Cylinder head skim

[Bob Culver]

Hi Bob46
It is astonishing how relatively cheap tools and machines are today. I bought one of those mill drills about 1974. Cost about $1200 my house $20,000 The same machine today is about double the price, the very same house in same state $700,000! ($2 to pound)
Wages not quite so rampant. I found it a bit lacking in rigidity. Substitutd a heavy plate for the name plate and fit a light angle iron cross brace in front if necessary.

[Tony Griffiths]

I would like some decent machine tools but I have been quoted thousands of pounds to have phase 3 installed.

Although simple, this type of Taiwanese-made mill/drill really is a most useful piece of kit; most were supplied with 1-phase motors, a No.3 or R8 (Bridgeport) spindle nose and have a speed range wide enough to be used for co-ordinate drilling. The best of the bunch is the Naerok (and some Alpine and Draper models) these having a bevel box at the bottom of the column that allows the whole head to be lifted and yet not lose alignment. Other brandings include Sealey, Nutools, Whitecote Excel and Ajax. Prices of used examples tart at around £550 and run up to perhaps £950 for a really good, well-equipped example. Buy one, you won't be disappointed.
If you take out a second mortgage, you could have a superior Swiss-made version, the Fehlmann

[Reckless Rat]

Problem is I'm not sure Ryanair would let me bring it across as cabin luggage...

[Robert Foreman]

The important thing though is it flat?

[bob46320]

Its flat to my straight edge both along the lengths and diagonals. No cupping detected, so with a good gasket I reckon I have the thumbs up. Interestingly, one of the core plug bosses was about 0.005" higher than the rest of the stud bosses which I had to address before bolting down to the table.. How did that leave the factory ?

[Stuart Giles]

Interestingly, one of the core plug bosses was about 0.005" higher than the rest of the stud bosses which I had to address before bolting down to the table.. How did that leave the factory ?

I think the raised boss would most likely have been the result of frozen coolant some time in the distant past. The head would have been machined  at the factory in a single pass with a big facemill; something a bit like this...