New to me - Colchester Triumph

[Sean64]

That diagram makes alot more sense thanks , Good rule of thumb and easy to remember about the radius and DOC .



Ah I see I thought they increased the feed per min to change cutting speed but as you say its specced in mm/min so increasing RPM would increase mm/min ,



Wow that is certainly proof in the pudding easy to flex by hand but stiff in the lathe with that DOC.



I do have some HHS that came with the lathe but little idea on grinding although plenty time to learn a a nice selecta grinder , I like the easy of use of carbide aswell as the mirror finish can almost impossible to get from HHS i understand however it can create really smooth finishes just not mirror which I want because erm it looks nice lol

Learning how to use carbide is the biggest problem for people, once you get a feel for it it works like magic.

I know how to use carbide , hhs is a forgotten skill , Joe pieczynski on YouTube, who is a fantastic machinist is a great believer of HSS . Of course he uses carbide also . Me being a hobbyist, I do it for my chill time and love using HSS tools .

 

[Hood]

I used HSS for too many years, I have no wish to go back to it unless I need a form tool or a special.
Granted most of my work is stainless and F51 and my time is better spent turning than grinding and my customers agree

 

[RichardM]

I like HSS, but I am retired and only play in the garage without time restraints unless it's the wife or dog.
If I did it for a living I would be taking @Hood view.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

I know how to use carbide , hhs is a forgotten skill , Joe pieczynski on YouTube, who is a fantastic machinist is a great believer of HSS . Of course he uses carbide also . Me being a hobbyist, I do it for my chill time and love using HSS tools .

I have seen a few of his videos really helpful guy ,Think I will keep my HSS handy for odd custom ground bits and use carbide for general stuff and finishing. Not that any ones paying me do to it like hood but would rather spend more time turning than grinding aswell lol

 

[slim_boy_fat]

but I am retired and only play in the garage without time restraints

I think there are quite a few of us on here like you.

It did have a place….on a treadle powered lathe in the 1800’s

That's almost my era.....

 

[Johnnybravo]

Learning how to use carbide is the biggest problem for people, once you get a feel for it it works like magic.

This…
If you have a lathe or mill with the structural rigidity of jelly, you are probably better off with HSS . Carbide likes rigidity and rpm. Rigidity from the machine AND from the depth of cut. If you stick to the scratchy scratchy catch a monkey finishing technique used / advised by many for HSS, your experience with Carbide isn’t going to be a pleasant one. Adapt to higher feeds and speeds with carbide,and you will never go back…

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Making a mess milling out the box for my RPM display and potentiometer

Quick test to make sure it all actually works , needed to fine tune the gap between the sensor and magnet but apart from that pretty good

Made a little bracket from scrap to hold the sensor

Box ready to be screwed under my shelf just by the headstock gear selectors, will have 8 core cable coming out for the potentiometer and display all in one nice neat cable.

 

[minimutly]

Making a mess milling out the box for my RPM display and potentiometer

View attachment 322250

Quick test to make sure it all actually works , needed to fine tune the gap between the sensor and magnet but apart from that pretty good

View attachment 322251

Made a little bracket from scrap to hold the sensor

View attachment 322254

Box ready to be screwed under my shelf just by the headstock gear selectors, will have 8 core cable coming out for the potentiometer and display all in one nice neat cable.


View attachment 322253
View attachment 322252

Well that is a nice job, but I can honestly say I never look at the speed (selected by gear) on my triumph. Perhaps I should..

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Well that is a nice job, but I can honestly say I never look at the speed (selected by gear) on my triumph. Perhaps I should..

I can use the gear table for speed but as soon as the motor frequency changes I have no idea so this should help also a lot easier to glance at than studying a table.

With more experience you probably get a feel of RPM's and feeds needed but I'm using all the help I can get while I get the hang of it

 

[Hood]

I can use the gear table for speed but as soon as the motor frequency changes I have no idea so this should help also a lot easier to glance at than studying a table.

With more experience you probably get a feel of RPM's and feeds needed but I'm using all the help I can get while I get the hang of it

Aye, I put the rpm meter on my Triumph but if I am honest I never look at it, I just know by experience what is right as I have used it for years by just turning the pot to get to a spindle speed. Same with feeds, I didn't have a clue what the actual feedrates were until I looked the last day.

 

[Maker]

I've got no way of knowing, the vfd shows frequency so I could work out the motor speed but I don't know the ratio between the motor and the spindle. You won't bother working out the "right" speed for a given material, tool and diameter so there's not much point in knowing it.

Feeds I just do a couple of passes by hand to get a feel for it then set the feed so it looks more or less the same. It's all very scientific.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

I've got no way of knowing, the vfd shows frequency so I could work out the motor speed but I don't know the ratio between the motor and the spindle. You won't bother working out the "right" speed for a given material, tool and diameter so there's not much point in knowing it.

Feeds I just do a couple of passes by hand to get a feel for it then set the feed so it looks more or less the same. It's all very scientific.

RPM's and feeds make it easier for me to go back to settings I found worked well rather than guestimating to get it close, Means I only have to do non-scientific trial and error once and then take note of it for next time working on that metal with similar dia .

