What did you do today? (2014)

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Dismantled the old KENNEDY hacksaw recently acquired. Rusty bits placed in the acid bath for an overnight soak. (acidic mix actually made from hot tub PH minus chemical – remains to be seen if it works.)

Tomorrow am going to this annual event – **LINK** – for the first time. My son tells me that a stall or two sells second hand engineering stuff so I might get to fritter .

Weather looking good for the boots this weekend – it will give me chance to try out my new invalid buggy, apologies in advance if I run you down!

Rik

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Made a few neat tweaks to my bandsaw today. I need to move it more easily, so the main one was welding some 1/8 x 1" bar to reinforce the bottom of the feet (which had collapsed when I fitted heavy duty castors). Made a surprisingly good job of it, so I painted it with textured matt hammerite (just the base).

Unfortunately, I noticed a 'bounce' that appeared a couple of weeks ago has got worse. careful inspection showed the weld cracked more than half way across

It wasn't worth keeping using it, so I tried the 'weld with a lump of brass behind' trick, which failed.

I've messages Tuff saws as they don't list a 1/2" x 1300 blade. Any new suggestions for suppliers of good bimetal blades?

Neil

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

My favorite after-dinner eye muscle exercise is reading this forum before I slip into the shop. I also occasionally exercise my stomach muscles chuckling at some of the postings. Anyway, a horrible thought just came to mind. My advancing age has caused me to wonder what many of us home shop engineers will be doing fifteen to twenty years from now. I certainly hope there will be fellow metalworkers in the seniors home. I can picture it now: A group of fellow elderly engineers in poopey diapers clustered around a television in the manor, laughing, clapping and breaking wind while we watch Thomas the Tank Engine on BBC. Come to think of it, that might be a good theme for a TV series or movie.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Bill H

What d'ya mean 'fifteen to twenty years from now.. I'm just retired 2 years now & am knackered as it is, well I feel like it, arthritic joints, farty pants with the 'Oooops' near miss syndrome, asking mesel' 'what did I come in here for' when I go into my garage/shop.. Just kidding not really as bad as it sounds… I think … give it up for 'Thomas the tank'.. .. LOL

George

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Finished fitting the sheet holder from a music stand to my armchair. I use the stand to hold books and drawing for convenient viewing in Workshop/HobbyRoom.

This has come about after being sidelined for weeks with pain in the right upper arm then right shoulder blade area.

X-rays where negative on cancer spread, so thinking it was my posture when reading and using the iPad, decided I needed to do something pdq.

I eventually ended up with the solution as shown, which has proved to be absolutely perfect, more photos in Album.

The square tube is screwed onto the side of the chair.

Height adjustment and swing part of the design.

Geoff – Mans ingenuity!

Edited By OuBallie on 03/05/2014 16:22:19

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Good job you only screwed that to the side of the armchair. If you had done that to a Myford you would have been burnt at the stake.

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Today I took my good lady to lunch at a nice restaurant. It was terrific!

graham.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

There is an old folks home some where with a 5" track which I think was set up by the person who started the 5in ground level society. He worked at the home or had some connection with it. Seems like quite a good idea if they have grounds as it can also entertain visiting grandchildren.

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Graham

Your good lady from Venus must have appreciated that from her good man from Mars! I hope the lady was kind enough to pay the tab. You don't want to be dipping into your tooling purse for such trivialities. Restaurants should be wary. If too many engineers come to call, the owners may notice a sudden shortage of stainless flatware.

Bill

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

OuBallie

I noticed all the wiring kit hanging behind the chair. Do you live in a house or a space shuttle??

On a serious note, cancer is a terrible affliction. My Dad is 90 years old and still has the memory of an elephant together with the typical old soldier"s sense of humor. Unfortunately, he has been lying on his death bed in hospital for the last few weeks and will probably be in the next room by mid summer. He has congestive heart failure, prostate cancer and just last week was diagnosed with bone cancer from head to foot. I visit Dad every day to shave him and listen to stories of his service in wartime England. There is a large photo of him in uniform taken in Oxford while visiting relatives. My mother would never permit that photo to be displayed because she said it looked as though Dad had a few drinks. Tonight I learned the truth. Dad told me they didn't have a few drinks, they were all loaded. Despite his pain and weakness, the first words that come out of his mouth when I visit are: "Hi Bill. How are you? What are you working on?"

Logging onto this site to read the wit and wisdom and view the photos of some extremely fine craftsmanship gives me a tremendous mental boost through these emotional times. Thanks guys for helping me cope.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Deleted as duplicated

Edited By OuBallie on 04/05/2014 10:58:59

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Deleted as duplicated.

Oh man talk about finger problems this morning.

Geoff – Must be my DIY newly roasted coffee

Edited By OuBallie on 04/05/2014 11:01:04

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

JS,

Blast, never thought of doing so on my machines.

Perfect and saves floor space.

Will gladly give an explanation as to what floor space is if required.

"Bill Hancox"

Bungalow actually

All those wires are attached to various pieces of equipment such as headphones, ear buds, memory cards, charging cable et al, bit time to have a sort out, as some haven't been used in years.

That side lamp was the perfect place to hang them from.

Sympathies about your Dad.

Mom and I went through the same with Dad, and he always had a smile like your Dad has.

My cancer is under control right now, but has the ability to spread to the bones, hence the X-rays.

Must say that my 'invention' is making reading my collection of Model Engineer, bought from JS all those years ago, a pleasure.

As can be seen in my Album, I'm at issue 777. The articles by "Phoenix' are fascinating, what with me being and ex motor biker.

