What did you do Today 2024

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I’ve been working on a new regulator for one of my locos, replacing a leaky disk type with a screw in one.

This is the third body I’ve made. I wasn’t happy with the wet-header connection on the first one, so started over. The second one was just about finished except for the thread. I was busy turning down to size (listening to the radio) when I realised I’d been thinking of a smaller dimension than I’d drawn for the new part. So gave up, tossed it in the scrap bin and went to bed.

Then I was step drilling the PEEK cap and the drill well and truly stuck (the larger drill got quite hot) gripping better than any collet chuck. Had to cut it off and start over. Drilled the through hole and then used a very small boring bar to open it up. The PEEK tapped very nicely though.

Then realised that steam collecton was on the other side of the L/H screw body, so had to make some passages in it. My hand shaper did a decent enough job but the part was obviously loose and moved during indexing. Doesn’t really effect the working, just doesn’t look neat. However, after re-doing the body, I was just wanted to move along, so decided to live with it. Being inside the regulator tube, no one but me will probably ever know (and now you dear reader). It is still bugging me a little bit though…

Time to move on to the next job – which hopefully will go a wee bit smoother…  🙂

Regards,

 

IanT

 

 

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

M & M 29 Have managed the cyl and head today ready for lapping. Now just need some warmer weather to cast the crankcase!!. Its still on the mandrel by the way.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Bernard, I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake and have just realised what it is you are building – some interesting features in this engine, please do keep ’em coming as you go on with it.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Yes it is a bit unusual Im going to get it running (hopefully) on a glow plug first before I connect it to spark ign.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Yesterday actually…. (It’s now Sunday!)

Drove to Ockbrook, near Derby, to attend the NAME AGM & Delegates’ Meetings for my society.

I set the sat-nag for the last bit from the A32. The Lady in the Box dutifully found me a very pleasant cross-country route as I wanted, a slight short-cut but mainly avoiding M1 / A-road junctions I had previously found very confusing and difficult.

Then we hit a road-works closure with no signed diversion…..

The electronics could not cope with it, demanding regaining the closed road. “She” was lost, I was lost, the overcast sky gave no general guidance from the Sun. Eventually, between the virtual lady, the road-atlas and I we arrived, having crossed a marsh by a very curious, narrow, switch-back causeway near Swarkestone village.

…..

Phew! Safely there, and a pint of a very pleasant, cask-served pale-ale called ‘Team Spirit’; but I am not sure who makes it. I had a bit of a pang when I read small print on the pump handle. It said the brewer donates part of this beer’s profit to the Alzheimer’s Society, that the disease taking in 2020 took my longest-standing friend since we had joined our model-engineering club as Junior Members.

….

Set off back… I selected “Home”, some 200 miles away, before leaving the Royal Oak’s car-park. That was a mistake! She gave me a horribly fraught, unexpected, unwanted drive through Derby to the A38 aiming straight for the centre of Birmingham!

I turned off both the sat-nav and that road, and navigated by map back to the M42. Thence an easy drive home – once safely past the motorway maze designed to send you onto the M6 Toll-road, to increase its profits.

On previous NAME days I had selected the Midlands Exhibition venue as a way-marker. Once there I can turn the gadget off all the rest of the way home.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Been experimenting today with tangential turning tools and seem to have come up with a solution to surface finish using 6mm round carbide as a toolbit which gives you the large radius to assist with the finish but does not seem to suffer when deeper cuts are taken this is really aimed at BC turning but can be useful in other situations. Its late now  but will try to post some pics tomorrow.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Some results from yesterday from top down is 316/ph bronze/brass/ steel out of the scrap box. Turned out pretty well but you still have the problem of getting into corners and thats where the tool with the sq. bits comes in handy, I do have some sq. carbide bits and they work as well.

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

…

Then we hit a road-works closure with no signed diversion…..

The electronics could not cope with it, demanding regaining the closed road. “She” was lost, I was lost, the overcast sky gave no general guidance from the Sun. Eventually, between the virtual lady, the road-atlas and I we arrived, having crossed a marsh by a very curious, narrow, switch-back causeway near Swarkestone village.

…

My sympathies!  I don’t enjoy driving unless the roads are clear.   Driving at night, in the rain, queuing and unexpected diversions give me the pip, and I tire rather easily. causing poor situational awareness.   Not that I have accidents, but journeys become more tangled due to missing turnings, and not spotting I’m off route until I realise that Swindon shouldn’t have a sea-front!

