What did you do today? 2023

[AndrewDParticipant @andrewd]

Just finished cleaning up a Record No. 4 I acquired recently.

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

Nice job Andrew, helped it would seem by being in very good condition to begin with

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

after a few hours in the workshop over the last few days, its a Sparey diesel cylinder.

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Nice Work Bernard, I thought you only made tools.  You will be building a loco next!

Regards

Brian B

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Sad to say Brian there is a 3/4 built gauge 1 in the workshop somewhere!

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi AdrewD, it’s so satisfying when you refurbish old tools to somewhere near their original state, and your vice looks really good.

Here’s a Record No. 75 I did earlier this year.

Regards Nick.

[Danni BurnsParticipant @danniburns84841]

Excellent.

It tells a lot about a man/workshop when you see something like that stuck to a bench.

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

It is some years ago that I restored a sieved up Record 112. I got it for nothing, but it wasn’t that difficult to revive. I probably annoyed purists by painting it green and picking out the lettering in red. Although now it looks a bit odd on the bench as I later added a second hand Record 0, which is blue with white lettering. Might harmonize them in the future.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Helped a mate start to dismantle a large press brake weighing somewhere between 4 and 5 tons.  Its a great shame but it and a lot of other large fabrication gear is going straight into a skip.  The workshop has quite a low roof and so some jiggling with fork lift truck forks was required (rotated upside down).

Colin

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Managed to turn the big lump down on the end of the Sparey 5 crankshaft to an acceptable crank disc and big end journal, now to work out how much to remove for balancing!

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Completed a bell-type lathe drive dog.

It’s designed to be used with a temporary soft centre – a point on the end of a piece of ordinary m.s. bar held in the 3-jaw chuck, so that one of the jaws drives the dog.

Hemingway intend you use a temporary centre with their between-centres boring-bars kit, which I made. I am not sure it gives any advantage over using a normal headstock centre.

Though this was initially for turning my steam-wagon connecting-rods, whenever I make a jig or fixture I try to think of possible future work similar but not necessarily identical.

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Then drew it as a CAD exercise! (I didn’t try to represent the screw threads…)

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Outer diameter about 2.3″ ; central bore 1.2″ ; the two lugs about 3/8″ high. The three screws are 1/4″ X 3/4″ . A thin wall gives stiffness and if all is set up on a large diameter bar with the lathe centres on axis, it may be trapped between the work end and the jaw faces.

The overall diameter and thickness (~ 1/2″ body, lugs about 3/8″ high) was set partly by the oddment of bar I used!

The gap between the lugs is generously Harrison chuck-jaw width but I envisage using it on the Myford lathe just as easily.

The connecting-rods have long, slender shanks tapering from about 3/4 down to 1/2″ diameter over about 5″ , so I used the set-over tailstock method, and on the Harrison lathe. I may be wrong but I am not sure how the set-up behaves: does it try to oscillate the dog as the chuck rotates? I noticed a curious pattern develop on one rod – subject of a separate question.

[Terry KirkupParticipant @terrykirkup37827]

The Eternal Novice.

I decided that since, on its fifth anniversary, I had only cut a taper twice on my Warco WM290 lathe, I would sacrifice the compound slide’s “usefulness” in favour of more rigid turning and parting. So I started searching online for a 4″/100mm square block of solid steel 65mm thick and was amazed to discover it would cost me anything from £75 to almost £200 depending on the size of the selling company. I really didn’t want to make up a steel sandwich from bench blocks which may have been a wee bit cheaper.

Then I started sniffing around my junk pile for alternatives and discovered a 45mm diameter 3 feet long chrome plated steel roller from a scrapped machine in an old pal’s factory, long since gone. I do like unique-ing stuff.

My trusty Makita cold saw managed to whip four 65mm slices off this thing which has a rock-hard outer shell that stays that way for the first 8 or 10mm before softening slightly towards its centre. It really did give my carbide tips a workout and later destroyed my HSS fly cutter. Oh, and when will I learn to wear ear protectors?

Anyway, I drilled a few holes, tapped a few more and got my four pillars mounted on the original 150x100x15mm rear tool post mounting plate that came with the lathe. I marked and drilled a hole between them for the 5/8″ UNF toolpost clamp bolt and tapped that, but not before it chewed up my taper tap. Plug tap finished it nicely though, but very slowly. The 5/8” threaded rod took some online trawling to find at reasonable cost.

I sank the pillars’ allen bolt heads into the bottom of the base plate and screwed in the QCTP clamping bolt flush with the underside before up-ending it on the mill and drilling/tapping a hole for a 6mm grub screw to lock the bolt in securely.

I also stuck a 16mm thrust washer under the top nut to make clamping a little easier and it all looked like it might work, fingers crossed!

Measure twice, cut o…

Oh-oh, ’twas only then I discovered a BAD THING. I had failed to take account of the base plate depth, as I had originally planned to mount the pillars directly onto the cross slide, but then decided that would run me into next summer. On assembly, the lowest I could get the tool tips was about 4mm above centre height, that’s when I twigged!