Geoff – Chin up.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Geoff,

That would make a fine collet holder, why not move the armchair wholesale into the workshop and take it easy

My 80-year old Dad is planning a model of HMS King George V to his usual 1:48 scale. Should be a mere 16' long… I'm hesitating about starting a Clyde 'puffer' because I'm short of room!

Neil

[Roger HartParticipant @rogerhart88496]

Spotted a very beatup Mk22 'Sensitive Altimeter' at a boot fair and thought 'wonder how that works'. Luckily it was cheap enough to take a look. Inside an aneroid capsule levers one end of a 400Hz differential transformer and a 400Hz biphase dragcup motor and very fancy gear system and snail cam seek to balance the other end of the differential transformer.

The servo drives a cyclometer and dial mechanism from 0 to 100,000 feet!!! A rectifier bridge drives a flag solenoid to show the thing is 'on' (I suppose). All seems to work – the servo plate says 8 volts but it works merrily on about 4v rms. What now? it seems to change altitude with the weather(ish) but the dial divisions are 100 feet each and by my calculations 1 millibar equals 27 feet change so maybe not one for the sitting room wall.

A mystery is that a front knob sets an auxiliary display with a minimum setting of 800, possibly local air pressure in millibars at takeoff time – anyone any idea?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Looks like you are right, see **LINK**

Modern aircraft use a "sensitive altimeter,". On a sensitive altimeter, the sea-level reference pressure can be adjusted with a setting knob. The reference pressure, in inches of mercury in Canada and the US, and hectopascals (previously millibars) elsewhere, is displayed in the small Kollsman window,^[3] on the face of the aircraft altimeter. This is necessary, since sea level reference atmospheric pressure at a given location varies over time with temperature and the movement of pressure systems in the atmosphere.

I just silver soldered my spare bandsaw blade and made a lovely job… and I'm short of a few mm of adjustment. I filed another 1/8" on the end of the slot and… the bloomin' wheel hits the guard before it moves far enough to mount the sort blade! Can I find another old blade to splice a section in?

Neil

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Neil,
I have a broken blade off my Clarke bandsaw that is still quite sharp. It is 1/2" wide and about 1600 mm long. If I decide to Go to Harrogate on Saturday I will put it in the car You can try silver soldering that one until you get a proper new one. This blade it the one that was on the bandsaw so it is probably not bimetal. I thought "Tuff Saws" would make blades to length.

Les.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Well yesterday actually. Visited the annual Rushden cavalcade held on a large showground. The sun shone, the engines steamed and all was well with the world. It was much bigger than I had anticipated and well worth the visit. It makes up for the loss of the Stoke Goldington steam fair a few years ago. Will certainly return next year.

………..and a very noisy bunch here :

Rik (smutty dreams last night)

Edited By Rik Shaw on 04/05/2014 15:04:48

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

This will be my first year of not visiting Rushden Cavalcade, my mate, who is local to the rally, takes his 4" scale Showmans along and his wife makes an excellent cup of tea. Stoke Goldington closed when the land owner George Nichols died and the family decided they didnt want the hassle

Martin P

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks Les,

If you can, that would be great -but I have half an idea where I have put another old blade anyway. I was just having a play to see If I could make something to use while waiting for the Tuff saws blade. I have two blocks of HE40 (I think) that will be the four suspension arms for my driving truck when I can split them, lengthwise. Thinks: can I get the springs at Harrogate?

Today I ripped out my lathe bench, which is too narrow for the lathe with the 3-phase motor behind.. I'm moving the wooden frame forwards 4 ", fitting larger shelves inside and adding a new top. Probably the spur to fitting a proper motor mount to the back of the lathe and even wiring up teh new-old controller box at last.

Neil

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Travelling through Surrey this morning we saw the outfit below, the engine was towing not just the box wagon but the jeep as well.

Rather a nice thing to see on an early Sunday trip.

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

Made a wheeling machine out of scrap and offcuts, tested it by making a mudguard for another of my bike projects, Ill post some pictures of said machine when the paint dry's

 

 

Edited By Involute Curve on 04/05/2014 21:36:34

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

After the recent spate of motor questions I decided I best sort my own out.

I have a Myford STS 10-20 that is driven by an inverter and have been using the controls on the inverter it's self for on / off as a temporary arrangement. This 'temporary' has been a couple of months now so thought I better sort it out.

I wanted to use the original stop / start and reverse controls of the lathe and not use a separate pendant type. This involved the rewiring of the control circuits while incorporating the foot 'kick bar' into the stop circuit.

While I had the circuits apart I configured the 3 phase coolant pump to run on single phase by using a capacitor on one of the windings.

I am debating if to wire a pot onto the lathe to use as a motor speed controller.?

Next I practiced some taper turning :-

I have also drunk flaggons of tea.

Nick

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Its now one of those days a the 2 eldest boys descended upon us and started painting doors and putting emulsion on the walls. We had a few thermal cracks appear and they have now been replastered with mesh underneath to stabilise them. Now the smell of paint and emulsion is through the house and I am burning a candle to try and eliminate some of the smell. I do hate rubbing down dry paint! but it has to be done.

Clive

[StevoParticipant @stevo]

My sympathies, Clive.

Looking to move house soon, so rubbing down the front door and surrounding frame etc and recoating. All that effort to make it 'look nice' so we can leave it all behind….

Still, SWMBO is happy.

Off to buy a packet of sweets and put feet up in front of the Telly before the shortened working week starts…

[Author]

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