Not long ago the police stopped an elderly gent on the M25, which circles London, after the cameras noticed he was endlessly going round and round.   Turned out he was trying to get to Leicester, hadn’t twigged he had to take the ‘M1 North’ exit, and was orbiting London looking for signage pointing at some Northern town name he recognised.   This sort of mistake is surprisingly easy, and is a common cause of air crashes,  where highly trained pilots forget everything and lose the plot after some minor mishap.  When it happens to pilots, they often prefer to believe their own highly fallible senses rather than the plane’s instrumentation, despite being repeatedly told that they are usually the problem.

Provided SatNavs get a decent signal and have a reasonably up-to-date map, they don’t get lost!   The map is a network, analysed before setting off to find the shortest or fastest route between start and destination, junction by junction.   If a driver fails to follow the planned route, maybe due to missing a turn or a diversion, then the computer will first attempt to put the driver back on track by doing a U-turn, but if the driver simply keeps going in the wrong direction, the computer eventually recalculates a different route; if the new orders are followed order is restored.

The trick is to keep obeying the Sat-Nav.   Directions may be strange at first as it disentangles the knot, but sooner or later it will get itself back on track.   The worst tactic is for the driver to muddle the poor thing by overriding the route whilst it’s recalculating, and the result is likely to be a confused driver and confused Sat-Nav getting into a fight.

Calling the equipment a “Sat-Nag” suggests an attitude problem; may be Nigel doesn’t like taking orders, or perhaps doesn’t trust technology.  This may cause him to override the machine far too quickly.   I suggest renaming it “She Who Must be Obeyed”, and when the route breaks on the road, simply keep going until SWMBO finds a better way.

Do keep the map up-to-date though – if a town centre’s one-way system has been remodelled, an out-of-date SatNav may not be able to calculate a valid route.  In that case the driver has to take over.

Dave

 

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Of course in quite large parts of northern Europe and in the middle east, following GPS instructions may be very bad advice at the moment.  Russian jamming and Israeli spoofing.</p>

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I remember arriving at Calgary Airport a few years back (at night in the pouring rain) and setting the rental cars Sat Nav to our downtown hotel. We were nearly there when the Sat Nav told me to turn right onto a road, which actually turned out to be a Transit ‘route’ (with an oncoming train about 200 yds away). Fortunately, the driver behind me had spotted my error and waited, allowing me to back out of the way.

When we got to the hotel, I mentioned this to the receptionist who assured me that whilst this happened to guests quite regularly, there had been no fatalities as yet (that he was aware of).

IanT

 

[Nick HughesParticipant @nickhughes97026]

Deleted

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Dave –

My Tom-Tom is usually good but it takes an appreciable time and distance before it stops trying to put me back on its first calculated route, and by then possibly far from the right road. These instruments cannot cope with closed roads.

I was in something of a maze and it kept trying to turn me back. Eventually I switched it off and used the map to gain some idea of my location, then turned it back on again once safely well past the closed road.

That was on the way up. Returning, it decided I wanted to become entangled with Derby and (if I’d let it) Birmingham city centres. I noticed it had picked something called most economical or eco-friendly route or something, but I had not touched the route-type menu.

Further, I do not want to drive through cities, as that is extremely confusing, difficult and frightening. You don’t have time to look for, or at, direction-signs that mean anything to you, and to identify the correct lane, but even if you do, you cannot change lanes in busy, fast-moving traffic.

In such areas the sat-nav cannot keep up and give accurate directions rapidly enough – but even if it does you can still be trapped by the surrounding traffic into the wrong way.

 

That poor chap on the M25 though seems to have forgotten that motorway signs tend to indicate general compass direction, as well as a few select cities, but only up to about 150 miles or so away.

 

(A destination-board just beyond Trondheim tells you Narvik is 999km away! 625 miles if you round up to 1000 and times that by 5/8: think of your lathe dials. I don’t know if that sign is touching accuracy or the same psychology as “Only £9.99” . Perhaps they placed the sign to be correct to the nearest 10 metres. You’d really be in bother if you get lost on that though, with basically just one road all the way up Northern Norway.)

…..

 

That form of pilot error is probably behind some of the so-called “Bermuda Triangle” tragedies, most notoriously the loss of a formation of USAAF novice pilots blindly following the instructor’s plane out over the Atlantic Ocean. The pilot of a light aircraft who came close to losing his way and life in the same region reported all sorts of strange instrument errors and seeing peculiar weather phenomena, but he was sadly mistaken, and it was only by chance he returned safely. There was nothing wrong with his plane and no unusual weather, though he’d flown into dense cloud.

