seen the post by Andy about the Radford Ball turning tool.   I have one of those, ( but I didn't make it, came from another model engineer ) and it has been very useful, works very well.


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[stvy]

Hi,

Well more time spent reading the book. What an exceptional set of improvements and accessories for the lathe. What an exceptional man.

Steve

[Chipswitheverything]

Just to wrap up a few points left over...
   I've not got, or even seen, J A Radford's book , Steve, but I think I have all the articles in the M E mag back numbers.  Some of his devices, like the elevating heads and boring table for the Myford lathe, were pretty amazing, but they call for a lot of pattern making and casting.  In the modern era when good milling machines are in most workshops, I doubt that using the lathe in that way would attract most machinists.  Be one hell of a project for anyone who just loved getting involved with tooling, though...

 Re my top slide....   Having made the four tee bolts to fit the Myford tee slots, I found that I could have bought Chiwanese nuts and bolts that would have done the trick for about £6 the four !
  Still, mine have got a small refinement of having the rather thin bolt head reinforced by being milled with an upstand section like a tee nut.  As shown in the photos of the milling, I made them back to back in pairs and nutted them through a hole in a bit of flat bar for the milling op.  The big toolmakers' clamp is just "belt and braces" in case the workpiece wanted to unscrew under the milling load.

  The alignment of the topslide is arranged by a snugly fitting, full length tongue that goes into the first tee slot on the Myford cross slide.  I checked out this slot for parallelism before I made the top slide, ( dial indicator ) it was dead parallel for most of its length, trailed off by about half a thou towards the rear.  Worth checking your individual lathe if contemplating this build.

  When I eventually finished the tool, and mounted it on the Myford, I took some test cuts over the travel of the slide, about 1 3/4", on a bit of 1" BMS bar held in the four jaw.  I had just over 1 thou difference, big at the near end.   Then I undid the four bolts, nipped them lightly, gave the appropriate end of the t'slide base a tap with a brass hammer, did the bolts up tightly...  Now I was within two tenths of a thou parallel over the test piece when I took another light cut.
  So I think that is the mounting routine...!
  Because the tongue is pretty snug, ( although the device will slide along stiffly when it is mounted and all bolts are in the tee slots ), I find it easier when fitting it to put the tee bolts, minus nuts, into the slots, and plonk the 'slide down in situ over them.  Takes little time.

  Final photo shows a cut of just around 5/16" depth taken in mild steel, a short bar length that was held in the four jaw.  No chatter, felt that it would have taken a bigger bite, but the tool edge wasn't long enough to take off more.  So, plenty of rigidity, I wouldn't often take that sort of cut on a Myford anyway.

   Hope that this has been of interest, maybe a few others will contemplate making one  - the Hemingway package probably offers the most convenient way in, but I was pleased to be all done at a total cost of about ten quid...!     Dave