What Did You Do Today 2025

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Thanks, David; one of the reason’s I chose Alibre was because there seems to be a particularly encouraging and helpful ‘community’ here as well as useful support more widely – I’m essentially working through the ‘official’ exercises and tutorials, and using this and their forum to look for answers when I get stuck, and ‘trialling’ my new abilities as I go.

It’s all ‘golden days of blithe naivety’ at present, I’m sure the frustrations will begin once I get beyond the very basics.😊

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

The same as last year. Sorted 1 job, made 2 others!

 

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

Mmm pressed the wrong button. I was going to go on and say I fitted a new filler to my diesel fired space heater.          However when I turned the lathe on the switch handle came off in my hand so I had to switch it on with pliers! Then the work light didn’t (work I mean). However got the heater working a treat and a new bulb cured the light. Why would it fail when it hasn’t been used for yonks? Also managed to put the switch back together. Bit of a bodge I’ll have to look at doing it properly when I get a bit less time

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

The last couple of days managed to get some more done to the spring winder. Still need to complete the shaft and make the nuts to hold it all together.

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I hope no-one here has been seriously affected by the storm. On the South Coast it came just as a wet and windy night of no unusual severity, and the wind had moderated by mid-morning to a stiff breeze.

..

Still not really recovered from a bad cold that laid me low last weekend, so after an brief expedition to town, didn’t do a great deal.

However, today, Thanks to a heck of a lot of help from others, I managed to crack something that had me baffled in Alibre for some weeks. Also was up to pottering around the workshop to try to corall a lot of scattered steam-wagon bits into a vague herd. Useful things, are ready-meals, in providing plastic trays for storing components.

I found the missing axle journals but still have to find a lost gib-headed key, some hours’ worth of work as it needs two widths to cope with slightly different keyway widths!

Not sure if it was a touch of flu or even the dreaded C*v… but I’ve not had the energy or concentration to do any machining in a very chilly workshop this week. Though I have carried out some design-measurements on the wagon chassis, and a little more investigation into the best option for using a boring-table as semi-permanent cross-slide on my Harrison lathe.

….

Cor, our local car-parks are pricy. Because the bus-pass doesn’t wake until 9.30 but the doctor’s appointment (not cold/flue/pestilence-related!) was at 9, I drove into town intending an Aldi food-foray afterwards*. Then found I’d left my wallet at home and had only just enough cash for the ticket. On the bright side… Return bus-fare, £6. Car-park £3 for an hour.

*Or the Other Place that sometimes has Useful Things in the “midl”…..

 

[Clock polisherParticipant @clockpolisher]

Admitted to myself that two spinal operations in 8 days is actually going to keep me out of the loft workshop for a while so that’s no clocks or lathes for me.

I’ve moved to number 2 on the “anti-depressive physical activity” list and started sorting out my Dinky toy collection.

There are 51 Captain Scarlet 104’s scattered around the house that have all just become vintage this year so I’m getting them put back together and fettled ready for sale.

All from the comfort of the dining room.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Possible couple of commercial ads in the classifieds. Advertiser seems never to have posted.

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Finished the spring winder today after making a mess of the shaft by drilling the hole in the wrong place.

First photo with hole in the wrong place

After the remade shaft

Completed and ready for a test. Well it looks the part, but will it work.

 

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

one of those ‘tuit jobs just got done, clamps for the GHT rotary table:

 

Rod

 

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Nice to see your brass presure pads not everybody does that!

[Dalboy]

On Dalboy Said:

Finished the spring winder today after making a mess of the shaft by drilling the hole in the wrong place.

First photo with hole in the wrong place

After the remade shaft

Completed and ready for a test. Well it looks the part, but will it work.

 

Hi,

I made mine a few years ago from the Hemingway kit.

It works very well! But be careful to have the lathe running very slowly, try using small diameter spring material first and practice a few times.

I made mine primarily as it looked an interesting gadget to make, I like making useful and unusual tools but its mine purpose was to make a large spring for my Quorn grinder.

Regards

Derek

[Roderick Jenkins]

On Roderick Jenkins Said:

one of those ‘tuit jobs just got done, clamps for the GHT rotary table:

 

Rod

 

 

Rod,

That is a great modification to GHT rotary table!

I made the small rotary table to GHT’s design, but to be honest the table dia of (I think 4 inches), is somewhat too small on occasions.

I assume your sub table is 6 inch dia mild steel? Were the holes drilled in any pattern or pitch circle? or where necessary according to the job? Final question!….what threads are you using for your clamps? I currently use a mixture of 1/4 bsf and M6 for my small clamp system but I would prefer to standardise!!

Kind regards

Derek

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Hi Derek,

The table is actually 6″ diameter aluminium alloy, originally made for my 4″ Sharp rotary table.  I made the holes in a square pattern on one half and radially on the other half, all M6 coarse.  Not sure if this provides more versatility or not.  As you say the problem with 4″ tables is that there is hardly any room for holding clamps and even the ones I made may be too big- I’ll have to see.

The brass pads have a 6mm diameter spherical recess put in with a ball ended mill and I have filed a sort of hemisphere on the end of the socket screws.  I really put the pads there to bridge any holes as well as protect the table surface.