There have been quite few long drives on which I have used the Sun or Moon, and once a bright planet, as a rough compass for at least my general direction.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Rose at 5am to watch the Beltane rituals of the Morris Dancers at sunrise on a hilltop and then the nearest stone circle. So rest assured the sun will rise again every day for the coming year.
So lucky it was dry and opposite of the high wind and rain for nearly 24 hours before.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

…….

Nigel said…

There have been quite few long drives on which I have used the Sun or Moon, and once a bright planet, as a rough compass for at least my general direction.

There is a bright red light on the top of a tall chimney on Anglesey, which is a very useful pointer when you’re night walking in the Carneddau. Too old for that now, anyone know if the wild ponies are still up there?

[Frank GorseParticipant @frankgorse]

The ponies are still there but the chimney was felled in March

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Finally this evening I managed to make the PCB for the latest clock project, by isolation milling on the CNC.

This clock is going in  nice oak case being made by a friend so I thought it should have a better build than a manky bit of veroboard.  Using R-Pi Pico and I discovered they provide a Fritzing footprint for the device, so decided to use that for the schematic capture and PC layout.  Slightly idiosyncratic program, which I’d dismissed in the past as too mickey mouse, but managed to produce a set of Gerber files, then used Flatcam to generate the g-code for drilling and isolation milling.  Both programs free software and Flatcam is brilliant.  After a pretty long learning curve the actual milling and drilling took less than an hour on the mill.  I have a set of TC 0.9mm drills costing not a lot on eBay, and a 60* TC engraving cutter, again on eBay for not a lot.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

I strangely often navigate by canals. I read the post about Swarkstone and the Trent and Mersey light came on. I have to confess to heading cross country to Stoke Bruerne at one time coming from Northampton. I knew I was near as the canal was off to my left and I was heading south east. Tiny roads and then I spotted a ventilation shaft in a field (think circular brick chimney about 6 foot dia and roughly the same in height). Picked up the next one and had the line of Blisworth canal tunnel so I suddenly knew exactly where I was.
I know, some people are just strange. 🥴

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

..been sat in a tractor for most of the last couple of days, coming in and reading those last two posts back-to-back makes me feel like the fabric of time might be breaking down..

..very disconcerting..

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

It is, Diogenes, it is……

;;;;;;

Today, I took an invitation to view a Marshall Portable Engine under restoration.

This thanks to a friend, Adrian, the engine belonging to a work colleague, Martin.

 

Progress so far has concentrated on the boiler, with Martin showing us the part-rebuilt inner firebox: he and a friend and project colleague have hand-forged the flanges on the new end-plates, but luckily the wrapper including the crown-plate with its distinctive cruciform strengthening rib formed by pressing, is sufficiently un-corroded to re-use.

That pair of ribs was a Marshall patent feature, avoiding conventional stays, on all its boilers. Garret used something similar, two large corrugations along the crown.

.

Martin, and a friend helping him, also pointed out the replaced lower part, holding two wash-out covers, of the smoke-box tubeplate. The engine had stood  in the open for some thirty years, causing the bottom of the smoke-box to become a stagnant pool of rain-water and decaying leaves just right for thinning the steelwork.

The major part of the tubeplate is good enough, with some work, to satisfy the boiler inspector. This plate too has a pressed reinforcing rib across the steam-space area.

The fore-carriage cradle is on the boiler, not smoke-box, so unaffected by the rusted-out smoke-box. That is presently all in place but the hind axle and wheel assembly are in another building to allow access to the firebox.

I asked Martin how he ventilates the shell when grinding and welding inside it. He pointed to a big desk-fan, and explained that standing that in the smoke-box removes the bulk of the dust and fumes; but he also uses ventilated face shields.

.

Many rivets in the shell have already been replaced, by manual hot-rivetting. The many threaded stays for the firebox have yet to be made – I spotted a hefty lathe in a gloomy corner of the workshop, along with a roller, bending-press and a universal mill.

Shiny steel around the firebox wash-out holes prefaced a point here, unexpected by me. The original, single-stud, oval covers were made generously loose for the asbestos-cord sealant of the time, now unavailable. The gasket used now is a synthetic rubber material needed a much narrow clearance so Martin has had to build up the mud-holes rims with weld.

Mechanically the engine appears in fair condition though this has yet to be investigated deeply. Martin pointed to the governor, lying nearby, and I saw its bevel-gears are very little worn, but the thin-gauge leaf-springs linking the weights have rusted through.

