Tally Ho Capstan Project: Turning the Adapter Flange on the Lathe

Keith, I don’t know anything about machining, but I do find it fascinating watching you work. This Tally Ho project continues to pay dividends. Thank you sir, for the excellent entertainment!

For unique parts the metric/imperial debate finally reduces to one fact. The machinist is far less likely to make an error if they use the measurements their machines are calibrated for and they have most experience using.

Good morning to everyone watching from Lincolnshire UK, time for a coffee ☕ Keith don't apologise for using your native language, most of my metrology is from before the UK decimalisation like me and my motorbikes & car 🙂

Remember to do the bolt hole radius to 3.284 inches as you machined the capstan base to, not the 3.248 as showed on the blueprint diagram.

Oh! I am in Canada, I was in secondary school when we were forced to adopt the metric system. I love the "relationship to the human body" with the Standard Measurement System, and for certain things, the simplicity of the metric system to move between units is nice too. The reason for the change was that the S.I. (System International - or Metric System) was good for trade. But our biggest trade partner is still the United States of America. Then suddenly, communist Chinese goods flooded the market... which is No Buenos, in my humble opinion. Our family always supported the Democratic Taiwanese efforts.

Hi Keith from South London UK, I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying this series. I love that the geometry is all offset and its great to see how this can all be achieved with manual machining.

Wow...they give you plus .05mm on the drawing, and you go and take an extra .000031" in conversion error. Nice job. (The preceding portion of this message is what I imagine someone on the internet actually telling you with a straight face, because "they know the truth" of machining) With the sarcasm turned off, I want to say I love your work. I am a machining student in Spokane Washington and this kind of work is inspiring.

I am interested to see you are going to bolt this to a 'rough' casting face, in my ignorance I would have 'lightly' skimmed' the casting to ensure it had no high spots, as I would expect cracking if uneven forces are applied via the bolts, can I ask for the rational?

Turning on that lathe and then using that press for broaching brings me back to my trade school days and then the beginning of the "job shop" days. I am no longer a machinist but still have the skills. After about 8 years in job shop and then gear hobbling for a few years with Gould & Eberhardt i gave my life a rethought and then became a maintenance mechanic/ technician and traveled with my company. What i have learned i never regretted and i can fix just about anything. I am 66 now and i am thinking of getting a metal lathe from a friend and perhaps i can help local people out with thins and make a few bucks to pay for the electricity and have fun...Time will tell. In the mean time i get to watch a guy living the dream.

Morning from rugby UK coffee ,toast and Keith, Fridays sorted

.Milling that half-moon slot is whhat the K&T 2D was born to do

As Curtis at CEE would say “bananas”!!! 😂

As a non-machinist I really appreciate how you explain when certain dimensions or other attributes are important vs when they are not, due to later steps.

Hello Keith, No problem in working in Imperial. I'm in the UK and I work in metric & imperial, due to my age I was taught imperial in the 60's then metric came along in the 70's and as most of the machinery I work on is American with German or Japanese engines I end up working in both, I use metric for fine measurements down to 1mm any smaller I go thousands? Large measurements feet, yards or miles ? Hey Ho. Makes life interesting. Regards Richard 🇬🇧

Sensible to work in your familiar units instead of SI. Less likely to make a mistake. And the original capstan probably used imperial too.

I’m an electrician. I’ve worked in machine shops. Installing and repairing lathes and mills. I’ve always been fascinated with the work the machinists were doing. It is just amazing.

couple thoughts, one, face a side then turn the od better than half way, bore your through hole all in the same setup, then flip it and use the bore and turned od to get it dialed back in, no need to set up on an arbor and the more features you can do in a single setup the better your part will be (saves time too) and lastly oil the backs of your keyway broaches, helps prevent them from fetching up on the shim or bushing and causing them to dive.

Kinda makes me miss my 33+ yrs in a machine shop. It was hard work but quite satisfying when you got it done correctly. We used to say, If it were easy, everybody would do it..

This just amazes me to see this project and the amount of work that so many talented people are putting into this piece of Tally Ho's equipment. I'm sure Leo is beyond grateful . I can't wait to see this piece of history working on Tally Ho.

Many peoples, several different geographic locations, a collaborative effort. You sir, are a brave man. I always think of the 1999: NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter failure, A NASA review board found that the problem was in the software controlling the orbiter's thrusters. The software calculated the force the thrusters needed to exert in pounds of force. A separate piece of software took in the data assuming it was in the metric unit: newtons.