“TINKER” tool & cutter grinder

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by DMB on 09/04/2021 10:44:46:

I acquired the 2 iron castings many years ago from a fellow club member after purchasing the drawings from Guy.

Do you still have the drawings & would they be for sale if you are in the Uk?

That may sort my problem if you no longer need them

Sam L

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by jon hill 3 on 09/04/2021 11:03:47:

Hi Sam

If wiring the money is a problem with your bank open up a Transferwise account, foreign exchange fees are minimal as it is set up to match people who already have the currencies necessary.

By the way I think Transferwise are now called Wise.

Apparently the problem is Guy's end & they will not give me an account to pay into as it costs them money. According to the Nat West site, my end will do it FOC

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 09/04/2021 11:54:40

[geoff warner 1Participant @geoffwarner1]

hi all

just thought i would enclose my pics of the tinker grinder which i bought and the mini tinker grinder which i made from the drawings via mr lautard i dont use either as i have the harold hall design tool grinder that i do on occasion use

note just realised i do not have an album so no pics.

geoff

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Sam Longley 1 on 09/04/2021 07:17:54:

[…]

I wanted to pay by electronic transfer but have been told by his wife that she will not give me the IBAN account details for me to pay into. Understandable, I suppose, as she does not know if I am genuine. She says her bank will charge her a lot to accept the payment electronically.

Is that true & is payment by cheque from me, with a 25 day clearance time the other end, the only way I can do this? Will that then cost me a lot to get it cleared my end?

[…]

.

Still struggling to comprehend all this ^^^ but it’s none of my business

… For the aforementioned PayPal route, you would only need her eMail address.

[ and an appropriate level of trust between you ]

MichaelG.

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Wandering a little bit here.

I had a Tinker once – made by a Frank McLean, who wrote in Live Steam and has a book of his articles available from Village Press. He was the first tool designer and machinist for Lee Valley, some here might recognize the company.

I actually never used it – shortly after I purchased it, I had to move around the world (to NZ) for work; lent it and some other tools to a fellow club member who was very short of retirement funds, who subsequently passed away and the contents of his workshop auctioned off to other club members. When I returned, I found the workshop equipment I had lent in other peoples' workshops, and they had paid $$ for it so were not returning it.

Long story short – I built a Worden, 100x better, and I'd think Harold Hall's jigs are equal or better than the Tinker, if you want to use a standard bench grinder as a base.

[Mike CrossfieldParticipant @mikecrossfield92481]

Mr Tinker produced two versions of the Tinker. The standard, and the smaller and slightly simpler “Mini Tinker”. 20-odd years ago I bought a set of plans for the Mini Tinker. I can’t for the life of me remember how I got them – at the time I was travelling to and fro to the US quite a lot, so It’s possible I bought them there. Anyway, my plans changed and I never used them. I came across them during a recent tidy-up, so if anyone is interested I’d be happy to sell them. They consist of 1 x A4 sheet of Construction Notes, 1 x A4 sheet of Operating Notes, I x A4 Materials list, and 5 x A3 sheet of drawings.send me a PM if you’re interested.

Mike

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by Mike Crossfield on 09/04/2021 15:25:58:

Mr Tinker produced two versions of the Tinker. The standard, and the smaller and slightly simpler “Mini Tinker”. 20-odd years ago I bought a set of plans for the Mini Tinker. I can’t for the life of me remember how I got them – at the time I was travelling to and fro to the US quite a lot, so It’s possible I bought them there. Anyway, my plans changed and I never used them. I came across them during a recent tidy-up, so if anyone is interested I’d be happy to sell them. They consist of 1 x A4 sheet of Construction Notes, 1 x A4 sheet of Operating Notes, I x A4 Materials list, and 5 x A3 sheet of drawings.send me a PM if you’re interested.

Mike

Unfortunately I wanted the full version as reports that the mini falls short of a decent range & job.

