Machine tooling

[hedge]

hi james

the parallels, angle plate, rotary table, v blocks and colchester items are readily available on ebay so i would sit on there and have a look through the ads. if you want a really solid rotary table don't be afraid of the ones in the £500+ range and don't be put of by non british manufacturers as Hoffman is a really solid make and their dividing heads are really well engineered as well.

there are lots of angle plates on ebay but go to the ads at the end as that is generally wear the proper old school cast angle plates are which i prefer over the modern items as they seem to stand the test of time a lot better, i have a moore & wright angle plate which is what i generally use on the bridge port.

best thing is to think about what you want to do because if your planning to build more than one engine in the future then invest in your machinery and tooling. sometimes spending that little bit more at the beginning will save you a lot in the future.

best of luck with your project.

cheers sam

[Bendy]

Thanks Sam
Like you say im hoping to only buy my machinery once so im looking for some quality tooling. By the sounds of it im best off keeping an eye on ebay. Although £500+ for a rotary table is quite a bit out of my budget at the moment.
Just out of interest what do people think of the quality of tooling from places like rdg?
Thanks James

[hedge]

the actual tooling so boring bars and lathe tooling are not that bad actually, i buy all me high speed steel tooling from rdg and i use their carbide boring bars on the horizontal borer with good results so yes i would recommend them for the simple lathe tooling. but items like boring heads for the mill which don't seem to be no money from rdg then i would want to do some research and talk to some one who has used them before getting one.

you may want to put some thing in the model section on hear as you may get more feed back on the subject and better advice as i am no half size engine builder. may be worth sending andy smith a pm as he has built a number of engines all with a colchester student and a small mill so he will certainly get you going in the right direction.

[Bendy]

i was going to buy tooling like that from them as my view was that you cant go too far wrong with items like that. However i think ill take on your advice and ask a few people about the rest of their stuff.
I think ill have a chat to Edward when he gets back as i expect he will know what to do.
Thanks James