Hints and tips

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Well I’m not exactly paranoid about it, but I do spend quite a bit of time keeping another site spam-free, and the laptop I’m using now has been hit by one sneaky virus recently – and that’s with AVG and some more stuff running. It’s a bit of a shame that this sort of crap has to happen to useful sites though, isn’t it? There are some very sad people about.

 

McDonald’s milk shakes are okay, but I’ve never summoned up the courage to eat one of their burgers either.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

A few silly but useful tips:

 

Paint the workshop floor( with floorpaint of course).  Makes things like little nuts/screws/washers/etc dropped on the floor much easier to find.  Colour Red works for me.  Plus block off under the benches etc as suggested earlier on this thread.

 

Philips or crosspoint screw heads always go ’round’ in the drivepoint and then the screwdriver just slips around as soon as the going gets tough when screwing them in. Take the screws out and hacksaw a slot across the drivepoint and then use a blade type screwdriver.  It has so much more contact area in the slot created to turn the screw, always works for me to get the tricky screws in.

 

Seized up screws in wood to be removed?  Hold a (hot) soldering iron tip on the screwhead for a few minutes, then try to tighten the screw a tad first before unscrewing, to ‘break the stick’, and it should then screw out.

 

Rubber hose won’t go on the tube?  Heat for a few seconds by dunking the end in a mug of boiling water, or heat with HI’s (Her Indoors) hairdryer, and it will soften and zoom on.

 

And don’t forget HI’s washing up liquid, helps all sorts of sticking things to slide in easy when they refused to slide in before.  Just remember to put the liquid back before she misses it, or buy your own.

 

Raid HI’s kit again for the talc (better still, get her buy you your own tub/tube for the workshop when she does the weekly shop – supermarkets own brand baby talc is ideal, you don’t need expensive poncy scented stuff) and use it to coat wires before pulling through conduit and they will wizz through.  Talc is much underrated in the workshop, as is washing up liquid.  Also use talc (if you don’t have french chalk) to coat rubber rings etc when they are just sitting on the spares shelf waiting to be used – helps protect them.

 

ChrisH 

Edited By ChrisH on 15/10/2010 23:48:10

Edited By ChrisH on 15/10/2010 23:49:59

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

This thread is such a good idea perhaps it should have it’s own ‘Topic’ instead of being just a thread – what do you reckon Mr Moderator DC Sir?

 

ChrisH 

[BogstandardParticipant @bogstandard]

Just a few more

 

Cutting discs using friction turning 

 

Cutting discs using friction turning #2 

 

Pressure ballrace refiller

 

Easy make steam flanges 

 

Fixing my droop snoot tailstock

 

Recessing a solid flywheel face 

 

 

Bogs

 

 

 

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I’ve just finished making a pair of keys for twiddling the 4 jaw, similar to the photo, but bigger. now I’m told I don’t need them.!,Surely the idea is to use two at the same time, on opposite sides, this does speed the job up. Round stuff is easy to set, in my 4 jaw it’s usually some really odd shape. Like the idea of a tie bar to pull the work in, but makes drilling a hole a bit difficult. Hint- the square bar thru. lock handles is 5/16″, 7mm or 8mm, fits most small chucks, must go and let the wife out of the bathroom.

[SpurryParticipant @spurry]

Bogs

 

More useful reading from your last links. Great stuff – thanks.

 

Regarding your greaser machine, have you seen this one?

http://peteshobbies.com/prcp/Greaser/grindex.htm

 

I’ve used one for a few years to grease the bearings on R/c helicopters.

 

Pete

[Hugh GilhespieParticipant @hughgilhespie56163]

Not so much a hint or tip but a strategy that has helped me. I am a genuine beginner, I only started this malarkey nine months ago and I have – well let’s just say – quite some climbing to do up the learning curve. So, I started out with reading lots of books and making a ‘things to learn’ list – all very good and proper but it was all a bit – well, dull! The thing that really got me started was when I decided to actually make something.
 

