Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[ChrisLX200]

Wish I had the space for something like that Harrison

.oOo.

Very worthwhile if you can get tooling in with any deal, costs more than the lathe!

At risk of going way off topic (my last post on this, promise...). These are pics of my ball turning tool - it made the ball on the handle I made a few of these and sold the spares. Anyway, messing about in the man cave keeps me out of the way of the missus!

[Cubdriver]

Beautiful work, Chris.  I have an old South Bend 10K that I need to get hooked up again one of these years.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

I set the lathe heads off again 

You and your Unimat [emoji41]

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[AF6LJ]

Like this one?

What?
No Shaper?
Although you could almost build a surface grinder with everything that is there.

[HalFET]

I forgot I had something fun stored away, a real Weston cell  It's quite well within spec (1.018 381 vs 1.018 638 V), slightly under 20°C, the Keithley 2001 was on for <2 minutes so not exactly spot-on, and the cell has aged a bit so overall it seems to be in a good condition.

[tautech]

Wish I had the space for something like that Harrison

The POS ancient flatbed I had before was bigger. I got that for nicks years back and the only 3ph motor I had that was big enough for it was 5 HP. Flat belt drive and open gearing but hell could it peel metal off.
It was worn to hell and back again, tightening the carriage and cross slide to remove chatter would mean you couldn't use full travel of either. 
It was fooked, well and truly fooked. 
But it got me up to speed again from high school days on a lathe (40+ years back) but it was very limited in what you could do with it. The power feed shaft was long gone and the only pitch it could cut was 8 tpi.
But I got plenty of practice dialing work true as it only had a 4 jaw chuck.

When a mate put me onto the Harrison at his work I shot in and sussed it out, took some pics and home again to research it on Tony's great lathe site.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/harrison/page16.html
That's when I had to have it as it was optioned unlike any similar model I could find online. I even emailed Tony with some pics and he'd not seen one like it.   

AFAICT it has all options and some even not mentioned online, see if you can spot all the options. I'll come back in a couple days and % mark your efforts. 
EDIT
No guesses to options. 
3ph 3hp 2sp motor
High speed gearset (45-2000 rpm)
40" bed
Slotted tool table on cross slide offside
Gap bed
Factory 4 side tool post holder (mentioned but not shown and upgraded from 3" to 4")
Imperial AND Metric thread cutting on a single changeover lever, low close to bed near the rear gear chest. (rare option)



It came reasonably tooled with the basics, factory 4 side 3" toolpost(since upgraded to 4") couple of carbide holders, a boring bar and near new cross-hatch knurling tool but the important bits were included too, travelling and fixed steadies, 3 and 4 jaw chucks (and reverse jaws), a decent sized faceplate, drill chuck and centres. The only one I'd like is for the spindle, a 4 1/2 Jarno or something.  Actually a reducer to MT something would do the trick.
The bed is worn a bit up near the headstock but I figured it would be OK. Recently I turned a 175mm long pin with centre support and in mic'ed up ~1 thou from parallel. 

This one I use on all manner of tasks from facing stuff (shaper type work) to threading rifle barrels for suppressors.
Boy is it good to have a 1/2 decent lathe.

[khs]

Boy is it good to have a 1/2 decent lathe.

Boy is it good to have a Unimat.

[tautech]

Boy is it good to have a 1/2 decent lathe.

Boy is it good to have a Unimat.

I bet. 

I remember spotting them in my teens and thought they'd be a nice bit of kit to have......until I saw one in the flesh and was surprised to see how small they are. Great for small stuff I guess but not my general engineering requirements.
Recently I had to spin the centre larger on a pair of mag wheels, the stud PCD was perfect for my needs but the centre needed opening to fit the hub, but only a little. Anyways despite knowing a few tricks it wouldn't fit on my Harrison 12 and I had to whip down the road and use a buddy's bigger Chinese lathe.

[HalFET]

Spotted a lot of Datron 1061s on the fleaBay: https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/Datron-1061-multimeter-0-1000V-options-10-20-30-40-50/112652845896

Please buy them before I do 

[Specmaster]

Spotted a lot of Datron 1061s on the fleaBay: https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/Datron-1061-multimeter-0-1000V-options-10-20-30-40-50/112652845896

Please buy them before I do 

Looks nice, very tempting if is all working OK, oh crap here I go again 

[nctnico]

Wish I had the space for something like that Harrison

When a mate put me onto the Harrison at his work I shot in and sussed it out, took some pics and home again to research it on Tony's great lathe site.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/harrison/page16.html
That's when I had to have it as it was optioned unlike any similar model I could find online. I even emailed Tony with some pics and he'd not seen one like it.   

AFAICT it has all options and some even not mentioned online, see if you can spot all the options. I'll come back in a couple days and % mark your efforts. 

That picture brings back some memories. My uncle has a Harrison lathe as well (it may even be the '12' because yours looks identical) and I learned how to use a lathe on it. After 4 decades it still works well and IMHO better than the cheap Chinese lathes. Do you also have the option to change bits quickly?