I have just had an email from them & they refuse to give me an account No. Even if I telephone them for it. So there is no way i can transfer the money. Seems a bit weird, but clearly they do not want my custom. So unless I can source a second hand set somewhere I will have to drop the idea

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Sam, do you not have any contacts in the USA that could get the plans for you. Maybe even a member on the forum from the US may be willing to help. I used to get my brother to get me items from the US and ship them for me but unfortuanatly he passed away last year so I cannot help.

regards

[Old SchoolParticipant @oldschool]

Their site says they will take Western Union, it’s not expensive if you do it by bank transfer. I know it’s not popular but I use it to buy model car parts from Russia with no problems they won’t take anything else.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Please ignore my earlier suggestion that PayPal might be convenient

… I’ve just had my first browse around the Lautard site

MichaelG.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

I was made redundant about 25 years ago (gosh, how time flies!) from Link Miles simulators and it was while I worked for them that I bought currency notes from my bank and posted them to Guy in payment for a full set of drawings and notes. Taking a small risk but it worked and I thought that was the cheapest, easiest method at the time.

Adam Harris who runs Camdenbooks in Somerset, only sold Guys books, not drawings. I have all Guys books and the drawings are not in the books. I also don't recall the drawings in Model Engineer. The books are or were, avail. second hand on Ebay.

I have not quite completed the jig and I have no plans to dispose of the drawings when I have finished making the jig.

Anyone who tries to make one to the drawings, beware. Not saying there is an error but it's got me foxed, the square toolholder appears to have been drawn incorrectly. I cannot be certain. When I restart work on it, that's the last major item to make and I will do it how I think it was intended to be machined, then I'll know for certain! If I'm wrong, I have a work-around, to avoid a scrapper.

Hope to report my findings in due course but it's likely to be sometime as I'm giving priority finishing Harold Hall's MK2 jig, so I can write my notes on it for the Brighton club's newsletter. Lots of other Roundtoits to do as well. Busy retirement!

BTW, not yet found an error in HHs drawings and incredible detail down to steel specs and details of each commercial screws, sizes.

Edited By DMB on 09/04/2021 23:01:39

Edited By DMB on 09/04/2021 23:02:23

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I have the castings and plans somewhere bought at our club auction when nobody else was dumb enough to show interest. Frankly I'd be ashamed to charge for fully printed copies of the poorly presented plans let alone a zero expense electronic copy. When I got them I did a bit of internet searching and found somewhere a picture that showed the advisable modification of making the horizontal micrometer adjustment work like the Quorn.

If you need drawings to make such a simple device without being able to understand enough about it not to need drawings then you could be in trouble as there are some design flaws from what I remember that prevent accuracy being maintained.

As per your request I won't mention the name of almost any other jig that would be a better alternative.

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

Posted by DMB on 09/04/2021 22:55:11:

Adam Harris who runs Camdenbooks in Somerset, only sold Guys books, not drawings. I have all Guys books and the drawings are not in the books. I also don't recall the drawings in Model Engineer. The books are or were, avail. second hand on Ebay.

The books are available if one searches second-hand book sites but it seems that one would be VERY lucky to be able to buy them at less than £100 each.

MC Black

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Send the money by Western Union. It's easy, cheap, reliable and secure.

If the Lautards won't give you their bank details, you can have Western Union send the money to thier local WU office or agent, of which there are myriad, and Lautard can collect it in Canadian cash right there.

You can do it from home on your computer with credit card, or go to your local Western Union office or agent, which you can look up online. They don't charge a transfer fee like banks do for cheques etc, but make their money on the exchange rate, which is still quite reasonable, especially on a small amount like $50 or whatever.

It's the main way that millions of foreign workers worldwide send money home to their families and bank accounts so nothing exotic or risky. And WU have been in the business since cowboys on ponies delivered the goods.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Regarding the fact they say they are not set up for paypal which may be why Michael has revoked his earlier comment. It is likely they are not able to issue a Paypal invoice but provided they have a paypal account you can pay into it provided you have the e-mail address they use for it and are obviously willing. They used to take a fee but don't remember having to do that last time I used it just before Xmas

Also as I said earlier and others have too they take Western union so you could use that, WU take a fee from you but not the person collecting the money.

