What did you do Today 2024

[Chris MateParticipant @chrismate31303]

Mistake: A little screw is sleeping somewhere in my garage…….

Received disc for Rotary Table, it was 30mm instead of 25 as ordered.

Made a silly mistake, changed the 6x inserts for shoulder mill to Aluminium, was interrupted, and forget to doublecheck/triple check tightness. As I was smoothing the surfcace I heard a slight rattle like the mill do with heavier cuts, I should have stopped and checked inserts(1st experience like this), but went on anyway.

As I was starting to vacuming the chips, damn here lies and insert, was lucky to see it. I spent rest of day looking for the screw, but not in vacuum cleaner, neither could I find it so far/maget used as well. I then discovered the others were not solid tightened(I thought it was). I did find/used a screw from lathe cutter that fit, and cutting went well from there on, smooth. I found on this cutter you tighten the screws, check again & tighten again, turn and found one to tighten further to dead stop, cutter was blown clean, I’ll remember this. Insert & treads not damaged.

Ordered two new screws, but hell are they expensive for the size.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Started work on the Lunkenheimer carburettor for the Redwing engine.  The engine is basically finished apart from timing it up, building skids and painting it.

Luckily my mate Tom had a 1/2” x 26 BSB tap I could use rather than the rare 1/2” x 24 UNF.

We did the initial clean up of the chucking spigot and the 1/2” x 26 thread on his Hardinge lathe.  The rest is for me to ruin.

Colin

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Got set up to engrave the 5-minute marks on a 300mm brass dial and the main numbers, 3/6/9/12 – Novamill much too small to do the whole job in one bite so having to do “10 minutes” at a time, rotating the blank in between.  It’s taken 2 or 3 days to get this far, tomorrow the whole thing could go pear shaped…

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Never rains but it pours….

I was not happy to find a puddle on the workshop floor, of water I think has come through the wall where I cut away a length of damp lining a few weeks ago.

Mind you with the weather we’ve been having, it’s not ever so surprising.

====

After a couple of days of inaction, returned to the Myford lathe, this time to use it after a fraught time with its wear and tear!

Made the “Feed Screw” for the ‘Stent’ T&C Grinder. I thought the designed 3/8″ X 20 BSF thread a bit thin for what it moves (though plenty of these machines have been built), and on a shaft with a long 1/2″ dia shank.

Seemed to make sense to keep the bar’s larger diameter throughout, apart from the short reduced piece that holds the handwheel.

So 1/2″ but UNF to keep the 20tpi – anyway I’ve already made the handwheels with their 50 divisions.

Also I found I have 3/8″ BSF and 1/2″ UNF chasers!

Holding the stock, some very nice free-cutting stainless-steel, between a collet and centre I was able to cut the 4″ long thread using a single-point insert tool for the bulk and the chaser to finish until an ‘Autolock’ collet as test-nut ran reasonably smoothly along it.

The surface is a bit rough, so I’ll try a simple threaded lap to polish the worst without making it too slack.

If that fails I may need make another screw but the exercise did prove that I had brought the lathe back to somewhere near accuracy.

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Bought a very cheap Meddings drill from Facebook marketplace , lots of surface rust a smile of shame on the table and the safety collar that fits under the head is cracked, otherwise very little used. The Meddings table shouldn’t have a centre hole, someone had thoughtfully drilled one in, but not central to the table clamp slots. Decided it couldn’t be lived with so spent the afternoon giving the table a little TLC, slot drilled holes 5/16″ deep and plugged with little slugs of cast iron. Slugs went into the freezer for a while and tapped in, machined off as near to the table as I dared, filed and oilstoned flat. Doesn’t look too bad, not perfect but much better than before, pleasant afternoons work. Next job fabricate a new safety clamp, there’s one on ebay for sale, but it’s the same price as paid for the machine!

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Made the clamping ring replacement for the Meddings drill in the above posts, luckily had a suitable offcut of 4″ steel, so a lot of swarf and a bit of welding and we have a clamp. Tried to make it a bit casting like but it wont show much under the drill head.

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

Very nice job on the drill table repair Dave, quite possibly the most “invisible” repair I have ever seen. Clamp looks great too

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Thanks Craig

Wanted to show it’s not a difficult repair,as long as there’s enough metal around the repair area, visited a friend the other day who had a new to him mill in lovely condition apart from an obvious divot out of the table. He couldn’t believe how easy it was to let in a little cast iron plug, and in his case it is almost invisible unless you have Superman vision. Must have been pleased he forked out for a pint!

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

I have 1 small peck mark in my otherwise clean mill table so would be interested in repairing it. Do you use new cast iron bar or old iron repurposed?

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Hi Craig

I’ve always used the continuous cast iron bar, it always nice close grain, mainly as I have odd offcuts knocking about. But I suppose any C.I would do if it was fairly close grained.

Dave

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Made a remarkably early start! It was 01:10am when I turned off the radio, now on BBC World Service as Radio Four goes to bed at 1am, and locked the workshop

I made the vertical feed-screw for my ‘Stent’ T&C Grinder, from a length of black steel bar that seemed rather unpromising at first but did turn quite well.

