What Did You Do Today 2021

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Plasma profiler is your friend, and surprisingly not all that expensive. Friend who runs an engineering business reckons it's cheaper than buying plate and doing it yourself as they have nesting programs which optimise the cuts to minimise wastage.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Spent this morning changing out shorted oven element …

Damage at top left don't ask what caused it… no power cut, it didn't trip any breakers, just stopped working, Oven not heating, but fan still worked & thermostat light on so that's working, I deduced that the element had gone, ordered new one from espares ( Usual disclaimer ) yesterday, arrived today… Fitted working fine, job done. the only downer was I now have an aching back, set off my spinal arthritis, bummer!.

George.

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Spent the day first fitting a new set of blades to a thicknesser and finished the wood I started the other day. Decided to sort out the two draws of drill bits that I have and put them in drill stands that I brought for them, turns out I now have two and a half sets of imperial and nearly two sets of metric in .5 increments.

In the near future I will have a day of sharpening them all I will keep one set as standard and the second set I will grind for use on brass at least I will have them ready for use as and when needed

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Fabricated the brackets for suspending my steam-wagon's boiler in the much wider chassis.

Brackets Mk.2, less of the Mk.1 confection and to agree with my basic design approach that as far as possible any major assembly can be removed or serviced without large-scale dismantling. (I'd be sacked from a modern car manufacturer's "design" department for that heresy.). Even so, with no drawings available for this thing I have to sort of make it up as I go along, changing Part A made in the 20C because this week's Part C fouls Part B fitted to A modified for Part D three Maundy Thursdays ago last Whitsun.

I had drawn the brackets, "welded" 6mm and 3mm steel plate, by CAD. Its own saga since the drawing was a fairly simple, normal orthographic exercise, I am baffled by advanced CAD techniques like pre-setting line and dimension formats, and more importantly, printing actual-size images on A4 sheets on a system with an ISO library but defaulting to American paper sizes!

'

"Welded"… My MIG attempts failed by my trial-and error setting and its wire-feed not feeding. So used ordinary arc, or rather, squirted erratic blobs of molten steel and flux at the surfaces, hoping enough will fuse to both.

The results look bloomin' awful, even after trimming the outside faces with an angle-grinder, but will be painted and largely hidden below the footplates.

'

Very dispiriting – the lorry will never win fancy medals, but I still want even the hidden parts of fair quality.

'

Very wasteful too, in rods and electricity. Mean yield, < 1/4" fused joint to 1" weld-run. Two or three passes to overcome some of the blobs, one-sided fusing and slag-filled cavities. A large loss to so many arc-strikings, blobs and slag-heaps, and scattering.

I should have designed the brackets as screwed assemblies. I very rarely weld anything because, well, obviously, I can't! Yet somehow I will have to build the prominent engine case that needs look as if cast. I will have to weld it as best I can, and use filler for the crevices and hollows.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Odd – I can see all the other photos but Dominic's squirrel has turned into a "No Entry" sign and a string of characters!

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

the incriminating evidence has obviously been squirreled away

[Dominic BramleyParticipant @dominicbramley60728]

Not so much incriminating as inflammatory. I removed them because I didn't want to be the cause of an off-topic debate in the What did you do today thread..

Dom

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Well, no doubt the little furry creature's thriving!

'

I completed the new boiler mounting for my steam-waggon. It took a lot of thinking because it has to wrap round the existing steering-gear and leave room for the permanent replacement when I have designed that.

I thought MIG-welds were meant to be nice caterpillars of shiny steel with neat little ripples right along the joint. Nah – not mine. Not cat- erpillars but the cat- err, products in my garden again. Irregular grey-brown splodges with a curious orange-peel surface; perhaps a quarter of those across the joint actually doing anything … I knew I should made these all-bolted assemblies.

'

Fitted a new blade to the band-saw. It's one of those everyone-has-one, horizontal and vertical-if-you-dare, Taiwanese machines; mine badged 'Alpine'.

