What did you do today? (2014)

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

This lot from the boot today. All the loose stuff in the foreground came in the box with the hasp on. Some of it looks like someone had been keeping bits for an on-going project mixed with other stuff. There are two new sets of male and female hardened and ground morse taper gauges, MT1 and MT2 and a few sets of new male and female thread gauges along with other bits that I don't recognize.

A mix of brazed tip and HSS tooling half of it used and half brand new in two boxes.

Five litres of oil to fill up my oil cans.

A very nice 3-4" Mitutoyo micrometer and he threw in the hacksaw and lead hammer "just to get rid of them".

Eleven quid the lot – which was nice!

Rik

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Rik,

I'm green with envy

… I suppose you will be keeping the location secret.

MichaelG.

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Here is the 0W30 for starters !!

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/06/2014 15:46:51

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Tacho's on lathe's…started building/installing one on mine…

The yellow disc is an old CD with 60 holes drilled around the circumference, then I put a led and phototransistor either side to count the pulses. That means that frequency = rpm. I bought one of those panel mount frequency counters off eBay for a few quid, then decided it was too much faffing about that wasn't actually adding any value.

I did buy a chinese handheld tacho for about £10 off eBay, which is no hassle, cheap and can be used for other spindles and prop speeds. Much more useful. Even that hasn't been out of the box for a year.

Personally, having put some effort into fitting a tacho, I wouldn't bother again, it's closer to gimmick than to real value in my opinion. Though it was fun whilst it lasted

Steve

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Michael – Any large boot near you should bear fruit as long as you don't expect to many bargains EVERY week. I was there fairly early today but even so the chap I bought this lot from peeved me when he berated me for not getting there earlier as he had sold a box full of new indexable lathe / milling tooling (his deceased father had been a fairly wealthy chap and a model engineer). I was curious enough to ask him how much he had charged the mystery buyer.

It was like a slap in the face when he told me four quid, then remarked "and they were all wrapped in rust proof paper in their little boxes – brand new they were!" Cor, nothing like rubbing salt in eh what?

Rik

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 01/06/2014 17:13:45:

Michael – Any large boot near you should bear fruit as long as you don't expect to many bargains EVERY week.

.

Rik.

I frequently go to Hope [near Castleton], which is good … but not that good !

MichaelG.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Michael – Hope is good wherever you are – I practise it every Sunday morning.

Be consoled that you live in a beautiful part of our sceptred isles.

Rik

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 01/06/2014 18:15:10:

Michael – Hope is good wherever you are – I practise it every Sunday morning.

Be consoled that you live in a beautiful part of our sceptred isles.

Rik

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[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Went to change teh plugs in my Astra -the LPG ones don't like duff plugs and it was hesitating at low revs.

Got the coil pack off – and all the 'plugholes' were fuil of oil!

Luckily I already guessed there was a camshaft cover seal oil leak, now I knew for sure, so at least I had the gasket on the shelf. used a syringe and a bit of tube to get most of the oil out, about half a pint!

No recesses for the o-rings around the bolts (and no old o-rings either) so as the bolts are all outside the gasket I put them in the come in handy pile. Haynes suggested a bit of silicone round the curved contact faces, just in case, so I used some all purpose silicone sealant.. hopefully a better job than the [previous job – it looked like someone had the gasket off and reused it with lots of instant gasket – unsuccessfully it seems.

And the plugs? Aside from being completely the wrong type (single elecrode for a start) and the centre electrodes burnt away past a stub, they looked in good nick £20 worth of nice shiny NKG double electrode ones in there now. Worth doing as apparently LPG vauxhalls tend to burn out coil packs on duff plugs.

Neil

[dave greenhamParticipant @davegreenham19379]

Yesterday, my brother & I took a long overdue trip to see Graham Meek. We don't go often due to the distance

( 6 hrs round trip ). But it was well worth the drive. We're always made welcome by Gray & Jean. After the usual cuppa it's off to the shop for some Master classes on various tasks that we may be doing. I'm sorry to have to tell you all that Gray doesn't think the 702 tractor which he'd shown to the forum will ever be finished due to his health problems. We had a good look at his " Perfect drill every time jig " I've had one for yrs and had never been able to get it right but now, having seen it in the flesh so to speak, I think I'll now be able to. There are further little refinement been done to it which you will not have seen on here. And I must say, it's a cracking bit of engineering. I've only been doing engineering for the last two or so yrs. so I'm no engineer but if I can get 1. Tenth as good as that I'll be happy. Unfortunately these further mods will not be seen on here due to all the bickering by certain people. So I'm afraid you've missed out on that one.

We were shown other project that he's doing which are far to complex for me to even think about doing. But we we were both given tips and advice on things we are struggling a little with. And how easy it is once you know how to set about it. Gray also explained in a language that I could understand as to why things I was doing didn't work. And shown how I should be doing it. We were only there for 3 hrs but it was well worth the visit. We just wish there were night classes somewhere round here that we could attend, but, there isn't . But as I say, it was well worth the traveling. We learnt more in those 3 hrs than a weeks reading to do the same job.

