another lurker introduction

[walesguy1]

HI
new member been lurking for acouple of weeks
I have a limited engineering background in school then in tech, then did a centre lathe government traing course (giving my age away) then i worked in a few factories on various machines lathes mills and grinding machines but that was 30 years ago
Recently got an old myford ml4 which needs some work so not started any projects yet but hope to soon.
this old lathe will need a lot of work as lots missing bits and some damage but it will do till i can afford better as i will need a mill as well i did try milling on the lathe s it has the attachment but found that really the lathe does not turn fast enough.
i have been on e bay and other sites for weeks but no luck im very surprised how much some lathes and mills go for some only a few pounds less than the new price .
So with that in mind and the fact that the second hand lathe needed a lot of work i did not want to start with a mill that needed work or was past its sell by date i know there are a lot of really good s/hand larger lathes and mills out there but they would not go through my house .
so to day i ordered a xj20 mill from amadeal which i should have by the weekend so could be making swarf by next week .
i have decided too try to build Brian Rupnows version of elmers beam engine
i liked the beam engine and as going to just follow elmers plans but i thought id make a start on it and started with the hub ecccentic which i think is one of the more difficult parts if i could master this the rest seemed easier (time will tell )
I do not have a 4 jaw chuck so i decided that i would have to use a face plate and turn between centres (i know could have made in 2 but wanted to try it ) but on the original sizes the 2 centres for the off set are so close together i decided to go for brians larger scale .
i have stared and roughed out the eccentic i will post a picture when it is finished which will take a day or so as new to this and time is limited .
dought it will be any where near the standards i have seen on here .
brian

 

[dalem9]

welcome Walesguy1 Glad to have you. Dale

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Hey Walesguy---welcome to the forum. Glad to see you building from a set of my plans. Elmer did fantastic work, but I find it painfully small to work on his original scale. I still have my beam engine, its one of the first engines I built. ----Brian

 

[Maryak]

Brian,

Welcome to our forum. wEc1

Best Regards
Bob

 

[tel]

Welcome Brian

 

[G_N_R]

Hi Walesguy1
Welcome to the forum, lots of clues there. Wales, Gov training, etc.
So from the good old UK.
Good luck with the beam engine, and the swarf. ;D

 

[nobeard]

hi walesguy i got rid of two ml4,s last year but still have some parts left lying around like lead screw half nuts handles tailstock and some gears including backgear,give us a shout if you need parts and ill look see what ive got left.

 

[walesguy1]

to nobeard

sorry its taken a while to reply but have been so busy thanks for the offer let me know what you have and ill see if i have need for it as my 4ml has had a hard life before i had it
Have made a few bits for it and it all works dials are the main problem either no markings on them or to small
and the bed has been damaged but i donnt think it matters too much as the saddle travels on the bed dove tails and they are ok
its just difficult to get the right adjustment on the gibbs due to its age either to slack or loose but i supose it may be the way i adjust them

brian