Old Fool. New to the fold

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

Hello I’ve been reading MEW for some time and thought I’d like to join in. My main hobbies are radio, in various forms, ie:- building, operating (I’m a licenced amateur), & restoring vintage sets. My other main interest is Off- road 4 wheel-drive trialing, which does require quite a bit of making bits work together that were never meant to.

Some years ago I aquired a Colchester Gammet lathe. Lockdown I turned a lot of defenceless metal into swarf learning how to use it! My last instruction was 60 years ago at school!

P.S. I’m bordeline dyslexic so I hope the above makes sense. Working in thou’s is a nightmare.

Bob

 

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Bob , welcome to our nightmare. For me, those micron thingies are the problem, not thous. But we all manage to scrape by.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Welcome to the forum

H

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[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Welcome!

You are not the only amateur on here (Not me!)

Plenty also interested in restoring / modifying vehicles, so you are in good company

Howard

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Welcome to the party Bob, I prefer thou, but that’s what I grew up with, like you I have many interests. Where abouts are you ? UK ? Noel.

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

old fool

Hi, yes Burton-on-Trent. It’s not the Thou’s or the metric things that give me problems, but the numbers that throw up. In the real world I use imperial measure because the numbers are easier to manipulate! When you get to engineering sizes it dosn’t matter you still end up with a boggling array of numbers. even if I’ve got it written in front of me I can still get them in the wrong order!

One thing I’ve learned to do, if I’m turning to a size is to fit something in the lathe about the size I need to turn to, touch the tool against it and set the chapter ring to zero, then I just keep cutting till the dial reads “0” or almost It’s easier to take a bit more off than put a bit back!

Bob

[old fool]

On old fool Said:

… In the real world I use imperial measure because the numbers are easier to manipulate! …

One thing I’ve learned to do, if I’m turning to a size is to fit something in the lathe about the size I need to turn to, touch the tool against it and set the chapter ring to zero, then I just keep cutting till the dial reads “0” …

 

Welcome to the forum – lots of kindred spirits here.

Always strikes me as ironic when a fellow radio amateur says that imperial measure numbers are easier to manipulate!  Ironic because  radio maths is all metric!  Henrys, Amps, Volts, Farads, Ohms, Hertz etc.  What’s your favourite band Bob?  I doubt the answer will be in feet!

In general going Imperial in 2024 is a bad option. Main exceptions: restoring old equipment; hobby is building models from classic designs; living in North America; or being of a certain age, who either wasn’t taught metric at school, or spent a career in a British industrial backwater.   In future, go metric young man.

Personally, I wouldn’t trust a dial used to set zero that way for other than rough work.    One ‘why not’ reason is bumping a sharp tool into the job to set zero could easily put a 0.02mm plus deep ding into it!  Instant error.   Instead stick a patch of thin Cigarette paper on to the job with spit, turn the lathe on, and slowly advance the tool until the point just lifts the paper off.   This procedure gets the cutter very close to the job without actually touching it.

Dave

 

[Colin GParticipant @coling]

Welcome Bob,

I have sent you a personal message.

I live quite close to you, in Derby, and I

am a member of Burton on Trent MES.

Colin

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

Thank you for all the warm welcomes.

To Dave:  I haven’t been called “young man” in a very long time, and yes I did grow up in an era when metric was barely acknowledged as existing. “It’s something they use on the continent” The main reason I choose imperial is dyslexia, the numbers that system generates are far simpler to proses. If I was to measure at one side of the room I would have it all in a muddle by the time I got to the saw to cut a bit to fit but much less so in feet & inches.

For the same reason  I set the slide dial to zero at the size I want to finish. That way I don’t need to worry about the numbers involved. I usually stop 5-10thou short of my goal, measure, and take small cuts till I get there. After all I don’t think anyone will argue that a drill, for instance is a nominal size! I know electrical and radio values are all metric, but they are always 2-figure numbers. i.e:-47k, 150pf etc.

I haven’t been on air for a long time but my favourites are 40m & 30m. I’m also building a top-band AM transmitter. one or two of the folk round here natter in that mode.

I coined the name “Old fool” because my instruction in lathe use was as a schoolboy, 60 years later I start trying to put into practice what I learned. Not only that I started teaching myself in lockdown when no-one could come and show me where I’m going wrong! Unless you want a party in W1! I’ll gloss over that

As an example this post has taken well over 2hrs after I’ve gone through the dictionary and sorted my spelling! A dictionary is the most useless book! If you can’t spell something you don’t know where to look, and even if you stumble on it you don’t know you have because you can’t spell it!

Hey-ho.

All the best, Bob

[old fool]

On old fool Said:

…
I haven’t been on air for a long time but my favourites are 40m & 30m. I’m also building a top-band AM transmitter. one or two of the folk round here natter in that mode.

Excellent, valves I hope!   Must be 30 years since I last heard AM on Top Band yet when I started it was the chat band and mode of choice.  Hoards of locals on 160m.   Are you ancient enough to remember Loran and Jingle Bells?   (Two different maritime navigation systems, both extremely powerful, and taking up a great chunk of the band.   Loran sounded like a buzz-saw.  We called the other one jingle bells because of its characteristic signal, but for the life of me I can’t remember it’s real name.)   All long gone now.

I coined the name “Old fool” because my instruction in lathe use was as a schoolboy, 60 years later I start trying to put into practice what I learned.

 

I’m SillyOldDuffer partly because I’m a bit old, and a bit silly, and a duffer – at least in the sense of being a learner.   The abbreviation ‘sod’ is a humorous way of separating me from the many other Daves on the forum,  and the nickname also signals I don’t intend to be taken too seriously!

Not only that I started teaching myself in lockdown when no-one could come and show me where I’m going wrong!

I’m self-taught too.  Read lots of books, but the forum is a god-send.

As an example this post has taken well over 2hrs after I’ve gone through the dictionary and sorted my spelling! A dictionary is the most useless book! If you can’t spell something you don’t know where to look, and even if you stumble on it you don’t know you have because you can’t spell it!

Don’t worry about being dyslexic.  I wouldn’t have guessed.  And in any case, the forum isn’t an English exam!  Just try to make the meaning clear.

Hey-ho.

All the best, Bob

Cheers,

Dave

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

Nothing wrong with setting the dial to zero at your target size. I’m absolutely hopeless at mental arithmetic so anything to make it easier.

The way I do it is to take a light cut on the workpiece, measure the result and work out (with a calculator!) the difference between that and the target value. Then set the dial so that it will read zero when that target is reached. This is more accurate than touching a dummy piece. Also, some toolbits, especially carbide ones, don’t take kindly to being run up against a stationary surface, and will chip.

If you have a digital caliper or micrometer you can set that to the value you want, press the zero (or “incr” if it has one) button and then when you measure the work it shows you how far you have to go – take care when you get close though, it’s awfully easy if you overshoot slightly to not notice the change in sign and take another cut to try to get it right.

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