Hello from Stirling!

[stirlinglad]

been getting the email daily for months but never got round to joining,,until today,,,

..mike...

[Jon]

Hi mike - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

What's next up on your projects list?

[kbalch]

Hi mike,

Welcome!

What are you working on at the moment?

Ken

[stirlinglad]

Thanks for the nice friendly welcome everyone..
I've a henricci hot air engine casting set that I'm steadily plugging away at,and I've started a Jan ridders 'bas' stirling engine build too but there always seems to be other family stuff getting in the way,,I think we all have that problem at some point ,,
I got a mini mill a while back and I've been trying to turn it into a usable machine when I have time,, I've got rid of the torsion spring and replaced it with a gas strut, and I've fitted LEDs around the spindle as well as fitting one of those cheap Chinese rev counter things,, ( I think they're called Hall sensors but I may well be wrong on that)..I've seen a few mods I'd like to do on this site but as I've said,it's finding the time to do the work.. but keep them coming as maybe one day I'll have more free time..
Only yesterday Marvs chuck changing Banjo provided me with a way to solve the stuck chuck on my old Myford..it seems the most even way of distributing the force it's going to need..( thanks Marv)..

..Mike..

[mklotz]

Only yesterday Marvs chuck changing Banjo provided me with a way to solve the stuck chuck on my old Myford..it seems the most even way of distributing the force it's going to need..( thanks Marv)..

The banjo wrench works well but to be effective requires that the lathe spindle be locked. Using the back gears to lock the spindle is dangerous because, if overstressed, one can break teeth off the bull gear, leading to painful cash outlays and the frustrations of installing the repaired gear.

Some time ago I built a spindle crank to hand crank the lathe when threading to a shoulder or single pointing a thread with a large pitch. Its component parts look like this (ignore the test tube for the thermal pulse engine that crept into the picture)...

The conical nut goes into the split end of the aluminum spreader sized to fit the spindle bore and the bolt draws it in allowing the spreader to expand and grip the inside of the spindle. All assembled it looks like this...

I made the crank handle extra long so I could exert lots of torque on the spindle.

Why am I telling you this? It makes an excellent spindle lock when the banjo wrench needs to be used.

The best solution, of course, is to not need to use the banjo. Whenever you mount a chuck, use an oily toothbrush to clean and oil the spindle threads so the chuck can't lock on.