Member postings for Jon Lawes

My Pillar Drill was lend/lease from the USA. Can't get cheaper than that, unless of course they ask for back-rent.

The most experienced engineer I know with regards to both this locomotive and valve gear is a chap called David Clarke of Atlantic Engineering Design in the South West. I think his company is advertised on Facebook.

Be aware he is one of those people who is run off his feet with work despite never needing to advertise, so he sometimes takes a while to get back to you (and like any small business his knowledge is what pays his bills).

You could also try Sweet Pea owners; as you may be aware Hackworth is common on those.

Welcome Pete,

There is a wealth of info here, one thing I would say is that the amount of time this forum has been around the questions have almost certainly been asked a couple of times before (especially the "which lathe" question!) so you may find the search function will bring up most of your early questions.

We do get a lot of questions where people are reluctant to fill in the gaps of info which they may not feel is relevant but actually would help quite a lot with the answer.

Is the intention to use this metal for practice? Is it a cheap source of steel which you feel you could use for multiple projects? Have you chosen this metal because it suits the end product? I sense from your guarded posts you don't really feel the intention is relevant, but it really honestly does help as when we know the intention we can assist with giving you information on the best way to achieve it.

This is all written with the best possible intentions to assist where possible.

Fantastic work. Thanks for keeping us involved.

Terrific.

Is it large? Terror inducing? Or is it really good?

I remember being enthralled by his stuff when I was younger, so a couple of years ago I sent him a message thanking him for making a series which still sticks with me now. He was gracious enough to reply, and as you can imagine was polite, erudite and self-effacing. Lovely chap.

I'm sure its useful to someone; the ways might be in good order, its hard to tell.

Donkey saws seem to have gone out of fashion; I think I'm going to try to find a reasonably priced one of those. Less worry than a bandsaw.

This is superb.

I've had a suprising amount of success by just sharpening an HSS cutting tool to a knife edge point and turning the glass in the lathe. I wrap the tube in tape to protect it from the jaws, but a better way would be some sort of soft jaws as it can be a trial to get it concentric this way. I cut the end off of a pyrex test tube this way, but usually I cut normal glass.

You just gently introduce the cutting tool at a 90 degree angle and the glass cuts a vee which you can then tap gently to break once its deep enough. Playing a flame over the cut edge works for normal glass I think with pyrex you would have to use an abrasive grit paper to get the end sweet.

Quite a bit of backlash isn't unusual, but its probably not the nut.

As others have done, on my ML7 I bored out the hole that the shaft goes into and fitted a 1/4 x 3/8 x 1/8 sealed bearing, with an NTA411 bearing either side (a needle roller bearing with washers, two of, part number NTA411). The removed a vast quantity of the backlash.

You had enough spare minutes to kvetch a response...

I was told that with the myford oilers you should be just getting bored waiting for the next drip and then there it goes!

Mine tremendously over oil. I usually am on the lathe long enough in one go for the oilers to almost empty.

As for the thread cutting, there are charts which will help you out on google that you can print off for the workshop wall. Don't forget the material you are cutting will have a bearing on things too.

What are you making that demands that accuracy?!

I tend to only cut about three different thread pitches. So you don't waste any effort, do you need these gears?

Small size rivetting is very effective and quite easy even for someone with ten thumbs like me. It's your locomotive, do as you wish. The only people you need to please when building are you and the boiler inspector (And he won't give a damn about the hornblocks!).

I would probably think rivetting is easier rather than faffing about countersinking, loctiting etc.

Most of my rivet snaps have a side ground down for clearance with previous tasks. I don't bother to do the full circumference.

My Grandfather was the foreman of the Boiler House at Boscombe Down which supplied superheated steam to heat exchangers fitted to all the other buildings of the site. It was an interesting system, but I suspect it wasn't very efficient. Oddities included the Weighbridge hangar with an air curtain system coming up from the floor to try to retain heat when the doors were open, and the heat exchanger connected to a merlin engine radiator/heat exhanger to warm fuel up for tropical testing. Don't fancy being near that when its all toasty.

Back on topic I'm finding my house heating far more efficient now I'm heating specific areas rather than all of it. It's a tall and narrow house on three stories so all the heat goes to the top. I've suggested using a fan and ducting to bring the hot air back to the bottom but my wife really doesn't like the idea of my experimental duct-work...

I've used white vinegar in the past with good results.