Second-hand to me, it had given me good service until only a few days ago when I noticed the blade was running twisted in the vertical plane, and crossed the work in a shallow arc.

That blade had still seemed OK, so I examined all the possible adjustments, found and reduced the slop in the tension-pulley mounting and thought I set the guide-rollers (sealed ball-bearing races) properly. However, when it then snapped, I discovered the rollers had given it a shallow channel profile so assumed I'd set them too tightly.

Put the new blade on (a pig to do, necessitating removing both guide-assemblies), set the guide-rollers open and tried again. The blade still twists and follows a strange path, does not cut even 25 X 10mm HRS square, and at the end of the cut it rests some 5 mm away from the steel.

I fear it's time for a new machine – though I will salvage the motor I had to fit new only a year or so ago, plus any other parts that might come in handy; and of course the castored trolley I built to replace the original, cheap-and-nasty wheels and handle.

'

The steam-wagon broke me!

Revenge maybe, for inflicting my grotty welded fabrications on it.

While shaping that piece of HRS – part of improving the temporary steering-gearbox – a sleet shower arrived. In moving the chassis back indoors out of the weather, I tripped and fell headlong, crashing down onto on my arm and hip, luckily on smooth concrete, not the chassis bristling with sticking-out bits of steel. My neighbour saw me, and enquired if I was all right, offered help, even gave me a note with her phone number and that of the local hospital. I managed to regain my feet, put the engine away and close the workshop, but in a lot of pain.

The pain is not in the impact site but the groin on that side, so I may have torn a muscle or ligament. Even walking even in the house is extremely difficult and painful. I was relieved to relieve myself without seeing blood I half expected in the urine, but struggling to and from the bathroom and kitchen (both downstairs), using anything and everything for support, was agonising.

I don't reckon I'll be in a fit state to be in the workshop tomorrow…

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

The steam-wagon broke me!

Revenge maybe, for inflicting my grotty welded fabrications on it.

While shaping that piece of HRS – part of improving the temporary steering-gearbox – a sleet shower arrived. In moving the chassis back indoors out of the weather, I tripped and fell headlong, crashing down onto on my arm and hip, luckily on smooth concrete, not the chassis bristling with sticking-out bits of steel. My neighbour saw me, and enquired if I was all right, offered help, even gave me a note with her phone number and that of the local hospital. I managed to regain my feet, put the engine away and close the workshop, but in a lot of pain.

The pain is not in the impact site but the groin on that side, so I may have torn a muscle or ligament. Even walking even in the house is extremely difficult and painful. I was relieved to relieve myself without seeing blood I half expected in the urine, but struggling to and from the bathroom and kitchen (both downstairs), using anything and everything for support, was agonising.

I don't reckon I'll be in a fit state to be in the workshop tomorrow…

Best wishes for a speedy recovery

David

[Iain GordonParticipant @iaingordon81374]

Nigel, please get yourself to your local A&E department and have your hip x-rayed.

Last February I developed groin pain and eventually,after about 3 weeks, got an appointment with my GP. Was sent off for an x-ray at one of our perhipheral hospitals. On viewing the x-ray they went into panic mode, had me on a trolley and swiftly transfered to the Major Trauma Unit in the city. Fracured Neck of Femur. I'm now the proud owner of 3 titanium screws in my right hip, and still suffering abit of pain. One of the screws has penetrated a bit too far and is within a couple of mm of penetrating the bone. Screws hopefully will eventually be removed sometime this year.

Groin pain is not to be taken lightly.

Good luck

Iain

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I finished the cylinder on the rockerthump engine of Brian Rupnows design,and have started on the piston which I have left to cool down before the final cuts.It took all morning to strip the cross slide and top slide and give the lathe a scrub down after turning the cast cylinder.

Frank

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thank you David, Iain –

I rang the NHS 111 line yesterday morning, and the upshot was indeed an ambulance trip to hospital with suspected pubic bone break. The X-rays revealed no fracture (though the doctor didn't really say what was wrong). So probably a torn muscle or ligament.

