What Did you do Today 2022

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Went to a right proper second-hand (and mainly-marine memorabilia) book-shop for a Christmas present, came away with two (one for relations, one for a friend)…

….. plus a third, F.J Camm's Screw-Thread Manual (Geo.Newnes Ltd, 2nd ed., 1944)

That's for me!

A treasure-trove of information on threads and thread-cutting tools and equipment, proportions, etc.

So now I have no excuse not to cut Lowenherz threads, making bolts of correct form, or to set up a 1/4"-lead lathe for a metric screw without using the 127T wheel I have for it anyway!.

It also gives worm-thread details, potentially useful for making a new worm for a small horizontal mill in part-restoration though buying a new, stock worm+wheel may be preferable..

This shop, Books Afloat, in Weymouth's Park Street, is a wonderful place with a major line in marine matters; but I don't know if the two rather forlorn 3-1/2" gauge steam locomotives are for sale. One at least has been steamed, in years past, and I think frequently.. No doubt someone who has mis-read the white-&-orange book would say their boilers could not be used in service but if they pass the proper test, they can. (Thorough examination un-clad – the locos would need a major service, re-paint, etc., anyway – , meticulous test as if "new", non-commercial, boiler.) Would be great to see them doing what they built for, again!

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Otherwise…

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Nowt much useful.

Re-stacked some timber from a narrow outside passage I can start turning into covered storage for garden stuff like compost and sand; even maybe a laundry-drying area.

Was going to go to the club to continue replacing wooden with plastic, sleepers on the dual-gauge road from main line to turntable. Since the next stage entails screwing some sleepers to the concrete yard I demurred. Extension-leads, mains power-drills and even little battery ones don't like the rain.

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Another attempt at learning Solid Edge…. from its most basic tutorial. Hopeless. Gave up.

This won't help me finish my steam-wagon – all having to be designed from scratch – as I'd rather dreamt CAD might, some ten years ago.

Now, how did that house-filling drawing-board fit together?

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Took delivery of a number of flat head impact bits and set the moving part of the vice up to have another go at undoing the screws. The hammer powered impact driver was having just as much success after cooking as before (none whatsoever). In a spirit of adventurousness I got the air powered impact wrench out and gave it a few blasts with that at increasing lefels of torque and differing directions. After three snapped 1/2" impact bits, I decided that the problem hadn't been Loctite…

Milled the countersunk heads off the screws. Started with an HSS cutter, but that wasn't happy with the hardened jaw, so changed to a 10mm carbide one:-

The jaw still wanted to stay where it was, so I milled a couple of 75 thou slots with a 6mm carbide cutter. Then used a 1" cold chisel and 3lb ball peen hammer to persuede it. Only took ten minutes of hammering and wedging:-

Turns out that the jaw and screws were completely locked up with corrosion. Probably going to have to machine them out and helicoil the holes.

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

After removing some electrical boxes from a small machine cabinet it left some cut outs in the sides, original thickness is 1/8", I had some 3mm plate so patched up one hole so far.

[Chris MateParticipant @chrismate31303]

I put a Walter shoulder mill 40mm MT4/6 inserts to work. Its unbelieveable how free its cutting and surface finish good, cranking the mill as fast as I can by hand. I had a block of aliminium placed vertically on bed clamped to two small type 1-2-3 blocks 400mm x 400mm x 25mm, no noises, no vibration clamped from about one third or less of its vertical size, so large stick out.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Not worth starting a thread for this … but it’s an interesting example of market values

This copy of this book is priced for its niche market: **LINK**

Coachmaker The Life and Times of Philip Godsal 1780-1820, John Ford

O.K.__ it was Sunday that I did it, not today

I bought a copy at the local flea-market: it has some ‘bending’ at the top and bottom edges of the dust-jacket, but internally is immaculate … affordably priced at £1 and a fascinating document.

Shopped at the ‘wrong’ place, and saved £64 … except, of course, I only bought it on a whim.

