What did you do today? (2013)

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Jason

That's splendid – and the noise just makes it!

I was a bit confused when I first read your post and you said you had " had another go at getting the 1/2 Scale Domestic to run" – my first thought was you had been chasing a small Maid!

( Sorry forever silly – I have the affliction of looking sideways at life)

Norman

Edited By NJH on 21/10/2012 14:17:24

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

I cooked breakfast for me and my wife, saw her off to church, listened to the radio then printed out some club newsletters, marked them up and wrote a bit more of my next column. Imbibed a little, listened to some music and dealt with my e-mails. What a life!

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Started to look at the possibility of salvaging an old lathe my Dad made some years ago. Needs a proper base and some bearings in the headstock.

 

Edited By Ed Duffner on 21/10/2012 17:51:28

Edited By Ed Duffner on 21/10/2012 17:52:14

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Woke up at 6.30 and decided i would go into the garage before my daily chores started.

Spent the next two hours machining a block of bronze for the regulator on my Durham and North Yorkshire. Then i checked the x 2 measurements and realised i had made it 1/8" short. ?&lt*%!"!

I decided it would be better to wash the car

Happy days

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I fixed a pair of hair straightening tongs (not mine!) but I spent most of Saturday producing drawings for the frames and stretchers of my shunter design.

I ended up with three dimensioned drawings for the frames (1 outline and cut-outs, 2 holes for fixing stretchers etc. 3 and all the small holes for everything else). Any otehr way was just hideously overcrowded.

Why does it take longer to do this in virtual relaity than cutting metal? At least it feel like it

Neil

[AndyBParticipant @andyb47186]

Well, for me:

I was back at Forncett Industrial Steam Museum helping to get our 'new' boiler ready for its hydraulic test.

Andy

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Went to the Stafford bike show today, been meaning to go for ages but it's always clashed with Warwick.

 

Now I'm free from that show no problems.

Massive show, must be in about 7 halls, loads to see across the whole of the motorcycle spectrum.

 

Highlight of the show for me was to see the first of the Jones specials in the flesh and running.

Awesome machine from a guy who built 8 different specials from the ground up, own patterns, own casting etc

 

The highlight is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aiyD9AxXqw

 

John S.

Edited By John Stevenson on 21/10/2012 20:53:53

[Anonymous]

Today's saga unfolded as follows:

1. Overslept

2. Late breakfast plus large quantity of coffee while posting on ME and TT forums

3. Move car out of car port and fill with timber, straps, rope etc. ready for machine moving tomorrow

4. Extract pallet truck from garden shed – replace lawn torn up by dragging pallet truck across it

5. Sweep car port and wash front door

6. Major tidy up in house, clear dining room table of grinding wheels, BSF fasteners, taps & dies and capstan tooling – took hours

7. Fill car with fuel and drive to pick up engine crane I'm borrowing from a mate in case it is needed for said machine move

8. Sort out paperwork for trailer hire, number plate etc

9. Hit the sack

No workshop time today I'm afraid. Going back to a comment in the original post, I'd now be fairly wary of posting pictures of work-in-progress or machining methods on this forum. I'll stick to my build diary on TractionTalk.

Regards,

Andrew

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

JS – that 'smoke-screen' device was rather impressive!!! Bet the stall-holder behind it enjoyed it as well. Not a mo'bike nut personally (Excelsior 150, Honda 75 and 90) so don't know much about the Jones – TT machine, presumably?

Rgds

Bill

[dazz dazzParticipant @dazzdazz87636]

Quoted

Posted by Terryd on 21/10/2012 07:33:37:

Hi All,

Had some maintainance to do so cut back a rampant Wisteria I am trying to kill off – I had sprayed it with glyphosate 4 weeks ago (and managed to kill off a bit of the lawn as well . Then cut the lawns

Hi Terry

Have you tried wedging a few slithers of copper into the main stem, kills off quite a few different plants but takes a while

Regards

Inee

[SpringbokParticipant @springbok]

Hi Terry
I do remember your workshop the fire and the pics, I am glad that you are manageing to get some of the machinery back, I am pleased to hear that your back is holding up mine is not plus parkinsons. but that is life.
I do have jaz FM on my radio most of the time. Have just managed to kick the builders out of the door and am now decorating BUT still planning all the bits for my new B1 boiler have made the preasure valves and other items

Well back to decorating to keep for SWMBO. and keep her happy.
Bob

[Mike WainwrightParticipant @mikewainwright87512]

Well I am sad to say I have at heifer nothing this weekend. Started to fit the Webster together on Friday night and found I did not have screws to match the taps I have. Ordered some screws off eBay and will wait until next payday to order some metric taps and a supply of screws.