Cheers,

Rod

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

I know it’ll be nothing to some of you, but feeling pleased with myself for managing to assemble the individual ‘Vickers’ engine parts that Jason kindly sent me into a complete engine – that doesn’t fly apart if you rotate the crank!

I never imagined at the beginning of this year that I’d be posting this now, thanks so much for all your encouragement.

 

 

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You are picking it up quickly and I think it is quite useful to have some “ready made” parts to look at how they were drawn as well as to assemble.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Yes, it’s really interesting to see how ‘economical’ an experienced worker can be – your CAD creations are just as direct as your machining methods, I’m beginning to see that there might be benefits to be had in my own ‘chip-making’ too – you start to see the operations in a much more direct way..

 

[derek hall 1]

On derek hall 1 Said:

On Dalboy Said:

Finished the spring winder today after making a mess of the shaft by drilling the hole in the wrong place.

First photo with hole in the wrong place

After the remade shaft

Completed and ready for a test. Well it looks the part, but will it work.

 

Hi,

I made mine a few years ago from the Hemingway kit.

It works very well! But be careful to have the lathe running very slowly, try using small diameter spring material first and practice a few times.

I made mine primarily as it looked an interesting gadget to make, I like making useful and unusual tools but its mine purpose was to make a large spring for my Quorn grinder.

Regards

Derek

I confess to not having any plans, I did look on their site to see if they sold plans separate rather than buying the kit. I think they would benefit by doing so.

I havw made a couple of springs and it certainly works well

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Looking at making a paint can tumbler which works just like a stone polishing tumbler but is meant to keep paint moving inside the tin and prevent a skin forming and therefore spoiling.

Spent the day hunting through my shop for bits and bobs to cobble together.

Motor and gearbox unit from a handheld plaster mixer. Assorted bearings and shafts. Some tube to make the rollers. Aluminium for end plates.

With any luck I will get the majority of work done tomorrow.

It will only need to handle 1 litre tins as I don’t use the 5 litre anymore. But I will make it big enough to hold several of the small tins and turn them.

According to the guy who built and uses one it only needs to be run an hour a day to stop the paint settling. It also keeps the paint ready to use without further mixing.

Hoping the theory will work in practice.

Mick

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Change of plan for the motor. I found a motor and gear unit from a disabled bath lift which is perfect for the job.

Cobbled a few bearings and rollers together and it works really well.

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Like a stome-polishing tumber…

Similar tumblers are also used for deburring small machined metal items, giving them smooth edges and a matt finish.

I’ve not tried it but one old dodge for keeping the surface of paint liquid is to float a disc of polythene sheet on it; though that won’t stop the paint from separating, of course.

…

Spent some hours today making a key.

Not any old key but the one that connects the off-side wheel of my steam-wagon to the axle. It’s about 1-1/2″ long on the key part, by 1/4″ wide.

I used one of my very old “full-size” text-books to find the proper proportions for a gib-head key.

To give the 1:100 taper, as well as plenty of material to hold, I scribed a line close to the end and another 300mm from that, on about fifteen inches of stock bar. Then clamped the bar to a angle plate on the milling-machine table, with the edge of a parallel under the 300mm line, and the origin line on 3mm drill shank on a second parallel: sine-bar principle.

To make it more fun the keyway in the axle (1″ dia stainless-steel) is accurate but that in the wheel hub less so and slightly over-width, necessitating a key with a rebated cross-section.

Then much of the evening carefully draw-filing the blade until it fitted as it should (ish!)

 

Finally stopped for tea at approaching 10pm with just the key to be severed from the stock and its head filed to shape.

 

I know what will happen now…. I will find the lost one this evening’s 5 hours’ efforts is to replace!

[PlasmaParticipant @plasma]

Nigel,

The only images I could come up with online were for lapidary stone tumbler designs. Some using old paint cans as the tumbling barrels.

Mine is loosely based on the one below, but slow speed was the main requirement as you don’t want the paint to end up centrifuged to the outside of the can.

I may used mine for parts tumbling too, coukd be a happy accident.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

My puncture repair glue top had come off and it dried up. No worry as I had an ancient (tin case) unused kit – except the unopened sealed glue turned out to be full of only air. So off to Halfords on reserve bike (no mudguards) as it wasn’t raining. So it started to drizzle. Halfords no longer sell glue or patches on their own! “Buy a new inner tube” was the suggestion of the kid on the counter. Got some no-glue patches to try. Then will have to try online but might find they aren’t allowed to mail solvent containing glue. 🙁

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Tip-Top Vulcanising Cement on Ebay

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

My puncture repair glue top had come off and it dried up. No worry as I had an ancient (tin case) unused kit – except the unopened sealed glue turned out to be full of only air. So off to Halfords on reserve bike (no mudguards) as it wasn’t raining. So it started to drizzle. Halfords no longer sell glue or patches on their own! “Buy a new inner tube” was the suggestion of the kid on the counter. Got some no-glue patches to try. Then will have to try online but might find they aren’t allowed to mail solvent containing glue. 🙁

Yep, me too.  Had to buy it on-line.  Weldtite this time.

Why not try a local bike shop (not that there are that many anymore) I hear you say?  Well, what’s to say they will have any either?  Much as the idea doesn’t sit well with me (I like to support local if I can), at least if on-line sellers haven’t got what you want, you can’t have it, and haven’t wasted your time visiting them.  Sadly, that will apply to many other products.

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