MichaelG.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Well I thought I'd found and fixed the intermittent fault on our signals, but it came back on Sunday. Despite having checked all the interconnect wires between the rail ends several times, and having got someone else to check at least twice, I spotted one completely missing. Trouble is that most of the time you get continuity through the fishplates, it only plays up when I don't have my meter with me.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Isn't that why the full sized rails have two conductors across each joint on each rail as well as the fishplates?

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Probably, but having made and fitted around 600 links I'm not going for duplication. The wire is not that easy to bend, 0.8mm SS welding wire, after forming the loops in 10 or so your wrists start to hurt. When we started there were 2 of us, but my fellow conspirator went off to have 2 heart valves fitted and it took him a while to get back. The system fails safe anyway, loss of continuity makes the red flash, instruction is that it can be passed with extreme caution. On the big railway you'd phone the signalman, but we don't have one.

I tried softer wire, but it relaxes under the bolts and aluminium wire is very easily cut in the event of a derailment. 

Edited By duncan webster on 20/09/2022 20:29:18

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I started my reifler regulator 42 years ago and when finished I set it aside and built other things. This past week I started to make small parts better.I started it after an hour of trying and it ran for 5 hours before stopping.I knew it wasn't quite in beat and have just made an adjustment and restarted it.The pendulum weighs 30lbs and the weight driving the train is 1.5lbs, this flexes the suspension spring which is 5 th of shim steel which gives the pendulum 2 degrees of arc.Fingers crossed it is running in the morning.

[Colin WhittakerParticipant @colinwhittaker20544]

Continuity at fish plates. Not something I did today, but I remember (some 40+ years ago) that we used to drill the rail web (twice) by hand before inserting a wire and then hammering a plug in to secure and ensure continuity. But then the track engineers complained we were compromising their rail integrity and we had to switch to a hole less electrical welding/brazing technology.

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Got started with fitting the cheap and cheerful DRO I got to the equally inexpensive Harrison Mill I saved from the scrap man.

What my bracketry lacks in sophistication, it makes up for in being made from a scrap piece of 2.5mm steel plate (helpfully stored in a pile of "usable bits" under the drill press) using nothing more than a hammer, and bench vice

​

In an ideal world I would have cleaned the mill up fully before getting started with fitting the DRO…

But I need to move it into final position as soon as possible to allow me to free up space to fit new curtains (subdividing the workshop into welding/grinding and machining), so the Z-Axis and Y-axis scales are going on now whilst i still have good access, and i'll get round to clearing the chip tray of rusty swarf and half-congealed coolant "eventually".

I learned when I made replacement workshop doors that it doesn't take too much storage of materials for a project which you're due to start next to turn everything into a quagmire of items which have to be moved to do simple tasks.

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Jelly on 23/09/2022 11:52:27:

I learned when I made replacement workshop doors that it doesn't take too much storage of materials for a project which you're due to start next to turn everything into a quagmire of items which have to be moved to do simple tasks.

Tumbler on top of washing machine and Work- and Machine Bench down one side of the garage – Freezer camping equipment and storage down other – bandsaw on wheeled 7 drawer mechanic's tool cabinet and bike on floor.

Scamp 7 1/4" petrol loco build on Workmate – and then the tumble dryer at the back of the garage dies, Arggggh!

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Jelly on 23/09/2022 11:52:27:

I learned when I made replacement workshop doors that it doesn't take too much storage of materials for a project which you're due to start next to turn everything into a quagmire of items which have to be moved to do simple tasks.

Tumbler on top of washing machine and Work- and Machine Bench down one side of the garage – Freezer camping equipment and storage down other – bandsaw on wheeled 7 drawer mechanic's tool cabinet and bike on floor.

Scamp 7 1/4" petrol loco build on Workmate – and then the tumble dryer at the back of the garage dies, Arggggh!