But yea may have a point on don't do all the calculations to work out the surface speeds and cutting stuff properly just what I found works

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Turning some tool steel down today to get this holder to fit

Hoods tip to turn the vfd up as you get to smaller diameters like the CNC worked well on this started outside at about 200 RPM then adjusted as I went in to about 600 RPM kept the finish nice.

Also being hard tool steel I think that improves the finish aswell?

Chips where eer ,,, warm

Using crappy big radius cutters that came with the lathe because not a huge amount of loss to me if they chip on an interrupted cut as don't see me using them much.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Thanks to @Pete. thread on the coolant pump capacitor mod

Just wired up the capacitor with the wires direct to 240v wall socket but was running really slowly lumpy could not go under any load at all it would cut out.

Then decided to crack it open and wow someone back in 1960 was thinking of me in this very moment this folded up paper was inside the motor terminals box , OEM I think it had not been opened

So promptly wired it to the 250v setting and suggested by the paper and what a difference sounds a good bit smoother still not VFD smooth but what can you expect from a capacitor, Dunked in a water bath and was pumping well. After cleaning the top I saw it actually said 250v/440v on the top but it was so much I didn't see. I think I am right in saying that is now in Delta connection but I am no spark lol.

Was thinking of installing it to an external tank behind the machine and piping out the original drain hole in the lowest centre point as the OEM tank was the inside of the lathe which seems a waste of space I was using as storage.

 

[minimutly]

Thanks to @Pete. thread on the coolant pump capacitor mod

Just wired up the capacitor with the wires direct to 240v wall socket but was running really slowly lumpy could not go under any load at all it would cut out.


View attachment 322804

Then decided to crack it open and wow someone back in 1960 was thinking of me in this very moment this folded up paper was inside the motor terminals box , OEM I think it had not been opened

So promptly wired it to the 250v setting and suggested by the paper and what a difference sounds a good bit smoother still not VFD smooth but what can you expect from a capacitor, Dunked in a water bath and was pumping well. After cleaning the top I saw it actually said 250v/440v on the top but it was so much I didn't see. I think I am right in saying that is now in Delta connection but I am no spark lol.

View attachment 322803

Was thinking of installing it to an external tank behind the machine and piping out the original drain hole in the lowest centre point as the OEM tank was the inside of the lathe which seems a waste of space I was using as storage.

That's the same one fitted to my Town Woodhouse mill, has the same bit of paper inside too...
What size cap did you go with?

 

[Lewis_RX8]

That's the same one fitted to my Town Woodhouse mill, has the same bit of paper inside too...
What size cap did you go with?

8uf ,, had to buy on eBay as we sold a big box of random size caps a while ago thought no use for them

Here

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Got a few bits sorted on the triumph over the holidays

Oil changed in the headstock and screwcutting gearbox

For some reason all my text is changing to italics now

Little bit of glitter sitting there but not too worried about it no idea how many years it has accumulated that over

Also had a shot at sorting out these resonance and vibrations seeing if unmatching belts caused the issue but it was not as one belt ran them just fine and all the belts have unique matching marks so I imagine they where a matched set

here is lines in finish with 3 belts that remained unchanged as the vibrations did when it was taken to one belt

Intresting however , When the belts where loose the vibrations where a lot lower IIRC

A quick vid of vibrations and a weird resonance at about 1000 RPM shown by my handy RPM sensor , These vibrations make it impossible to read dial guages etc when you are near resonance RPM unfortunately however the lathe was never geared to run at 1000RPM but the non two-speed ones were so quite confusing.

Think thats all to report may have more to add in the morning.

 

[prepman]

Got a few bits sorted on the triumph over the holidays

Oil changed in the headstock and screwcutting gearbox

View attachment 325196

For some reason all my text is changing to italics now

Little bit of glitter sitting there but not too worried about it no idea how many years it has accumulated that over

View attachment 325197

Also had a shot at sorting out these resonance and vibrations seeing if unmatching belts caused the issue but it was not as one belt ran them just fine and all the belts have unique matching marks so I imagine they where a matched set

here is lines in finish with 3 belts that remained unchanged as the vibrations did when it was taken to one belt

Intresting however , When the belts where loose the vibrations where a lot lower IIRC


View attachment 325199



A quick vid of vibrations and a weird resonance at about 1000 RPM shown by my handy RPM sensor , These vibrations make it impossible to read dial guages etc when you are near resonance RPM unfortunately however the lathe was never geared to run at 1000RPM but the non two-speed ones were so quite confusing.

Think thats all to report may have more to add in the morning.

There's an issue with multiple belts. Because of slight differnces in length they don't all drive evenly. There's details somewhere on the net. My Student has one wide flat belt.

 

[Hood]

Will have to test mine with a tub of water and see if it is anything like yours.
Regarding the belts, supposedly if you mark across them with chalk or similar then run a while then stop and rotate by hand to find the marks and see if they still align, if they do the belts match, never tried myself.

 

[minimutly]

There's an issue with multiple belts. Because of slight differnces in length they don't all drive evenly. There's details somewhere on the net. My Student has one wide flat belt.

That's a big assumption to make. I would take the chuck off to try it - put the small drive plate on. If the vibration is still there try a lower gear, same motor rpm. If the vibration is still there then @prepman is probably right.