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Re: Building, upgrading and servicing machines
Nice work as alway Derek. Interesting to see your fine adjustment set up on the cross cut side. Does it work well? I'm thinking of doing something similar. Graphite or a soft pencil is my go to lube in situations where dust can build up. Many times I've had folk complaining that they have oiled or greased there lock and it still stiff! Kindest regards Jonathan Samways On Mon, 27 Feb 2023, 5:27 am David Kumm, <davekumm@...> wrote:
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Re: Building, upgrading and servicing machines
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
Beautiful bed and a reasonable number of pillows.? I hate removing pillows but my wife loves buying them.? Dave
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Derek Cohen <derekcohen@...>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2023 11:14 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [FOG] Building, upgrading and servicing machines ?
After completing furniture building deadlines, I enjoy taking some time to clean the workshop, clean the machines, and build a tool or two. I have recently completed two bedside tables for my son and daughter-in-law, sent them a new base for a chest of
drawers (which had been damaged in move from Sydney to Canberra), and then built a new bed for my wife and myself. The latter is below ...
Old bed (solid Jarrah, built 25 years ago) ...  New bed ..  Curved head board ...  Anyway, I hope some of the following will be interesting and, better still, useful for yourself. I had purchased a never-used 20 year old Festool tracksaw, and decided to build a MFT to find out what all the fuss is about. I thought that, sawing aside, the MFT would work well for holding small parts for routing and sanding, as well as an assembly table and outfeed for the K3 slider and A3-31 jointer. Details on routing the holes here:?? The MFT has a flip up/down extension, as well as an old Record vice. The top is a 25mm thick panel ...  Owing to the exorbitant cost of MFT hinges for tracks in Oz, I decided to build my own in aluminium ...   And fence from a 6020 extrusion ...  Details for all are here:?? I fine-tuned the parallel guide for my Hammer K3 slider. This involved swapping out the connecting hex bolts for knobs, and adding a stop on the fence face. The knobs allow the parallel guide to be moved easily and quickly along the slider for different lengths of boards ...  The parallel guide and cross cut stops are calibrated to be equal ...  The fine adjuster for the crosscut fence received new knobs ..  Two years ago I completed a new router table and fence in the outfeed of the K3 ...  For a while I've been meaning to change the way the fence is adjusted. Here it is running on a track, and the tall knobs clamp it down. But the downside of this system is that there is no micro-adjust. Today I got around to modifying the router table fence by connecting it to the rip fence ...  The router table fence was built out of 8040 extrusion, and the side supports are 8020 extrusion attached with brackets ...  The side supports are connected to the K3 rip fence track. This makes it a simple matter to loosen and remove until needed ...  The fence is not only linked to the rip fence, but also adjusted by its micro adjuster. Not only that, but there is a Wixey digital gauge, and this both aids in monitoring the amount of adjustment, as well as marking a position and returning to it ...  Lastly ... Sooner or later your blade adjuster on your K3 will become stiff and require two hands to turn the wheel. It may take a few years, but it will occur, and then you will need to lube the mechanism. I know Chris Parks has a modification he has made, but I barely knew where the mechanism was, let alone had the courage to do this. About a year ago I called in Felder to sort it out, as the local guys are good folk and very responsive. They came out, but I was not that happy with the result. The adjuster felt stiffer still than when original. And it cost me a couple of hundred bucks. The adjuster was so stiff in recent weeks, that even two hands was a struggle. This weekend I decided to do it myself. The result was very successful, and I wanted to pass on what I did. First you have to open up access to the winder. Remove the switch panel ...  Slide away the box ...  The thread with the blade lowered all the way ...  The thread with the blade fully up ...  After cleaning all the dust inside the cabinet, and then blowing out any remaining dust, a silicon spray was directed at the thread. This was repeated several times with the winder in-and-out. It made little if any difference. When Felder were here a year ago, the technician used lithium grease. So I sprayed this on, again repeatedly, and wound the handle in-and-out. A little imrovement, but not much better than Felder achieved. Finally I added a bunch of graphite to the thread, and wound it in-and-out. This made a big difference. And the more I wound the wheel, the better it got. I am not sure if the graphite helped clear any remaining gunk, or whether it was the lubricant needed. I returned to the wheel later, and it was now winding up (down is always easy) very comfortably with one hand. Those who have done this might chip in her with anthing else to be done or tried. I did add some graphite to the slider, and this really smoothed it. Regards from Perth Derek ?