[tautech]

Wish I had the space for something like that Harrison

When a mate put me onto the Harrison at his work I shot in and sussed it out, took some pics and home again to research it on Tony's great lathe site.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/harrison/page16.html
That's when I had to have it as it was optioned unlike any similar model I could find online. I even emailed Tony with some pics and he'd not seen one like it.   

AFAICT it has all options and some even not mentioned online, see if you can spot all the options. I'll come back in a couple days and % mark your efforts. 

That picture brings back some memories. My uncle has a Harrison lathe as well (it may even be the '12' because yours looks identical) and I learned how to use a lathe on it. After 4 decades it still works well and IMHO better than the cheap Chinese lathes. Do you also have the option to change bits quickly?

There were metric and imperial versions 155, 165 and this 12, maybe more. Probably in your part of the world he had a metric one, no ?
I don't have a quick change toolpost only a 4" 4 sider that I usually have 2 tools in. The factory 3" one was a bit small so I swapped it out for a 4" that I had. An adjustable quick change would be a great upgrade as once setup you don't have to shim every tool to centre height and it really matters to get it right, especially for carbide.

[Cubdriver]

Great news, my 8400A is here and intact! It turns on without error just doesn't display anything other than range indicator or +-

Details here, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8400a-no-display/

Blast you, neo -  now I've bought an 8400A!   

-Pat

Cubdriver, are you the one who got that 82 dollar one? Well if it' is you i don't mind now we can explore them together.

Or not.   

Out of the blue yesterday I got a refund from Paypal.  A few minutes later, I got a message from evilBay saying that the seller had cancelled the order with the listed reason being "Buyer asked to cancel order", followed shortly by one from the seller that they were sorry but the "Item failed the final quality control test", that they would issue a refund and were sorry for any inconvenience.

I inquired what test it had failed, and noted that I expected to have to repair it.  They answered that it had been in their inventory for more than two years had had been marked for 'recycling' by their technicians after test.

I asked if this meant it had been discarded, and got this response:  "Hello, items are always tested before shipment. The technicians said we can not ship out the item. Their reasons, technical. That's outside my department but i can have them contact you later if you want. Just let me know. Thank you."

I asked him to follow up on it, as I was still interested assuming that it hadn't burst into flames; he said he'd check in hopes that it hadn't already been removed/disposed of from their inventory.

This was today's reply:  "Hi, the item has been recycled. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you."

    It was marked as a parts unit, FFS!!!  It didn't work, so you threw it out?!?!? 

I guess I should keep my mouth shut about getting things until they're actually in my hands - I jinxed myself on this one.  Well, there's a manual coming, so I'll be ready if I can score a deal on one in the future I suppose.  I'm still aggravated by this, though - it looked like it was in pretty good physical condition.   

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Hmm, maybe one of their technicians wanted it for himself and thats why they recycled it 

[bitseeker]

Conspiracy theory: It was found not to be defective after all and worth more than it was sold for.

[Cubdriver]

Don't think that sort of thing didn't occur to me.  It was offered with free shipping; they might have realized that they were going to make $30 for the meter once it was boxed and sent, and decided that the nixies were worth more.  Who knows.  It has put me into a bit of a foul mood, though.   

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Well, I've just had a spot of TEA to soothe my aggravation over the lost Fluke a little bit.  Grabbed a set of 8 'new' style HP feet for $8 shipped, and another 6289A power supply that needs a bit of TLC (and a power switch) for $30.15.   

Now, hopefully my mentioning them hasn't jinxed the transactions.   

-Pat

[xrunner]

Now, hopefully my mentioning them hasn't jinxed the transactions.  

I'm trying to help you. 

[Cubdriver]

Now, hopefully my mentioning them hasn't jinxed the transactions.  

I'm trying to help you. 

    Thank you.

But, just for the record - I'm waaaaayy beyond help.   

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Well, I've just had a spot of TEA to soothe my aggravation over the lost Fluke a little bit.  Grabbed a set of 8 'new' style HP feet for $8 shipped, and another 6289A power supply that needs a bit of TLC (and a power switch) for $30.15.   

Sounds like a good cure, Pat.

[bitseeker]

Well, it's looking like the alleged score on a DE-5000 is going to turn out to be a dud. The seller's feedback is filling up with non-delivery complaints. Must've been a hacked account. The projected delivery date is tomorrow, so I'll be able to file a non-arrival if it doesn't show up by EOD.

[xrunner]

 

[bitseeker]

Ah, well. You win some, you lose some.

[neo]

Well i finally gave in and bought of of these
https://www.ebay.com/itm/128-64-LCD-NPN-Transistor-Tester-Capacitance-ESR-LCR-Meter-Diode-Thyristor-BL/121684741402?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[Cubdriver]

Ah, well. You win some, you lose some.

Let's hope our winning percentages improve soon!  Go poke about on the 'bay; perhaps you too can find something else to numb the pain of non delivery.   

-Pat