วีดีโอ

Great video mate 👍 I now need to ‘reconsider’ my ‘forcing’ of my lathe into level. I hadn’t considered the ‘gap’. Regards Robert 🇦🇺

Really informative and well explained,Thank you.

.. Superb job, that man ,..

I handed my grandsons a couple of torpedo levels, they stayed busy for over an hour checking everything in the workshop for level and plumb. There were a few thing that didn't pass muster...Lol ....and they were sure to let me know.

.. An excellent vid again,.. Before I destroyed my Harrison 11 in a workshop fire (!) I followed old John Mills' / Doubleboost's habit of running the lathe at low RPMs for a short while before using it in anger, but now having learnt from your splendid investigation, I know the opposite to be a better practice, ( I have recently bought a 140 to replace my incinerated 11" ).

.. Good vid,.... What size Multi Fix tool post are you using on the 140 and what make ?.. Cheers in advance,.. Dan,.. SW London.

Very nice work mister. It makes a lot of difference if the machine is level

I came to the same conclusion: that the combination of bed and base of my M300 is sufficiently rigid that it can't be twisted by levelling screws unless they are fixed in the concrete. In my case I have a fairly thin concrete screed on top of slab insulation, and I daren't bolt the lathe to it. I did one test cut with the lathe roughly levelled, and another with it jacked up so that two diagonally opposite screws were off the floor. No difference! In my case, much the worse effect is wear in the ways.

I actually don't level the bed as such. I use a test bar between centres and jack the lathe to get no run out along its length

Hi Paul, those are great moments with your grandaughter that she will be able to look back on in the future. Oh how I wish I had some with my Grandad on his lathe!! Thats a lovely calibrated level you've got there and a great response from them too. I've seen digital ones recently, people using them on model railways of all things, not sure how accurate they are. I guess its wise to be careful not to over stress the bed of the lathe. I'm trying to work out in my mind how this would manifest itself in the parts you machine. I suppose its only really important on long pieces Have a great weekend!!

Hi Paul, lovely video, just leave the extreme precision work to the young technician in the pink coat.

how come you didnt use a damp proof membrane ? if your cutting the back of the boards/insulation where the cables go surely if theres any mosture it would go through this straight to the plaster from the wall ? im in the middle of planning a simillar job but thinking a cheap DPM under the insalition will solve some potentiall ong term issues.

Hi Paul. Such a lovely take on levelling a lathe. Your little helper sure relieved the pain from what otherwise is a stressful process. Question, can a lathe ever be level unless in a stable temperature controlled environment. With the onset of winter I wonder how much our machines respond to the cold? 🥶

get to see the little one showing an interest. Maybe the flooring is not stable enough on the adjustment bolts why not try placing steel pads down then level off them

Paul. lovely video, thank you. On a practical note, have you considered that the tops of the raised rails are not reference surfaces? The ground 'V's of the ways are, so are the ground flat ways. In my opinion the measurements should be made with parallels packing the spirit level above the 'V' ways so you are referencing a ground (or scraped} way. I have scraped the ways on my 1973 Colchester Student lathe and in places removed more than 3 thou (vertically) from the tailstock end of the front 'V' rail to compensate for wear at the chuck end. Mainly because to get the carriage tight enough at the chuck end it was binding impossibly at the tailstock end. Not difficult to check with a pair or two pairs of 1,2,3 blocks placed on the flat ways. In my opinion placing the level across the carriage and cranking it from end to end without touching the level should tell you everything you need to know in practical terms. Theories are another matter... LOL Keep up the good work and it's wonderful you are introducing your granddaughter to the practical things of life. Eventually perhaps another Blondihacks?

Teamwork, the best work there is :)

I know what your response maybe but you've missed something out and that is when you place the level at the head stock end you are sitting on the vee ways at the end of the most worn part of the bed compared to the tail stock end and that level will show the wear, you would be better to place blocks on the flat ways and put the level on them at each end.

You're in trouble now Paul! Grandchild in the video means your wife is going to watch and find out where her brass knitting needle disappeared to... ;)

Ahhh, the joys and frustrations of levelling machines. A friend came to help when I did my lathe, it basically took the afternoon. I need to recheck it all again as its several months since we did it, and I know it will have settled. I machined up 6 off 90mm feet from chrome bar to go under the adjusting screws, but also put 12mm thick Tico pads under each foot. The Tico pads are to stop vibration and noise getting through the floor to the house as the garage is attached. The Tico will have settled a bit, but it stabalises after a while and should only need to be checked annually after.

Paul I restorating 1960 drill press make in Australia all the hardware is Whitworth. Luckily I kept my Grandfathers spanners every handy for this job. 90% of the spanners were make it the UK . Kit from down under

Is loosening the fasteners between the bed and the stand/base a consideration for you? Perhaps one is preventing the other from relaxing?

I really don’t like ”leveling” the bed to my lathes. It’s very tedious and considering the way it’s made, I can’t really get to the leveling screws on the rear without crouching down, getting up to read it, crouching down, blah blah. It’s takes some time. There a really nice digital level that’s 0.0002” to the foot, and it also reads in metric or degrees, which is really high accuracy. But the best thing is that there’s an app for my phone. So you can crouch all you like while adjusting, while looking at the app instead of constantly getting up. But do I want to buy another master level? Ah well, at some point my knees will insist.

Amazing how much such a stout weldment deflects isn’t it? Great presentation as always. 👍

Great video Paul. Your Granddaughter is a charmer. I learned about engineering from my Grandad. I'm sure your Granddaughter will remember the time in the workshop. Levelling a lathe can be a trial!

