Busy finishing my Trainrail V-Block, mounted on a flat round piece of cast iron I previously turned for a 160mm Chuck backplate but then decided not to use it for that. Machined a square in this to set the trainrail foot. In the centre I made a round insert that screw to the lathe bed to locate the cast iron plate around a centre point.. The trainrail foot is tightened to the cast iron by 4 bolts.
Today I made the T-Nuts for clamping the cast iron to the lathe bed on the left end. If it be in the way of work on the vice mounted in the centre of bed, I just remove the 4x bolts and remove the trainrail only, when repositioned its trammed in still.
-I took a test cut mill and no clamping issues observed yet.

Edited By Chris Mate on 01/01/2023 19:29:43

First run of the year
Spent the day at EDMES public running session. We had a good turnout of members to help despite having a number of regulars off galivanting with family or nursing hangovers. The weather was a bit dull which put off the customers though it didn't rain until we were about to end. We probably had more passengers over the 4 hours than the 3 mainline trains that passed (behind the photographer) as the navigators in the previous millennium had the foresight to build their line next to the site we would eventually occupy so that their travellers can see us as the head off to London.

Photos of the local air ambulance using the grounds 4 days ago are on our facebook page.

Old meets new there Mike. Looks like a GH Thomas versatile dividing head, an ancient design still relevant on a new Eastern mill. Reminds me, I must get around to making the tailstock for mine.

Built my GHT versatile dividing head, raising blocks and tailstock some time ago. It is such a well designed piece of kit.

Only thing that maybe I would now change is the method that GHT secures stock in the spindle originally it was by means of split sleeves. They work fine but I suspect that a modified spindle to accept ER tooling is now more appropriate. At least you would not have to make all those split sleeves !

Regards to all

Derek

Did a "spot of welding" for a friend, turned out to be two 1.2m long butt welds in 10mm plate, and space constraints forced me to do it in PF position (Vertical Up), 4 passes with the wire size I had to hand, for a total of 9.6m (31' 6"&zwnj of welding.

Took about 4 hours, of which about 45 mins was probably tacking up, wire-brushing between passes, and then grinding out restarts etc.

My back was a bit sore afterwards from bending down to do the start of each pass, but I fair enjoyed it… Working with heavier sections and longer runs makes for a much more meditative welding experience.

Edited By Jelly on 05/01/2023 15:23:22

I got out to do a bit more work on the installation of the oil fired heating system which shall not be named​​​​, was only able to get started at 22:00 so limited progress but I managed to:

• Fabricate brackets to hang the heater and the ducting (the latter being a case of welding bought brackets to metal tabs to attach to the ceiling)
• Hang the heater,
• Hang the ducting, connect up, and fit the supply valves (crudely adjusted for a starting point),
• (Not pictured) turn some BSP ⅛" Barrel Nipples to connect various compression fittings together (the heater input pipe is 4mm, the pump and filter conmections are both 5mm, and all my microbore pipe is ¼&quot so I can run an all hard fuel line to a bulkhead connection for an external tank.

I'm picking up the compression fittings from BES on my way past tomorrow as I'm seeing a client in Birmingham.

I need to fabricate an insulated duct for the exhaust to go through the wall from 100mm spiral ducting, some end caps and a bit of high temperature rockwool, which might be tomorrow's job.

The big delay is going to be waiting for the electrical cabinet for the 240V-12V power supply and the control electronics to go into, I bought a good quality steel one off eBay but the seller is away for the week.

I may do a test running off a car battery at the weekend if I'm able to.

Central heating has been playing up. I discovered that the diverter valve for the radiators was faulty: The motor that moves the valve had stripped teeth. The valve is held open by the motor simply stalling at the full open position – at which point it also operates a microswitch that turns on the boiler. Since the valve is returned shut by springs, when the motor teeth slipped, the boiler was switched off and the valve partially closed, so the radiators were not getting warm and the boiler kept switching off.

I bought and fitted a new valve motor head and tidied up the wiring at the same time – discovering a loose earth wire as well ; (why are so-called professional electricians so slap-dash?).

