Sierra parts

[Tony Russell Davis]

I wonder if anyone has any of these? It's the little nylon barrel thing that I need (6 actually), not the rod. It sits in the bell-crank of a Sierra and the pull-rod screws into it for tuning. I can make all the other additional knee-lever parts, but every time I try to turn some nylon rod down to the right size for those "shoulders", it distorts in the lathe chuck; and I've tried several sorts of tool including sharp wood chisels. Any advice gratefully received. Tony.

[Will C]

Just a little guess here, Tony, what is the diameter of the nylon part at those shoulders? Not the bit the pullrod goes through, that has a greater diameter, but the shoulder itself? If it's 1/4" I have a hollow mill that should make forming that shoulder a breeze.

Of course there's always a chance that Jim Palenscar could supply them. there has to be a market for them, given that Sierra owners may want to re-rod in some way from time to time.

[Tony Russell Davis]

Will you are exactly right, it is 1/4in dia. and the "greater" part is 3/16in across from "shoulder to shoulder" (the "greater" dia. of that broader part is not critical but it seems to be 3/16 too). I know of Jim P. but wondered if there were any in UK before asking over the pond. Cheers, Tony.

[Ken Byng]

Tony
Jim Palenscar usually goes to the Dallas Show every March. If you don't get anywhere from the UK, I can always pick something up from Jim for you and post it to you on my return. Might save you a little shipping cost.

Regards
Ken

[Tony Russell Davis]

Hey - thanks Ken, that's a great offer I'll get back to you on that. I looked up "hollow mill", as in Will's post and it looks like a must-have piece of tooling anyway. But it might be prudent to get some of the proper things too!

[Tony Russell Davis]

Will - all the sites I can find related to Hollow Mill/Cutters seem to be in USA - do you know if these are available in UK?

[Will C]

Tony, they are rarer than hen's teeth, I just got lucky, got mine on eBay from a guy in Canada (eh?) and it has made it so easy to form the machined ends of cross-shafts. It cuts axially, not radially, which would be why the nylon stock wouldn't deform in the same way - hence my suggestion. Pardon me for checking, but isn't 1/4" greater than 3/16"? I may have misunderstood you there somewhere.

[Tony Russell Davis]

Will - oops - thanks for the correction; that's me struggling with fractional maths . 3/8ths is the correct size! Why can't these things be in metric where a bigger size is a higher number? Simples!
I found a toolshop with some reduced to $10.30. Sound like a bargain so I will find if they *ship to UK.

(later - *no they don't )