I think I had bought the steel for some long-forgotten or even completed work, but sometimes I find stuff from Inpecunious, Hedgerow & Reloved is useless with carbide tools but a very sharp, stone-finished HSS tool will cut it nicely. (More accurately, such steels likely need very specific carbide tips and feeds, not necessarily those that work very well on free-cutting alloys.)

‘

You know how it is –

– Some hours spent teasing the shank down from 5/8-ish inch stock to 0.375″ plus nowt / minus a thou or three for more than four inches length; then using an indexable-tool and HSS chaser to produce 3/8″BSF thread all the way along it to fit a test-nut and you think,

“Phew! That’ll do for tonight! I’ll just turn it round in the lathe so it’s ready for tomorrow….”

… “I’ll just face and centre-drill the end”…..

‘Wight, Portland, Plymouth:  South to South West 4 to 5, showers, good…..’

…….”May as well turn that 0.500″ spigot down to 0.375″ diameter for the required length”…

Stand to attention for the National Anthem.

……..”Oh to Hell with the time. Finish the bloomin’ thing!”

.

Then when I held the screw I’d made faithfully to drawing, against the part-built machine, I found the overall length is appropriate but the specified thread length is nearly an inch more than necessary. Grrrr!

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I replaced the O ring drive belt for the fan on my Farm Boy (which had perished).  The new belt is made from 2 Meccano spring belts from Alistoyshed on ebay .  I was a little dubious about whether it would drive satisfactorily compared to the O ring but it seems fine and, I hope, a bit more robust.

Rod

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Nice, neat engine, Roy.

 

Today, I refitted the gear cover to the mini lathe, although there are no gears to cover as I’ve converted it to an electronic lead screw.  I’m particularly pleased with the pulley cover that completes the ensemble.  Now to revisit the saddle and apron assembly, which had given me problems since the lathe arrived a few weeks ago, all now sorted I’m glad to say.  Just got to replace the lead screw support bearing with one I 3D printed, as well as the lead screw protection covers.

 

Now, what can I do next?

John

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Toured as an invited member of an organised group, Weymouth’s RNLI ‘Severn’-class lifeboat on its moorings in the Harbour. These are the largest of the several off-shore classes, very sophisticated vessels that if necessary can carry a surprising number of rescuees – most rescues involve only a few casualties.

…..

Otherwise:

Not IN the workshop but ON it….

The concrete-block shed extends the width of the garden and I’d let ivy from the overgrown garden next door grow over nearly two-thirds of the length of the roof, thinking it prettier than corrugated asbestos-cement and adding some insulation.

However I have had second thoughts and am now removing it, so far to extent I can reach with long cord-operated loppers and a rake, from a ladder.

The ivy was building a layer of fine-grained, black soil under it, filling the corrugations, so that will have to be brushed off as well.

Then an hour IN the workshop, repairing the loppers that was jamming closed. I found a fragment of twig jamming its internals. Then had to work out quite how to re-assemble it so it works again: operating it means pulling on a webbing lanyard wrapped round a capstan that draws in a chain attached to the moving blade. The mechanical advantage is no more than 2:1.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

..Fiskar’s UP86 by any chance? Great tool, but very patience-testing re-assembly..

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Finished rebuilding the Meddings drill I posted about the table repair a couple of weeks ago, photo at top is as bought but after table repair. Colour is quite a bit brighter than expected, probably through ordering from a tiny colour card swatch, grows on you. Very enjoyable job all round, had never dismantled a drill chuck before and after watching a sensible youtube video it turned out to be easy and worthwhile. Just got to tidy up and wipe the spray dust off everything and it’s back to the loco. But there is now a little Kennedy saw waiting in the wings….

[Roger HartParticipant @rogerhart88496]

Built a toolpost drill,  needed a motor.  Attempted to buy sewing machine motor – ebay deal failed.   My mind fell to using a 115 volt 400Hz motor I had handy – about 0.075Hp – it is a small driller!

Bought a Chinese inverter UX-52-100 1.1Kw.  Yes it goes to 400Hz but only when outputting 240 volts.  A bit of fiddling with parameters revealed it would not limit the output voltage.  Running it on a variac showed it would throw a ‘low voltage’ error below about 150 volts.

A look inside and a bit of thinking showed the internal supply chip SM7022C would be OK down to 85 volts and I found a suspicious looking resistor divider chain from the main internal DC which after a couple of diodes fed into an analogue input pin on the onboard 8051 microprocessor chip.  The chain was 56K into 5.1K made up of 5 resistors in series.  So I shorted 2 12K resistors,  closed the box up (I am scared of inverters) and voila it works if I run the input at 115 volts.

The inverter cost £45 – far less than it would cost to build if you think of all the dead MOSFETs you would use up.

Don’t try unless you have some idea what you are doing and don’t mess with live inverters.

 

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Back in September 2021 peak4 showed a great photo of a dragonfly in flight.  He explained that he used a dot sight which fits in the camera hot shoe to help keep the quarry in view.  I’m afraid I’ve baulked at spending £100 from Olympus or £180 from Nikon but I found similar sights for airsoft and other rifles on ebay for c.£20.