.

In all it was a very interesting little tour, and I was very grateful to Martin’s hospitality and Adrian for arranging it.

Oh – and Adrian’s own metalworking hobby is at the other end of the size scale: silver-smithing!

……

After this visit Adrian and I repaired unto a garden-centre cafeteria a few miles away, for coffee and buns. Various rusty but intriguing lumps of ancient metal “decorated” its entrance area, and I glimpsed what seemed a large, antique pillar-drill with a rack-feed table, but as I was driving out of the car-park I could afford only a sidelong (longing?) glance!

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Drew my steam-wagon out of the workshop to give me room actually to do workshop-py things, then while indoors later saw it was raining hard!

Dashed out, threw a plastic sheet over the now quite wet vehicle, and rescued some tools including open trays of milling-cutters resting on it. Yes, some bits of the wagon will rust if not already rusty, but not seriously.

How to dry a load of soggy cutters? Baking-tray, oven on Gas Mark 4, finish by wiping with kitchen roll. Dry trays, a spray of WD-40.

I’ve now to ensure leaving no swarf and cutting-oil in the baking-tray when washing-up.

The washing on the line? Oh, that’s a minor matter. It’s just had an extra rinse in nice soft water.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

On Friday i decided that I needed to break out and re-lay the concrete that (theoretically) controls water ingress from uphill next-door’s garden into the shed. This needed me to replace the button that works the switch on the Aldi electric road drill/demolition hammer that had broken off last time I used it.

I found a bit of PE or PP plastic that had been used as packing for a bit of steel that I’d ordered, cut it to length and milled it to the right thickness. I mounted it on the BCA, since the rotary table would be useful for making the part. In doing so, I got annoyed with the mess of the collected metal stock between the mill and the BCA behind me. So I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday moving it out of the way, hoovering the floor, making an extension to the rack and sorting and re-installing all the collected stock…

Having tidied up, I got back to machining the bit of plastic.

The machining was all, pretty much freehand. I Used some marking blue on the bits that the button needed to fit around as a guide to what needed removing.

Eventually, I ended up with something that fitted and would work the switch without me having to reach my finger into the gubbins. The only remainder of the original button is sat on top of the handle:-

Tomorrow will be demolition day 😀

 

PS:- Why can’t I link pictures from a ‘gallery’ to the post???

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Good point Mark!!!

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

This morning finished making a splashguard and motor swarf guard for my S7 that I bought and refurbed last autumn. Tried to make it match the lines of the industrial stand ad edged the sheet with bent tubing to try to match the edges of the drip tray, first ever attempt at bending tube filled with sand which came out ok using a simple former and quite a lot of heat, chipboard former got slightly singed but survived long enough to form a couple of bends.Machine lamp has been knocking around for years decided it would look quite period for a 1960’s machine, so gave it a coat of paint and a new bulb. When taking the pictures thought that was the end of the lathe rebuild, but have just noticed I forgot the screwcutting dial, nothings ever truly finished!

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Tiny parts for the iron monsters… 🙂

These are inner valve sleeves for the lubricators on (I think!) an S160 doer-upper in the shed at the railway at the moment. There’s a lubricator with 14 outlets on each side of the loco – each outlet leads to a pipe to a pivot or slide lubrication point, and has a nonreturn valve.

Not sure why, but each valve has two 6mm balls spring-loaded against seats. One of the seats is in the main body of the valve, and the coil spring that bears against it is located on the conical pip on the end of the sleeves in the pic. Inside the sleeve is another ball seated on the shoulder of the bottom 5mm bore and held by another spring located on a similar pip on an M12x1,0 threaded plug. The sleeve has bleed holes into the short 5mm bore at 25° angle to the centreline in the sleeve, and 45° in the plug – AFAICS all these do is increase the flow capacity above the 2,5mm central hole in the sleeve. Or maybe they’re to help the ball get back to its seat in the event of back-pressure?

[Mark Rand]

On Mark Rand Said:

[…]

 

PS:- Why can’t I link pictures from a ‘gallery’ to the post???

 

You can … if you you know the URL

But they’ve made more bother than it’s worth

MichaelG.

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https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/members/markrand96270/mediapress/breaker/breaker-swarf/

 

Edit: __ I opened two instances of Safari on the iPad in ‘split view’ … one with my reply in the process of composition, the other with your image open.

Then dragged the image into the grey box that’s open in ‘insert image’.

[Author]

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