What did you do today? (2013)

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Funny day. Mowed lawn. Tidied up. Fixed down my motor properly. Took some pictures.

Made another replacement divider spring and failed to temper it properly – I'd swear the blue was turning grey but >ping< anyway

Looked at the vernier caliper I got from Halfords many years ago (used 2 or 3 times). Inches vernier is spot on, but the mm vernier isn't properly aligned it reads 0.1mm when it should read zero. Used a small FC3 cutter to open up the mounting holes a little and now it's spot on too.

Looked at all the stalled projects… It's funny what can be a barrier to moving a project on.

House built engine needs a 'house' to progress…

Tiny engine is waiting for me to find the picture of the original again!

Little four stroke is waiting for me to decide how I secure the valve liners (retainer=disassembly unlikely but is there enough meat to use screws?)

Lady Stephanie – need to make the top spacers for the columns and find some 1 1/4" brass to replace the poor cylinder cover casting. Plus some fixings!

I decided to bite the bullet and cut a couple of 3 1/4" diameter wheel blanks for a 5" gauge driving car. I did two as the motor gets hot and I like to let the saw cool down after such a big cut.

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Drove 190 miles to pick two CNC routers up [ bought two because dark nights are coming and they may breed ]

Then went over to Boston to pick some magazines up, then Lincoln to get a Chinese, eaty type not side slit type.

[Anonymous]

Posted by John Stevenson on 28/09/2013 22:48:03:

Then went over to Boston to pick some magazines up………..

Blimey, that's a long way to go for a few magazines.

My last trip via Boston was less than thrilling. Because I was hacked off with BA, and had refused to fly with them, the company I was working for had booked us on Virgin to and from the US. We were booked to fly from Chicago to Boston, and then on to Gatwick with Virgin. We had with us a prototype of the electric vehicle drive inverter we were working on, nicknamed 'Arnold' for reasons I never understood, in it's own protective box. We'd checked in the inverter as hold luggage, checked ourselves in, and cleared security. As we went through the final control the guy at the desk said 'have a nice day' and handed me my boarding pass. It said destination LHR; being nerdy I know that's Heathrow, but Virgin don't fly to Heathrow. I queried it and he got uppity, so I 'explained' a few facts to him, and he went white. You wouldn't believe how much trouble it is to retrieve checked in luggage that is in the 'system', albeit with the wrong label on it. After we'd sorted out the correct passes and gone through again he didn't say 'have a nice day'. While waiting at Boston we also got five loudspeaker calls to go to the information desk, to be told each time that our luggage would be on the correct flight to Gatwick.

Regards,

Andrew

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Spent yesterday at our club show in St Albans mostly chatting to engineers. After years of doing 'chores' at the show I got 'let off' and all afternoon I was steaming my Pansy on a rolling road. Today i get to do it again. I have also instructed the ladies on the food and cake stand to be sure to reserve me a bit of the biggest homemade chocolate cake. Maybe if I set off ealy I could sneek in a bite of something unhealthy early before the show opens at 10am.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Stansted and back yesterday collecting other half's sisters and niece, from across the Channel, who are staying for the weekend.

'Plane an hour late due to someone being deported! Waiting for the inevitable comment )

BH £10 parking charge! Arrived at 1130h left just after 1300h. Talk about money for old rope!.

Bl**y ripp-off springs to mind due to being a captive audience.

Well, after 30 odd years discussing the Elvedon 'problem' on the A11, an actual decision has been made!

Miles of roadworks either end of that bottleneck with an eventual western bypass.

Sightseeing to Norwich today.

Geoff – SHMBO goes to Stansted and back by coach!

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I felt the hand of history on my shoulder today.

My lathe is now fully re-commissioned with its VFD, and combined with the bigger chuck and all round adjustment of gibs & alignments etc. It's like a new machine, and I have been getting a really nice finish on the peculiar part I turned today. I just hope the second one of the pair matches!

It ocurred to me that my demonstration of parting off 2 1/4" steel from the front was opern to scepticsim as the cut was less than 3/8" deep, but today I had to part through 1 1/2" EN1A with just a 3/16" hole in the middle. This was done with a parallel sided 1/16" wide parting tool in my home made QCTP, from the front. I think the as-machined finish on the waste part (below) speaks for itself.

But what's the 'hand of history' bit? Well, for the first time ever, as I steadily wound in the tool there was a soft, distant hissing-crackling noise. Yes! LBSC's legendary sound of bacon frying. Very quiet, as if far away on the stoker's shovel of some celestial steamer. Today I achieved parting nirvana

Tomorrow, no doubt, I crack my partng tool

Neil

[Anonymous]

1. Flew the Wilga (PZL104); four 3000ft tows, an hours flying.

2. Double checked my G-code for machining the helix on my embryo worm wheel hob and then did a dry run to confirm execution times.