What a little darling!

👍👍👍👍👍

What a charming little helper !

just leveled mine this last week. I was tearing my hair out! Shimmed the nod on my mill today, took me 20 mins!

Hi Paul, I dread trying to fix the cistern valves. Its always a devil trying to get the washers and if you can get them they sometimes don't seem to fix the problem. Sadly I've found its better (more reliable anyway) to replace the whole unit. Thanks for doing these videos I always enjoy listening to you tackling whatever problem you have in front of you and reading comments from all over the world. Here's one for you "Váter" is a word for the toilet in Spanish its been borrowed from the English Water (closet) and transmogrified to make it pronounceable. On this any ideas what this might be "güisqui"? No cheating!! All the best

Quite different (at least this one) than the typical north American typical fill valve. I learned the hard way, to try buying fixtures with common typical parts. Had a high end toilet and parts were 4x more costly and never in stock 😡😡 Good info Paul Cheers....

I am digital marketer and seo expt. I saw your channel Haxby_Shed that the video views of your channel are not good. There is some problem in your channel so your channel videos are not getting good views. If you want I can share your channel problem

I don't think you need a thrust bearing now it's on taper rollers. You could then move the chuck in a bit closer to the lower bearing making for added stiffness. Jim.

First time viewing your channel. Lesson in life never take anything for granted. Your second approach worked well. However I would have preferred to have the blocks at .500 or .499 and there should have not been any wiggle room. I liked that you clamped the jaws to two rings that were snug in the slots. Great video. Aaron from Canada

I have a T shirt that says If Poppy can't fix it were all stuffed . A Christmas present. Kit from down under

My toilet cistern is fed from a tank in the loft. There's a stop cock in the down pipe (in my "airing" cupboard) for turning off the feed to the cistern. But that, of course, is seized. I had to reach inside the tank in the loft & put a rubber bung in the outlet pipe to stop the water when I changed the cistern valve rubber...

This design is junk

Amazing. We have one original toilet with an overflow which simply dumps onto the carpeted floor. We need a quick fix and l was thinking about running the overflow outside, which would eat days of time and not fix the valve. Now l will order a valve which dumps into the basin instead. Thanks Paul 😊

Unless exercised regularly I find those 1/4 turn isolators to be a complete waste of time. Either they don't move, don't fully seal or leak down the spindle. And I've never had much luck changing washers. I'm sure they incrementally change the design so a whole new assembly has to be fitted after you've one to the trouble and expense of buying spares. You may have guessed plumbing's not my favourite thing 😂 Cheers Paul.

Like that. Ideal for when close enough is good enough (often), and just enough wiggle room for a soft hammer to bring it dead nuts when the need arises.

I watched this just to see the difference in design between this toilet and my Kohler toilet in the US. Many different designs in the US. My Kohler parts may be at the big box stores, but I purchased maintenance parts from Amazon just so I have them on hand. So far 12 years on these toilets with no issues. Dave.

This one probably won't get you a lot of views as such, but it's good to have the info out there to help people out. If one person finds this and it helps them with a repair, then you've done a very good deed. Indeed.

I've got one like that but it's started dribbling. Time to have a close look at the dratted thing. BTW, I dropped you a mail to your channel address, did you get it ok? Neil

Ah, another of your top viewing figure videos. Couldn't you have spent a couple of weeks making a made a new valve out of bronze , with o rings or better still packing glands :-) all the best.

Hi Paul. Very timely indeed. I have a cistern which has begun to fill slowly. I will investigate whether I have a similar problem I must say how envious I am of your daughter not having a limescale problem. Our cisterns get caked in the stuff. 🥴

This is the EU standard toilet mechanism, any suggestion that they cause increased water usage and thus increase the profits made by the EU owned water co’s on metered installations is just a conspiracy theory. Water regulations in UK used to be that every ball valve had an overflow which was supposed to be situated in a position to be as inconvenient as possible in order to save water! Phil

They operate by having a tiny bleed that normally is closed by the full float, allowing the bleed past the washer to pressurise the diaphragm, and close the inlet port. Flush and the bleed opens, allowing the incoming water pressure to push the diaphragm away, and filling the tank, till the bleed is closed, allowing the pressure to get to the larger area behind, closing the valve.

Weird, isn't it? I only had to do a similar job for an old customer last week, they have a restaurant so it needs to work, having not done one for a year. Traditional ball cock with the float, the washer was 50p at the local plumbers merchants. Then found that the flush wasn't working, had to pump it to get it to flush, so back to the merchant for a new flush. Found the diaphragm at the bottom of the flush was being held open by a Skittles sweet wrapper and had torn. We assume someone had tried hiding a bit of a drug stash wrapped in the Skittles wrapper. Always something new to see.

Ugh! I've installed about a dozen of that type of toilet, Always had to bring someone with tiny hands to reach in the side port to fasten the toilet down, but at least we didn't have to cut the flange bolts off! Interesting to hear the English colloquial names! What you call a cistern we just call the tank, and what you call the pan, we call the bowl, I'm pretty sure that holds for all of North America, I had to read the instructions to the home owner as part of the installation service, and the same words were used whether U.S. or Canadian made...

SCREWFIX.....guaranteed to make a simple job expensive.....I avoid them unless absolutely desperate.

Ah, yes, modern life, I think I last changed the washer in my cistern about 25 years ago, but then it's an old-fashioned (proper?) brass one where you change the level by bending the float arm. And washers only cost pennies, if you can still get them.