What did you do today? 2023

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Hi, Pero.

It looks like it's not the plates, but the fit of the ceramic part of the cartridge in the metal container. I first gunged up the throat of the ceramic bit with the araldite. Which didn't work – I could even blow air through after I took it out. I then added a thin layer covering the edge of the metal bit and that then blocked properly.

Thanks for the advice on the operational direction. I hope I don't need it!

Iain

[Alexander Smith 1Participant @alexandersmith1]

Those ceramic inserts are a nightmare. Our kitchen tap went a while ago so I removed the cartridge and popped along to the builders merchants to buy a replacement – or so I thought! I showed him my cartridge and the chap behind the counter brought out a board with about 40 different cartridges plugged into holes – "Does it look like any of those?" In short – no it didn't. Apparently there is no standard and every manufacturer makes them differently. Beware the splines – I though I'd found the perfect one and fitted it only to find that the tap handle wouldn't fit – wrong number of splines on the spindle and it was too long. I wound up using the ceramic bits of a new one with the brass bits of the original which worked for a while. Remember when a tap washer cost a couple of pence – that's progress for you!

Sandy

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Mine has 20 splines, but most seem to have 28. The Franke Tap which looks similar (and may be the same one) has a cartridge with 28 splines. Progress, perhaps.

And don't get me started on why they have to discontinue a perfectly good pair of shoes that fits me (I struggle) after a few years.

Iain

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I've just done my bathroom sink taps. It wasn't at all obvious how to get the handles off so I could remove the shroud to get at the brass bit, so when we had a plumber round to fit a gas fire I asked him. 'You can't', it's a new taps job. After many weeks of prevarication I decided there was little to lose by having a go. Turns out you can unscrew the shroud with the handles in place far enough to get a thin spanner in, then it's easy easy. I fitted new tap tops complete, less than £10 the pair, not worth messing. Must have taken me all of 20 minutes to gain lots of brownie points.

Has anyone tried using the ceramic washers in a steam regulator?

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

One reason I held off on the drip fix was that I wasn't sure if the drip was from hot or cold. There wasn't enough flow for the water to still be hot. All right with that, but the handles were held on by a grub screw underneath. I could undo the hot one, but the cold one was stripped.

I was psyching myself up to ask this question on the forum, 'how to I get a stripped grub screw out which is upside down with about 2 inches (5cm!) clearance from the surface and a hard surface a couple of inches behind it?'.

Didn't fancy that at all. In some ways the increased flow was a blessing. At least I could concentrate on the one which I could get at!

Iain

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

Fitted a 100 tooth hostaform gear to the lead crew on my Seig sc3 mini lathe. Arrive this morning and fitted in less then an hour.

Just needed a key way cutting and the boss removing, bore luckily was spot on, bought from the Bearing Shop with only the tooth count and module known.

Don’t know why they are not shown as spares in the UK, as they seem readily available in the states.

Rear cover fitted without any mods although some say they had to mod their cover when the fitted the gear.

Auto feed is now much better. 

Edited By Ian Hewson on 02/05/2023 17:34:48

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Fitted 2 of 4 of the Weld-On Jack Legs on the trailer.

I have to admit that I was a bit out of practice on my vertical uphill with the arc welder, as can be seen from the copious amounts of grinding dust, I had to gouge back several portions of the root and reweld before I was truly happy with the job, but got there in the end.

Just as well I got the practice in there, as there's a lot less weld area available fitting this one, I think I want to do a weld along the bottom of the mounting plate too before I'm really happy with it…

But will wait for daylight and the other legs to be fitted so I can raise the whole thing up, welding in the overhead position is hard enough as it is without having to contend with access so tight I can barely get my hood underneath.

Probably going to want to inject some lanogard or waxoyl too once it's all done as the internal hot dip galvanising definitely burned off in places.

