My golf buggy

In my album there's a blued titanium light-pull shaped like a fish. I think it may be the only thing I've made that someone might pull from the rubble of future centuries looking much like it does now, and wonder who made it and why…

That was worth the the effort. Quite lovely.

I found practising making babies was far more enjoyable than actually ending up with a baby.

It's a Brontornis of the Miocene in S.America. Allegedly it was 8ft tall, weighed up to 350 kg, ran at 40 mph. and ate horses.

But it's away with the Dodo these days.

As for the babies SOD, I guess we may both be of an age where we're thinking one day they might be maintaining us.

Oh, and there's a hoop back chair I made on a course 9 years ago from sawn logs with pole lathe, travisher and steam box. I use it every day, and so do friends and family when they come. Nothing remarkable to look at, I hope it survives for many more years.

Almost anything that I complete! Whether it's a repair job or a 'project' or a restoration.

Recently, whilst having a tidy up I rediscovered a tool I'd completely forgotten about. I was very impressed with it – it is a taper pin turning roller box tool which I'd made as an apprentice. Unfortunately I cannot remember whether it was a self designed tool or was 'inspired' by a toolmaker, probably a bit of both, I seem to remember that a roller box tool was an apprentice project but seem to remember that I wanted something a little different and 'out of the ordinary'. It works by using a master taper to alter the tool point, in effect copying the master taper onto the part being made. Should have patented it!

Martin

Sorry it's not model engineering BUT

Living in a small village with no 3Ph power and having bought a 400A mig welder for £25 I built a 20Kva 3ph generator driven by a car diesel. Then a 14Hp 3ph motor and starter for a bottle of whiskey, this became a 10ton hydraulic log splitter, then £35 for a 24" bladed 3ph saw bench ! Suddenly I had many NEW friends ! Oh and the generator runs on waste cooking oil.The welder would go down to car body work on .6mm or up to 1/2" girder on 1mm, quite happily, the log splitter would break almost any thing. Very useful when the power goes down and great fun to make ! Now I don't care what phase it is and it usually comes cheap as few want it ! Noel.

John,

Not in pristine condition but here is the taper pin box tool. I have captioned one photograph so you can see how it works (or is supposed to work!). Afraid it has rusted up a bit since I last used it (probably about 50 years ago). I also made a recessing tool (again as an apprentice – its stamped 1965!) for a capstan which I regularly still use on my Raglan capstan attachment. I've added the photographs of that as well for your interest.

NOTE – Well that was a failure – something wrong with the website which is not allowing me to modify my photo albums!!

A description of the Taper Pin Box tool:-

Is a body with a sliding centre support for the stock material. One of the legs of the support has a taper machined on it and this contacts with a swivelling tool block. this allows the diameter of the work to alter as the whole box tool advances towards the headstock. The swivelling tool block mounts on the front face of the tool and a tangential cutting tool is set up with adjustment for diameter. The rollers are mounted on a non moving face and are set to the stock size of bar being machined. As the RBT advances the centre support is pushed back and this action generates the taper as given by the guide rail which is also the 'master' taper.

A description of the recessing tool:-

A simple rack and pinion driven slide is set in the front face of the tool and this is operated by hand using a lever from the rear of the tool. The rack is machined on one edge of the 'Tee nut' type tool block – the tool block has a 3/8th hole in the front face into which a scrap milling cutter is clamped. The scrap cutter is ground up to give the form required (deep hole recess or a circlip recess as desired). I have used it many times for the later on the capstan attachment of my Raglan lathe as well as on other machines with a suitable MT adaptor.

I'll post photos as soon as the website allows pictures to be uploaded to my album(s).

Martin

Successfully completing almost every job brings satisfaction, but probably the most satisfying, and useful, would be a head to head between the Four Way Rear Toolpost and the Worden Cutter Grinder..

Every tool that functions as wished is satisfying.

The beauty of Model Engineering and any manual craft is that, at the end, there is something to show for the time and effort. And if it is useful then even more so!

Howard