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Burgess BK3 Bandsaw Disaster and Repair

Some pieces of workshop equipment generate a sentimental attraction that is hard to break.  One such piece of kit is my Burgess BK3 bandsaw which is ancient but has up to now worked reasonably well for my needs.   I bought it on EBay from an owner in Lancashire and remember a nice day trip to collect it.

It is a very useful machine and gets pressed into use day in and day out.   That is until the other day when the blade came off with a loud twang.  On inspection the drive wheel had lost part of its blade outer retaining flange.   It appeared to be very old brittle plastic and the damage was really to be expected given the vintage of the device.

After head scratching I designed a replacement edging strip in Fusion 360 which I 3D printed and glued in place.   Fingers crossed that will give the machine a reprieve and extend its life.

In the course of looking for possible spares (no chance) I came across a reference to modifications to the BK3 in Model Engineer to improve the blade tracking and speed settings.  (ME Vol 170 Issue 3944 and Vol 172 Issue 3962).  The members of my local model engineering club came up trumps with copies of these articles for me.

The guide modification consisted of replacing the two stud guides with ball bearings.  While the machine was in pieces it seemed like a good idea to implement this modification.  The Fusion 360 3D model is shown below. The blade is sandwiched between the two ball races and these can be slid in and out and then be fixed in place with the cap head screws once the correct location is found to guide the blade.

I drew the replacement guide block assembly in Fusion 360 and milled it on the Tormach CNC from brass.   The 1/2″ bearings came from BearingBoys.

All is now re-assembled and running really smoothly.  The blade prefers to run in straight lines which is a revelation.

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Replacement Chuck Key for a Cowells ME Lathe

Broken Tooth and No Dentist ?

The Cowells Model Engineer miniature lathe is very popular in home workshops.   It is a well made machine and very accurate to use.

There appears to be one recurring problem with the design and that is the chuck key for the TMC3001 3 jaw chuck often ends up with broken teeth.   To understand this better you need to be aware that the Cowells chuck does not have a standard style chuck key.    It is more like a drill press chuck key as you will see from the image below.  It also has 12 teeth which is unusual compared with drill press chuck keys which usually have 11 teeth. Using too much strength trying to over tighten the chuck rotary mechanism could lead to severe machinist depression.

cowells 3 jaw chuck and chuck key
Cowells 3 jaw chuck and chuck key

I have to admit this is going to be another JSN job that slipped through the net while the sign had been left facing the wall from the last one …. a client wanted to know if I could make a replacement chuck key. 

It seems that these are not readily available as replacement parts.  So another little challenge was beginning to niggle at me. I thought about try to use Fusion  360 to create CAM for my Tormach PCNC440 CNC mill it but it didn’t feel like the right approach.  There had to be an easier way.   

While siting in the sunshine at lunch time (probably not paying attention to what my wife was telling me …. (again) …. ) I wondered if standard wheel cutting techniques could be used.   This would mean a custom made fly cutter which didn’t fill me with joy and suggested a lot of grief.  I then wondered if a standard clock wheel cutter might fit the same profile as the chuck key teeth.

With lunch over I dug out my treasure trove of PP Thornton wheel cutters and compared them with the profile of the chuck key.   The PP Thornton 0.95-7 modulus one looked a good bet as a match.   In its normal life this would be a 7 tooth pinion cutter. 

The idea looked like it might work.  I measured and sketched up the rough dimensions of the chuck key head profile which is shown below.   For ease of making a proof of concept prototype I decided to use aluminium.

First job was to profile the aluminium stock to the outline shape of the chuck key.  This completed I then mounted my Sherline CNC rotary table in the mill table vice and with some jiggery pokery managed to get the vice / table aligned at 14 degrees (90-76) to the X axis movement.   I set the centre line of the pinion cutter with the centre line of the aluminium profile.  I dialled in 12 steps on the Sherline and began cutting back and forth.   

To match the original teeth depth I had to go down to the full depth of what the pinion  cutter profile would allow.  On the prototype I didn’t bother finishing the shank of the key and below are some process images and the final prototype result.

process shots of making a cowells chuck key replacement and resulting piece
Images of the process and final result making a prototype Cowells lathe chuck key replacement.

The prototype worked.  I just have to make a fully finished steel version …… oh and remember to turn the JSN notice back over so I can’t miss seeing it next time an intriguing enquiry comes in.

Update : –  Silver steel ruined my cutter … they are really meant for brass. Looks like it will have to be a CNC method.

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Hall Effect Based Tool Height Setter for use with PathPilot

I had been using Hall Effect devices to modify my William Smith Gearless Gravity Arm clock and had been surprised by their ease of use and repeatable trip points.  (More about this to follow in a separate post).

