MEW 319 – Roofing A Shed??????

[mgnbukParticipant @mgnbuk]

The editors can only include articles that people are prepared to write.

These are commercial publications not club newsletters, so content (at least in part IMO) should be commissioned by the Editor or provided by staff writers & not wholely reliant on submissions as MEW appears to be now.

But IIRC from one of the previous discussions about this topic, Neil did say his budget didn't run to such luxuries as staff writers etc. so I wonder what the future holds for hobby publications if the paying customer base becomes consistantly unhappy with the content being submitted.

I do find the "if you don't like the content, write your own" attitude rather strange, though – why would I choose to buy a publication to read articles I have written myself ?

I have yet to see the shed roofing article that started this thread – the current MEW had not arrived on Readly as of yesterday evening.

Nigel B.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I’m a bit like other people here in that I’m not an engineer, merely a person with an interest in learning how to do things for myself – self-education by experimentation – and of doing it using a limited set of tooling. As part of this, I tend to spend my time learning how to best to use the tooling, and making, when necessary, additional bits of tooling. I’m not into CNC, 3D printing, or any of the other esoteric (esoteric to me, that is) production methods. There are a lot of techniques which can be used in a small amateur workshop that I haven’t tried, many of which I doubt that I will ever try due to old age and infirmity to say nothing of a lack of the extra tooling required to perform that task. But that doesn’t negate that fact that some of the articles do have some interest for me. Unfortunately, one current article reminds me of what is now a totally different life in a slowly dimming and long lost life!

Martin Kyte has struck a rather familiar note with me, and whilst I don’t know whether or not my articles, few though they may be, have met his requirements for “asides”, I have long considered that writing about problems, and how I overcame them was an essential part of what I was doing, indeed I have an article half written which is provisionally titled “Catastrophe Corner” just because if it could go wrong, then it did! It’s half written because I ran into a problem which diverted me onto something else so the original project is only half finished.

Nigel B,

But you only see one of your articles amongst many written by others. As intimated above, I have done a small number of articles, and it does give me a strange sense of frisson to see my name and an article of mine in print, especially as I make the proud "boast" of being someone who either dropped, or drastically failed any course/examination in any language, including English. Egotistic or what?

In general, I think MEW is ok as it is. Please leave the format well alone.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

Edited to add an extra paragraph.

Edited By Peter G. Shaw on 19/08/2022 15:31:20

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

I find it odd that professional technique and equipment being used for 'Model Engineering' upsets some people, almost as if it's cheating. Surely not?

Of yes it does, even at club level, comments of “ his stuff should be good, he got a factory in his garden not a workshop”, so I will publicly apologise for running my own business for 25 years and when I closed it the big machinery went to auction and because the dealers in model engineering sized machines would only offer scrap value for quality tooling I kept it, one dealer in the south came in a transit and filled it with complete sets of 5c collets, dividing heads, good ones, made by Nikken height gauges about a dozen Abwood machine vices, Myford capstan unit and cut off slides etc, guess what they paid, £200, yep two hundred quid, so I kept the rest but I have now given up doing a few articles for club magazines and showing any work, I am far too professional and have too much equipment, I think it’s time I quit this hobby.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

“so content (at least in part IMO) should be commissioned by the Editor or provided by staff writers & not wholely reliant on submissions as MEW appears to be now.”

several pages of most of the last say 10 issues have been written by the editor possibly using his nom-de-plume’

The Science Museum trip was poorly illustrated in that in my copy the images were too dark to see any details – and too much was covered in the one article – the magazine should IMO assume some (admitted not high) but at least some familiarity with tools and their use and thus the descriptions should be oriented to this audience.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

I wonder what the budget is to produce the magazine each month? I also wonder how much of that budget is spent on getting the magazine to a shop or direct to the subscriber. I think Neil has already said elsewhere that his job as editor isn't full time. The new owners might be dipping their collective toes in the water to see if the magazine is viable. No magazine, no website, no forum.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Maybe the message from all these posts is

"If you don't like whats in the magazine, submit articles that are better"

IF they are better, they will get published.

Very recently, there has been a request for articles, so now is your chance. to put things right..

In short, put your money where your mouth is..

Howard

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Thankyou Howard

Considering we recently (before our dry spell) had someone who had a leaking and therefore wet shed roof who reading between the lines thought putting new felt over a wet roof would be OK. and fix his rust problem. The article was probably timely given the damage that will go un-noticed over the coming cold months.

Does anyone have any interest in the contents of the attached photo and perhaps hazard a guess as to the purpose of them?

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Dave,

First thought, given my background would be an automotive flywheel (Ring gear, maximum inertia with minimum weight and some axial flexibility ) and the matching starter pinion.

Probably wildly out!

Going back to the original complaint,

What seems to have started it was Neil Wyatt moving house and finding a leaking roof. Having recently replaced the time expired felt with EPDM rubber on my small workshop, suggested this to Neil.

