When Brother Yonadav sent me his tin box for the Monitor stove he also sent me two other projects. One was to straighten as best I could a leg for a Primus 96 size stove. The other was to repair a burner nipple seen in his posting in the club house. Posting number 193559, for a blow lamp. The following is from this repair. To begin it was necessary to “Dial In” my lathe as I have not done this since it was set up. The need for this will become clear later but suffice to say it really needed this process. To some of you who are not machinists this might seem an unnecessary step but after you see the results it should be apparent why I needed to do this. To those who are machinists it is apparent that one needs do this every now and then. Especially since my lathe is mounted on a work bench which is also on wheels. Following that process it was necessary to true my drill chuck to the tail stock as well as the lathe chuck. Since this is the first time I have used this drill chuck it took extra time to make it perfect. Yes lateral movement will change but as this is an index-able tool I wanted it centered before I started working on the burner nipple. For those who are interested, yes I did check the alignment of the live center in the tail stock prior to using it to center the drill chuck. The next step was to flush the face the nipple in the head chuck so that I could drill it’s center. This was necessary because I was going to fill the hole put there by his dentist and re-drill the fuel passage. Now that the center of the nipple is clean and ready for sil-brazing the first step in that process is to fill the cavity with flux. As before I use a Borax paste solution of borax and water. There is nothing special about the water, it’s straight from the tap. Following the flux of the parts I cleaned the sil-brazing material and nip off a piece. This piece is placed in the cavity of the nipple and then I add a bit more flux. This is to ensure the sil-brazing material is also kept out of the oxygen triangle of a heat process. This is necessary to keep the two pieces from forming a coating which will prevent the sil-brazing material from sticking to the brass. Perhaps you can not see it in this picture but there is a wee nip of sil-solder in the cavity of the nipple. The part is now heated to red hot and the sil-solder is allowed to melt into the cavity which I drilled out earlier. As it happens I put just enough sil-solder in the cavity to fill the cavity leaving small depressions on the top and bottom of the nipple. These depressions are the result of capillary action of the liquid solder and the solid brass. These depressions will be important later also, but this was a nice result since I was unsure of just how much sil-solder to use. Now it was time to go back to the lathe and drill the orifice for the fuel passage. This is why it was so important to have all my tools and equipment aligned. I don't think i have to tell you that .25 mm drill is a wee tiny thing. I dropped it twice and spent half an hour looking for it. Finely i got out a magnet and scooped it up right under my feet. You may not be able to see it but there is a .25mm hole in the center of this nipple. Done and the parts will be sent off to Yonadav this coming weekend. lance
Hi Lance, I find this fascinating. Your post could be included in an instruction manual for the beginning machinist. Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to get me a lathe... Thanks a lot, Yonadav
Lance Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever leave a chuck key in a chuck, for what ever reason. Even if your using it to turn the chuck. I learned that pretty quickly after seeing them wizz around a workshop and also getting a few clips around the ear when I was an apprentice. One tech college I went to even went as far as putting a spring loaded collar on the shank of the key so you couldn't.
I dont know what i'd do without mine now, they're so versatile you can mill very well on one too with the right attachments. I thank my lucky stars every time i can do a job that saves me or a mate hundreds of beer chits in my little machine shop & no waiting while a busy comercial shop has to find time in between a big production run. Plus the satisfaction of doing it yourself By the way Lance what machine do you have there? looks like a sturdy beast, Stu
As you can see from the other photos Henry i don't normally. That time i was trying to do 3 things at once, grab the camara, take a photo, and i was about to spin the chuck and take a video of the process of the dial indicater showing the runout. I took the key out just after this photo was taken, prior to taking the video. You can see in the first photo the cover for the belt is open and i was about to remove the belt from the head to free spin the chuck. It's a Logan bench top lathe Stu. has about an 8 inch swing. Strickly a hobby lathe. Yonadav, i'm not so sure about your area but here in teh states a lathe like this one will set you back about 700 - 1100 USD. There are cheaper models which are true hobby units that cost about 350.00 USD. Look to www.harborfreight.com for some lance
Don't make excuses You still did it, naughty boy. As I said that would have earned me a good clip around the ear as an apprentice. Old goat like you should know better
'enry ok i'm clipped. Now go back to your office and let me get some work done. Jeeeeeez, some people. Why don't you follow me about and set me right every time i make a mistake. You could slap me up side the head every time i do it, and yell in my ear too. lance
Henry you remind me of a stupid mistake I made in sixth form. I was making a vacuum pump and the Boxford late I was familiar with wasn't up to the job I needed to do. Boxford lathe. My tech. teacher said "Green we need to use the Harrison". This was unusual as that was his lathe! Harrison lathe (I think it was like this) Ok so we go over to the lathe and he takes the piece from me and inserts the chuck key ready to put the piece in the chuck. Then he says "come here Green so you can see how to do it properly" (this may have been followed by some insult like "idle boy" "dim wit" or something else). So I do as I'm told but being an idle teenager (have you noticed how gravity has a greater effect on the young) I lean my weight on the handy lever sticking out from the machine! Thereby engaging the drive and shooting the chuck key into the afore mentioned tech teachers ample stomach. Me and lathes don't get on don't ask about the emery cloth Lance top fettle