I had to do a little bit of machining and printing to adapt for use on a camera:

 

 

Since my intended targets are likely to be at a range of 2-3m the sight needed to be angled down rather more than the built in adjustment allows so I printed the mounting threads at 3 degrees to the horizontal to give some tilt.  It took me quite some time to work out how to do that in Fusion 360 and I’m still not convinced that I struck on the most elegant solution.  If I manage any decent photos I will let you know!

Rod

[Dave Wootton]

On Dave Wootton Said:

Finished rebuilding the Meddings drill I posted about the table repair a couple of weeks ago, photo at top is as bought but after table repair. Colour is quite a bit brighter than expected, probably through ordering from a tiny colour card swatch, grows on you. Very enjoyable job all round, had never dismantled a drill chuck before and after watching a sensible youtube video it turned out to be easy and worthwhile. Just got to tidy up and wipe the spray dust off everything and it’s back to the loco. But there is now a little Kennedy saw waiting in the wings….

Looks like a fantastic restoration Dave, just the sort of thing I enjoy doing

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Nice job, Dave.. ..Seems like a good opportunity to say “If anyone knows where there’s a top belt cover, I’d love to hear from you..”

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Beautifully restored drill, Dave!

++++++

Took advantage of the fine weather to cut the “lawn” (polite name for something more like a 1/12-scale hay meadow) for the first time this year, as well as making some progress with the Stent T&C Grinder.

The hefty column, motor and spindle assembly is moved along the bed by a feed-screw with graduated hand-wheel as normal, but the brass nut has to be fitted with the slide itself in-situ. The drawings advise drilling it for tapping while the base is set up for boring to take the screw housing.

Only… I obtained the machine part-built, and the nut had not been made. Also, its locating hole in the slide is slightly off-centre. In fact its builder had made two goes at it, the first attempt visibly off-centre and cutting into a recess for part of the column’s rotation arrangement. [Sigh]

So finished this evening by starting to make an extension spotting-drill / tap holder to work through the bored holes.

This is facilitated by having bought via this very site, a load of spares including a collet chuck and collets for the Harrison lathe. First time I’d used it since purchase.

.

A day of slow feeds, cautious hand-feeds and regular swarf clearing.

What? In making the brass nut?

No: in cutting the grass. By hand, with long-handled shears. The damp Spring had left one very lush hay crop indeed. Mowing would have necessitated the electric ‘Flymo’-clone, likely to kill one or another of my garden’s frogs, as they often hide in the long grass along the edge of the nature reserve, a.k.a. garden. Going in by hand gave any frogs time to move clear.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, while getting my gear ready for mixing up a bit of concrete, I spotted a Bumble Bee struggling to get out of some water that was in a 2.5 litre plastic bucket, but it couldn’t get any grip to haul itself up, so my good deed of the day was to rescue it from a sorry end. I got it up onto a large stone, which was in the sunshine.

It sat there for a while, and then started to clean itself with its legs as it was drying out, then after a short while later, it started to move about and buzzing its wings now and then.

Shortly after this photo, it flew away.

I got on with may concreting job, which was to fill in a bit of flooring, where I have a bit of storage space, under my garage floor, which I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time, and then I can build a wall, up to the back end of the garage, which will stop all the leaves and dirt blowing in, and keep the cats etc. out. It was only about 500mm x 1800mm x 75mm, but it is in a bit of restricted space and with the steel holding the garage up, plus the two rails for the steps from the back door.

Regards Nick.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

When you rescue bees like that,  give them a drop of sugar water or honey to re-charge their systems. It makes us feel good to help nature now and again.

Bob

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

One afternoon last Summer I spent a good half-hour with two scribers, very gently disentangling a bumble-bee from a manacle of spider’s thread. There was still a bit left when the insect suddenly leaped up and flew off into the distance.

‘

Today…

Happily completed a difficult part of building the ‘Stent’ T&C grinder.

The main feed nut is supposed to be made along with the base to ensure alignment, but this had not been done by the original builder from whom I obtained the machine only part-built.

I’d had to make the nut itself, then a special spotting-drill holder subsequently opened up to hold the tap, to locate the hole through it and finish-tap the thread.

The screw would not enter. I had made that by single-point screw-cutting finished with a chaser, but it had a too-tight start.

So yesterday I ordered a die and die-nut from Tracey Tools.

They arrived this morning – prompt service by both the retailer and Royal Mail!

Twenty minutes of work finished the task:

A tiny shaving of curly swarf on the ‘Trefolex’ coated die, and on cleaning the screw with white spirit and re-assembling with a spot of oil, everything worked just as it should!

 

 

[Clock polisherParticipant @clockpolisher]

Finally decided to procure a larger lathe to compliment my diminutive Unimat SL.

The Unimat is wonderful and very versatile but the simple factor of size can’t be ignored forever.

I’ve just taken delivery of a pristine Myford Speed 10 Long bed, an early model with the bench-mounted motor.

I’ve stripped it into as many pieces as plausible in the garage, just plucking up the moral fortitude to carry it upstairs into the workshop (loft).

Painkillers and medicinal whisky onboard, off we go.

regards,

David

[Author]

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