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Building, upgrading and servicing machines
After completing furniture building deadlines, I enjoy taking some time to clean the workshop, clean the machines, and build a tool or two. I have recently completed two bedside tables for my son and daughter-in-law, sent them a new base for a chest of drawers (which had been damaged in move from Sydney to Canberra), and then built a new bed for my wife and myself. The latter is below ...
Old bed (solid Jarrah, built 25 years ago) ... New bed .. Curved head board ... Anyway, I hope some of the following will be interesting and, better still, useful for yourself. I had purchased a never-used 20 year old Festool tracksaw, and decided to build a MFT to find out what all the fuss is about. I thought that, sawing aside, the MFT would work well for holding small parts for routing and sanding, as well as an assembly table and outfeed for the K3 slider and A3-31 jointer. Details on routing the holes here:?? The MFT has a flip up/down extension, as well as an old Record vice. The top is a 25mm thick panel ... Owing to the exorbitant cost of MFT hinges for tracks in Oz, I decided to build my own in aluminium ... And fence from a 6020 extrusion ... Details for all are here:?? I fine-tuned the parallel guide for my Hammer K3 slider. This involved swapping out the connecting hex bolts for knobs, and adding a stop on the fence face. The knobs allow the parallel guide to be moved easily and quickly along the slider for different lengths of boards ... The parallel guide and cross cut stops are calibrated to be equal ... The fine adjuster for the crosscut fence received new knobs .. Two years ago I completed a new router table and fence in the outfeed of the K3 ... For a while I've been meaning to change the way the fence is adjusted. Here it is running on a track, and the tall knobs clamp it down. But the downside of this system is that there is no micro-adjust. Today I got around to modifying the router table fence by connecting it to the rip fence ... The router table fence was built out of 8040 extrusion, and the side supports are 8020 extrusion attached with brackets ... The side supports are connected to the K3 rip fence track. This makes it a simple matter to loosen and remove until needed ... The fence is not only linked to the rip fence, but also adjusted by its micro adjuster. Not only that, but there is a Wixey digital gauge, and this both aids in monitoring the amount of adjustment, as well as marking a position and returning to it ... Lastly ... Sooner or later your blade adjuster on your K3 will become stiff and require two hands to turn the wheel. It may take a few years, but it will occur, and then you will need to lube the mechanism. I know Chris Parks has a modification he has made, but I barely knew where the mechanism was, let alone had the courage to do this. About a year ago I called in Felder to sort it out, as the local guys are good folk and very responsive. They came out, but I was not that happy with the result. The adjuster felt stiffer still than when original. And it cost me a couple of hundred bucks. The adjuster was so stiff in recent weeks, that even two hands was a struggle. This weekend I decided to do it myself. The result was very successful, and I wanted to pass on what I did. First you have to open up access to the winder. Remove the switch panel ... Slide away the box ... The thread with the blade lowered all the way ... The thread with the blade fully up ... After cleaning all the dust inside the cabinet, and then blowing out any remaining dust, a silicon spray was directed at the thread. This was repeated several times with the winder in-and-out. It made little if any difference. When Felder were here a year ago, the technician used lithium grease. So I sprayed this on, again repeatedly, and wound the handle in-and-out. A little imrovement, but not much better than Felder achieved. Finally I added a bunch of graphite to the thread, and wound it in-and-out. This made a big difference. And the more I wound the wheel, the better it got. I am not sure if the graphite helped clear any remaining gunk, or whether it was the lubricant needed. I returned to the wheel later, and it was now winding up (down is always easy) very comfortably with one hand. Those who have done this might chip in her with anthing else to be done or tried. I did add some graphite to the slider, and this really smoothed it. Regards from Perth Derek ?
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Re: Australian Wood Review - ISSUE 118
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýHi FOG: ? As a follow-up, I was curious about the best way to access an article (mine or otherwise) from past issues of Australian Wood Review. It is not easy. I¡¯ve raised this several times with AWR and will continue to do so. In talking to their administration, it appears that: ?
?
?