I found that giving the size of the roof, and specifying the siting of the edge trims, resulted in a next morning delivery of very adequate quantity of the material that was required.

I would have thought that keeping a workshop, or material store, weatherproof, and the means of so doing, would have been of interest to many model engineers.

Howard

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I believe a previous editor set up a workshop adjacent to his own workshop to be able to take pictures for articles under his nom-de plume that didn't give the game away. It was a good way to have a 'contributor' who provided the right kind of article.

BTW re shed roof. Practice making the pig's ear photo 8 so it folds inside, much neater, and I suggest avoiding plastic roofing. I had it in my dormer window when I moved in and it stank of plastic in hot weather. Once the plasticisers had evaporated it shrank opening the joints and when squirrels scratched it it split. I replaced myself with regular 3 layer felt 20 years ago.

Edited By Bazyle on 19/08/2022 18:46:57

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Makes you laugh really. So who would be these Staff writers. Really you would need someone who is a Model Engineer. Oh, that would be us then!!! and presumably they would get paid per article. Oh, that happens already doesn't it.

regards Martin

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Just spotted this in the Forum Ad for the next Model Engineer:

Roger Curtis takes a ramble through the countryside and explains why perches, rods and chains are infinitely superior to metres and millimetres, and far better in tune with Mother Nature.

I shall have apoplexy when I read it. No problem, I shall sue for damages. Poor old Morton's have a Duty of Care to their customers…

Dave

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

it’s their timing that’s awry – Neil is so short of articles + time to write more than his usual pages that he has to bring forward that planned for April.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

To continue Dave's forum creep I've just spotted the best imperial measurement ever. Our American friends measure reservoir capacity in acre-feet, the volume of water required to cover an acre in one foot depth of water. It's a lot!

[Steve MillwardParticipant @stevemillward84705]

I could not believe 7 pages on recovering a shed roof

I can’t wait for the magazine to drop through my letter box.when I saw that article I was gutted

also article missing as advertised on front page handy workshop light

Try & keep it interesting

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

It is my understanding that payment for articles comes from the Advertising budget. It is obvious that people who took multi page adverts in the past, – Euro, Warco, Axminster, no longer do so and it looks like Home and Workshop machinery,have also stopped. This causes the re-use of previously published work. If you submit an article ,it can take more than a year to appear, so ther cannot be a shortage of articles in the pipeline.

Keith

[Robert DoddsParticipant @robertdodds43397]

I’m a Tin Roof person but enough of that.
The article in 319 by Gary Wooding on constructing a Bandsaw blade tension meter I considered to be in the best traditions of MEW. The device was well illustrated in both 3D and exploded format and the line drawings allow easy reproduction of the unit. I was perhaps a little disappointed that the Assembly and Use only got a single paragraph and whilst it told you “How to” it missed out the “How much” (tension)

Thanks to Gary’s photo of the proprietary meter I had a look at Dakin and Flathers web site which contains a table of recommended tensions for different uses of their blades, expressed in both kPa and psi, the latter ranging from 15000 to 30000psi depending on usage.
I then found myself back in Young’s modulus territory doing Strength of Materials,

E= Stress /Strain

From which we get Extension /Original length = Stress/E
Gary’s original length , the distance between the two clamp screws, is approx 88mm
E, young modulus is fairly consistent for steel, varying between 29,000000 to 30,000000 psi
Substituting we get Extension = 88 x 20000/29,000000 = 0.0606mm (2 ½ thou in terms of Gary’s
½ thou Baty DTI)
Assuming my figuring stands scrutiny it may well be better to fit either a 0.001mm or a 0.0001” as this would give in the region of a half turn of the finger whereas the 0.0005 DTI will only move a fraction of that amount and be difficult to set accurately.

Would I make one, probably not. For the little bit of use that I put my saw to I’ll carry on Twanging.

Regards Bob D

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I must admit that things going on had prevented me from taking 319 out of its wrapper. I've now done that and found the shed roof article interesting, given that I paid some chaps a fair bit of money last year to do the same to my (somewhat larger) shed roof. I hadn't been entirely confident about doing it myself. given that it took three of us to get the rubber up onto the roof, it was probably a bargain!

The bandsaw blade tensioner is definitely on the list of things-to-do.

If I were going to be a miserable git (I am). Then I would draw issue with the 'upcycling' article. People who take a perfectly reasonable piece of wooden furniture and paint it bland instead of stripping and French polishing it will, eventually, spend all eternity in a hell with an atmosphere of sawdust and burning paint fumes .

other than that, I'd say it's one of the better recent issues.

I have wanted to write several articles about projects that I've done (rebuilding Hardinge lathe, Beaver mill to as-new condition, making riser block for mill, building bridge crane, scraping and lapping surface tables, making a better dust extractor etc.) Trouble is that I get 'writers block' when doing anything longer than a post card.

I will try though.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

As part of the thread drift, I made a similar Tension Meter to the Jacques Maurel Design, published some time ago in E I M.