I chose Oldboatguy’s beam engine, nice detailed and free plans on the Home Model Engine Machinist site and, as I thought at the time, nothing too daunting for a rank beginner. I was of course wrong, there is quite a lot of daunting when you actually get into it but – and this is the important but – because I had a goal I was much, much happier about trying out new (to me) techniques and if not mastering them, at least getting far enough to produce some sort of result. I did buy enough materials to make three of everything – good decision! I also scaled up the plans by a factor of two as I think larger is easier.

 

I have also become a great fan of the Bogstandard Training School for aspiring machinists – he has a genuine talent for not only explaining how to tackle things but also to inspire enough confidence for a beginner like me to actually have a go. I made his mill tramming tool some months ago and have had excellent use from it. Just completed  Bog’s milling vice stop, as I need it for a bit of beam engine milling. Another excellent design!

 So, enough rambling and apologies as I am surely teaching grannies to suck eggs but if you are just starting out – take on a project, it will really help you focus on learning. Choose a simple one with cheap materials if you can, fewer regrets when things go a bit pear shaped and you have to start again. You can even tell yourself that all your mistakes are actually really valuable lessons and it was a good idea to cock it up so badly the first time!

 

Enjoy, Hugh

 

[Bob LambParticipant @boblamb44747]

Chris obviously deserves “thread of he year award ” for this one.

 

I have one tip to pass on – not strictly engineering – but useful with.   If you have anything very heavy and do not want to wreck your back you will find it easy to move like this:  

 

Put a lenght of hardboard (shiny side up) or MDF -any thickness – on the ground.  put another smaller piece on top of it (in the case of hardboard shiny side down).  Put the heavy object on top of the small piece of board and push gently.  It really does work and does so over anything from concrete to carpet (for those lucky enough to have an indoor workshop).  If you want to go a long distance just overlap the first strip onto a second and repeat as often as necessary.   I have used the same sort of idea for taking heavy things up stairs with a couple of bits of old contiboard shelving althogh it does require a bit more of a push.

 

Bob

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Folks,

Eleven months of H&Ts and only up to three pages, hardly seems worth bothering starting the thread. Still, one tried

As I said before, ‘that’s all, back to the asylum.’

chriStephens. 

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

I don’t think it’s that bad, Chris – even getting just a few helpful hints is a good result, and there are certainly some of those. Just having Bogstandard list some of his useful stuff has probably made it worthwhile for a few people, spam attacks notwithstanding…

 

If you aren’t into CNC control (and possibly even if you are…) it’s worth purchasing a small dry-wipe board, and fixing it, along with a pen hanging from a bit of string, where you can easily reach it from your lathe and/or mill. You can then write all those numbers that you need to remember that would otherwise end up on scraps of oily paper on this instead. Or if you’re still desperate to use the paper as well, get a steel-backed dry-wipe board and some small magnets, I suppose…

Edited By Steve Garnett on 16/10/2010 17:06:35

[Charles 2010Participant @charles2010]

Use paper between flat metal surface

 

I learned the hard way after having been told this tip but ignored it as a part slipped whilst milling even though I thought it was well fixed down.

 

Now between any two “flat” metal surfaces I place a sheet of normal white paper. This allows for any out of perfect flatness to be absorbed by the paper and thus reduces the likehood of movement considerably. In fact since adopting this tip I have never had two part move.

 

I even use a piece of paper between each layer of packing when supporting a piece to say bore between centres.

 

It works for me,  I hardly have to take into account the thickness of the paper, and I hope it works for you….

 

Regards Charles   

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

After a session in the workshop ending with dirty hands, if you’ve run out of swarfega or the like, use washing up liquid with some granulated sugar sprinkled on your hands – works a treat and is cheaper too.

[Axel BentellParticipant @axelbentell]

Best way to remove grease from hands is to use any oil or butter from the kitchen, then soap and wash.

[Axel BentellParticipant @axelbentell]

Posted by chris stephens on 12/11/2009 17:31:54:
Hi Niloch,

As you can see by the overwhelming number of posts, this idea is a non-starter. Such apathy is surely why our Editor has to virtually plead for material to publish. 

 Maybe one of the next Work Shop Practice Series books should be on writing skills, its harder than most think who havent tried! I think younger generations read much less too, so they aren´t as used to text as older generations!

[Ian WelfordParticipant @ianwelford58739]

Hi all.