Regards,

Andrew

[Chris HeapyParticipant @chrisheapy71135]

It's taken a few weeks but I've just about completed a re-fit of my workshop with new cupboards for storage space and a paint job to brighten things up.

I even included a re-work of the 'domestic end' of the workshop in with the deal so everyone is happy

Chris

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Looking good Chris. I often think my shop would be better painted.

Bri

[Chris HeapyParticipant @chrisheapy71135]

Hard to believe but I used 10litres of paint for that – painting breeze block and brick is a bit like trying to paint Brighton beach

Chris

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Looks good, will be even better once you have got a nice layer of cast iron dust over al that white

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I finally got round to making a couple of things that have been on the list for about 20 years – a plug to fill the hole in the S7 cross slide when milling and a pump centre.

Rod

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Chris,

Good job you took pictures. It will never be that clean again…

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Needed a worm shaft similar to the one Andrew made in the other thread only I cheated and bought one.

 

 

Only problem was this is the late type on 3" bearings and 2 1/2" input shaft and I want the discontinued early type on 2 1/4" bearings and 1 3/4" input shaft.

 

Simple just turn it down a tad.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x33JG2f-mno

 

Slight problem, they are thru hardened to 62 Rockwell. According to the book you need low speed and positive rake for hard steels.

Stuff that for a game of soldiers, takes too long, hand grind some old tips to about 15 degrees negative rake, 1200 revs and it it rip boss.

 

Jobs a good un.

Edited By John Stevenson on 02/10/2013 22:23:42

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

It's not Bonfire Night for another month, John.

Gary

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Finished the last bit of machining on my 1/3rd scale Galloway. Time to strip and prepare for painting now

J

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Really nice piece of work Jason.

Heres something slightly less ostentatious, I changed the vice on my BP so used the opportunity to make a new stop.

[Anonymous]

Had a go at cutting an internal spline in a scrap gear machined in EN8, to match the previously made external spline. Not pretty, but at least the male spline fits in all six orientations:

Regards,

Andrew

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Made some tee nuts, replacements for those that "evaporate" the ones in the background are commercially made of "foreign" manufacture.

Just need to case harden and all done.

and what they were made from a bit of EN1a

Paul

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Looks like everyone has had the last week off with no work produced

Well today to use one of Andrews technical terms I "badgered" a 1/2" endmill and three corners on my indexable 40mm cutter. While fettling this casting I did not notice any hard bits so used an endmill and within seconds took the edge off it skimming this mounting lug, easy to see the still shiny chilled area after a second attempt with the carbide cutter, luckily it was only a cheap Richon one.

I then proceeded to face the filler boss which was at the back of the work so mot easy to see and thought it was having a hard time, on completion of the cut all three corners of the inserts were nicely rounded, again you can see the darker hard areas

So it hit it with some heat which allowed me to bore out the cored hole to 15.3mm and tap 3/8" BSP for the cap

Job done

J

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS THREAD

I started this thread almost 1yr ago and it seems to have proved very popular, my question is.

1. Should I just let it run and run.

2. Lock it at the end of next week eg 1yr aniversary and start another Vol 2

3. Let it run until the end of 2013 and start a new one for 2014

Your thoughts welcome, J

[Luke GrahamParticipant @lukegraham30014]

I milled three engine stands for the Polly engine I'm building, as part of the SMEE course. I've had to make these larger than the (water? laser?) pre-cut ones provided, as I'm going to put a cover over the axle. The fourth stand is the original, as provided (participants still need to drill the holes in this one)

 

Yesterday I turned a brass burner from solid, for the same project. The burner will hold catering gel, which will be able to be used indoors. I may make a meths burner in the future.

Edited By Luke Graham on 13/10/2013 19:27:04

Edited By Luke Graham on 13/10/2013 19:27:30

Edited By Luke Graham on 13/10/2013 19:29:44

Edited By Luke Graham on 13/10/2013 19:30:41

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Jason

An interesting thread that I visit regularly. ( With all the great effort and work you guys are producing it does make me feel a bit guilty though!)

My vote is that you start a new one for 2014.

Thanks

Norman

[Anonymous]

Had a go at free hobbing a worm wheel, using my home made hob. The result isn't pretty (the 'rust' is an artifact of the picture not for real) but the worm wheel mates snuggly with it's mating worm. For reference the worm wheel is 4" diameter:

The excuse for the iffy finish is that the worm wheel is made from a lump of hot rolled steel, which tends to 'smear' a bit. I'm hoping that the real worm wheels, in cast iron, will turn out a bit cleaner.

Regards,

Andrew

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Jason, this is always a fascinating & informative thread & like Norman noted, makes me feel that I'm slightly under achieving! My opinion is keep it running, but it wouldn't matter to me if it kept running as one long thread or was chopped into "annual volumes" as I rarely go back through threads that I have already read.

regards, Martin.

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