What did you do Today 2024

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Well, yesterday and very early this morning…. when I gave up and switched the confuser off at well gone midnight.

.

An afternoon of wrestling my meagre stock of scaffolding together in connection with work on my workshop building; then something like 3 nocturnal hours trying to create the drawing for replacement feed clack valves for my loco.

They need be made specially because the boiler bushes have Brass rather than ME or BSP threads…. as I found when trying to fit the three new valves I’d bought at “The Fosse”. At nearly £18 each, at that.

.

I wanted to solve two problems: orientation, and re-cutting worn seats.

Orientating simple screw-in fittings entails many attempts with copper shim washers, giving multiple potential leaks so I thought I’d make flange-fitted valves using a screw-in adaptor, marked in-situ for drilling and tapping, and profiling, from the valve itself for its specific bush.

And solve the second problem by using a separate part for the seating and inlet connection; so it can be removed for re-cutting. Not my idea, but not often used as far as I know.

So to drawings…

‘

Due to limited ability I now use CAD only quite rarely and for simple items, like these valves with their 5 separate parts (+ 2 studs and nuts). However, I set up the drawing carefully from new, menu by menu, step by step; and was confident the programme said it would automatically save the work every ten minutes.

It was not easy, with rather awkward dimensions to work out. Still, I almost finished drawing the valve and its components, and even verified the ball lift by moving a copy of the seating and ball to their assembled position*.

Though by now I was really too tired for anything so difficult, and did something unknown but daft that moved the displayed grid area far from the origin hence the drawing.

Far? The scale revealed hundreds of thousands of inches! I didn’t know it could go that far – over six miles… Still, TurboCAD is used by architects as well as engineers so may need such level of sprawl.

All attempts to return failed so I thought I’d try closing the file and re-opening it, losing only the last few moves.

That worked as far as returning to the origin, but it lost all but the two circles I’d made before saving them to create the file in the first place.I’d been wrong about the auto-saving; perhaps had failed to switch it on.

The best part of three hours’ effort just… gone.

.

Gave up and went to bed, at gone 1 a.m. So, yes, some of What I Did Today after all.

 

…….

 

*Assembly:

TurboCAD is far more powerful than Alibre Atom, but has no “Assembly” system. It cannot “Assemble” the 5-part valve from 5 individual “Part” drawings – or the 500-part locomotive from 500 drawings. You have to draw the entire project in one.

It does have “Layers” apparently for different line-formats, and to hide or display separate items visually, but I can never use them properly. It also offers “Blocks” which I think allow copying parts and sub-assemblies around a drawing, or even between drawings, but I do not know for certain.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Sorry Nigel,

But if you don’t even understand the fundamentals of TurboCad, how can you expect to be able to use it in a productive way?  Don’t rely on the auto save (which I think, saves to a Backup folder, rather than into the original file) and let this latest disaster be a lesson to you to save manually and regularly (so that you experience what you expected, rather than a total failure).  The software works how it works and not necessarily how you’d like it to work.

For assembling parts, the best way I’ve found is to make each of your drawn components a “Group”.  Highlight all items in the group and then select “Create group” – from the “Format” menu.  This holds all the elements of that component as a single object you can copy, paste and move wherever you want.  If you want to modify the Group content, you select “Edit Group Content” from the “Edit” menu and it opens another window inside the drawing where you can only see (and modify) the Group object.  Once done you click on “Finish to Edit Group” from the “Edit” menu and the item is replaced in it’s original position (unless you have moved it during the edit).

Blocks are similar to Groups, but different.  A good example would be if you created a drawing of a 6BA nut and designated that as a Block – using “Create Block” from the “Format” menu. When you want another nut in your drawing, you simply drag another from the block window (assuming you have that displayed).  The one possible advantage of a block, over a group, is that should you decide to modify the block, then all instances of that block in the drawing are altered automatically.

I presume you’ll ignore this response as per usual.

Regards Tom

 

[Robert Bowen-CattryParticipant @robertbowen-cattry70600]

Nigel, not sure if the software you were using will do the same, but as a general rule Ctrl Z will undo the last step.