Then I turned my attention to another problem. The boiler has been tripping its overheat cut-out switch on a regular basis. I eventually realised this was because we have turned off most radiators in the house except a couple of rooms, so the circulating hot water was not being dissipated quickly enough, leading to the boiler heat exchanger getting too hot. I have tried combinations of adjusting the boiler feed temperature, the pump speed and the radiator balance to no avail. I then realised that the boiler was just burning far too hot and then I noticed a manual valve on the gas feed pipe into the boiler. I was able to turn this down and reduce the flame size in the burner.

All is now well: the boiler runs happily and does not keep overheating. The new diverter valve head works perfectly and the radiators are getting warm.

The phenomenon of screws loosening is why checking the tightness of terminal screws is a maintenance task in industry, to check a terminal you first loosen the screw which checks the screw is not seized which can be caused by arcing with a loose screw. The screw is then retightened and the cable checked for security. Just trying to give the screw a little bit more can shear the screw or damage the cable. It is possible that the screw was correctly tightened when installed but cycles of heating and cooling and or vibration have loosened it.

Mike

Not sure – Potterton Netaheat 80E. Quite old technology now.

@Mike Poole – interesting, I did not know that  Unfortunately the installer put the junction box in a very inaccessible place, (why must they do that?) – requiring contortions normally seen at Cirque de Soleil, and burns to the hands from hot pipes, to get a screwdriver onto the terminal block 

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 13/01/2023 17:29:07

Yeah, none taken – I flatter myself that I am a bit of a polymath – perhaps a multimath? having been trained in many engineering disciplines in three careers.

Yes there is a bypass loop, but the boiler gas burner was simply far too hot for the house load; and the boiler overheat switch kept tripping – even when I turned the boiler feed thermostat down. I have reduced the gas supply feed, and I can see that the burner flame is now much reduced. Before; the igniter tower glowed orange hot; now it remains black.

So all happy now

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 13/01/2023 18:32:03

Got the diesel heater working.

A certain amount of discovering that the very top connection in the system didn't seal and is now dripping diesel as you prime it then having to cut into a full pipe overhead to fit a new olive was involved… So the sweet sweet smell of success does smell oddly like a diesel soaked hoody.

Once running it's pretty solid, the ducting works well to distribute the heat and the exhaust protection (a duct full of rockwool sealed with fire cement) has proved effective enough, keeping the temperature down to 57 on the outside when the exhaust itself is running at 180-220C.

Will need to tidy up the installation a bit now I know it all works. Clip the cables and microbore tube, etc.

Well, started a few days ago….

Started to work out how and where to install a belt-type vari-speed drive for my Denbigh H4 mill, and realised my best move is to fit the motor to the unit's original motor-plate. This needs new mounting-slots.

The plate is held to the rest of the machine by several cheese-head screws well stuck in their counterbores, so needed an impact-wrench driver to loosen them.

Cannot find anywhere the driver I have owned for years… Trip to Eurocarparts to order one.

Collected it yesterday morning; used the sunshine and trip out as the excuse to go for a walk on a stretch of coast path I had never previously explored (I've lived in this area only since 1959).

Started using it in the afternoon, and the screwdriver tip broke in about the third screw. It appeared sort of hardened but not tempered, and I was using only light hammer-blows. Luckily I completed the work with the second bit.

TODAY: Returned to the shop, receipt in hand, to order a new tip.

Too cold to inspire me but I made myself walk to my usual corner shop (exercise!), then go to the workshop in the early evening. Overalls, extra socks, fleece hat – and leather gloves to handle a lot of cold steel.

Moved the mill, only a little, but so it is now at right-angles to the wall, centred to one of the columns supporting the overhead-crane rails. The crane just – gingerly – took enough of the milling-machine's weight for me to move it that few inches. In fact, simply rotating it round one of its holding-down screws in the concrete floor.

I had originally put it at an angle to the wall, parallel but rather close to the adjacent Myford vertical mill. This simple rotation does two things (apart from moving surrounding clutter to another heap):

– Greatly improves access to both mills with little conflict with the Harrison lathe opposite the Denbigh. I tested that by standing on the normal spot for using the lathe. If anything it will tend to stand me slightly further from the revolving chuck. The cranked handle for the mill's knee was jabbing me in the back so I turned it back to front, pointing inwards! If that seriously affects using it, I could make it readily removable.

– Greatly simplifies making the mounting frame for the Denbigh's overhead drive, as it is all now closely square to the wall, and I can use the crane-rail column within it.

Then time for tea.