I didn't – I'm going in there now. Today I have been mostly riding my motorcycle

Tomorrow I shall mostly be cleaning it !

Did the washing up. Two loads of washing, cleaned car, hoovered car, made breakfast in bed for wifey, ate last nights left over chineese…then into the workshop! STEAM TESTED MY FINISHED 5" STEEL BOILER…that went perfect but the steam regulater valve came loose, so a complete redesign is under way. I got bored of this so made me a blower valve and fitted that. Cooked me a curry, had me a bath and here I am! Just need 4 cans of Stella' and ive about done!

Spent the day at the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition … Suspect I'll be doing domestic duties tomorrow!!!

Dave

Finished the motor assy for my fibre optic clock. I can post some pics tomorrow if there is any interest.

Cheers Derek

Had some problems with the laser cutter getting the bed level.

It's worked by 4 acme screws geared together by some 15 tooth 3mm pitch timing pulleys on the bottom of each screw and a long belt round all 4. move the master screw and the other 3 follow.

Problem is slack the belt off to move one screw and the rest move as well so spent about an hour getting nowhere.

The pulleys have no boss on them and are loctited onto the screws and even if free there is no room for any other method of fastening. So hobbed 3 new pulleys with flanges and secured these by a grub screw so I can adjust each scrw in turn.

Now got the table level to 0.1mm instead of about 2.0mm, It's not critical to 0.2mm but 2mm is a bit much holding focus on 10mm thick material.

Emptied four 5 gallon drums of ash from the big wood burner ready for next week.

Off to Stafford Classic bike show on Sunday.

[edit] Spent tonight sorting out a big load of early Myford advertising bumf into model and putting old price lists with them, probably stuff the lot on Ebay.

Interesting that from 1977 to 1983, 6 years, a ML7R doubled in price.

Found a leaflet on a VM-D miller, can't recall that one ? Looks like a Rodney but slightly different.

Also found two leaflets on the Rodney miller with the designers notes with it, presumably to sell it to management ?

John S.

Edited By John Stevenson on 21/10/2012 01:55:33

My Worden table risers, hot off the press, so to speak. Rather than mounting them in the lathe, I just did them on my CNC mill. 3 3mm thick sheets needed turning on outside, with offset hole, and 2 holes for screws to mounting arbours.

Hi All,

I thought that I'd better add to this thread. I suffer from a bad back after a serious motorbike accident years ago so a pain free day is a bonus and I tend to make the best of them.

Had a varied day today, traditionally we always do our weekly supermarket shopping on Saturday morning so off the local Morrisons at 8:00. Had some maintainance to do so cut back a rampant Wisteria I am trying to kill off – I had sprayed it with glyphosate 4 weeks ago (and managed to kill off a bit of the lawn as well . Then cut the lawns.

After lunch decided to tackle a dicky Z Scale on my milling machine – a variation of the Weiss – equivalent to the Warco WM18. Stripped it off the machine, disassembled it, cleaned it and in the best Haynes manner 'reversed the process' – seems to have worked so far (need a fingers crossed emoticon here).  I was amazed by the stainless steel body. The groove for the slider appeared to have been cut with a blunt cold chisel by a blind rice farmer.  All pictures clickable(except Milling cutters).

Got down to some serious work and tried an assembly of my part refurbished Grinding rest which I managed to rescue from my garage fire. – remember this?

I have de-rusted the main components and reassembled it after some fettling, the lower parts are finished. I just have to work on the upper section and make new knobs and handles but it actualy works well using a common handle in each clamping screw..

I'm also making the accessories again as most were lost in the debris.  Started off by cutting a couple of lengths of rescued steel

and

A bit slow as I have no mechanical saw and neeed to use my trusty hacksaw which originally belonged to my grandad. Like me, its a bit rusty and worn round the edges but works ok.

I cleaned them up a bit, removing the rust manually as my acid bath needs replenishing (it's outside – never in the workshop. As I have broken a small tap some time ago and needed to tap a few holes accurately I made a simple tapping guide and turned up a bit of scrap. marked it out and drilled it.

I intend to also use it for BA taps hence the other centre punch marks. a simple device, it works quite well, – seen here in use tapping the square tool holder for the above grinding rest:

It not only guides the tap vertically but also helps to prevent any tendency to bend the tap due to uneven pressure thus snapping vulnerable ones.

See next post as this one is too long (first time for everything)

Edited By Terryd on 21/10/2012 07:49:13

Sounded like an enjoyable day, that is until you got to the bottle of red and the Jazz CD.

Have you given any thought to replenishing your acid bath with the red ?

John S.

spent the last hour making a pallet for a 12" angle plate i sold on eBay and oil waxing it up for shipping. and the rest of the day on eBay as i have 81 items ending today going to busy packing for the rest of the day

than have a few pints of Guinness

Kevin

Terry

"Well, you did ask " – No we didn't and that is definitely too much information!!

I agree with you about Coleman Hawkins however and a while ago picked up a CD of " Coleman Hawkins encounters Ben Webster" to replace an old recording I had. Cool stuff – just the thing to relax with and enjoy a nice mug of cocoa! ( When you give up wine for a bit it tastes foul!)

N

Great work on your restorations Terry. Hacksaws and file handles wear well if you don't mind replacing teh cutting bit.

Addy turning 33in thread in a home workshop is impressive

John – you trying to make lathes obsolete? Inflation 77-83 was astromomic partly due to allowing partner's salary to count for mortgage calculations. I remember getting a 25% pay rise one year. Luckily I got a flat for £16k in 77 just before it hit.(London prices, may mate in Nottingham got a 3 bed detached for same money) I think that flat goes for about £150k now.

Anyway yesterday I moved an 800lb lathe about 10 feet up step and through 2 doors. Took hours allowing for tea breaks (which is also when I mess about here) but I do enjoy the challenge. At the moment I am avoiding going back outside to slash down bushes where my new workshop is going to be. At this rate workshop build could take a year.

Edited By Bazyle on 21/10/2012 12:38:03