? To take out an ongoing subscription, navigate here:
? There is a search icon at the top right. Enter ¡°Australian Wood Review¡± and the current issue is the first search return item. Click on it (Issue 118). ? You will arrive at this page:
? Click on ¡°Subscribe¡± and jump through the hoops. This will set you up for future issues if you so choose. My screen says it costs $29.26AUD to buy 4 issues as part of the ongoing subscription. This is atrociously misleading because the cart has a picture of Issue 118. So you¡¯d think you¡¯d receive access to Issue 118, and ongoing. From what I understand, you only obtain access to Issue 119 and ongoing. ? At $29AUD, I can imagine that is about $20USD. For four issues of a high quality woodworking magazine? BARGAIN (IMHO)! ? Now, if you want to purchase a past Issue of AWR, say Issue 113 which has the ¡°Calibrating a Sliding Tablesaw¡± article in it, you need to scroll down, all the way to the bottom where you will see a section called ¡°Recent Issues¡±. At the right, there is a ¡°View All¡± option which then brings up past issues for browsing. ? I can now click on Issue 113, and this takes me to this page:
? From here, I can select ¡°Buy Issue¡± for $11.55AUD and proceed to checkout. That equates to $7.77USD, according to Google exchange rates today. Again if I may be so bold as to say: that¡¯s a bargain even if you¡¯re interested in only one article in the issue. ? I think Australian Wood Review is an underrated and outstanding magazine. The editor in chief is an amazing lady who is herself an accomplished woodworker, who seems to know most people in the industry, and has strongly advocated and indulged my offerings for the magazine. She agrees that the website for the magazine is not good, the purchasing avenues are not good, but that the business side of the magazine is well out of her wheelhouse. ? I¡¯ve said it before, but people keep asking me for copies of my articles: I have been paid for my content and while I retain copyright, I have agreed not to disseminate my articles independently of the magazine, except that I am allowed to share the first page for advertising purposes. I will never give out a copy of my articles unless I get permission from the publishers. I¡¯m going to ask for that permission as the publishers are surely making diddly-squat (as we say here) on past issues ¨C they make it incredibly difficult to purchase past material! If I get permission, absolutely I¡¯ll share them here. Otherwise, the articles are definitely available for digital purchase. ? I¡¯m sorry for the frustration. I¡¯m frustrated too. ? Warm regards, Lucky ? Dr David Luckensmeyer ? From:
[email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Nathan D'Elboux <nathan.delboux@...> I just finished reading the air compressor article which was fantastic. ? I have some AWR paperbacks but not all of them so I¡¯ll take a look for your other articles for the sliding table contents ?thanks for your contributions? ? Cheers Nathan ? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of David Luckensmeyer <dhluckens@...>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2023 2:04:42 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [FOG] Australian Wood Review - ISSUE 118 ? Hi FOG: |
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Re: Cast iron table flatness issue
#k700s
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
I turn my machine on alternate sides at night. ?? David Best DBestWorkshop@... https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpbest/collections/ https://www.youtube.com/@David_Best |
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Re: Cast iron table flatness issue
#k700s
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
I believe Northfield's castings still season in a field in Eau Claire WI.? My SCMI T130 hangs the quill from the top but has a thick table and a thick ring in the casting around the hole.? While they do a better job with their cast iron, they cheapened up the
spindle bearing design so it is probably a push.? Hanging heavy internals off the table was not the preferred way of building machines until the base and chassis became lighter.? The jack screw looks to work but I have to wonder if beefing up the table casting
would add more than a couple hundred $ and if the Felder buyers would really look elsewhere at the price differential.? Dave
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Jonathan Smith <jonathan.smith@...>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2023 6:12 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FOG] Cast iron table flatness issue #k700s ?
One of Lamb's products during WWII.? These were stress relieved during detonation.
So it turns out stress relief by aging in unheated conditions is a real thing.? I had never heard of the debate.? But after reading a bit further, the preponderance of evidence says it's an urban myth.? Oh well.? I guess I can still argue with confidence ambient conditions like room temperature (other than thermal expansion), humidity, light, x-rays, road trips and so on won't significantly change a castings shape.? There is no substitute for critical temp when it comes to stress relief.? ? ? But I suppose I could still be wrong. |
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Re: Cast iron table flatness issue
#k700s
One of Lamb's products during WWII.? These were stress relieved during detonation.
