Member postings for norman valentine

Alan, I am not an expert, so can't be relied on but I have one of those lovely Hoover motors. I wanted to fit it on a machine that needed to run in either direction. I identified the pairs of wires that fed each coil and after that it was quite easy following one of the diagrams in Tubal Cains "Model Engineers Handbook". I have to admit that I melted the capacitor at the first attempt but now it works fine.

Edited By norman valentine on 25/11/2014 16:28:39

Gosh, I hadn't realised how lucky I have been. I recently completed the building of a vertical milling machine from castings that I made myself. There were two jobs that I could not do so I went to a local company, Adams Engineering, Skegness. They milled a flat surface on an aluminium casting 24" x 3" and threaded the end of a 16mm splined shaft. Their work was spot on and not expensive.

There are people out there that can do jobs at realistic prices, you just have to search for them.

I wanted a small rotary table and decided to have a go at making one for myself. It is now nearly complete, I have just got the division plates to make. Here is a photo of it, if you are interested in how I have done it you can find a build log on the Madmodder website in the "Projects" section.

Why not make your own? That's what I did.

I have a stool in my workshop and seem to spend more time moving it out of the way than actually using it. I have back problems and find that I get terrible back ache working on a lathe for any length of time. To alleviate this I mounted my lathe onto concrete blocks which raised it over six inches. I found that helps a lot, I have never found it convenient to work sitting on a stool.

I would argue the need for degassing tablets. I did some casting at evening school some 40 years ago, we degassed the metal and the resulting casting was full of bubbles.

Over the last few years I have produced approximately 40 castings in aluminium at home and have not done anything to degass the metal. None of my castings have shown any bubbles. when machined.

Whether you degass or not have a go at casting it is very addictive! It also can save you a lot of money, I am currently building a rotary table and the cost of materials if built from bar stock was over £40 but with castings the only real cost has been the fuel for the furnace and that is under £5.

Edited By norman valentine on 08/09/2014 08:46:02

Many years ago I used to own a vineyard on the Isle of Wight, I used to do guided tours for the visitors. Once when I had started a tour some more people arrived and I had to ask them to wait. A few minutes later a couple of Vulcan bombers started to circle overhead and remained doing so for several minutes. It kept them happy whilst waiting, better than any sideshow that I could have organised!

Loctite produce a liquid gasket that should do the job.

It is very interesting to read all of these suggestions, all of which are very sensible. But, when you are starting from scratch, with no lumps of timber or lengths of steel rod laying around it becomes very expensive. My workshop is at the bottom of a 15 foot(feet) high muddy slope. I can only access it in dry weather and have so far managed to install a couple of smallish lathes but fear having to remove them. The only practical way that I can see is using lots of manpower, but where do I find them?

Angle Grinder!

I have always found them to be excellent, and their prices are good too.

Norman

Edited By norman valentine on 24/06/2014 16:00:54

About a year ago the thread on my rubbish Chinese vice sheared. Since then I have been using a 2" Stanley clamp on vice that has struggled to hold my work. I did not want to buy another cheapo vice but did not have the funds to buy a goodun. Finally last week I got a decent English made vice on Ebay for £10. I stripped it down and repainted it over the last couple of days.

I have been stripping the paint from a newly acquired vice. Tomorrow I will paint it and mount it on my bench.

My memory is playing tricks, it was ten years ago. I believe that I used to remove the nut at the back to take the wheel off the machine and then the spindle could be driven out after the front nut had been removed.

I have used a DeWalt bandsaw, can't remember the model. The top wheel used to seize up regularly due to an accumulation of sawdust. It was simply a matter of removing the nut in the centre of the wheel and then it would pull off and as a temporary measure the bearings could be flushed out with WD40 or similar. The best solution was replacement of the bearings with good quality properly sealed bearings.

When I was building my "Dart" I cut the two frames (total thickness 3/8" over a period of one week of sawing and filing every evening for about 3 hours. I didn't think that it was too bad. A dreadnought file and a lot of pressure takes metal off very quickly.

I was a teacher before I retired. Good peripheral vision was very useful in a workshop environment when I was able to catch many misbehaving pupils who thought that I couldn't see them.

Norman

I used a 254 for four years. Good lathe except for the method of engaging back gear, you have to loosen 4 allen screws on the end of the spindle. Why did they have to make them two different sizes?

Norman

In an ideal world Eric's packing method would be fine but prohibitively expensive. In the real world packaging has to be designed to use the least materials possible, at the least cost and for the goods to arrive with an acceptable proportion arriving in good condition. The cost of packaging has to be weighed against the cost of replacement of those that are damaged. It is a cost of business to make good any damage incurred in transit.

When I was a kid my dad had a model of a spitfire made from an old penny. It had been beaten out, folded in half and the sides folded down and then all filed to shape to make the unmistakable shape of a Spitfire.