But this should make it a lot more secure for moving machines going forward, just need to sort the electrical issue that causes a fuse to blow in the truck every time I tow it now.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

I never did the job a cheap bead roller was acquired for, and it was abandoned outside for several years. It resurfaced as part of my recent Grand Clear Up, so I decided it was time to make it usable.

I cleaned the worst of the grot, freed off and lubricated the shafts, and replaced the crappy hardware:

These are cheap for a reason: the slotted 10mm steel plate twists as soon as you apply some tension, and gets even more out of shape as you roll the workpiece through the machine. It needs to be a lot more rigid to do some real work.

Fortunately, The Grand Clear Up also provided some grotty angle iron that had been fence posts for about 50 years, and wasn't usable for anything important. A few minutes cutting and welding, with the ends clamped parallel, sorted the rigidity problem:

I ought to make a stand for it – some scrounged gate post, welded to a wheel is likely – but it does work clamped in the vice. A sliding fence for the workpiece will be easy to make, as are some tipping dies.

And a small 12v winch motor will save the need for another pair of hands to use the thing properly.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Visited my local garage to book the car's annual service and MoT, and came home with an old piece of heater hose as material for a short flexible coupling in the pipe leading forwards from the tank on my steam-lorry.

'

Otherwise I spent a few hours on the ariel-wire reels I'm making for the Mendip Cave Rescue organisation. Sixteen requested, enough material for a couple of production-spares.

The two side bars are 3/4" X 1/4" aluminium flat 180mm long. 'MCR' in 1/8" letters stamped on each, apart from owner-marking, gives alignment-mark for repeatability.

First operation: make a simple pair of sprung parallels for the milling-vice; using off-cuts of the stock bar, drilled and counter-bored to give the pockets for two small springs from the "Come-In-Handy Stores" .

After aligning the vice on the mill and building an end-stop from an angle-plate and parts from the clamp set, I was in for some good honest batch production. Face the ends, then drill 68-off 6mm holes! Drilled on the mill, lightly chamfered on the bench-drill.

Then it was time for tea!

Next instalment to come: countersink the holes, round off the corners, deburr and clean.

Then the spacers…. 34 of them with M6 co-axial holes, in half-inch al. alloy round.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Nice job for home anodising!

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

For those interested, the cartridge I found that looked like it did, didn't, After quite some more searching, I discovered 'tap magician', which not only had a cartridge that fits, but I knew it would as they had detailed engineering drawings of all the cartridges. Not only that, but when I called, they could tell me the tap it fitted and after a quick search I could see it was mine!

Iain

[Chris Pearson 1Participant @chrispearson1]

Watching the Coronation.

Afterwards, one of my tasks was to identify a thread of a hole which passes through a rod. I had to get out all my pitch gauges and put on a pair of loupes. 1/8" Whit is closest, but although a tap will easily go through the hole, the existing screw does appear to have been forced in.

It may be easier to replace the whole wretched thing.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

I completed cleaning my house in preparation of a visit by two sisters and a brother in law tomorrow, they will be staying for several days. None of them know I am making four, one tenth scale models of my vintage car. But they will when they get here! My three sisters will each get one of the cars when they are finished, I will keep the fourth.

Mowed the front lawn, twice. The grass was too long to cut in one go with my battery mower. After that, I continued to remove weeds on my veg patch. I hope to plant out the quickly growing seedlings next week. Runner beans, courgettes, beetroot and red onions.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, a little job today was putting the screw back into the moving jaw of my Record No. 75 vice which I took apart, cleaned up and painted. This wasn't as straight forward as one might think, as a washer, a fairly strong spring and another washer, all had to be compressed to enable a new pin to be put through the plain part of the screw.

The only way I could think of doing it without spoiling the paintwork, was to clamp the bar that slides through the vice body, to the bench and use a piece of tube to push on the outside washer, which then had to be compressed by 40mm or so.

This of course, then covers over the hole that the new retaining pin has to go into. Not wanting to hack this piece of tube about, as once you cut a decent length of tube, you know you may well need it to stay the length it is for a more permanent job. so I found a short piece of tube the same size, and cut a slot on both sides, so the pin could be fitted.

