What did you do today (2015)

[Ian WelfordParticipant @ianwelford58739]

One of our old chemistry teacher demonstrated using "thermal shock" to cut glass tubes at known points . Bit hazy the memory but it worked! Wouldn't want that to happen en suite as it were!

Can you not use a steel bucket?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Ian Welford on 07/04/2015 20:42:33:

………………………………

Can you not use a steel bucket?

 

The Urine makes them rust

Kitchen sink may be a better bet and the bathroom is probably not the best place to be heating metal to red heat

Edited By JasonB on 07/04/2015 20:55:55

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Do some calculations on specific heat and you should be able to judge the volume just right for a cuppa.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Made a tap for a woodworker.

 

Edited By JasonB on 08/04/2015 07:36:36

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

That looks good, was it for the person asking in the wanted adds a while back? I did send them a link to a supplier but not sure if they did the taps separately.

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

Finally gotaroundtu making some long bolts to lock my tailstock and top slide so I don't have to keep faffing with Allen keys.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

JasonB, yes the same one.

Emgee

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Decided to check out what was so great about tangential/diamond tool holders and made a couple…

So far pretty pleased with 'em. Certainly easy to sharpen and leave a pretty reasonable finish.

Jon

[Bruce EdneyParticipant @bruceedney59949]

Hi Jon

They look pretty good. Do you have any drawings? Maybe an article in ME would be in order!

Bruce

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Wait for the 25 Years of MEW Special in a couple of weeks

pre-order-25-years-of-mew

Neil

*Contents and cover subject to change

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Finally decided to make a start on the spindle for my Tool and Cutter Grinder – a work in progress with no drawings at all, I am making it up as I go along – so machined up a bit of pipe. I decided on 140mm long and 47x14x19.04mm bearings the pipe is 65mm diameter.. This is the first housing and will be the grinding cup end, the business end. The bearing at the other end will be the floating bearing.
Thinking about maybe Tig welding a chunk of Ally onto the middle instead of fabricating a holder. Maybe. Don't want to deal with any heat distortion though so maybe not.

See, no plans

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/04/2015 20:14:14:

pre-order-25-years-of-mew

.

Phew … You had me worried for a moment there, Neil

I thought you were inviting us to pre-order the next 25 years.

MichaelG.

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

I keep pinching myself and wondering if I am really part of the human race.

I stayed home waiting for a delivery from Machine Mart (a larger Milling machine). A blue Transit arrived? No markings so it seems those profit conscious people at Machine Mart employ a private company to deliver for them. No harm in that.

Youngish guy jumps out. I call out "Good morning." to him as you do. My anticipation grew as he semi jogged his way to the rear doors and opened them. With that "I've bought myself a birthday present feeling." rising in my mind.

The guy, late twenties, longish hair, struggles a bit to slide the parcel to the lip of the van, I'm making my way up the steps to perhaps help a bit. He bear-hugs the parcel and semi drops / slides it to the roadside. The hair on my neck prickles a little at the manner of transfer.

I look at the box it clearly shows a Mini Lathe in it's Clarke yellow livery!!!!

"Take it back mate it's wrong." His jaw dropped almost as heavily as he had dropped the box but luckily the top end still rested on the lip of the van. His face changed to a rye grin, "Yeah I've had this trouble from them before. Can you sign this just to say I tried?" I sign his bit of paper and look in the back of the van. No rope, not even a bit of string. I thought about an emergency stop and the weight of the lathe 40K trying to imagine the damage to the lathe, never mind the thump in the back he would get.

I shout "Bye. Drive carefully and have a good day. At least the sun is out." I watch as he roars off down the road.

Experience comes at a price.

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Posted by Bruce Edney on 08/04/2015 20:00:47:

Hi Jon

They look pretty good. Do you have any drawings? Maybe an article in ME would be in order!

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I hadn't any drawings but have put this together if it's any use to you or anyone else.

Most of it was cut on the horizontal bandsaw from 12mm BMS flat using two 6mm holes at the corners and then filed/sanded to size.

To square the corners of the groove I used the honed end of the 6mm toolbit as a poor man's broach.

For the round toolbit I drilled and reamed a 6mm hole at 12 degrees back and to the side between centres with a punched reference at the tailstock end for the initial drill if that makes sense and then did the shaping around the hole afterwards.

HTH

Jon

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 09/04/2015 14:59:57

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 09/04/2015 15:04:49

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Took delivery of a new Precision Tool Vice c/o Arc Euro Trade and promptly put it to work.

I wanted something that was a little more accurate than my other vice which this has so far proved to be the case.

Bob

[Steven GreenhoughParticipant @stevengreenhough56335]

Eeny Weeny Cracker Boiler assembly version 2 (after i fluffed soldering the last one…)

On reflection, I'm much happier with the bushes anyway, the thread in them has cut far better this time; Soldering can wait a few days, I'm off to Lytham St annes for a few days with the family tomorrow…

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I had my first go at imaging Jupiter using a lightly modified HD webcam on the scope. Then a fair bit of processing and stacking and more processing…

I'm pretty chuffed…

Neil

Right click and 'view image' to see in all its glory…

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 09/04/2015 23:33:49

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Nick,

Stainless comes in many variants like Brass, but they all fall within 2 types; Magnetic and Non-Magnetic. I once took a load of mixed mag. and non-mag. Stainless to the scrappy and the crafty blighter tried to tell me that the magnetic bits were not Stainless! He would only accept the non-magnetic. I bet real reason was that the non- is probably worth a lot more. That crook wont see me again!