 

If you want to get ingrained dirt / oil / muck off your hands try kneeding a nob of ” EMULSIFYING OINTMENT ” between your fingers / hands.

 

Basically this is a very waxy base material  pharmacists use to manufacture ointments and the dirt / oil is soluble in the wax to a greater extent than it’s soluble in / on  your skin  so it migrates into the oil phase of the ointment. This also means that you don’t strip the oil from your hands so less skin splitting etc.

 

All you do is rub for a while then add warm water to the traces left on your hands and it gets most of it off.

 

Got to say though that I got some Lemon hand cleaner ( with grit in it) from a guy at York and it’s brilliant!

 

Ian

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Washing your hair (if you have any left) helps, but the cleanest handas are those that spend half an hour kneading bread dough. Just don’t tell the management…

 

Neil

[Jim GreetheadParticipant @jimgreethead]

Dishwashing is good AND you get Brownie points

[Jim GreetheadParticipant @jimgreethead]

For picking up swarf:

 

I was using a magnet in a plastic bag but the bag kept developing holes.

 

Then I realised that I have a magnet that I can turn on and off. So now I use my magnetic DTI stand: turn it on, wave over floor, take to bin, turn it off.

 

It is not showing any ill effects from this but, if it does, then I will buy a new one for the DTI.

 

Meanwhile, it works in both roles and it has a nice handle that saves me bending too far to pick up the swarf.

 

JIm

 

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi BarneyBoy

I expect all readers of this website would set the job reasonably true with the rings to start.

Never occurred that they would not do this.

regards David

 

[BogstandardParticipant @bogstandard]

Just a few more, and for those too scared to go to HMEM, these are all from the Madmodder site

 

Holy pliers 

 

Keats angle plate, a good alternative to a four jaw 

 

A precision tool from junk 

 

Quickie guard 

 

Lathe tidy 

 

Making short precision tapers 

 

Quick and dirty sine bar setting 

 

Hope you like ’em

 

 

Bogs

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Greetings all.

 

Well I don’t know how most of you have been using your calculators to convert fractions to decimal, but up until quite recently I’ve used a pointless and slightly long-winded approach.

 

To use an example of let us say 17/32, I’ve been dividing 1 by 32 and then multipling by 17 to achieve the answer of 0.53125, which is of course correct… I’m sure some of you are laughing already.

 

However, I ‘discovered’ that dividing 17 by 32 also gives… 0.53125. So just enter the fraction into your calculator literally as it is written and it works for any fraction, no matter how bizarre, such as 21/89 = 0.23595… or even 89/21 = 4.238095…

 

It’s still not obvious to me why I’ve been doing it this way for so long, because I know that 1/4 = 0.25 and that 1/2 = 0.5 and so would never dream of employing the first method to work out these examples, but then maths never was one of my strengths. The main thing is that it saves a few seconds and slightly reduces the chances of making a mistake in the calculation. 

 

I hope it helps some of you.

 

Martin.

[Anonymous]

Hi Martin, welcome to the forum. Could be worse; I’m sure some people would add the result up 17 times! Of course entering it as it is written doesn’t work if your calculator uses reverse Polish notation.

 

An OT story: At one company where I worked we convinced one of the secretaries that reverse Polish was an advanced ‘position’ that didn’t even appear in the Karma Sutra……

 

Sorry about lowering the tone and all that……

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Any of you struggle to clean your files?

I’ve never been really pleased with using a File Card to clean them as it never seems to completely remove all the pinning.

 

The best way I’ve found is to rub a piece of brass bar across the file until it forms to the shape of the teeth. At this point, it can be used to remove all debris quite easily. It always surprises me how much muck gets embedded in there.

 

Martin

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Blowlamp, I just took a scrap bit of copper pipe, put a handle on one end, and flattened the otrher end, and then used it as you use the bit of brass.Ian S C

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Martin

 

In a similar vein it’s not always obvious that to convert an imperial fraction to millimetres just multiply the top by 25.4 and divide by the bottom:

 

3/8″ = 25.4 x 3/8 =  9.525mm

 

It’s not so easy to go the other way!

 

 

Neil

[Author]

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