What did you do today (2015)

[John StanParticipant @johnstan]

Machined the crankcase for the Nemett Lynx I'm doing at the moment. Decided to make the engine mounting bearers integral with the case.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Just got back after checking for damage following yesterday's gales. At the back of house found a rolled up and bent pile of corry' sheets, don't know anyone with a shed that size… except me. It is the roof of my "good" w/shop, spent morning covering up lathe and drill with old overalls etc. ,Putting tools and cutters in drawers, about all I can do for now. The sheets had put a large hole in side of my old van, good thing was I was going to move wife's good car to safe place, which would have been where the van was. Sprayed all round with WD40 and hope for the best. No machineing for a few days.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just spotted this £165 Myford on ebay

… Might be an interesting project for someone.

MichaelG.

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Gordon,

Sorry to hear about the damage to your workshop, now the gale is hammering our coast, I just hope the gale doesn't lift my house off its foundations.

Thor

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Spent the day on our club stand at the Chiltern Model Railway show in St Albans Arena. Still tomorrow to go if you are in the area.

We go there to 'fly the flag' for all things model engineering and boating and over the years have recruited a few members at this show, Lots of small scale modellers are interested in going bigger or want advice on small lathes etc, We included 5in, 3 1/2, 2 1/2, 16mm and Meccano. You might consider asking your own local railway shows if you can have a stand.

Plus at this show club exhibitors get a free lunch (hint ot organisers at MEX and Ally Pally.)

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hope you can get it sorted without too many issues tomorrow Gordon.

Finally got an hour of clearish skies. I must get the scope set up in daylight so I have more of a chance of finding things. Managed to get the Pleiades in view, stonking numbers of stars in it. Also zillions between Andromeda and Cassiopiea, but the seeing wasn't good enough without the scope to navigate to find the andromeda galaxy (which probably wouldn't have been visible in these conditions?) One very bright satellite headed due SW.

Lots of streetlight glare due SE, which meant I couldn't see the blooming comet and now Orion is moving out of the glare it's misted over and only a dozen stars visible.

Some people had added better finder scopes to the scope I have, I can see why now – if you can't see the smaller stars you can't 'hop' to the interesting bits. Also it was blooming cold. Still at least I've seen one messier object with it, only 109 to go

Neil

> Plus at this show club exhibitors get a free lunch (hint ot organisers at MEX and Ally Pally.)

Do the maths! Price of lunch x number of clubs x number of members per club x 3 days = big money

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

Hi Chasps: since buying a crosswork table I hit one of those dilemas which "I didn't think that through." syndrom reared it's ugly head. I slept on my choices which were send it back and get a smaller one or modify my drill stand to make it taller. In case you don't know I am going to use the table for spot drilling with the hope that my drilling becames somewhat more accurate.

Come the morning I trapsed over to my ex works and was soon in possession of a piece of 45mm dia bar. Back home and blow the Lathe will only take 300mm between centres. So yes I had to saw it in half with a hack saw, ugh!

Next I shaved the bar down at one end to 43mm dia. Easy peasy with my taper roller bearings in my little yellow lathe. Now over to the Micro Mill, Clarke CMD10 to whittle a grove to clear the seam of weld on the inside of the tube which supports the head of the drill. Yeay the darn chuck spun off and put a dig in my leg. Replaced it butting the chuck on tighter using a bit of oak so as not to mess up the cutter and this after cleaning the taper. Well we struggled on me and my yellow mill and since nothing had to be thou accurate I took the shaft off the mill when the groove measued .4mm deep.

Now will it fit? No I had to reload to the lathe a couple of times apply a bit of emery cloth. Try again mmmm nearly there. Darn it, it's stuck, can't get the piece out . A cup of coffee later and a leather mallet in hand and it was home snug as a bug in a rug.

I'm looking at the drill press right now with just one thing left to do and that's swop the heavy end to the bottom of the stand.

Makes ones day when there's a little sucess.

Jesse

Edited By Jesse Hancock 1 on 10/01/2015 20:16:45

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

And to keep Jason happy, I've started work on a Piccolo – some real workshop activity (just).

Neil

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Thanks for than Neil but not sure we all want to see your "Bot"

Nothing exciting for me to show just been making studs, nuts and washers for the Cameron Pump

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

As I need to re-arrange the workshop a bit to make room for some new toys, moving a 600Kg lathe presented a small problem, came across a simple design for some machine moving skates so started to put some together today. The bearings as 608 2RS – or in other words inline skate bearings. Salvaged from several pairs of skates cast of in the past by my son. Four skates need 32 bearings so had to buy a few extras from that well known auction site – cheap as chips

The plate is 12mm, 100 x 110. M12 hole in the centre will allow a location bolt to hold each skate in place at the points where the leveling feet normally fit.

One skate welded up 6 axles left to weld in position on the 3 other plates. Axles are 10mm Sliver steel – just because I have a shed load in stock, grooves on the end to locate circlips to retain the bearings.