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

… Still, I almost finished drawing the valve and its components, and even verified the ball lift by moving a copy of the seating and ball to their assembled position*.

Though by now I was really too tired for anything so difficult, and did something unknown but daft that moved the displayed grid area far from the origin hence the drawing.

Far? The scale revealed hundreds of thousands of inches!

 

…

My sympathies are with Nigel because I made a similar blunder yesterday with SolidEdge, resulting in a fearful 40 minutes!    Though fairly fluent in SolidEdge, I haven’t used it in anger for about 6 months, and soon found my skills were rusty.  Nonetheless I carried on.  I wanted to move two parts in an assembly, and instead moved everything else in it miles off screen.  My mistake transposed the assembly, shifting it away from the origin.  Sounds like Nigel did similar, perhaps when he “verified the ball lift by moving a copy of the seating and ball”.

Finger trouble did both of us in for sure, and ctrl-z didn’t fix it!

I had to discover out that the assembly was split over a long distance rather than destroyed and then work out how to move it back.  Easy enough when you know how, but I didn’t, and I couldn’t find anything on the web that helped. There’s no good answer to questions like ‘I don’t know what I did, how do I mend it?

Since discovering my SolidEdge skills were flabby, I’ve put several hours practice in.  Still not recovered!  Even though I’ve done it before, I still can’t get SE to emboss text, a function it’s good at. I must be missing a step in the process.  Lesson for CAD learners : don’t expect to pick up anything as complicated as CAD after taking a long break without getting confused.     Infrequent use of complex software is asking for a beating.

Dave

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Oh, I was using TurboCad well within my abilities, but to have lost almost the entire drawing I must have mis-read or mis-set (or not set!) the auto-saving function in the setting-up menus. When this is on, I think it works every ten minutes. So when I switched off TC to see if switching it back on would default to the origin (it did) I did not save it. Come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing the usual ‘Windows’ style prompt about saving…

I don’t know what I did to have leapt so far down-grid. That is odd.

The last move I’d been making was after that assembly-test. That had worked as I wanted.

I was trying to work out a suitable standard-spanner size hexagon for the lower part of the valve, because that is screwed into the valve body and trying to remove the union could just as easily unscrew the wrong part without a way to hold it still.

Really the hardest CAD move in the drawing had been finding how to draw tangents joining circles of different diameters, for the “oval” flange.  It’s not very obvious from the tool-bar.

 

I think “Help” sites are intended to tell you how to do something, ans sometimes even do; but rarely if ever warn what can go wrong if you make a mistake, and how to put it right. The “Undo” tool does not always work in such cases. This is where regular chosen or automatic saving can help, but if you think that’s happening and it isn’t….

….

Besides me my PC sometimes misbehaves too. I’ve noticed for a long time now that I sometimes need log in twice to this site; and this evening the whole thing froze again and I could recover it only by turning it off at the mains. This happened a week ago and I had to re-install WIN-11 completely, a process that takes a very long time.

….

Spent today battling with ivy on my workshop wall. Relaxing this evening by going to an organ recital!

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Ah!

Didn’t go to the organ recital….

Walked to the church, it was open, there were two or three people there.

No recital though.

I was nearly a month early!

I’d totally misread the parish web-magazine announcements. No wonder I make mistakes with things like CAD.

So returned home and started the drawing again, this time taking great care about the auto-saving function. I also spotted another potential trap in time to avoid it: it is horribly easy to open a file as read-only without realising it.

I was also very careful when closing the file to make sure I did save it.

…..

[Tomfilery –

You presume wrongly!

I do not ignore your posts.

My cock-up had nothing to with how well I understand TurboCAD as such. I had made a basic file-saving mistake.

I saw TurboCAD will place the drawing, or a copy of it, in a “back-up” folder but not where to find that.

