What did you do today? (2013)

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Had a disastrous day. Was ding a bit of clearing up and got a nearly full 1 tonne bag of sand sitting in the middle of the drive so decided to back the fork truck up a bit, raise the forks and hook the straps onto them.

It a CAT all electric truck, two tonne lift so switched on ready to climb on and put it in reverse.

That's when things went pear shaped, as I switched on it shot backwards flat out even though it wasn't in gear, Fortunately it had some slight lock on which meant it squashed the wheelie bin dead flat and crashed into the garden wall. For some reason it didn't demolish it but put a couple of good cracks in it. Switching the key off didn't do anything

Again fortunately I was stood right hand side and was able to lift the seat and pull the battery cable off the batteries.

If it had been on straight lock and i was sitting on it or left hand side things could have been a lot worse.

Had look under the seat and this thing is just one mass of electronics and big relays, at least two with welded contacts now. No way I'm getting involved with this, no good asking the audience, it will have to be phone a friend

[NJHParticipant @njh]

WOAAAAHHHH John !

Luck escape – glad you're OK. I'll bet this is one of those moments that you will return to, from time to time, in a sweat in the early hours thinking – phew but what if……..

How do I know? I've had one or two myself (mostly to do with flying!)

Anyway a little tot and off to bed now I suggest.

Regards

Norman

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

Had my first go at turning between centres for the S50 con rod. The surface finish is abysmal. This is the worst turning I've done since I got the lathe 18 months ago.

I made sure the tool was on centre height, and tried a right-hand knife tool, a left-hand knife tool (going the other way), and a threading tool which was probably too pointed. What is the correct tool shape when reducing a diameter between two larger ends? I've tried searching forums and couldn't find anything relevant. Do others just swap tools and try to minimise the join in the middle. Or is a round nosed tool better?

Oh and by the way, Jason, this thread is the best one on the forum and the one I always read. Thanks for thinking of it.

Gary

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

A pointy tool will reduce flex issues if it's set right (which can take a few goes), slow feed, light cuts, metal should peel off almost silently

A travelling steady will help

A rotating tailstock centre can be "better" for a workpiece held tight between centres, make sure the centres contact points are chunky enough for decent stiffness

A sharp carbide tool usually saves me when things get troublesome

Edited By Ady1 on 14/10/2013 02:35:17

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

Ady,

Thanks for your suggestions. DOC was 5 thou, feed was by hand and I tried varying it without much effect. I should have added that the length of the reduced section is only 2" so I don't think there is room to get a travelling steady in as well. I'm using a rotating centre in the tailstock. I have a RH carbide tool that I could try. It could be that the piece of steel supplied with the kit is not free-cutting. I've read that often poor finish is caused by unsharp tools or incorrect angles. In fact it reminds me of the finish I got when using the cheap set of brazed carbide tools I bought with the lathe (soon stopped using those). I'll try another piece of known FC steel.

Gary

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Gary,

The metal was tearing rather than being cut. Several possible causes:

Are you sure it is a good free cutting steel? Some alloys are a pig to turn but EN1A or equivalent should be OK.

Perhaps the tool was blunt or the wrong form. Yes knife tools should be fine but must be really sharp and for this I would grind with plenty of side and back rake – perhaps 20 deg. Put a small radius on the tip.

Your cutting depth feed rate were perhaps a bit too high. Try reducing them that will reduce any possibility of the work flexing.

Russell

EDIT:  Only just seen your reply to Ady and note that you have already tried some of my suggestions.  I wouldn't use a carbide tool for this as it's difficult to get it as sharp as HSS.

If you haven't tried it you could also try using some neat cutting oil.

R.

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 14/10/2013 10:04:17

[FMESParticipant @fmes]

Whatever you decide to do jason, it's a great thread, personally I would go for a 'Volume 2'

Lofty

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

I too read this thread regularly, many interesting posts. My vote is to let it run to the end of 2013, then a new volume for 2014.

Thor

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Jason:

I vote for a new thread for 2014 – it's nice to think this one could go on for ever, but as it has got so huge I think newcomers (who haven't discovered read last post by defauit) probably skip it – a shame as I'm keen to see what they are up to.