So it turns out stress relief by aging in unheated conditions is a real thing.? I had never heard of the debate.? But after reading a bit further, the preponderance of evidence says it's an urban myth.? Oh well.? I guess I can still argue with confidence ambient conditions like room temperature (other than thermal expansion), humidity, light, x-rays, road trips and so on won't significantly change a castings shape.? There is no substitute for critical temp when it comes to stress relief.? ? ? But I suppose I could still be wrong. |
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Re: Cast iron table flatness issue
#k700s
Brian, Brett,
I will participate in the debate but only in a friendly way.? And obviously this subject isn't for everybody. I only made my original comment because I know something about castings and machining and I am triggered by quality and customer service issues.? At about the same time span Gerry Ford was living in the Whitehouse, I was a green machinist at Import Auto in Santa Barbara.? In that time I probably surfaced over 300 heads but only decked maybe 5 blocks ( one being a Hudson straight 8) and never align bored crank shaft journals except in aluminum? VW cases.? I suppose it could be done but never heard of anyone machining journals in 4, 6 and 8 cyl single piece blocks.? I don't know if oversize OD bearings bearing are available.? But technology has moved on so maybe. A typical cast iron engine rebuild would include cylinder bores, valve seats and sometimes valve guides.? In other words, wear surfaces.? Heads got resurface and cranks reground as needed.? Heads failed from cracks, corrosion and warping from heat.? Short thick v-8 heads were less vulnerable than straight 6's.? Poorly designed cheap British Leyland Mowog and the Datsun knock offs were very vulnerable,? Toyota had an overhead cam engine that would reliably fail from blown head gaskets.? I don't know if it was water pump / radiator issue or a poor casting design.? My point is heat and sometimes corrosion kills the casting.? Not time and movement.? Brett- Head and block mating surfaces are machined flat so pulling one out of shape against the other is unlikely.? But no doubt, overheating can cause a warp.? 400 or 500f could easily happen if the water jacket ran dry.? I could see heat cycling have an effect but only if it reaches critical temperature. What got me on to the machined-in low spot spot theory: I surfaced heads on an overhead grinder with a traveling bed.? I had a job one time to surface heads from an old flat head Ford.? Hold down options were limited and I ended up machining a crown into the first one because I pulled the uneven top down to the flat machine bed.? I fixed it with a better set-up and regrind but I always felt bad about using up limited rebuild life cause by my stupidity. Reagan years later I worked for Lamb Grays Harbor who had shut their foundry down the year before I joined but maintained their pattern shop and continued to incorporate casting in their pulp and paper machines.? One of the larger casting sets was a 4 ton cast steel fly knife and anvil pulp cutter. The fly knife was about 30" dia and up to 24' long (wide) with bearing journals on the ends and a helical groove cut across.? It's similar to a Felder planer knife rotor but with a single knife set at a helix to shear pulp sheets and reduce the thump.? The anvil knife was mounted flat in an opposing casting with intermediate supports.? The castings were not heat treated. Knife clearance was about .010" and ran at about 2000 surface feet per minute for 24 hours / per day, 350 days per year.? Many of those machines built in the 50's are still running.? The casting shape does not change significantly.? We also "proof" or rough machined large castings for Atas Copco an other foundries.? This way the foundry supplied a casting that was guaranteed to clean up and had no sand pockets making happier customers. We had a turret lathe that could swing over 8'. So we did a lot of BRT work. (Big Round Thing) Brian, I can see your machine tools moving if set on an uneven floor.? Especially a long, skinny lathe shape.? But that's different than a casting spontaneously moving on its own after its set and leveled. I'm sure you know from sad experience that iron, steel and aluminum castings don't like to yield.? They prefer to snap and make you cry. Mark Thomas, I don't know what Felder's process is but believe pre-crowning a table and calculating deflections from hanging different component weights would be complicated.? ?A more traditional method would be to fabricate the base frame in a jig so as to maintain the table's mount points within a tolerance and provide enough of them to prevent deflection with a realistic service factor.? I can also believe this Austrian run business has value engineered the shit out of their designs and further suspect they are not above trading off some quality for cost savings.? It is a world economy after all.? As far as shipping or transport effects, I don't think so.? There were some folks at one time trying to sell vibratory stress relief for weldments in lieu of soaking ovens.? These guys seemed more like voodoo doctors although I could see it working within limits on smaller controlled repeatable weldments or castings.? ? So if anyone is still reading, don't worry.? Spring is coming and we can all get outside again.? I contend cast iron is relatively stable so the defect was either machined into the table or fastened at uneven mount points.? But I could be wrong. |
David Luckensmeyer
David P. Best
Jonathan Smith