With the weather as it is it was a good day for workshop time so got down to completing the rope knurl project by making form tools making the knurling process a 2 minute affair. It seems to make the definition of the knurl a lot better. So a good start to 2025 hope its the same for all of you. And yes there are two different pitches.

Yes the finer pitch is the newer one, I thought it would be better for smaller diameters but its all down to personal choice. Now all I need is a job for them.

They look great, excellent result!

Hi, today I took delivery of a 4″ HV rotary table, which I ordered late on New Year’s Eve, from Amadeal Ltd., seems to be a nice build, and I will be able to use my index plates on it, that I use on my 6″ Vertex one.

This one will suite my mini mill better than my Vertex one.

Regards Nick.

On 3 January 2025 at 20:18 Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi, today I took delivery of a 4″ HV rotary table, which I ordered late on New Year’s Eve, from Amadeal Ltd., seems to be a nice build […]

That looks a tidy little thing, Nick

… I have no immediate need for such, but will be interested to know how well it performs.

MichaelG.

The weather on this patch of Southern England has not been as nasty as further North. Though it is Winter and so far I don’t think the worst has actually been abnormal – just horrible and I know it is causing so many people so many problems.

Even so we have had heavy rain and winds and I had a shock to find a sizeable puddle in the corner of the workshop. I don’t know its source but the rear of the building is not accessible to investigate. It could be an overflowing rear gutter on a similar shed that backs onto mine from the next street’s rear gardens, but with a wriggly asbestos-cement roof on my shed, investigating is not easy.

Nevertheless, let’s get something done…

Having returned from a day away yesterday, with a scrap of 100mm grey PVC pipe and of all things, a rusty but intact camping-gas cartridge, both from a small junk pile (with permission, indeed blessing).

Quick measuring showed the cartridge the more likely candidate by size and appearance. Some careful mini-grinding and junior hacksawing produced the upper two-thirds with the neck ring removed from the domed top. Trying in-situ showed I was right to have scavenged a discarded gas cartridge that seemed to have been in the nearby incinerator, as it proved just the right length and diameter (with slight expanding), and luckily not severely corroded,….

….. for making an effective and aesthetically fair differential cover for my steam-wagon!

That’s what you catch from listening to The Wombles on the wireless over Christmas.

(The differential is on the axle rather than in the back of one wheel, as shown by a photograph that appeared long after I’d made the thing! Still, other chain-driven steam-wagons used mid-axle differentials, so it’s still contemporary practice.)

…..

Had an hour’s break, leaving the workshop door open. The weather had turned warm with a muggy, soft drizzle, and when I returned I was dismayed to find every ferrous surface, from lathe to scribing-block, covered with beaded films of condensate. Luckily a lot are protected by paint and oily grime but there are a still bare tools, machine-parts, etc. exposed.

I used up a lot of Water Dispersant-Forty and kitchen-roll everywhere, then wheeled the dehumidifier down the garden to do its thing, hopefully.

…

Then back in for tea and to draw the major part of the wagon’s cylinder-block, to a point where I can consider details like the various passages, frame fixing, drains, etc.

The placcy pipe? Material like that is good for making chip-guards, non-model gear-covers and the like.