It has saved me a fortune in not having to replace broken blades.. I can't remember when the present blade was fitted, but am beginning to think that it is worn, and need replacing.

The small amount of time spent in making it was well spent, IMO

Howard

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Gary Wooding's device is nicely described and would make a useful piece of workshop equipment.

I am one who 'tunes' a blade after refitting and what I would like to see is what the twang of the plucked blade sounds like with a saw blade that is correctly tensioned. Has anyone done this?

Regards Brian

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I would have thought the note varies depending on the size of your saw as distance between supports will affect the note along (think ruler over desk edge) with blade width and thickness also having an effect.

I also wonder if the smaller hobby saw frames are up to taking some of the tension quoted by blade makers?

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Now that I think about it, I'm sure you are right Jason. Perhaps I will just carry on as I do already and be ready to increase tension if the blade staggers in the cut–I don't like to set it too fiercely to begin with.

Brian

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Mark –

– and anyone else fearing the same.

Writers' block… Well, it's much less of a block if you already know what to write about.

Some tips, having written many articles and letters, to club and other publications:

1) You know what you want to describe and your knowledge of the subject.

2) List the salient points in brief notes – let's take for example, your overhead travelling-crane (as I read it as) for your workshop. I have built one for mine.

– A summary of its intended tasks (e.g. assembling a heavy model, restoring machine-tools, handling heavy machine-tool attachments, a "helping hand" with long items on the power-saw and bench-drill).

– How you assessed its design for function and strength (e.g. hand or motor power, its frame, installation in the building).

– Important stages in its construction and erection.

– Any snags encountered therein, and how you solved them

– The finished project in all its glory, and some examples of its use.

That above in brief notes only, in rough. It is the framework for the article.

'

3) Now (whether a word-processor like MS 'Word', typed or long-hand mss.), re-write that list as at most, three-word headings, if possible the "third" word merely an intervening "and". With big gaps between each.

4) Start to fill in the gaps. Remember we readers know how to make the bits, so unless particularly awkward bits needing out-of-ordinary setting-up, just refer generically to the processes.

Don't omit small but important details. E.g. how the traveller wheels are fitted rigidly to their axles (as on a railway wheel-set as these are, in effect.) Or how you made any pulleys, if blocks and tackle rather than chain-hoist or electric winch – having already explained that choice.

5) Concluding, tell us how the crane (continuing our example) has re-payed its construction.

.

Lighten the text to make it interesting – this is not an instruction-manual on how to build a crane, but how you built your crane, hopefully to inspire and guide others making theirs for their workshops. This is an example of a project unique to situation .

However, avoid patronising the reader. Also, keep digressive anecdotes to a minimum: mentioning why tripping over your cat helped you design the thing is fine, but it's the project we want to read about, not Felix's predatory abilities.

Add sufficient photos and suitable drawings, supplied with captions and their references in the text; but do not put images within the text as that can hamper editing and page-setting. Put them on separate files in a standard, or the requested, format. Don't overload the editorial office with photographs, but choose wisely enough to allow selecting the best for the purpose. A CAD drawing might need submitting in an image format like .bmp or .jpg, as requested or advised by the publisher.

'

Read the intended magazine carefully, including articles outside your immediate interest. You don't want to ape others' literary styles but do need recognise what general styles "work"; and how the text and pictures co-operate.

If the magazine gives guidelines on text format and photo quality (which Model Engineer does not do) ; read them and follow them carefully. NB: The editors will match the work to the "house style" , and over-use of the word-processor can be counter-productive.

Go back, re-read, correct and prune, as I have with this – word-processors are word-breeders!

if in doubt, ask – seek the editor's advice.

'

Note that the above applies generally to any of these technical articles; be you describing a workshop crane that has to be largely unique, overhauling an old machine-tool or your take on a familiar model to a published design.

We look forwards to reading how you built your workshop crane and restored the milling-machine!

.

Finally, why have I not written of my steam-wagon construction? Errrrr….. Even I do not quite date back to Model Engineer & Electrician days, but its excruciatingly slow, intermittent and meandering progress through house-moves, health problems (mine and its), other interests, frequent errors, multiple re-working, no proper drawings, no certainty of success…, renders such a serial impossible!

[Steve355Participant @steve355]

Traditional roofing is really interesting, I’ve built a couple of small roofs, slated them, done the lead work, ridge tiling etc. don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Getting it all straight isn’t easy. Knowing your birdsmouths from your barge boards is useful too when the cowboy builders come around. Besides, making a roofing square would be a nice milling project.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Not only "really interesting". Highly-skilled too, like most of the building-trades should be.

High things and I agree to differ so I will leave roofs and ladders to the experts; but making a stainless-steel cake-square / centre-finder calibrated in Hand and Eighths thereof is a nice milling project too, if not exactly "model-engineering"!

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Neil will provide a set of comprehensive notes for would-be article authors and has indicated that these will shortly be updated for Morton-friendly submissions. I would also add to Nigel's guide, above, turn on the spellchecker!

John

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