John:

Aye! Aye! Eeeh! Sounds very nasty. Glad you and no-one else hurt.

Gary,

I've had similar result from time to time. It usually means blunt tool or nasty steel (which is unlikely in a Stuart kit). Other possibility is that it isn't really secure enough between the centres?

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

A friend dropped some bits and pieces in to see if I could find a buyer. One lot is an unsoldered boiler shell, and unfinished frame, and part finished cylinders for Simplex, by Martin Evans, and the book by M. E. The other lot is an unsoldered boiler, including steel flanging plates, and a pair of unmachined cylinder castings. this loco is unidentified. I'll just have to shop around, the owner is not expecting too much for the stuff, but it might be just enough to get some one started. Anyone around the Canterbury (NZ) who is interested could send me a PM, and I can supply some photos.

Ian S C

Start vol 2for 2014

Edited By Ian S C on 14/10/2013 13:02:24

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Not me, unfortunately, but my wide and daughter went to Chetwynd Barracks today as part of an HE archive project. They were visiting to learn the history of Chilwell Shell Filling factory that failed 60% of British shells used in the Great war. In July 1918 139 people lost their lives there in a huge explosion (eight tons of TNT). They found it fascinating – I've seen a print out of the presentations and one picture is a pair of Bob's howitzers. Imagine a 9-acre building containing six million filled shells and on the zeppelin target list…

Coincidently my stepsons' aunty has given them their grandfathers 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred' and they have found his brief service record on the national archive.

Neil

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

Unfortunate typo there Neil.

Gary

[BubbleParticipant @bubble]

Hello Neil

I used to live in Attenborough, near Chilwell, my house being the original pub in the village.

According to the old lady next door, who was 12 at the time of the explosion, all the windows in our house were blown out, at a distance of over a mile away. There is a mass burial grave in Attenborough churchyard.

I have a copy of "The Chilwell Story" compiled by Captain MJ Haslam and published by the RAOC , probably long out of print. You are welcome to borrow this if it would be of interest (if so PM me).

Jim

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Not exactly 'did today' more like what I did last week.. went hunting around the scrapyard to look for material stock up, picked up 18.5 kilos brass, 2.5 kilos aluminium * 6 kilos of cast iron (sash weights) so am reasonably stocked up for a while. tried cutting the sash weights, bandsaw blade hardly touched it … obviously chilled iron… will have to get the barby out & cook them for a while then cool off naturally. Brass is going up in price, (round piece is 75mm dia, flats are 600x75x6)….this lot cost me £80.

George

Edited By mechman48 on 17/10/2013 12:47:47

Edited By mechman48 on 17/10/2013 12:56:21

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Cut (with own cutting jig) some new keys for my car (lost/mislaid the spares), just got to sort the electronics when the security chips arrive.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I fixed a clockwork egg timer – basically a simple clock movement with a balance wheel that wouldn't work properly. The end of the sping had come loose in its hole (I really can't see how it was fixed!) a tiny dab of epoxy and clicking the wheel back into proper engagement did the job.

Today fixing egg timers, tomorrow – the new George Daniels!!!

Neil

[lancelotParticipant @lancelot]

The past few days spent ordering drills…set of BA taps and dies…short series carbide slot cutters…set of stub drills…set of long series end mills …1/2'' reamer…set of BA thread chasers…two magnetic based led light units…8'' digital height guage…the vendors…Kirjeng…Arceuro…Tracytools. I think that I am pretty well sorted with tooling, yesterday I checked all machines running o/k,sorted out the drawings for the Coombes and managed to find the remaining unmachined parts of the engine…I am now rather looking forward to completing it.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Served my time at Chilwell repairing Rolls Royce Meteor engines, the detuned version of the Merlin that was fitted to centurion tanks.

It was called the VC factory after the explosion but it appears that the award was never issued.

[BubbleParticipant @bubble]

Re the VC factory Chilwell

The politicians weaselled-on about this for 40 odd years, and finally Roy Mason, defence minister, decided in 1968 that as the shell filling factory had metamorphosed into the Ordnance Depot there was no-one left from the shell filling factory to award the VC to, and that it couldn't be awarded to a successor establishment as opposed to a person or persons. They agreed to put up a plaque instead.