They sent me home by taxi, with a bottle of morphine in my pockets, so it's a matter of taking things gently and hope whatever it is will heal fairly quickly. I felt very, very slightly more mobile this morning though still struggling; but it will take a few days to notice any genuine change beyond pain-relief. No shopping, let alone work-shopping, for a while yet.

However the doctor said if I fall by my leg giving way, then ring 999…

I thought bone-screws are permanent fixings – perhaps it depends on what they are holding together.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Finally connected up the 4th axis drive on my Novamill so I can experiment with some helical milling.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

Finally improved the tailstock on my SC4 today. It's been a bugbear from day one that the tailstock was only 1mm pitch, compared to the Crusader's 5mm pitch.

Turned the 14mm thread down to 13mm and cut a two start left hand thread. I went for 3mm pitch. I had to bore the the end of the sleeve to accept the mating threaded Bush.

Massive improvement and actually fun doing the left hand thread with two starts, especially as it worked!

 

Jim

Edited By jimmy b on 10/04/2021 13:16:16

[IRTParticipant @irt]

I finished my flame licker today. My second engine, to a design by Jan Ridders.

It does run, but exhibits a strange problem. It appears to stall after it has picked up speed. It then changes direction. I have uploaded a video showing this: https://youtu.be/BBFbckSVNSM.

Edited By IRT on 10/04/2021 22:45:00

[IRTParticipant @irt]

After thinking about it some more, the only way I could imagine that could happen was if the valve was being sucked in as the piston moved forward. I have extended the thread and screwed the valve back about 0.5mm more, and now the problem seems to have been resolved.

I have uploaded a video of it running in the same direction:
https://youtu.be/OlW9-4f602o

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

What Did I Do Today?

I became right frustrated, that's what!

Still too damaged and full of pain-killers after my bad fall a few days ago, to risk anything in the workshop – in fact I was very drowsy a lot of the time today. However I managed very carefully to retrieve the stem-lorry bunkers from the lawn where they'd standing since then, and put them indoors out of the weather.

Then set off to print the on-line, generic instructions for using a manual crimping and swaging jenny. I bought one a couple of years or so ago from WNS. I had struggled to find more detailed help than its own manual (which assumes you know the basics).

Eventually I tracked down a pdf booklet from some training establishment or other (its web-name ends in .ie, but I don't know what or where that is). It is a very clear guide to sufficient basics to get me started confident I won't waste too much metal or worse, harm the "Rotary Machine" itself. Or me. I don't need all 41 pages, which includes some basic maths rather irrelevant here, and which I can find in other books. I was prepared for the ticklish task of double-sided printing nearly 20 sheets without mixing them up.

Then…

Hewlett-Packard printers refuse to accept "counterfeit" (refilled) cartridges. Even says it's fraud but I am not sure if's means me or the supplier.

Found I cannot print the thing correctly anyway, testing it with the ink dregs. I downloaded it via Firefox then had the Devil's own job finding where my PC saves down-loads. It offers no choice.

Next, I discovered Firefox' pdf options are desperately limited.

I have not yet tried to install a pdf-image to 'Word' converter as others here have suggested I try. Otherwise I will have to print it as a straight pdf image.

Yet only the other day I successfully condensed and printed for workshop use (though in blue as I'd run of black ink) a down-load from a link on here, on servicing band-saws. And a few years ago I edited by Word and Excel from the pdf original, and printed, a proper alphabetical index to TuboCAD's on-line "manual".

'

So my first action is to buy a genuine HP cartridge…. It's like buying a car that will run on petrol, but only Shell or Total petrol.

Then I can print the manual and, ,helped by its own handbook, start to learn properly how to use the WNS jenny!

Number Eight in TEE Publishing's " Workshop Practice " series is R.E. Wakeford's Sheet Metal Work, and I have a copy, but though comprehensive it does not cover using forming machines. Curiously, this aspect of metal-working seems rather neglected in model-engineering literature generally.