John

Edited By DMB on 09/04/2015 23:52:52

[Bruce EdneyParticipant @bruceedney59949]

Posted by Jon Gibbs on 09/04/2015 14:52:08:

Posted by Bruce Edney on 08/04/2015 20:00:47:

Hi Jon

They look pretty good. Do you have any drawings? Maybe an article in ME would be in order!

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I hadn't any drawings but have put this together if it's any use to you or anyone else.

Most of it was cut on the horizontal bandsaw from 12mm BMS flat using two 6mm holes at the corners and then filed/sanded to size.

To square the corners of the groove I used the honed end of the 6mm toolbit as a poor man's broach.

For the round toolbit I drilled and reamed a 6mm hole at 12 degrees back and to the side between centres with a punched reference at the tailstock end for the initial drill if that makes sense and then did the shaping around the hole afterwards.

HTH

Jon

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 09/04/2015 14:59:57

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 09/04/2015 15:04:49

Awesome – Thanks Jon – I see my next project is in formation – Just got to get some 12mm steel

Edited By Bruce Edney on 10/04/2015 03:41:36

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

John, Tell me about it, I remember collecting copper fuse ends (BIG ones from a demolished factory) by breaking the insulation and to ensure there was no rubbish or contaminates in the load. The lead coating I left alone. When I had a sack full which took a deal of time and effort I can tell you, I took the sack down to the scrappy. A big fat guy asked me to empty the sack on the floor so as he could run a magnet over it. He sat on a low stool and pushed the magnet about spreading the scrap further and further about the floor. My haul passed the test then he handed me £15.00 about half what it was worth, saying it was dirty, my hackles rose but I took the money. I then jumped into the midst of the scrap and as quick as I could I kicked it from one end of the place to the other. Almost before he could get up off his stool I was out the door calling him some choice names.

It probably took him a week of crawling about to collect it all again.

PS: Unrefined copper sulphates usually carry some lead anyway which is why I was a bit cross.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

At the risk of raising the parting tool debate again here are a couple of pics of teh groovy evening I've had.

38mm EN1A, 0.053" wide cutter, 7.5mm deep grooves, 0.042" fins. Tool up the right way and at the front of the work sharpened on the clarke belt sander before I started and did the whole job without touching up. Brushed on a bit of suds, 200rpm and power cross feed. One snatch on the first one as I ad not nipped up teh cross slide lock after that went without incedent.

J

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Received a couple of kits for the Machtach (machine tachometer) recently, so finally dragged my backside out of the armchair and built one up this evening. These use a speed sensor (IR or Hall effect for instance) and a PIC to display the speed (RPM) of a machine spindle. You can configure it to handle a variety of pulses per rev, depending on what’s convenient, so on a lathe you may find a handy gear on the spindle that could be used to generate a signal – or fit some reflective patches (provided in the std kit, along with an IR sensor). It also has a surface speed function which can be set in metric (m/min) or imperial (fpm), so you can set the spindle speed to give the correct cutting speed for a given diameter of tool (milling) or workpiece (lathe). That’s handy.

 

The cost was about £40 each including shipping (it actually cost less than it said on the website, so the guy refunded me the difference). I also bought a PCB holder from Farnell for £20 (with free, next day delivery) which made the assembly task a lot easier than wrestling with it on the desktop.

 

Took me about 2 hours from start to finish, including the assembly of the PCB holder. I’m pleased to say that it worked when I powered it up after dinner tonight. I can’t comment on how it operates with a real rotating spindle in front of it due to the current “armchair” status of my workshop activities currently. However, it seems to be functional and wasn’t very challenging to make it up. I’ll build the other one up ready for the momentous day when real activities recommence.

 

 

Some more pictures in my album if you are interested. All in all very happy with the experience so far.

 

 

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 10/04/2015 22:31:13

[ANDY CAWLEYParticipant @andycawley24921]

The engine is from my 1925 Frazer Nash.

Posted by Ian S C on 07/04/2015 14:30:51:

Nick, some stainless is magnetic, 400 series I think.

Andy, that spring looks like a good solution for the chain tensioner. The fan or W Anzani would make a nice model. When I was doing my apprenticeship as a aero engine mechanic, there was a Anzani (W type) in the corner of the workshop, along with the remains of a Flying Flea(pre WW2 French home built aircraft), didn't take so many photos in those days, pay was small, and film was costly, so no pics of that one.

Is your current motor from a car? If so what?

Ian S C

Funnily enough austenitic (non magnetic type) stainless can become magnetic due to cold working so the magnet test is not infallible.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

JasonB, please advise what feed rate you used on the power traverse for cutting the fins ?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Very slow, 0.00075"/rev which is the finest I have available. Could have pushed it harder but wanted to try and do the lot without having to touch up the tool. Its just one of the cheapie Chronos narrow parting tools, would have prefered to use the Mini-thin but that only cuts 6mm deep.

I parted the 40mm dia bar off from the longer length that I had at about 500rpm, 0.0015"/rev with a Glanze 2mm tipped tool

[Author]

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