Dave

thanks Gray & Jean. We look forward to the next visit

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Thanks for the update Dave.

It is a great shame that Gray no longer feels able to post here – we are all the poorer for it. His work is an inspiration and I would love to be able to achieve that standard. Please pass on my good wishes when next you speak to him.

Regards

Norman

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Back onto the Optical Plumb, I re-soaked the slot with meth. Spirit and an hour later after application of the hot air gun the Optical wedge mount started to turn. I took it out and as I thought the ledge and recess were full of shellak! I cleaned it all off and put some grease on the ledge and carried out the optical adjustment. It all came in fine and I was sable to calibrate the instrument and issue a certificate.The final thing was to place three dabs of shellak in the slot and secure it.

Clive

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Thanks for all replies concerning tachometers on lathes.

Confirmed my suspicion.

Geoff – Relaxing afternoon.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Go on Geoff,

You know you want one really!

Neil

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

The only place I need a Tacho is in the car !

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Clive, you need to write a procedure to encompass that and your other specialist knowledge…………..then the management can make you redundant with impunity.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

There are some very clear instructions both in English, German and Spanish about the repair and service of these Optical Plumbs. Unfortunately the translation from German to English lacks a bit of detail so I have written a version translated by myself. Again, unfortunately there is no one left up there that has any knowledge of these instruments so it all gets overlooked. Leica give out very detailed repair and service instructions and give good training, The Service instructions are full of detailed drawings with clear notes of what to use and how to do it all in colour too. Again I go back to aquiring product knowledge through adequate training and hands on procedure which does not happen any more. They dont make us like they used to!

Clive

[TrevorhParticipant @trevorh]

Clive, it does happen as I am about to fly out to S.Africa tonight for 3 days to give exactly that – Hands on training and instruction on a Flexographic Plate mounting machine, max mis alignment tolerance is 2 micron using a camera system with cross hair marks on a couple of monitors

going to take longer to get there than to do the job, but when I leave they should be able to operate and maintain the equipment

trevor

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Spent the day cutting aluminium tile trim with a mitre saw with a TCT blade, saved the tiler loads of time and me dosh. Needed to be careful as the trim is thin bit just a case of a very slow cut.

Kitchen nearly finished, SWBO will not let me start the garage/workshop for which I now have planning till house is done!

Bob

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Please don't tempt me Neil.

Geoff – time to fix that tap leak.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Tap leak eradicated!

Well I am speedy Gonzales.

It was done 10min ago.

Time to fix the leak as it's been going on for too long.
Had visions of needing to drain both the hot water and feeder tanks after turning the cold water supply off.
First though, up into the loft to see if stop cocks had been fitted for just this eventuality and surprise surprise there where two with bright red handles in the two pipes exiting from the side of the feed tank, near the bottom.
Managed to get my arm in between other pipes and turned both off.
Back down and they had turned supply off to the basin hot water taps.
Removed the tap innards.
Well blow me! No wonder it was leaking! Not so much as a sliver of washer in sight. I had been trying to close the tap metal to metal.
Found the right washer and then battled to get it over the spigot.
Time to use grey matter so into the Carport, valve into vice but again battled with the washer.
Think think think said I and grey cells came up with the idea of using a 1/8"W ring spanner to push down on the washer and woohoo it slipped into place with ease.
Assembled, turned water back on and no more dripping.
Feels food to do something worthwhile and stop thinking about that drip. Tap drip, not me I hasten to add.

Geoff – Grey matter does co-operate occasionally

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Here is one to encourage the rest of you then……..

Went to the dentist on Monday and had a root canal filling – I strongly advise you to avoid it if at all possible! It has been Impossible to sleep lying down so have spent the last few nights ( it seems like a month !), with pillows & duvet, dozing fitfully in my recliner armchair and increasingly becoming like a zombie.

So what I did today, for the first time, was felt a bit better !

What has this to do with model engineering? Let me assure you that, after this proceedure, getting out to the workshop ( or anything else for that matter !) is the last thing on your mind . Just be happy!

Oh and I still have to settle the bill!

Regards

Norman

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I had 2 root canals from different dentists years ago, each one eventually turned into an abscess and I would never allow the procedure on myself again

For me they were a lot of effort for very little gain

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Don't get me started on dentistry tales…

Neil

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Had a tap to fix a couple of days ago, one with a ceramic valve, thought it had a bit of dirt in it but after taking out which was easy as we had fitted service valves under the sink for this reason so just a screwdriver to shut of the supply and an allen key and spanner to take the cartridge out. No dirt found and it still leaked so spent £12.00 on new cartridge job done.

Having stripped the old one down and as these things are 1/4 turn my thoughts turn to steam engines, regulator?

The valve components could be adapted as the ceramic parts that form the seal are heat resistant to temperatures well in excess of any thing we are likely to see. Seals should not present too much of a problem, need to sit down with AutoCAD and see if it will work on paper and then see if it can be modified/made.

Hum!

Bob

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Also just back from dentist, needed a new tooth. Built up from a blue light curing epoxy mix, brilliant job, must be a good use use for it in engineering, can it be bought ?. expensive tho' at £100 for a pea size.

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