Cost of Raw Materials

[thomas oliver 2Participant @thomasoliver2]

I recently bought some 4 metre lengths of HE15 alloy at the AALCO of Gateshead depot, which of course saved on their delivery charge, which is not inconsiderable. The 1/4 dia. cost me 75p/ft., the 1/2in dia. – £1 /ft. and the 3/4 dia. – £1.50. The main dealers are not so dear if you buy their standard lengths. I split the deal with a friend.

At the Harrogate show I was asked £15 for a 2ft length of 1 in. by one dealer and £5 per ft. by another.

For many years I was able to access the scrap end bin of the Corus Steel stockholders by the foreman. Steel ends stlll have the steel colour code on one end. It is as well to know this code beforehand, than you can be sure to select the EN1A and other grades needed. Some dealers have their own codes but there is one fairly standard one.

[WannabewelderParticipant @wannabewelder]

Hi JasonB

Thanks for the link. To say that I'm impressed would be a gross understatement!

Hi Russell I'm afraid I don't have access to the digital editions of Model Engineer (only MEW) so I can't check out Model Engineer no.4366, but if its anything like the standard in JasonB's link…..

When I started out in engineering many years ago I can remember just one female trainee who was a year “ahead” of me, and she was good, very knowledgeable and committed.

It seemed then that, and I hope this doesn't sound prejudiced, if a female was going to succeed in engineering she had to be exceptional it being very much a male dominated world in those days. During my seven years training she was the only female that I came across, and in more recent times I don't recall ever seeing any posts in the forums that are obviously from the fair sex or for that matter articles in MEW, hence the question about female model engineers which you've well and truly answered.

Regards

Wannabe

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think in the last week we have had imput from Jo, she does not post much here but regularly posts om MEM forum and you shoudl also look at some of rebekah's work, she has linked to her Photobucket album somewhere in the last week.

There is also Julia Olds more often to be found on Traction Talk Forum, just completing teh painting of her 6" scale traction engine and who has also written in ME.

J

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Another is Sarah, who at the time I was rebuilding a Stuart no 9, was doing a rebuild on a Stuart no 4, and who knows how many more are out there, there are a number of people who use pseudonyms, so we don't know, and does it matter. Ian S C

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

And Helen at Western Steam

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

I don't think you can beat the Great British car boot sale for finding raw materials at ridiculously low prices – tooling as well! The exception would be for chunky bar stock but I have found a local precision engineers where the bossman will let me stagger from the premises with all I can carry for a fiver. He has even provided me with his personal email ad. telling me to email him with what I need and he'll have it ready for me. Needless to say, I do not intend kicking the a**e out of this little gem.

Recent CB acquisitions are Salter scale cast iron weights – super for flywheels etc. as also are some of the smaller cast iron weights from unwanted weight lifting sets. Another find was a pile of very large thick brass door finger plates (to heavy to lift in one go). I priced these up at retail and it came out at £1200 – so not bad for £35 the lot what?

Job lot of 10mm dia. solid stainless door handles – enough to last me this life and the next as well (I wish!)

So that was just a few examples of what Sundays mean to me. I truly derive as much pleasure and satisfaction from stocking up this way as I do from the making of models/tooling from the stuff I've bought. It's a great way of doing it on the cheap especially if you scratch build like what I do.

Rik

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by JasonB on 21/05/2013 10:41:16:

Or better stil the last dozen or so in this album – all the ones in glass cases

Nice set of photos of that exhibition. Even spotted my own loco in there!

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

I have only glanced through the posts on this thread so I may have missed something. In a different context, I feel sure that I have presented some of this elsewhere. However, I am reminded of the following couple of experiences.

Our next door neighbour worked for a well known lift company, who not only installed lifts into new buildings, but also replaced some of the very old ones.

One day, he asked me if I was interested in some lengths of steel which had originally been the winding shafts in a very old Melbourne building. Well, it seemed too good an opportunity to be missed so I `took delivery’ of several pieces roughly 3" in diameter. They had been dismembered from service by means of an oxy torch. Not that that was any real concern to me.

Several years passed before I found a use for a couple of short sections. They would eventually form the two-piece body of an adjustable fly cutter for the milling machine. I sliced off the requisite couple of lengths in the bandsaw, complete with sufficient extra length for `chucking’ etc.

Apart from the expected grumbles from my ML7 as I cleaned off the flame-cut faces, all seemed to go OK.

Then it was time to mill the dovetail. Oh dear! or even stronger words. What the ….. was going on? The stuff was wrecking the edges of my (proprietary) dovetail cutter, which in turn was glazing the `cut’ surface. I was too discouraged to complete the project, so I went out and bought a proper one.

In an entirely different direction, having nothing left by way of materials after selling my entire workshop, I needed to finish several small brackets on my skeleton clock. I was also not prepared to lash out and buy various lengths of brass.

Since most of the brackets were of relatively solid construction, they `threatened’ to waste a considerable amount of both types of brass (one being money). Although it was somewhat fiddly and required some extra precision during preparation, I managed to fabricate the brackets by carefully silver-soldering smaller pieces together.

Not a new idea, but you’ll get my drift.

Regards to all,

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 26/05/2013 23:44:54

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