So after refreshing some carbide I lopped 15mm off each of the pillars, this time with my ears covered, and did a quick assembly check before removing the pillar bolts and applying Loctite 243 to the threads. Result – smaller, neater, faster than a speeding bullet.

Now for the test run, sparks will fly.

Please ignore the fact that I immediately snapped my favourite parting blade, fools rush in, too fast too furious etc.. However, facing and turning are greatly improved, so much that even a heathen like me can tell the difference.

Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you to all who have offered advice since I joined up.

***Comments welcome, or “what HAVE you done?”  🙂

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Finished the dial for the epicyclic clock, just needs a polish.

David

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

That looks nice David is going to be slivered or just polished?

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Thank you Bernard and thank you for the thought too, I hadn’t thought of silvering.

David

[Danni BurnsParticipant @danniburns84841]

Clearly, there are some very talented engineers on this forum.

Terry – I had no idea what you were up to at first. I get it now.

I was thinking of making a parting tool holder to fit directly to the cross-side when I realised the cost for lumps of metal – seems it’s well worth the effort.

Also, what is the practice of using a round bar for clamping work in the vice called?

Warm regards

Danni

 

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Yesterday lost my car and house keys, whilst out caring for mum.   Chaos, and surprisingly upsetting.   My daughter made a 3 hour drive to rescue me.   Could have been worse – at least I was in the warm and had no trouble contacting her!  Likely cause: pocket full of woolly hat and gloves, so keys fell out somewhere.

Dave

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

Chrstmas visit to The Tool Shop, Wallington. Got this lovely thing for less than £5

[Paul LParticipant @paull58212]

Just finished the motor drive for my sx3 mill.

Here is the lash-up to test

The drive coupling engaged /disengaged

The finished job showing the direction switch and speed readout (in %. 100% =~ 400mm/min) and the potentiometer for adjusting the speed

 

 

 

[Terry KirkupParticipant @terrykirkup37827]

Hiya Danni. Yes indeed raw metal is very expensive now.

For anyone as scared of parting off as me I think a rear mounted tool is safer, or really take your time and keep it lubed. But I am the opposite of “expert” 🙂

As far as the round bar thing goes I don’t know if it’s a named procedure, I picked it up from Blondihacks on YouTube and have seen it used elsewhere too. She is extremely well clued up and reckons it stops the back vise jaw pushing the workpiece high when you tighten it hard. I think I have that right, was some time ago!

[Matt TParticipant @mattt]

Today I fixed some of the backlash in my cross slide. Factory shipped it had about 40 thou of play in it, as a novice I didn’t really understand just how bad this was. I wanted to do something about it for a while as it’s very hard to keep track of the handwheel dial when it needs about a whole turn to take up the backlash 😮

Problems came to a head when parting off, first in steel, tool jammed and belt slipped. Parting off in brass wasn’t an issue, so I had another go in steel using carbide instead of HSS but again it jammed and took the carbide with it. At this point I figured steel was just too much for my little 7×14. But I since started a new project using aluminium and it happened again! Without access to a band saw I really need to be able to part off sometimes 🙁

Eventually I figured the backlash could be causing the tool to be drawn into the work (?) I’m not sure if thats even a thing but it sounded possible so I looked up how to adjust the cross slide, stripped it all down, put it all back together and now it’s down to about 7 thou of play, a marked improvement from 40.

Had another shot and successfully parted with decent results. Surface finish looked okay and although there was chatter it was mostly tolerable. Nothing jumped off my bench. I don’t think I’ll ever not be terrified of parting off but at least I can do it now (in some metals). Hopefully with more practice I’ll gain some confidence.

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

Yesterday lost my car and house keys, whilst out caring for mum.   Chaos, and surprisingly upsetting.   My daughter made a 3 hour drive to rescue me.   Could have been worse – at least I was in the warm and had no trouble contacting her!  Likely cause: pocket full of woolly hat and gloves, so keys fell out somewhere.

Dave

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

Yesterday lost my car and house keys, whilst out caring for mum.   Chaos, and surprisingly upsetting.   My daughter made a 3 hour drive to rescue me.   Could have been worse – at least I was in the warm and had no trouble contacting her!  Likely cause: pocket full of woolly hat and gloves, so keys fell out somewhere.

Dave

My sympathy, now you’ll have to suffer the rip off price for a replacement key. Friend of mine got one on line for a Range Rover at a fraction of dealer price, I’ll get his contact if you’re interested

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Try Timson’s for a new car key.. ..I mean with full remote functions, the lot..

[Matt TParticipant @mattt]

I found timpsons very expensive when I went to get the batteries in my keys changed. 24 quid for 2 batteries fitted seemed a bit steep. I think I’ll be doing it myself in future. Perhaps their replacement keys are better value for money

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