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 23/09/2022 12:12:27:

Posted by Jelly on 23/09/2022 11:52:27:

I learned when I made replacement workshop doors that it doesn't take too much storage of materials for a project which you're due to start next to turn everything into a quagmire of items which have to be moved to do simple tasks.

Tumbler on top of washing machine and Work- and Machine Bench down one side of the garage – Freezer camping equipment and storage down other – bandsaw on wheeled 7 drawer mechanic's tool cabinet and bike on floor.

Scamp 7 1/4" petrol loco build on Workmate – and then the tumble dryer at the back of the garage dies, Arggggh!

I feel like that's a rare example of where paying for installation and removal of the old drier could be worth it.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I've just spent a good hour removing two magneto's from two of my stationary engines, a 1924 Bosch flick magneto which died on me a couple of weekends ago at a rally and a ML magneto that died three years ago, again at a rally but Covid got in the way and as I'm getting the Bosch refurbished my friend can do the other as well, the ML I thought would be a doddle to remove until I found it at the other end of the engine which meant rearranging the shed to get to it, its amazing how stuff gets heavier as the years pass.

I dont know how I'm refitting the Bosch as gravity helped the nuts off but there's only room for one finger or spanner to defy gravity putting it back.

Martin P

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Got the DRO install finished.

(Forum software rotates from vertical format on upload???)

Involved some more crude bracketry:

And cutting a glass scale on the bandsaw, as per the suggested approach in this thread,, which worked remarkably well all things considered.

The packing (I used cardboard rather than tissue but the process of getting it in real firmly round the glass is much the same) seems to constrain where the blade can put pressure on the glass, forcing it to fracture in there or thereabouts the correct place, definitely a brittle fracture though.

Now just to move the mill into final position and run a new length of SWA between the rotary phase converter and the isolator to get it running in *its* new position (it's all change to ensure the layout remains ergonomic).

[Chris MateParticipant @chrismate31303]

So I did my 1st real not straight forward accurate job on lathe for the mill. Modify MT4–BT18 arbour by removing the MT4 to 20mm and shortened to fit ER20mm collet.

I went to a show and run into the people who sold me the mill. They set me up with ER32 collets & MT4 chuck + x collets. It did cost me a penny.

So yesterday I discovered an extra MT4-BT18 arbour for the drill chuck B18 1-16mm that came with the mill, and modify this to fit in the ER31 20mm(-1) collet. I machined this removing the taper by fitting the BT18 large end into chuck and ligned it up with the tailstock centre, it run ok.

1st attemp was a fail. It whobbled a bit but I could drill with it to 3mm not breaking the drill. So I thought about this and today I decided to chuck up the side I cut to 20mm yesterday straight machined.
-Put in 3 jaw chuck
-I then make the 3 jaw chuck run true, I modded it with 3x adjusting screws. So now the collet side is running true in chuck, with a runout on the B18 side. Fitting the drillchuck theres enough room left to correct it., so I go ahead and trace the B18 taper, set lathe compound rest at angle and machined and polished it. Fit the chuck, and theres 2mm space left.

-To test it I fit assemble to Mill ER32 20mm collet, tighten. The runout with a spot drill fitted is now 0.03mm to dial test indicator. I think I am happy with this.
-To further test I could drill up .8mm drill without breaking it, the chuck is 1-16, but took the 0.8mm drill.

So I am not sure in your world how accurate this can be considered, but I doubt I will get it better easy.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Spent a couple of hours making the last parts for my die filer. You know the sort of thing – spacer bushes, studs etc – all the little bits you put off making until you really need them. I had to reverse the ram link to obtain a smooth motion action. I can only assume that all the small machining inaccuracies that accumulated did not necessarily go in my favour. No matter, it all worked ot OK in the end. I only need to connect it up to the power supply which is still in the mail system somewhere, but should be here early next week. It works alright under hand power but I'm uncertain whether the motor I had "in stock" has a low enough speed and/or has sufficient torque. I'm hoping that the belt drive reduction will compensate for any deficiencies in either respect. This is what it looks like:

I'm about to strip it down in preparation for videoing the final part of its construction on YouTube.

