Member postings for Grindstone Cowboy

Possibly a bit of confusion creeping in here? Duncan and Chris are, I think, talking about central heating boiler exhaust fans NOT the central heating pump (or circulator) which are usually cast-iron and quite weighty. Not all boilers have exhaust fans.

Hope this helps.

Rob

No knowledge of it, but a quick search shows others were finding it hard to locate a year ago.

It sounds a reasonable theory to me

Rob

Just to close this conversation off, he has decided to go with JTE Castings, as suggested by Duncan. It seems the expensive part is getting the patterns made - the part he needs is a curved rail to fit a particular set of entrance steps, so it's pretty much a custom item.

Thanks again to all.

Rob

I have successfully used Lumiweld for repairing motorbike castings, so it might be OK for this. Bought a kit many years ago, but I'm assuming it is still available.

Rob

Many thanks to all who have replied, I will pass on all leads to my friend. The mention of eye-wateringly expensive quotes is, I believe, something he has already discovered. His last lot of railings were about £2000, and a quote he has received so far is for more than ten times that amount.

Thanks again for your help, just goes to prove how helpful and knowledgeable the folk are on here.

I will feed back any information if he does find a helpful foundry.

Rob

Hi

A long shot, but asking this question on behalf of a friend who is restoring a Victorian property. He needs some cast iron railings making to match the existing ones. Quite a few years ago when doing a similar job he used a supplier in the Bolton, Lancashire area, but cannot recall any contact details apart from the fact it was a one-man operation, and that the one man was possibly called Derek.

Has anyone any ideas as to Derek's whereabouts and if he is still in business?

Failing that, suggestions for a foundry that could produce railings somewhere in the North West would be appreciated.

Apologies in advance, but I will not be able to reply to anyone until late on Sunday.

Many thanks,

Rob

At a guess, I'd say the link turns black after you have clicked on it once. Blue would indicate a link you have never clicked on. If you delete your browsing history and cookies, this may/will reset the colours.

Rob

I fitted adjustable feet to my cabinet to make levelling that easier (builder's spirit level), then levelled the lathe on the cabinet (engineer's level). And before somebody says lathes don't need to be level, just not twisted, it does make it a lot easier to get in the right ball park.

The weight should be plenty to hold it in place.

Rob

I'd be tempted to dissect the wire - hopefully you can narrow down which couple of inches by judicious wiggling - and make a repair. Or shorten the wire and fit a new power connector if you can find a suitable one. Or have a look here for a complete replacement unit - they list Lenovo compatible units at various prices.

Rob

Possibly preempting a reply from Pete, but I've always been told that the vertical edge needs to be slightly rough to 'bite', but the bottom face can/should be honed as fine as you can.

Rob

Working on the Holmes principle of whatever is left, no matter how improbable, etc. there must be some sort of problem with the resistor or the plain bit of wire. Unlikely as it may sound, I think the resistor must be faulty when under the load of the LED - what I mean is that it may show OK with the miniscule current of the test meter, but somehow cannot pass enough current to light the LED.

And we are entirely sure it's just a plain resistor and nothing more sinister?

Just my guess, but possibly worth testing it some other way? If it's not that then it's the plain bit of wire

Rob

Firefox browser has pop-up blocking enabled as standard, as does Microsoft Edge, so if you are using one of those maybe you have (inadvertantly) allowed pop-ups on the Ebay site?

I've not seen any whilst using Ebay recently.

Rob

You don't mention the thickness of the sheet, but make sure there are at least two teeth engaged with the material. Other than that, should be OK.

Rob

I wouldn't have thought so, as long as they take reasonable care to set them up with the existing surface as flat as possible.

Rob

Or you could hire a professional - I've seen good things said about Landylift, but not sure if they are currently working or if it would be economically feasible for you.

Rob

Lathes.co.uk is your friend for identifying. But it looks like a Mk 2, maybe 3 - it's not a Mk 1

What may be handy to know about - and someone had to point them out to me - are the two pairs of holes at each end of the cabinet through which you can pass some stout metal bars or pipe for lifting. You can just see the front ones in your picture, more or less directly below the lathe feet and virtually up against the underside of the cabinet top. Then if you have a hoist or some sort of lifting gear it becomes a doddle.

If you do decide to remove the headstock (and I was advised this was OK, and would not destroy the alignment) then you'll need to shorten a spanner to get at the bolt at the chuck end - it's a fiddly job as you only get about 10 or so degrees of turn before having to flip the spanner over.

Two of us got the cabinet (minus motor) into the back of a Landrover, similarly two of us could lift the lathe in after it. When I came to get the lathe back onto the cabinet, I only had my wife to assist, so removed the headstock to make it manageable.

Hope this helps.

Rob

Try a paste of sodium bicarb and water, leave it on overnight, but like the others, I don't hold out much hope.

I'm not a Mac user, but I don't think it will straight out of the box - however it might work under some sort of Windows emulator, but that's a whole extra level of complexity.

Rob