I looked at these Blocks and Groups a long time ago, but could not understand them so do not use them. I keep safely to what I can learn – as with anything else. I can ask for a biere in France, si’l vous plait, but not converse in French. I am a poor swimmer so I keep to less than chest-deep in the sea.

To make two or more specific items in one drawing, such as bolts or bearings, I simply move copies of the first to the other locations. I don’t create complicated drawings based on importing others, or libraries of standard components like bolts and bearings.]

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Nigel,

Sorry, but you’ve done it again!!  Ignoring what has been said in an attempt to help you and slavishly ploughing your own, already wonky, furrow.

File locations are defined under the “Options” menu – logically enough under “File Locations”.  My “Backups” folder is a separate folder within the folder I specify for my drawings to be located. You may not have actually specified a location, so will need to look in the default TurboCad folders.

In respect of your issue with tangents and ellipses – you do have the “Drawing Tools” toolbar displayed – don’t you?  Make sure it is ticked  – go to the “View” menu, then “Toolbars” and finally tick the box for “Drawing Tools”.  This then gets displayed at the side of your drawing and gives quick access to most drawing functions. Tangent options are available from the “line” selector and ellipse options under the “circle” selector.  Hovering your mouse over the selected icon tells you what each does.

When your drawing went off miles away, that can be recovered relatively easily.  I have to admit that it has happened to me too – though how, I was never able to work out.  If you do Ctrl A (select all) and zoom out, you will eventually see where your lines have ended up.  Selecting all of them in this way, just makes it easier to see them.  Once you’ve found them, simply amend their X and Y position to say, 0 and 0.

Your Blocks and Groups explanation is very amusing.  You said “I am a poor swimmer so I keep to less than chest-deep in the sea” – the trouble is that in respect of CAD, you keep diving in without understanding what you are doing and so keep finding yourself in difficulty!

And finally you again have completely missed the point of my explanation re Groups.  Fair enough, ignore Blocks (I rarely use them), but you are making things much harder for yourself by not using Groups.  I don’t use libraries either.  But again, you are telling us what you do, rather than taking in how we do things in our attempt to help you.

Hope this might actually help, but realising that none of it is likely to be absorbed – as usual!

Tom

 

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

Oh, I was using TurboCad well within my abilities, …

I think not.  The problem is that TurboCAD is packed with functions, most of which are still a mystery because Nigel’s learning is incomplete.  (No shame in that.)   Nigel probably triggered a legal action by accident, and the software jumped out of his comfort zone.  Not knowing what to do after a mistake requires more advanced knowledge is a common learner issue.   Bit like that trainee pilot, who, on his first flight, found his instructor had died of a heart attack!

….

Besides me my PC sometimes misbehaves too. … this evening the whole thing froze again and I could recover it only by turning it off at the mains. This happened a week ago and I had to re-install WIN-11 completely, a process that takes a very long time.

….

That’s bad!  A klaxon is blaring and red-lights are flashing in my head!  “Danger Will Robinson, Danger”.  Nigel’s computer hardware is faulty!

Running a complex application like TurboCAD on unreliable hardware guarantees trouble.  A fault so bad it’s necessary to reinstall Windows screams serious hardware malfunction, and it’s essential to fix that first.   Reinstalling W11 won’t fix failing hardware!

First suspect is always the hard drive.  Have you tried running diskdrive and/or chkdsk from the command line?

Second is overheating due to fluff blocking the air cooling system.  Open it up for a good clean.

Third is a bad connector.  A contact goes intermittent due to slight movements as the computer heats and cools.  Often as not cured by pulling the connector apart and reseating it, perhaps with a splash of switch cleaner.  The difficult part is finding which connector it is!

Fourth, cracked track or dry-joint.

How old is the computer? These faults are all age related.   Time for new one perhaps?

…

By all means have a go at a DIY fix, but recognise your own limits. As these are deep shark infested waters, might be better to pay an expert.  If the computer is over 5 years old, consider buying a new one.