John

Edited to correct duff link to photo

Edited By John Hinkley on 24/09/2022 17:12:58

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Afternoon at the club track, continuing to replace the old and some decaying, wooden, with recycled plastic, sleepers.

This is the chocolate-brown stuff used for garden seats and the like – not the nicest material to machine. I had to mill rebates in one in overcoming a problem with a turntable-road crossing a step in the concrete yard. It is not only quite vesicular; on the machine it looked, sounded and felt (manual feed) rich in peculiar inclusions.

The pears on the tree near where I was working are ripening – though the track site's clay soil is not the nicest material for trees, especially in a drought.

Locking up at the end, we had to be careful to avoid accidentally imprisoning a cat that sometimes patrols the area, as it was this afternoon. It is a Siamese or similar, a breed once quite fashionable, but this is the first I have seen for years.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by John Hinkley on 24/09/2022 16:53:07:

Spent a couple of hours making the last parts for my die filer.

[…]

I'm about to strip it down in preparation for videoing the final part of its construction on YouTube.

.

I like the look of that ‘beam engine’ arrangement, John

Forgive my ignorance, please, but whose design is this ?

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

It’s O.K. John … I’ve found it: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/albums/member_photo.asp?a=36186&p=905904

MichaelG.

.

Ref. __ https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=176911

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 25/09/2022 08:43:15

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Michael,

Yes, it's me! I suggested this arrangement in response to a query on the forum for design suggestions for a die filer, as per your second link. The idea was to get a slow filing motion on the downstroke and a quick return on the upstroke, "à la shaper".

If it's of any interest, I just went out into the garage and temporarily connected a 20V power tool battery to it to see how it ran. It didn't run – it jumped, up and down about a foot and scared the life out of me! I've ordered another motor with a reduction gearbox to give approximately 50 – 60 strokes per minute, more in line with my hand filing. I've got an adjustable 24V power supply on the way, too, so fine tuning the speed for different materials should be attainable. Talk about overkill!

John

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

What did I do?

Not enough! I have these days…

Anyway, eventually stirred myself into action to continue making a roof for a short, narrow external passage, to use as a garden odds and ends store. Or for a bicycle if I obtain one again.

Then after tea….

Investigated rebuilding my drawing-board… starting by exhuming it from behind a stack of other stuff.

Not fully – a professional-grade A0-capacity drawing board has a massively heavy stand with a complicated parallelogram-mechanism for rise and tilt; and I had stripped this down irretrievably. It also takes up a huge amount of room space if used fully. Instead I will cobble together what I can, at a fixed height and reasonable slope for me. (I had tried to sell the unit complete, but had no takers.)

The drawing motion itself is all easy to re-assemble. At the moment it stands on end, wrapped in black bin-bags, in the corner next to my bed. In the very dim light the bundle looks like a mysterious hooded figure overlooking me, and it's a wonder it has not given me hypnagogic nightmares!

I've also an A3 board made by Blundell-Harling – a local firm to me, still making drawing-boards and also a range of special-to-trade slide-rules. This is a much simpler unit, for use on an ordinary table, with a parallel-sliding rule and a basic protractor arrangement.

I recall you could at one time buy a resilient surface material a bit like lino, for drawing-boards. I don't know its proper name. Anyone know if this is still readily-available?

[RobinParticipant @robin]

Today I tried inserting an ISO30 taper into the horizontal spindle of my Warco HV mill for the first time and found it did not fit. It's all wobbly. Angst.

Tried another taper, an ER collet chuck. Still no good. Ran around the workshop shouting, "Don't panic" until I was quite breathless.

Eventually tried removing the 2 driving dogs from the spindle nose and in it goes, all snuggle bunnies the way it should.

Why do I do this to myself?

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Robin Thats life

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