'

So I am not an 'appy bunny. Computer and internets and things are supposed to help us, not hinder us.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I hpe you recover fully and soon, Nigel.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

And as you have time on your hands, try googling: "how to bypass hp printer cartridge error"

Its somewhere in the settings, I think it's illegal for them to make it impossible to use refills or compatible cartridges.

Neil

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Posted by John Haine on 10/04/2021 13:02:58:

Finally connected up the 4th axis drive on my Novamill so I can experiment with some helical milling.

That method of drive coupled with the stepper holding power should resist any movement under cutting forces without clamping the D/H spindle.
That machine looks new still !!!

Emgee

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Nigel

To get Firefox to ask where to save a downloaded file each time, do the following:

Click on the three horizontal lines up in the top right corner

From the menu, select Options (about halfway down, has a little gearwheel icon)

The Options page will open up and should be showing the General settings (the word General will be highlighted on the left)

Scroll down to the Files and Applications section

Click on the little circle next to the words "Always ask you where to save files"

You can then close the Options tab, from now on whenever you download a file it will ask you where you want to save it

By default, it will have saved any downloaded files in the Downloads folder

Rob

Edit – a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat for viewing PDF files is Foxit Reader – just be a bit cautious when installing so you don't opt for any extra features you don't want

Oh, .ie indicates Ireland, by the way

Edited By Grindstone Cowboy on 12/04/2021 00:33:24

Edited By Grindstone Cowboy on 12/04/2021 00:34:56

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Grindstone Cowboy –

Thank you. I will look out for that.

I've now traced the downloads – their folder was well hidden but I have made a short-cut to it.

MS used to call their filing-system "directories" and "trees" – on this computer the trees are more brambles than poplars or beeches – all straggly and tangled! Not my doing. That's how it came.

It's not viewing PDF files that is difficult although only Adobe Acrobat will open them.

My problem is that I want to convert and edit them to print only the information I need, in documents for using in the workshop.

(Docx and xlsx files have given me similar problems, by being locked images.)

'

FrancesIoM –

Quite a while back you advised I work round the locked-file problem by installing LibreOffice. Well, I have now installed it at last!

Unfortunately it confirmed only that a pdf document is an image, and saves it as still an image (.odg).

It allows editing to a point, and it does default to A4 Portrait mode.

So I could delete 10 pages of the manual's apprentice-training pre-amble, maths not applicable to the subject…. Oh, and one clearly blank by not bearing the rubric "This page is intentionally blank"!

I tried the odg and raw pdf versions in Libre's own document processor, but they stay as pictures – no way to revert them to editable text.

So how did I process several pages from TurboCAD's 'Help' Manual in Adobe-PDF, into a printable MS-Excel index? Might the file have pre-dated MS and Adobe changing the .pdf format?

Anyway I now have a LibreOffice version of the training-manual, trimmed as necessary; looking potentially easier to print than from Adobe.

=====

Next, to buy some printer-ink, annoyed by HP enforcing my buying only their own ink (though not necessarily from HP).

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

jpg images can be inserted into a pdf page – maybe that is how the document was put together – possibly the originator of the document only had access to printed pages and it was easier to scan these as images.

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

What I do if I want to edit out entire pages of a PDF is use Foxit (but probably other PDF readers would work in a similar way) to print selected page ranges to a file.

So for example, if I have a 100 page document but only require pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 71, 72 and 89, I would use the print dialog to firstly select "Foxit Reader PDF Printer" in the printer selection drop down, then select "Pages" in the Print Range section and specify the pages I want as (in this example) 2-5,71,72,89

Click on OK

In Foxit it would then open another tab showing your new PDF which only contains the pages specified. You can then print this out as a hard copy (after setting it back to use your normal printer again).

Editing the actual text within a page is much harder

Rob

[modeng2000Participant @modeng2000]

I wonder if OCR would be of help. There are free on-line sites that convert a scanned text page to a text document.

John

[Author]

Posts