I had also been frustrated with my inability to set tool heights reliably in PathPilot despite using various methods all of which didn’t want to agree with each other.

This resulted in the construction of a Hall Effect based Tool Height Setter that appears to solve the problem.   The write up is lengthy so I have committed it to PDF for download but here are a couple of images to give you an idea of the result.

sketch view of tool height setter concept
A simple cross section sketch of the tool height setter concept using a Hall Effect sensor

 image of finished tool height setter using a Hall Effect sensor

Finished tool height sensor mounted on the PCNC440 milling table

Link to Tool Height Setter write up

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New Microscope

Technology Upgrade

Quite some time ago I mentioned a really low cost simple microscope that I think John Saunders had recommended from Amazon.   The device has served me well even though it was quite basic.

I recently had a job to do where I needed to see and measure a very small part I was making.   The simple microscope was struggling to cope or at least I was struggling to cope with it. Looking on the net to see what the current technology could offer I spotted a device on Amazon that looked interesting.

KKMoon Microscope from Amazon

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07VL44TJT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was a bit more expensive but nowhere near a ‘proper’ professional optical product. Having taken delivery it is very impressive. 

It can act as a simple standalone viewer using the built in screen or can be externally connected via HDMI to a monitor or (and this is the impressive bit) it can be connected to a PC via a superb application that has so many bells and whistles it will take me ages to understand all the functions.  The sensor is a 16 Megapixel Sony CMOS 1/2.3″ HD device and video output can be 4K/2k/1080P.  Magnification is up to x300.

So I am well pleased with the investment and  it will certainly earn its keep.

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Probe and Toolsetter together on Tormach PCNC440

New Tool Setter Arrives

I recently bought a special offer price tool height setter from Banggood.   On arrival this seemed nicely made and robust and looked like a worthy addition to the armoury.   

The Tormach PathPilot control software has facilities for tool height setting using such a probe.   I also have a Wildhorse Innovations probing tool for edge and centre setting.   Both these devices can be connected to the Tormach PCNC440 external input accessories connector which is  a 5 pin 180 degree DIN.

The input to the Tormach accessory socket is a 2 wire connection.   Sensing and operation of external tools like the probe and tool setter depends on the device having a normally closed connection that goes open circuit when activated (i.e. the probe tip moved or the tool setter pushed down).   The probes are in essence a single pole normally closed switch.

Frustration Sets In

After spending time having to keep swapping these two devices in and out of the accessory connector I figured there must be a better way.

The Tormach does not care if you connect multiple probes at the same time provided they are all in series on an electrical loop to and from the two pins on the interface connector.   Any device when activated will break the loop and create an interrupt to the PathPilot software.   Because you will be in the area of PathPilot software that relates to the function you are measuring, the relevant probe will be the one you are intending to use.

The Solution

What was needed was a simple interface box that allowed the two probes to be connected in electrical series back to the two pins on the DIN connector.   I also wanted flexibility to be able to unplug either of the two probes and not affect the operation of the other.   This meant that on removal of either probe it would need an electrical short circuit across the pins of the connector from which the tool had been removed.

This could be done with a small by-pass switch, that is normally open circuit, connected across the connector.  You would manually close this switch if the probe is removed. 

This is fine so long as you remember to activate the switch when you remove the probe otherwise the sensing loop will see an open circuit and the software will get confused.

My solution was to use sockets for the connections that would automatically provide a short across their contacts when their mating plug is removed.   A good example is an audio style jack plug socket.   These come in various sizes (2.5mm, 3.5mm, 1/4″ etc).  Usually on these sockets the tip of the connector gets shorted to another contact when there is no mating plug in place.

I had some 3.5mm stereo jack plug and sockets to hand (either mono or stereo can be used as it is only a two wire connection) and these were simple to wire for this application.   

wiring two jack sockets for the probes on a tormach

I also ran a modified version of one of my standard 3D printed enclosures to mount them in and fitted a flying lead to a 5 pin DIN to plug into the Tormach interface.   A hot glued magnet onto the bottom of the enclosure allowed flexible mounting of the box somewhere on the Tormach body.  The only fiddly bit was replacing the existing connectors on the two probes with a 3.5mm jack plug.  (Don’t forget to the put the connector shell on the cable before you solder the wires in place ….. ).

finished dual probe input assembly

close up showing the wiring on the two jack sockets

A neat solution and the problem solved.   Both devices plug into the box to perform their various probing functions into PathPilot.  Unplug one of the probes and its mating socket will automatically short out the probe connections when the plug is removed.  The remaining probe plugged into the other socket will continue to function.

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