The other option is to offer to transfer more money to cover their bank costs so they are not out of pocket.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 10/04/2021 07:01:55:

Regarding the fact they say they are not set up for paypal which may be why Michael has revoked his earlier comment. It is likely they are not able to issue a Paypal invoice but provided they have a paypal account you can pay into it provided you have the e-mail address they use for it and are obviously willing.

.

To be blunt, Jason … Having looked around the site : It was the lack of willingness that disturbed me.

I originally suggested using the ‘friends and family’ route because that can be free of charges on both sides.

… it does require a level of trust though.

MichaelG.

.

Ref. https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-send-money-faq1684

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 10/04/2021 07:59:56

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

If losing 30 quid would be be more than mildly annoying then sending cash in CDN dollars is easy but not very safe. I sent a chap in Czechoslovakia $25 for a minidisc titling kit, we both got what we wanted, he was an honest guy. If it had gone pear shaped then it would have been slightly annoying but I was fully prepared for it being one of those things to put down to experience.

Mike

[John BaronParticipant @johnbaron31275]

Hi Guys,

The "Tinker" TCG is best considered an idea that needs your own input rather than a set of poorly drawn details ! GL is a writer of books containing lots of ideas culled from around the world very few if any of which are unique. I don't remember the details of which magazine the "Tinker" was published in other than the ones I mentioned earlier !

If GL was as awkward as you say, I would give it no further consideration !

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by JasonB on 10/04/2021 07:01:55:

Regarding the fact they say they are not set up for paypal which may be why Michael has revoked his earlier comment. It is likely they are not able to issue a Paypal invoice but provided they have a paypal account you can pay into it provided you have the e-mail address they use for it and are obviously willing. They used to take a fee but don't remember having to do that last time I used it just before Xmas

Also as I said earlier and others have too they take Western union so you could use that, WU take a fee from you but not the person collecting the money.

The other option is to offer to transfer more money to cover their bank costs so they are not out of pocket.

I did that but they refuse to give an account number. Their bank charge 18 canadian dollars so margaret tell me. Seems guy & her are divorced so she does the dealing – Not sure of validity of that comment though.

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Chap on another forum sent cheque in August last year & is still waiting for drawings. Seems mail is taking its time- poor excuse if you ask me. Less reason to send a cheque.

[DiogenesIIParticipant @diogenesii]

Apologies,suggested another model – never mind..

Edited By DiogenesII on 10/04/2021 11:33:59

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

Why doesn't Mr. Lautard appoint an agent in the United Kingdom to sell his books and drawings?

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by MC Black on 10/04/2021 12:49:23:

Why doesn't Mr. Lautard appoint an agent in the United Kingdom to sell his books and drawings?

Or publish the books via Kindle?

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Some people do not really want the extra money because it would just interfere with their government pension.  No idea about Canada or this particular case but that's the way it works here in Australia. The rigamarole for a pensioner to report any extra small income or single payment appearing in his bank account makes it not worth dealing with. And then the government cuts your pension payment that week for making the effort. So cash or unreported random Western Union cash payments could be a lot easier.

I had thought about putting some of my magazine articles together into an ebook but decided against it for this reason.

 

Edited By Hopper on 10/04/2021 15:45:40

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by MC Black on 10/04/2021 12:49:23:

Why doesn't Mr. Lautard appoint an agent in the United Kingdom to sell his books and drawings?

I purchased Mr Lautard's "The Machinists Bedside Reader" many years ago when visiting Canada. It was written and (self) published by him in 1986. I also have "Lautard's Technical index to Model Engineer 1920-1978" which he published in 1979. I would certainly like to have his other 'Bedside Readers' but the few I've seen for sale have always been offered at very silly prices.

I seem to recall reading that there was some kind of personal problem that was preventing him from re-printing his books or perhaps making him unwilling to do so. A great pity, as I'm sure others would like copies of his books too. He comes across in his writings as being a knowledgeable machinist, who I think would be in his mid-seventies by now – so not that old

Regards,

Iant

[Author]

Posts