Dave

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I use blocks all the time, my software (NanoCad) doesn’t seem to allow groups. However you ca make a block of blocks. Take for example a cylinder piston assembly. Draw the side view of the piston and make it into a block. Ditto the cylinder. Now I can make an assembly of cylinder and piston by copy and paste the cylinder (one click selects the whole thing), ditto the piston. I can then move the piston up and down without leaving any of the component lines behind, or if I want to change the piston design I explode the view of it on its own, modify it, make a new piston block, and the view in the assembly changes as if by magic.

Reminds me of a very good pencil and paper draughtsman I knew who taught himself CAD. Not only wouldn’t he touch blocks, he wouldn’t have anything to do with layers. Despite this he produced beautiful drawings, just a lot more hard work than it needed to be

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Today I attended the LowMax 2024 Exhibition in the East Coast College Lowestoft, NR32 2NB where I had an excellent time with loads to see.

It is still open tomorrow 1000 to 1600hrs, a splendid show with much for modellers of all types, but it is biased towards Model Engineering.

Trade stands, operating exhibits, well worth a ride to Suffolk.

[Robert Bowen-CattryParticipant @robertbowen-cattry70600]

I’ve decided it’s about time I attempted to build a steam engine, so I’ve decided to start simple with an Elmers Standby #19 using Journeymans excellent metric plans.

So far I have completed the frame and foot.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Off to a good start.

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

Just tried my new rear toolpost that I made for my Seig SC4, parting off 1 inch mild steel bar at 450 revs without lubrication was a revelation, swarf came off in nice curls with hand feed and no problems.

Used GTN2 tips from Ebay, not named pricey ones.

On first use, it seems a lot better than using the front mounted tool that has had numerous dig in’s etc, fingers crossed.

Ian

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Not all in “Today” but ….

Collected my PC from the computer hospital. Its solid-state memory had collapsed completely, enforcing a total re-installing on Windows 11. I am still slowly rebuilding the system, while trying to fight off the rubbish that MS keep trying to foist on me, like its “MSN” news-plagiarism “service” and unsolicited links to supermarkets.

Luckily I seem not to have lost any data files, but all MS and third-party programmes, links and book-marks had gone.

Also luckily I have a licensed source CD for MS ‘Office’, actually for XP. I loaded it without problems, using an external DVD/CD drive, and its editions of ‘Word’ and ‘Excel’ seem fine in their new home. (They are on my off-line, spare, WIN-7 PC, too.) So that avoided “subscribing” to MS Office 365. (Why can’t such vital, basic software still be bundled with the OS in a one-off purchase? Oh, I know… profits.)

 

The losses include TurboCAD and Alibre – the programmes themselves. Both were on-line purchases, the former in its 2021 edition. However, I still have my TC 2019 Deluxe CD I had bought from Paul Tracy some years ago and used on my previous PC. So I installed it, but it demands an “activation code” that TurboCAD’s publishers say they e-posted to me with my purchase. Only, that applied to the 2021 edition and I have lost the message. I’ve sent an enquiry to IMSI asking for help. It’s still on the spare PC but there of course, lacks the Internet “Help” manual.

 

Meanwhile, servicing my 7-1/4″g version of Juliet.

Originally built by the club as a portable-track hauler, it was re-boilered by Reg Chambers and fitted later with a superheater; a few years before I bought it.

The recent hydraulic test revealed a leak on the wet header, somewhere, meaning some fairly drastic surgery.

With the engine on a trolley and me lying on the floor in a very cramped area, I tried this with the smokebox still in place at first, but there came a point where that needed removing.

Originally the steam and exhaust branch pipes passed through a large slot in the smokebox floor. Only after I had dropped the inlet pipe from the valve-chests did I discover the modifier had cut the slot right to the back end of the smokebox. So support the boiler on a cross-beam and adjustable parallels, chisel away the sealing gunge,  remove eight external screws and simply slide the entire smokebox forwards away from the locomotive, with all the plumbing exposed undisturbed!

Now the tricky bit….

The header’s fairly complicated metalwork is secured by six 2BA studs in very shallow, blind holes in the boiler bush. One was fairly easy to remove and use as a pattern for a new set, because trying to remove the rest was chewing them up. The header would not break free with the studs still there.