However, there were still plenty of the old employees around in the 60s and 70s, including Alec Clark who won the OBE at age 17 for heroically going back into the explosion site to shut down the steam boilers, and Sid Oldham who at the age of 90 didn't know what day it was, but could remember in intricate detail the names of the chemicals used in 1918 to produce the amatol explosive.

Jim

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Started the conversion of my BS0 Dividing head to stepper operation:

Shows the adaptor shaft which goes from the dividing head worm which has a 1/2" shaft with two flats to 10mm for the stepper coupling (not decided which type yet) and the stepper threaded mounting and tube.

What it looks like fitted up temporary for measurement purposes.

Paul

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I painted our front fence.

Neil

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

After managing to shatter a GTN style parting-off blade on my Mini-Lathe a while ago, I looked into buying a replacement… WOW, are they a price for what is in essence a strip of springy steel with a few slots!

I couldn't find anything suitable for a price that I thought was worth paying so I set about making one myself. Some rummaging later produced an old circular saw blade of the right thickness (1.6mm) and soft enough to work whilst having adequate toughness and springiness.

The lower edge of the slot that supports the insert was milled with a 3mm cutter at 13 degrees to the horizontal, whilst the upper edge was cut at 26.5 degrees to the horizontal to give an included angle of 13.5 degrees. These angles give the specified 7 degrees clearance to the cutting edge and I just kept trying the insert in the slot until it had about another 1mm to go before being fully seated.

Once I was happy with the milling of the slot, all that remained to do was bevel its edges to provide a positive seating for the insert. The bevel has an included angle of 150 degrees, so with the blade now in the bench vice I carefully filed the bevels to ensure the insert remained central and securely seated.

With an insert in position, I cut off any excess material that would have restricted chip-flow and generally tidied up the blade.

Testing in the lathe proved it to be the equal of any good quality bought item and better that the one it replaced as it has greater depth and therefore rigidity.

Martin.

[Luke GrahamParticipant @lukegraham30014]

Wound the spring for my safety valve, put it together and tested it. It takes about 200 grams of pressure to move it, which is far too much. I will cut the spring down and try it again.

The top piece is the union for the steam pipe.

Assembled in the boiler.

Drilled and milled the portfaces (3 of them in the picture, 2 for a friend). Terrible waste of material, but unfortunately that's all I had to work with.

Edited By Luke Graham on 19/10/2013 20:32:53

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Wait for it everyone . . . .

I've finished repairing the lathe!

What would have been a couple of days work at my youthful best, has taken flipping ages, not withstanding treatment and the horrible winter virus.

If someone had said the 'silver lining' thing at the time I discovered that i had bent the shaft, they would have received a biff. (Can remember my Dad searching for a length of 2×4 after some yoofs threatened to pin his ears back, with Mom & I talking him out of the inevitable contretemps. 4-1 odds not too good)

However, I did discover the total lack of any oil being able to get to any bearing surface or gears in the Apron, so that took some while to rectify, so 'silver lining' there definitely was.

Spent yesterday putting everything back together again, and adjusted the Cross-slide leadscrew nut to give a couple of thou play. Will adjust again later, as its very easy to do.

Everything appears to work as precious, but I still need to connect the power feed shaft to see if the worm gears mesh properly, as the gunmetal? one had the tops of a couple of teeth chewed up.

I WILL be using 5mm brass tube in place of spring pins in both the Leadscrew and Feed Shafts, and if these fail too easily, drilled/waisted brass pins.

Will be doing a new thread on what and how I did everything, with photos once I've annotated them.

I can now confirm that taking the Apron off of this type of lathe is a doddle.

Now to fix the shaper.

Geoff – Feeling rather chuffed.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Luke Graham on 19/10/2013 20:32:12:

Wound the spring for my safety valve, put it together and tested it. It takes about 200 grams of pressure to move it, which is far too much. I will cut the spring down and try it again.

.

Luke,

I've only just read your post, so I hope this isn't too late.

Shortening an existing Coil Spring will make it Stiffer; so there is no point cutting it.

You need thinner wire and/or more coils [not less] and/or a larger overall diameter to produce a softer spring.

MichaelG.

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