Although I could compress the spring enough to get the pin in, I couldn't do both at the same time, and so I clamped a large piece of angle iron to the bench, with my old scissor jack placed between that and the other end of the tube, which left both hands free to put the pin in the hole with a long pair of nose pliers, and then tap it home with a pin punch and hammer.

The small dot punch on the pin, shows the position it had to go into the hole.

Just got to paint the base that the vice swivels on, and the job will be done.

Regards Nick.

 

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 08/05/2023 18:22:24

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Nice work, Nick!

Useful things these scissor jacks!

Howard

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Went and collected some guttering for the workshop, this will serve two purposes one I will not get soaking when entering the workshop as the water runs off the roof and secondly it will enable me to have yet another waterbutt filled up for the summer.

So bar having any rain tomorrow that is one job for me to complete. This is the closest I have managed to get to the workshop recently as a lot of time spent gardening mostly the veg patch.

Soon be able to get some machines fired up and make some swarf

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Yesterday we decided to delay taking down the church Union Flag 'cos it was raining. So today it was rainig harder.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Yesterday we decided to delay taking down the church Union Flag 'cos it was raining. So today it was rainig harder.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I trust you didn't leave it up overnight, extremely bad form according to a flag etiquette site I found. Unless it's floodlit, but then that comes with a carbon footprint issue.

[FulmenParticipant @fulmen]

Had to pull apart the prop shaft and housing on the boat to replace the cutless bearing. It was supposed to go out tomorrow, now I'm fighting corroded press fits and waiting for new parts.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 09/05/2023 12:54:26:

Nice work, Nick!

Useful things these scissor jacks!

Howard

Hi Howard, thanks, yes that scissor jack has done many jobs besides jacking up cars, it's a nice size one and quite a strong one, and it was with a second hand Bedford HA van that was just three years old when I bought it in 1975.

Regards Nick.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Fine restoration work, Nick!

I've one of those little 'Record' drill-vices that had been used in a grit-blaster, of all things. Not a scrap of paint on it but no abrasion damage to the jaws and screw. The flanged boss on the underside of the moving jaw had broken off, so I blind-drilled and tapped its stump to take a turned steel bush held on with a screw and washer.

I sprayed it with primer, then searched the rattle-tin rack in Halfords for what seemed a fair match to Record Blue – from memory rather than sample. The vice has seen lots of use since!

What did I do today?

A bit more Alibre practice, then I carried on with making these ariel-wire reels for the cave rescue team. The side bars are now finished, and I'm awaiting the go-ahead to complete the reels, after approval of the first-off.

Then a relaxing social evening at the model-engineering club.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Got my 3" Burrell out of winter storage fired it up all OK just a couple of small leaks, just managed to put it back in it's shed before the thunder storm arrived. All ready for weekend taking it to Kingsbury Saturday

H

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Spurred on by the "Alibre – A first attempt thread", I have over the last day or two carried on with the CAD exercise that I set myself to model the suspension of a mythical sports/racing that only exists (and only will ever exist) in my mind's eye. Plans are afoot to tackle the front suspension, too, but I think I will have to reduce the width of the front wheels to make it "look" right.

I modelled the left hand rear corner first and then altered the upright for application to the right hand side, before assembling both corners and then amalgamating both into one straggly assembly. I have yet to determine the exact positions of the chassis mounting points.

Here's the picture so far:

Fasteners not included.

John

Edit:  grammar – as usual.

Edited By John Hinkley on 10/05/2023 10:52:42

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

John, here's my virtual mock up of a hotrod IRS using MGF hubs, brakes and wheel bearings. The flat components are to be laser cut to save time and effort and make better parts

The rest of the frame, using MGF front uprights and geometry

I do intend to build this at some point. It's a mock-up because various parts need to defined better. And the IRS has several degrees of camber gain, which need to be designed out…

[Author]

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