Next up, a toe jack, from a 3 tonne bottle jack – won't be pretty but it will be functional.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Got the w/shop roof covered (very roughly ) with bits of scrap and car wheels etc. for weight. Good thing is it snowed last night so still dry, bad thing is it will melt soon. Another good thing – I now have a good excuse to buy a new battery drill. Going to re-cover with steel sheet with 40mm bonded insulation, this was on the plans for next summer.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Gordon,

A cheap wet and dry vac may be a solution if you can get one quick enough.

Neil

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Wet & dry vac. on the list, just ordered a cordless so it will have to wait. Soft broom done most of it, old technology.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Neil – where did you buy your little flute? The only source for the kit of parts is in the US, so wondering if you found anywhere closer, given that there was a recent workshop in Eindhoven.

Tempting to get one of these and force my boys to build it.

Murray

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It's a popular myth that you can only get the parts from the US. For a start the shapefiles are on the website, so any laser cutter can make them for you.

I got mine here Lasercutz UK supplier of Piccolo parts, for £11 and very quick delivery

SMEE have persuaded them to do a run and see if it's popular. It won't be if no-one knows they can get them!

Note the material is thicker, so you need slightly longer screws for some parts.

Giant Shark (see bottom of this page) appear to be cheapest for the recommended digital servos, but are out of stock. So are Hobby King (next cheapest), then is Ebay but slow boat from China then various UK suppliers who are a bit more again, once postage is added.

Interestingly, the most expensive source is Ebay – if you buy them one at a time.

Neil

[John StanParticipant @johnstan]

Screwfix had wet n dry VAC's on offer before Xnas, Titan brand. I got one for general workshop cleaning, sucking up swarf etc. Very powerful, but noisy but not an issue. Shifts everything off the miller and lathe. Recommended. ☺

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Gordon – good luck with the waterproofing etc. If you can't completely keep out the water, you can at least try to control where it goes to some degree.

I got a local "builder" to do some roofing on my last house in the UK some years back and obviously we chose to do the work in the winter when it was pretty wet. Luckily he let us rent a large tarpaulin from him that covered the whole roof to keep the rain out when the tiles were off. It may have been a good tarp when he bought it, in the days of the ark but not when we needed it. Chocolate teapots come to mind.

There was no way of stopping the rain coming in, so I had to simply control where it went and prevent it damaging things that needed to stray dry. Using proper (waterproof!) tarps, I formed large funnels in the areas where water was coming in and punched holes in the plasterboard to release the water into them, then collected it in plastic crates which I emptied periodically. Saved the books, piano, filing cabinets etc that way and prevented a flood in the house. Worth thinking about in your situation.

Murray

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Today I discovered that methylene-choride-free paint stripper belongs with the builders tarp in the 'chocolate teapot' category. Literally one coat of paint at a time, it even took three applications to (mostly) remove the bits left in an area where I had gone over it with a blowtorch first. Trouble is, the wood singes on if you try to use the torch on the beading.

I should have coughed up for nitro-mors, but I now remember the pain and misery last time I stripped a door.

I'll see if I can find a stripping company who will charge little more than the £33 for at tin of nitro-mors.

Neil

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Builder rented you a tarp? Tight bxxxx. I,ve got a few of the modern lightweight covers, they are ok if used like a tent, but useless just laid on flat. If the wind drops enough I'm got a half roll of plastic sheet that should do the job, and a few fence posts to hold it down. Just ordered a wet and dry as advised, not too bad just now but very damp, will need to move dehumidiator in there, the cats are fed up already.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

And then wish you had bought the Nitromores when the door comes back with loose joints and split and cupped panels as the dipping and subsequent cleaning off does the damage.

J

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Neil,

Nitromors is not what it was in the good old days.

MichaelG.

.

Local man recommends Rustins Strypit

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/01/2015 18:05:40

[Mogens KildeParticipant @mogenskilde92996]

Today I mounted the crosshead on my 5 pcs. series of an Inclined Steam Engine.

As something new I intend to sell some of my engines after finishing the project.

Regards

Mogens Kilde

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

Holts Gasket remover, is the best paint stripper ever, it will even remove powder coat in seconds, don't ask how I know.

Be warned its full fat, I think HSE haven't cottoned on to this stuff yet!!

The only down side is its in a spray can, so is expensive but at least it does work, and way better than original Nitromors.

HTH

Shaun

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I've found a place in Yorkshire that dips and strips for £15, if I can get a price like that locally, I'll take the risk! I hate paint stripping.

I like filluing in all teh hundreds of panel pin holes though, it's therapeutic.

Neil

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Neil,

If the operator at your 'dip & strip' joint is over-zealous, the process will not only remove the paint, it'll also loosen the glue in the mortice & tenon joints and/or any dowels as well as removing any filler!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

 

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 11/01/2015 20:38:18

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