The bush threads are all poor, too short, half-stripped… one had been replaced with a “Helicoil”.

Their holes will need drilling and tapping through, if feasible, for new studs with longer threads.

 

……

 

Bringing the twain together…

I experienced considerable difficulty threading the new studs, in stainless-steel,  on the lathe. Even with the bar skimmed to about 0.005″ down on nominal diameter, either the collet slipped on the work or the die-holder slipped in the tailstock.

Would screw-cutting them to about half-depth first, for completion by die, work? For 2BA is of 31.4tpi, and 32tpi is easy on the Myford with its gearbox.

Later, I tested my re-installed “Excel” by exploring my old screw-cutting spreadsheet. This reveals my dear little EW lathe with its standard change-wheels, in increments of 5s and only two stages, could cut 2BA with as little as 0.001″ pitch error per turn! Cut to about 3/4 depth and finish with a die.

 

Alternatively, calculate a suitable input pinion for the Myford: 12T gives the full gearbox range, the more robust 24T needs setting the gearbox to indicate twice the intended tpi. So there must be something in between…

It ought be feasible to grind a tool to acceptable accuracy on the Hemingway- Kit ‘Worden’ T&C Grinder.

 

+++++

Regarding smokeboxes, Martin Evans’ book on miniature locomotive construction does say some builders split the unit along its equator, and join the halves by internal butt-straps and discreet screws.

The alternative, a slot in the floor to open at the inner end, seems equally valid and does not affect the external appearance. It may work better if the cradle has a solid floor directly under the drum, as on my example. Many locomotives use a fully-open cradle.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nigel, you should still be able to download the version of Alibre that you had from their website. It may want your license number, if you can’t find that I’m sure David Jupp can sort it out.

 

From here, select Atom3D, then probably the version you had from the lower box.

[Robert Bowen-CattryParticipant @robertbowen-cattry70600]

Next bit of the Elmer’s Standby made, the cylinder.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thankyou Jason.

David has sent me my licence number and instructions.

All went well until the Alibre installer decided my computer does not have Visual C++ installed. (I thought that is a normal MS Windows component?).

The little green indicator bar shows that has happened but then the process stopped dead!

The “apps” index says there are already at least two editions of Visual C++ in there, suggesting Windows does not replace the earlier with the later.

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Further to….

Found it.

I expected the whole process to be run from the single installation window, but it was waiting for me to answer a question hidden behind a task-bar symbol!

I discovered it only by querying what was turned on but compacted (shown by a tiny underlining).

Completed the loading, and tested it by opening an existing drawing.

Thank you, David and Jason.

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

Thankyou Jason.

David has sent me my licence number and instructions.

All went well until the Alibre installer decided my computer does not have Visual C++ installed. (I thought that is a normal MS Windows component?).

The little green indicator bar shows that has happened but then the process stopped dead!

The “apps” index says there are already at least two editions of Visual C++ in there, suggesting Windows does not replace the earlier with the later.

 

Bad luck Nigel – you have truly horrible computer problems!  Your gremlins are exceptionally vicious.

Unlikely that you have Visual C++ installed unless you’re a software developer.  But, because many applications and Windows were written in it, we all need the VC++ runtime components, which is what you mean, and these have to match the compiler version the applications were developed in.  Thus, Windows is likely to have ‘n’ different versions of the runtime installd at the same time.   When an application install fails, it should say which run-time is needed so it can be downloaded from Microsoft.  The information may be hidden in plain sight amongst a load of other techie guff, so read it carefully.

Don’t install the Visual development kit.  It’s enormous and won’t help unless by luck it matches Alibre!

And even if what’s already installed on the computer seems unnecessary, never be tempted to “tidy up” system software manually – it’s a quick way of causing computer chaos!

Dave

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Well, today I bit the bullet, or rather the debit card, and purchased an “up-grade” that to my surprise, replaced my totally-lost TurboCAD 2021 with TC 2024 Deluxe.