A wasted weekend and now I am on the late shift all week so no playing in the shed when I get home. I will have to wait until next weekend to get the Webster main parts assembled.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Addy turning 33in thread in a home workshop is impressive

—

I only need the ends turned down and threaded 2-3 inches for 12mm nuts

The hardest bit was pushing the 12mm square rod ( with a 16mm OD) through a 10mm mandrel bore

edit:

I got it wrong, a metre is 39 inches innit, not 33 inches

tsk tsk I'm such an amateur

 

Edited By Ady1 on 22/10/2012 10:53:54

[meet kaur 1Participant @meetkaur1]

Nothing…………………

[AndyfParticipant @andyf]

I too thought you must be equipped with some pretty heavy machinery, Ady, until I realised that "a 33 inch square rod" must refer to a 33 inch length of smallish square rod, rather than a rod 33" x 33" in cross-section .

Andy

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by dazz dazz on 21/10/2012 22:18:04:

Quoted

Posted by Terryd on 21/10/2012 07:33:37:

Hi All,

Had some maintainance to do so cut back a rampant Wisteria I am trying to kill off – I had sprayed it with glyphosate 4 weeks ago (and managed to kill off a bit of the lawn as well . Then cut the lawns

Hi Terry

Have you tried wedging a few slithers of copper into the main stem, kills off quite a few different plants but takes a while

Regards

Inee

Thanks,

I had forgotten that trick. the lads at the sailing club I used to belong to disposed of several inconveniently placed trees with copper nails!

Best regards

T

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Terry, another way that I have used on unwanted large plants/ small trees, get a small plastic bag and put some Round Up in the bag, put part of the plant in the bag and tie it on with some string, a few weeks and the plant is dead, the last one I did was a Cherry tree, one of spread around everyones garden here. Ian S C

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Terryd,

A word of caution if you are going to use those cutters for milling HSS, in my opinion, two flutes are likely to be problematic because of the shock loadings. As I believe I am the first person to mention HSS milling on this site I feel I should offer some advice.You can mill hard metals, but let us not forget how hard HSS is and even though Carbide is harder it is also extremely brittle. For this reason, ideally, you keep as many of the cutting edges in contact as possible and so a 4 fluter or better yet a 6 fluter is recommended. Keep the depth of cut to perhaps 5-10% of cutter diameter and don't try to be too quick with the feed rate, let your experience tell you when you are doing it right. Milling HSS is not a job for the Hasty, but does have its uses.

chriStephens

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Thanks Chris,

I'll heed your warning. I do understand the brittleness of Carbide and one of my cutters which I was going to try is a fast helix ripping type so I may be ok. It is just for experimental purposes really. I did get the idea from your earlier postings and thought that i would try. I am very cautios beleive me, overly so some would say but I will keep your remarks in mind and take small cuts. I'm treating the cutter as disposable and at 99p can afford it – just.

Best regards

Terry

[Anonymous]

What did I do today? Too cream crackered to say! But I can safely say I never realised that the Cambridge rush hour traffic was so appalling. I'm glad I work at home for a fair proportion of the time.

Terry: Following on from the suggestion by Chris I tried milling HSS some while ago. i did post the results on this forum, but I can't remember where. I used a three flute uncoated carbide cutter and it worked fine. As I recall the best finish in terms of Ra was when the swarf was coming off red hot. I find that carbide cutters can be brittle when stationary, ie, using them to 'touch off' on work but I don't normally have a problem with brittleness when cutting. It's just a case of getting feeds right and avoiding stepovers around 50%.

Regards,

Andrew

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

Well, yesterday really….I finished tidying up the wiring for the 3 phase variable speed kit for my Warco 918 lathe. The conversion works a treat and has transformed the lathe, especially when parting off. Should have done it years ago. Well 3 years ago anyway, when I started into this hobby.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

In the afternoon and evening I completed the fitting of the 'Z' axis digital scale to mty X3 mill, attached the cable to the display and switched on and there it was.

Everything worked as it should and I checked the run of the scale against the graduated cursor on the operating handle and it followed exactly the readings on the display.

I need now to exchange the one sent in error and obtain another scale to fit the 'Y' axis.

The workshop is a mess as I have had every thing out doing this job.

Clive

 

Edited By Clive Hartland on 23/10/2012 09:01:41

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Andrew, you beat me to it, there was quite a long thread on milling HSS, it was a year or so ago, it supprised me, I'd have never thought of milling HSS. I have done some major cutting of HSS, but using a grinder, to modify some HSS flat drill bits as used by the railways for drilling rails, they are about 27 mm, and about 10 mm thick, and with a bit of work make good lathe tools, but milling would be a lot quicker. Ian S C

[Anonymous]

Ian: Thanks for the hint, after a short search I've now found the thread containing my results for milling HSS, last but one post:

**LINK**

Looks like I remembered correctly, the finish was much better running fast and hot.

Regards,

Andrew

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Today re-made some vice jaws, had a 6" Abwood vice in with some stuff I bought, the chap I had it off had made some new jaws for it but had some peculiar ideas about accuracy and finish…..so onto my 1920's T&C grinder (which also occasionally masquerades as a surface grinder) for a spin or two….

jaws1 jaws2 jaws3 jaws4

(wonder who will be the first of the self appointed elf & safety mob to start on about the grinders utter lack of guards etc.)

[Author]

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