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Hi Stan, It is such a long time since we spoke. I think on Skype, and that was many moons ago. It os so easy to lose contact with people, I have lost hundreds over the last few years. I am far from being defunked, as soon as I can get over what I am going through now, my partner has told me I...

Don't worry Jon, I bought mine from RDG many moons ago, so I don't think they will sell out and day now. With reference to skimming you faceplate. Using a DTI, check for runout on the face, if more than a thou, skim across it. It only needs to be skimmed very rarely, check with the DTI before...

You are quite right F, I have at least a dozen tooling projects that need doing before I can even consider making any new engines, some can quickly be made, others are projects. I am a sucker for good tooling, but won't make or buy them unless they will get used a fair amount. The first and...

F, I am not decrying that chuck, but for the cost in money and labour, just a standard Keats will do the job at much lower cost Everyone to their own. Plus, depending on the throat on your mill, you might find that putting it on top of an RT, you just mine not have enough room. John

F, That offcentre chuck is basically a small Keats angle plate, but having it built into that block does save a bit of tapping. The reason I like the Keats is that it can be used and bolted down almost anywhere to get piece parts standing vertically. John

I have about a dozen fairly new or little used chucks, most are of the HBM types mentioned by F above, and I have no complaints about any of them. If anything, I have found that the 4 jaw self centering are slightly better than the 3 jaw ones, with less runout, all less than 1 thou. Don't...

Chris Heapy site http://nsa.kpu-m.ac.jp/gijutu/kousaku/easyweb.easynet.co.uk/chrish/projects.htm John

John, If I could make a suggestion. But first do a check to see how far out it actually is using an external micrometer. Get a couple of pieces of wood, put them together and drill through them with the same size drill as the tube, just like a split bearing, then shave a tiny amount of wood...

Use soda cans for your shims for rough setting and put baco foil (0.001") in a sandwich for fine tuning. John

I am sure you know that if the setting ring is missing that you can use an external mic for setting it with. Is the fixed anvil 'slideable' ? If so maybe that is the way to do it. All my later internal mics have an adjustment hole as can be seen on the pictures on here...

I know exactly what you mean Norm, it only takes one of the big names to mention something and it soon becomes unchangeable gospel. The way I get around it is to look at the problem logically from all angles, and you can soon and easily see that certain things just won't work. If that doesn't...

Norm, Four jaw independents have their own problems when trying to hold really small items. I bought a brand new small four jaw, and when roughly centred the small square formed at the jaw tips couldn't hold and give me the 0.005" offset that I required on a tiny part. The only way around it...

The member you really need to be talking to is 'Speedy', a very nice and informative chap. He builds flash steam boilers and engines in search of world or national records. This is one of his posts. He hasn't been active recently, I think on health issues, but you could try to send him a PM or...

I forgot to mention that the easiest way to cause tapered chuck jaws is to hold the piece parts in the first 1/3rd of the chuck jaws. Mainly machining steel and other hard materials are to blame, softer materials such as aluminium and brass will give a little, but you can still end up causing...

Baz, If you do get the 'fall through' don't forget your knurling head. Just a very very light straight knurl on a part can easily make your piece part grow by 0.002", so saving having to make a new piece. I like this method anyway as it gets the Loctite right down into the joint making it, to...

I have been following this post since the very beginning, and not one mention of how you get tapered jaws in the first place. No matter how old the chuck is I doubt very much if it could be attributed to wear, a chuck, even in a production environment can't wear that much. So you are left with...

Like Kvom has stated, unless you are working in a high precision laboratory, then almost any near flat surface will do. I used a glass platten out of a copying machine for many years until I realised they don't like heavy bits of steel dropping on them. If you are just going to be using it for...

Jon, I too am feeling the way Norm is, very little info supplied. To me you are trying to run before you can walk. Your first issue HAS TO BE the headstock, but because you haven't supplied a single photo taken from above, so we just can't categorize or identify it correctly.. If you don't...

Greg, Just remember this, everyone has to start at the beginning, you are not born with it. Some people need to spend years on the learning process, others, a very short time. Normally 2 to 4 years will get you to be a fairly respectable model engineer. Don't fool yourself that you ever get to...

Another one by myself shown on another site. http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,1411.0.html John