My spare PC still has TC 19 Deluxe living in it, but also most of my drawings. A lot are provisional ones for parts of my steam-wagon, and I should weed these out because many no longer apply due to many and various “design” changes.

(“Deluxe” in IMSI-speak means the basic edition but it is still a very high-specification one.)

…..

Also,

Cleaned up parts of the smokebox of my loco, and applied some primer to what had been areas of bare steel.

Now that I can handle it without getting covered in soot, I want to work out how better to seal the big hole that accommodates the two steam-pipes through its floor, than merely smothering it with car-exhaust patching goo.

More to the point also assess how to reconnect the superheater header to the boiler bush, given that most of the stud holes in the latter are pretty well bereft of their threads.

(My steam-wagon smokebox has only the exhaust-pipe, and I fitted that via a flanged bulkhead union. The archive photos suggest the original used just a bit of iron pipe screwed straight into the shell, but I was not convinced this would work at small-scale.)

 

.Poor Juliet ventures into the sunshine for a photo-call. (Well, all right, Julie as she’s twice what LBSC designed, and he wryly suggested that name himself!)

With white primer on the previously bare areas, and the superheater drawn a few inches forwards, this photo shows the bush with the worn stud-threads, with the end of the pipe from the regulator just visible. The pipe looks off-centre because it is: the regulator’s mounting-studs are presently loose. The elements are of welded stainless-steel.

The fabricated smokebox cradle has a “solid” plate floor slotted for the live and exhaust steam-pipes: the latter, the rearward one, uses a swept-Y branch that means the portion within the slot is not cylindrical, making sealing a bit trickier.

The smokebox lying upside down reveals the corresponding slot extended through the rim, allowing fitting and removal with all pipes in place. (Not my idea: I think credit for that modification goes to the club member who installed the superheater when Julie was the club loco.)

The valance along the side is also fabricated. An angle folded from 18 SWG mild-steel sheet has an external strip spot-welded on to hide the radius, then that assembly is spot-welded to the running-board.

Note too the temporary support for the Reg Chambers-built boiler: a bar and adjustable-parallels. The card packing protects the paintwork. The white object just visible, sticking out of the far tank, is an ex-‘Swarfega’ bottle pump I used to remove the last bit of water. The C-link just visible below the buffer, bit of chain in the trolley chassis and the screw-link, are part of a set that normally holds the loco to the trolley.

 

Reg is no longer with us, but I had also named the boiler’s designer and superheater installer, both still society members, then worried if that is wise on here, so came back and deleted them.

 

(I sometimes use light-coloured primer as an effective marking-out coat on rough material.)

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

I am currently building an Armortek model of the Series 1 Landroover,  can’t call it by its real name for legal reasons.

The rear hubs have been my focus of late,  making wheel studs, lug nuts, and a new centre boss to mimic the half shaft flange.

Also the wheel lacked air valves so I made and installed those from M2 set screws.

I enjoy the extra detailing that these kit models allow, ok the majority of work is done by the kit manufacturers,  but you really can go to town on the detail work.
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[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Thanks for that post Plasma. We have a couple of people building tanks in SADMES but not being interested in warfare I didn’t investigate their website. But shock horror they have used the 3 letter word.

1950 SERIES 1 80" CAR

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Are the current owners picky about the use of the name?

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Let’s just say that trade mark protection is something they take seriously.

Some guys have had badges 3d printed at their own risk.

I doubt JLR would pursue individual modellers but Armortek definitely shy away from any references to the original vehicle,  hence calling it a car lol.

I am making a copy of HUE 166 the first ever pre-production model which is currently on display at the Gaydon motor museum.

Because the kit was designed as a motorised runner there are quite a few features that can’t really be made Faithfull to the original. But it will look pretty good I’m hoping.

I did build a Centurion tank a few years ago but shifting it was a pain so I opted for something a little lighter.

Mick

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, finished making and erecting guard rails to two of my builders trestles, so I can replace my security lights safely.

Regards Nick.

[Author]

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