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Harry, it's much more than just the capacity for me. It wouldn't really bother me if the table was half the size it is. I can't think of anything I've ever cut more than 12" in one go. It's the quality, accuracy and rigidity which I wouldn't like to be without. Everything I've done on my v8 I...

I've just got sidetracked again so haven't tried anything to reduce the kinking. I think the first thing will be to try and force some balls down the bore, but without the outer die. It would be a major project to make 10 different 3D outer dies, even with a CNC, which I haven't got. Internal...

Another vote for the Bridgeport. If you have room then get one. Unless you're hobby is repairing wristwatches! If I had to lose mine and downsize to a smaller mill then I'd probably just give up and find another hobby. I agree with Harry about the 'feel' with small cutters. I snapped a 1.5mm...

Haha! That's pretty cool. Normally I can spot a hoax straight away, but this had me believing it for almost a minute.

Some general observations rather than answering specific points:- The effort required to pull the tube round is far more than I had anticipated. I used a 30" overall length lever, and I had to brace my foot against the bench to stop me pulling it over. I think the forces involved are more than...

I hear what you all say. I know the bend radius is very tight, hence the idea of making the mandrel bender, as opposed to an ordinary type bender, or filling the tubes with low melting point alloy. I know the bend radius I want, which will look the best, and am now trying to produce that...

Whilst on a slow period with my V8 I have been designing my next engine, which will be a 1/3 scale V10. Remembering what a nightmare the V8 exhaust manifolds were to make, I decided to have a go making a mandrel bender for the V10 exhaust. The tube size is 14mm o/d x 1mm wall. Hopefully...

Hi, do you mean 180mm rather than 1800mm?

Hi Bill. That compound slide had me scratching my head at first. It was almost like the slide was being moved by a magnet underneath! The photo should explain how it works. While I'm on, does anyone know what is meant to fit on the end of the cross slide? The original Rivett assembly drawing...

Just had to say how nice this looks. There's some lovely engineering going on there. Seeing the video makes me want to make one for myself, especially hearing it with the headphones on! I'd love to see it with a big fat 3 blade prop. Great job. Keith.

A quick progress report. I want to get the lathe into a state where it's useable and then see if the Rivett is as good as everything I've read recently says it is. I managed to get the 6 thou wear down to 1 thou' so it will be ok for trying out. It's less wear than my other lathe anyway. If I...

Terry, my situation is a bit different to yours in that I am hoping to go to fuel injection ultimately, so the carb setup is just temporary, just to see if the engine would run. So, I bought a small twin needle carb from a small rc aero engine. The bore is 5mm, and my engine is 40cc V8. The...

Hope crank is ok. The very first fire-up is always the worst because you have no idea where the fueling is set to. When I eventually got mine to run I realised the settings I'd been previously using to get it to start were waaaay too rich. The only way I could get mine to run was to pre-heat...

I think Iwas a bit premature with the amount of wear. The top surface is good but the dovetails which are on the front show more wear. Measuring between dowel pins between the dovetails there is a difference of 6 thou between the worst bit and an unworn bit. I need to research if this wear...

Many thanks for your replies. After doing a bit of research on rivettlathe.com I reckon the serial no. puts it at 1922 vintage, although the brass plate has a signature and 18 scribed on, so that part could have been assembled earlier. Either way it's coming up for 100 years old. The bed has a...

Yes it would be nice to restore it and use it, but I'm not sure if I want to spend 200 hours of engine building time on it. If I was assured it would be more accurate than my current lathe then I might be tempted to have a go. I've just been looking over it and there's some really nice...

I've just aquired this Rivett lathe. I know a bit of it's history as I bought it as a basket case, about 25 years ago for a mate, but he's never done anything with it, and gave it to me today. It was working when I bought it, but was stripped for delivery, and never touched since. I can see...

On the smoking issue, the engine will run with just a bit of smoke when there is no oil in the sump. As soon as I filled the sump the engine smoked, badly. I did put enough oil in initially so the crank would pick some up and fling it up the cylinders, but this was stupid. The opposite is what...

Maybe it is time for a recap. The ultimate plan is, or was at he start, to build a fuel injected V8. Although I have started designing my next one, I still intend finishing this, even if only to sell it on. This is the injection bit, but no injector yet. So, on the carb side I'm not...

hi Jeff, the engine's got to come apart anyway to get rid of the ptfe head seals so I'll assess the ring job then. I did consider a crank baffle so I'll look at that at the same time. MY next engine, which is being slowly drawn up at the moment, will have a dry sump. I decided this a while...